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Dear Which?,
I bought two tickets to see the singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes from the secondary ticketing website Viagogo.
I paid more than £400 for the tickets, which was considerably higher than the face value.
Shortly after, Shawn Mendes cancelled his tour to focus on his mental health.
I contacted Viagogo for a refund but, despite the artist's website saying the show was cancelled, Viagogo insisted it had only been postponed.
It refused to refund me, stating that it only gives refunds for cancelled events. What should I do?
Danielle Walton, Northampton
Put to rights
Hannah Downes, consumer rights expert at Which?, says:
If you have tickets to a cancelled or postponed event, your rights vary depending on where you bought the tickets from.
Primary ticket sellers, such as See Tickets or Ticketmaster, are required by the industry’s self-regulatory body to refund the ticket’s face value price when an event is cancelled, rescheduled or has changed location
With a secondary seller such as Viagogo, however, your right to a refund will depend on its terms and conditions. We have heard from a number of people who struggled to secure refunds to cancelled gigs during the pandemic because they had resale tickets.
Thankfully, Danielle's situation was quickly resolved. She threatened to lodge a Section 75 claim with her bank and, a couple of days after Shawn Mendes's announcement, Viagogo confirmed that the show had been cancelled and refunded her directly.
Viagogo told Which? that its system implemented its cancellation and refund policy the moment it was informed by the venue that the Shawn Mendes show had been cancelled, which was 48 hours after the public announcement.
Need to know
- If you’re stuck with resale tickets for a show that isn’t going ahead, let the platform know you want a refund and send as much evidence as you can of the event being cancelled.
- If you reach an impasse, you can also make a Section 75 claim with your bank if you paid by credit card, or a chargeback claim if you paid by debit card.
Get in touch. If you need help with a consumer rights problem, email us at yourstory@which.co.uk
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source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/im-struggling-to-get-a-refund-for-a-cancelled-gig-aPzES2Y8XvXl