Getting refund from Visa

[myusername]

Can anyone tell me how I go about getting a refund on my visa for something I bought last November

The situation is we paid for 3 tickets to see Oasis next week, paid booking fee, processing fee and postage to See Tickets. I became concerned that we had not received our tickets and emailed them to find out where they were as I knew they had been distributed to other people. I never got anything back off them except a standard email reply saying as we may not receive our tickets in time we will have to queue up with thousands of others to collect at the box office! I rang them yesterday, (they are based in London) and was told the tickets are in the dispatch process - whatever that means. So after a 45 minute international call speaking to several people no-one is able to tell us where the tickets are and the best they can promise is to "try" and ensure they are available for collection on the day! I asked for a refund but I got the usual T&C state no refunds, even though they haven't kept up their end of the bargain, particularly as I was only told yesterday they never post overseas, despite their own website stating

I live outside the UK. Will you mail my tickets to me?
We will mail tickets abroad if the booking is made 20 days in advance of the event date (5 days in advance of the event date if mailing within the UK) to allow for postage.

If there is insufficient time to mail tickets, or if you have requested to collect your tickets from the venue, tickets are available for collection one hour prior to the start of the performance.


I was told I may be able to get a refund off BOI Visa if I can prove to them that See Tickets have failed to provide what I have paid for, however I don't want to have to pay for flights and accommodation and not get into the gig, then claim a refund.

I have never had to do this before and have no idea where to start

Thanks

 

[MonsieurBond]

The situation is we paid for 3 tickets to see Oasis next week, paid booking fee, processing fee and postage to See Tickets. I became concerned that we had not received our tickets and emailed them to find out where they were as I knew they had been distributed to other people. I never got anything back off them except a standard email reply saying as we may not receive our tickets in time we will have to queue up with thousands of others to collect at the box office! I rang them yesterday, (they are based in London) and was told the tickets are in the dispatch process - whatever that means. So after a 45 minute international call speaking to several people no-one is able to tell us where the tickets are and the best they can promise is to "try" and ensure they are available for collection on the day! I asked for a refund but I got the usual T&C state no refunds, even though they haven't kept up their end of the bargain, particularly as I was only told yesterday they never post overseas, despite their own website stating
...
I was told I may be able to get a refund off BOI Visa if I can prove to them that See Tickets have failed to provide what I have paid for, however I don't want to have to pay for flights and accommodation and not get into the gig, then claim a refund.

Sounds like a scam to me - this is not the first and not the last company to do this. You are better off buying the tickets from ticketmaster.

However, it sounds to me like you have a strong case for getting your money back. I would WRITE to BOI Visa (not telephone) and set out your case. You can then follow up with Visa International if you get no joy from BOI.

As for whether you should travel to see if you can get the tickets... Don't know. You may be able to pick up tickets outside the venue.

If you are prepared to travel, spend a weekend in Ireland and potentially NOT go the concert, then I would say, come over and try your luck.

If the prospect of travelling and not getting tickets would make you MAD, then I suggest you try to get tickets to another gig on their tour.

 

[myusername]

Thanks for that, For some reason some of the tickets were sold via Ticketmaster and others by SeeTickets. I will start my letter now!

By the way, I am in Ireland, we were going over to Manchester primarily for the show and had planned to spend a bit of time in the UK afterwards, but we wouldn't have been going over had it not been for the show. I would be furious to go all the way over and not get in, I'd rather save my money and go somewhere nicer

 

[MonsieurBond]

Thanks for that, For some reason some of the tickets were sold via Ticketmaster and others by SeeTickets. I will start my letter now!

By the way, I am in Ireland, we were going over to Manchester primarily for the show and had planned to spend a bit of time in the UK afterwards, but we wouldn't have been going over had it not been for the show. I would be furious to go all the way over and not get in, I'd rather save my money and go somewhere nicer

I got your UK/Ireland thing the wrong way around, but the point still holds.

I did come across [broken link removed], though.

SeeTickets do however appear to be reputable, though.

I would certainly keep pushing them as your first port of call; your contract is with them. But you might not want to travel unless you have a strong reassurance that the tickets will materialise, particularly if you don't fancy going otherwise.

 

[myusername]

Thanks MonsieurBond, I think See Tickets are an amalgamation of different companies, I bought the tickets via them from the Official Oasis Webstite, I guess there is a big difference between reputable and "any good"

I guess we would rather lose €150 on the tickets than risk hundreds on travel and hotels. I know we are not the only ones, I have read literally hundreds of stories from people even within the UK, the company seem to have a fairly random ticket-sending system

I couldn't get that page to open BTW

 

[MonsieurBond]

Thanks MonsieurBond, I think See Tickets are an amalgamation of different companies, I bought the tickets via them from the Official Oasis Webstite, I guess there is a big difference between reputable and "any good"

I guess we would rather lose €150 on the tickets than risk hundreds on travel and hotels. I know we are not the only ones, I have read literally hundreds of stories from people even within the UK, the company seem to have a fairly random ticket-sending system

I couldn't get that page to open BTW

Try the [broken link removed].

 

[RainyDay]

we will have to queue up with thousands of others to collect at the box office!

From past experience, queues at the box office will be very short - as the thousands will have got their tickets beforehand.

 

[myusername]

From past experience, queues at the box office will be very short - as the thousands will have got their tickets beforehand.

I would normally agree but the problem is that along with myself, thousands of people who paid for the postage and expected to have them beforehand have been told at short notice they have to collect instead.

 

[RainyDay]

I would normally agree but the problem is that along with myself, thousands of people who paid for the postage and expected to have them beforehand have been told at short notice they have to collect instead.

I very much doubt if 'thousands' of people bought through SeeTickets. The vast majority would have purchased directly from ticketmaster.

 

[myusername]

I very much doubt if 'thousands' of people bought through SeeTickets. The vast majority would have purchased directly from ticketmaster.

I don't know. See Tickets were the firm used for the internet pre-sale via the official Oasis website, they are playing around 10 dates in the UK in very large stadiums, probably around half a million ticket sales over all, all sold out very early on. Even if just 5% were sold by seetickets in the presale that's still an awful lot of orders, and it seems very few people have received tickets from them. I don't know what the split of tickets between the two companies was, I would guess 50/50, but from what I am reading it's the people who bought on presale who have been affected.

Anyway, back to the original topic, visa have said I have to prove that See Tickets did not keep up their side of the contract. It's hard to prove what was said in a phone call, but they don't reply to emails, other than standard responses, it's not worth travelling over on the offchance the tickets might be there so I guess we are just have to accept we were stiffed.