Ticketmaster - refusal to refund tickets

[Dunney77]

Hi,

My father purchased two VIP tickets for the Eagles in Birmingham from Ticketmaster (approx £470) as a birthday present for my mother in May. Unfortunately he fell ill the morning of the concert and was shortly after diagnosed with Leukaemia. Sadly he has died from the illness, leaving just my mother and I. We contacted Ticketmaster whilst he was ill and they refused to give us a refund for the tickets, stating we failed to contact them that day to say he was ill. I am sure many of you can understand my mother was far too devastated upon hearing the news that day to really think of ringing the venue. Could someone please advise how we can get the money back?

We are devastated that my father is dead and it quite frankly angers us that Ticketmaster have done this.

Any advice would be great. We were even thinking of trying to contact the band's management to explain.

Many thanks,
Liam

[Ive always been a dreamer]

First of all, welcome to The Border, Dunney. And my condolences on the loss of your father. My thoughts are with you and your family during this very sad time.

I took the liberty of moving your thread to this forum and deleting the duplicate in the other forum. I don't really know exactly how to resolve your Ticketmaster problem other than to advise you to be assertive and tenacious. If you don't have any success with the first line of service that you speak to, then escalate the issue to a higher level. If you still don't have any success, then you may see if any of your local TV news stations provide a public service to bring these kinds of issues to the attention of their viewing audience. If so, tell Ticketmaster that you are going to contact them. This may work because they probably do not want any bad press. It's possible you could get some help from the band's public relations office, but no guarantee. In any event, best of luck and I hope you can get a quick and satisfactory resolution.

[DJ]

First of all, welcome to The Border, Dunney. And my condolences on the loss of your father. My thoughts are with you and your family during this very sad time.

I took the liberty of moving your thread to this forum and deleting the duplicate in the other forum. I don't really know exactly how to resolve your Ticketmaster problem other than to advise you to be assertive and tenacious. If you don't have any success with the first line of service that you speak to, then escalate the issue to a higher level. If you still don't have any success, then you may see if any of your local TV news stations provide a public service to bring these kinds of issues to the attention of their viewing audience. If so, tell Ticketmaster that you are going to contact them. This may work because they probably do not want any bad press. It's possible you could get some help from the band's public relations office, but no guarantee. In any event, best of luck and I hope you can get a quick and satisfactory resolution.

I agree with the above, and also Welcome to The Border! As they say
the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

[Witchy Woman]

I also extend a welcome, and my condolences on the loss of your father. I would suggest calling the credit card company as well to dispute the charge. I don't know if there is a time limit for those things, but it's worth a try.

[Glennsallnighter]

Welcome to the Border from me too Dunney and my deepest sympathy on the loss of your dear father. I would get in touch with ticketmaster and keep pushing it. It's probably too late to get in touch with the card company as the tickets would have been paid for by now.

If it's any comfort I did the VIP thing in London and it was awful. I was in my own and was seated with two rather dry people who were also on their own. The meal was a set menu (prawns, steak,cheesecake) with no choice. We had to ask for wine and even waster at our table. There was no raffle and the only 'gift' was a programme (of which I have 5). The ticket was not even a full price one and was stuck up the side instead of the floor). Luckily I had been aware of this before the concert. I tried to either upgrade the ticket or cancel the package but no joy. However I bought 2 front row tix from stubhub (the best seats in the house according to the guy who scanned them) for myself and Troub and her mum bought the VIP seat from me! I tried to post a review of my VIP experience but couldn't find a link on the VIP Nation site. Tm sold the tickets though.

Good luck.

[herrybraun]

Same terms are still with refunds and I am also faced this issue.

[sodascouts]

Hi,

My father purchased two VIP tickets for the Eagles in Birmingham from Ticketmaster (approx £470) as a birthday present for my mother in May. Unfortunately he fell ill the morning of the concert and was shortly after diagnosed with Leukaemia. Sadly he has died from the illness, leaving just my mother and I. We contacted Ticketmaster whilst he was ill and they refused to give us a refund for the tickets, stating we failed to contact them that day to say he was ill. I am sure many of you can understand my mother was far too devastated upon hearing the news that day to really think of ringing the venue. Could someone please advise how we can get the money back?

We are devastated that my father is dead and it quite frankly angers us that Ticketmaster have done this.

Any advice would be great. We were even thinking of trying to contact the band's management to explain.

Many thanks,
Liam

I'm so sorry to hear about your father's passing, Liam. I don't think I can add to the excellent advice you've already received, but I wish you best of luck. Please let us know what happens.

[sodascouts]

Welcome to the Border from me too Dunney and my deepest sympathy on the loss of your dear father. I would get in touch with ticketmaster and keep pushing it. It's probably too late to get in touch with the card company as the tickets would have been paid for by now.

If it's any comfort I did the VIP thing in London and it was awful. I was in my own and was seated with two rather dry people who were also on their own. The meal was a set menu (prawns, steak,cheesecake) with no choice. We had to ask for wine and even waster at our table. There was no raffle and the only 'gift' was a programme (of which I have 5). The ticket was not even a full price one and was stuck up the side instead of the floor). Luckily I had been aware of this before the concert. I tried to either upgrade the ticket or cancel the package but no joy. However I bought 2 front row tix from stubhub (the best seats in the house according to the guy who scanned them) for myself and Troub and her mum bought the VIP seat from me! I tried to post a review of my VIP experience but couldn't find a link on the VIP Nation site. Tm sold the tickets though.

Good luck.

I could be wrong as the situation could be different overseas, but I believe they are using a different company now and no longer conduct VIP parties in this manner. I know they aren't doing so in the States. At least, that's what I've heard. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

[sodascouts]

Same terms are still with refunds and I am also faced this issue.

Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to get a refund. As you can see, even with Liam's appalling circumstances, they are refusing. If you're in as bad a way as he is, though, you can try some of the same advice.

I understand why they wouldn't want to award frivolous refunds, but with the massive amount of money they make, you'd think they'd be more flexible when it comes to the reasonable requests.