More than a little annoyed.

[ZaruZaru]

Hello,

 

I purchased my Eclipse ticket at the Milton Keynes Collectormania last year. A few weeks later, I realized I would be unable to go - and emailed the address available on the Eclipse site, stating this - asking for my tickets to be cancelled, and for a refund to be issued.

 

I got no response, so emailed twice more to this effect. I then moved home in December, so if anything arrived via post - I simply wouldn't know (although I did check back occasionally). I kept emailing, up until the beginning of March - still not getting any sort of a reply. The amount of emails I ended up sending, was in the low double digits. Some of the more recent emails added the fact that the card I paid with, was no longer in use - so making a refund to it would be useless, and that they should contact me for new details.

 

I thought I'd put this here, just to let you know that I'll be contacting the necessary authorities in order to get my money back. Waiting several months for a refund (and not getting a single response) - is absolutely ridiculous.

 

Regards.

Edited March 22, 2008 by ZaruZaru

[jael001]

You can't cancel tickets for the events, all tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled, so I'm afraid there's nothign you can do. This is standard practice for every convention organiser. If everyone just changed their mind and asked for a refund, the events wouldnt ever happen.

 

http://massiveevents.co.uk/eclipse/eclipse.php?terms

1). Please note that all event programme sales are final and no refunds will be given so please be sure of your booking. If the event is cancelled for any reason then only the face value of the programme will be refunded. Neither Massive Events Ltd or Showmasters Ltd will be liable for any other costs.

Edited March 22, 2008 by jael001

[ZaruZaru]

You can't cancel tickets for the events, all tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled, so I'm afraid there's nothign you can do. This is standard practice for every convention organiser.

 

http://massiveevents.co.uk/eclipse/eclipse.php?terms

1). Please note that all event programme sales are final and no refunds will be given so please be sure of your booking. If the event is cancelled for any reason then only the face value of the programme will be refunded. Neither Massive Events Ltd or Showmasters Ltd will be liable for any other costs.

 

This was not mentioned to me at the time of purchase, and does not explain the lack of contact over several months.

 

Edit: Also, I never actually received a ticket. So, what exactly was I paying for? :)

Edited March 22, 2008 by ZaruZaru

[Pandoras Box]

When you purchased the ticket you agreed to the Term and Conditions. Normal procedure at buying tickets. In future you should read them if you don't want to face a problem like this again.

 

And if the emails didn't work, why didn't you just called them up. I had a problem as well and I just phoned them up and was helped with.

 

And none of us got a ticket. We just got a letter with our registration number. Nothing else. And if you moved houses it would have been your duty to tell Showmasters about your new address.

[Phoenix Will Rise]

what email address did you send it to??

I have contacted showmasters a few times over the past few months, and I always got a response...

[Zarina]

No tickets were sent out over regular mail, just confirmation letters you needed to pick up the ticket at the event. You said you moved, but I assume you've had some sort of forwarding of your mail to your new address? So you should've gotten that letter at least.

 

As Jael001 pointed out no refunds are made if someone ends up not being able to go to an event they purchased tickets for, sadly. That of course is no reason to not get a reply at all, but it does mean you'll have no case when you contact otherwise authorities.

 

Have you ever tried calling Showmasters? I've read before that people tried contacting them over e-mail without success and know they get massive amounts of e-mails... So maybe containg them otherwise could've been a way for you to sort things out. But I guess it's too late now anyway :\

[ZaruZaru]

No tickets were sent out over regular mail, just confirmation letters you needed to pick up the ticket at the event. You said you moved, but I assume you've had some sort of forwarding of your mail to your new address? So you should've gotten that letter at least.

 

As Jael001 pointed out no refunds are made if someone ends up not being able to go to an event they purchased tickets for, sadly. That of course is no reason to not get a reply at all, but it does mean you'll have no case when you contact otherwise authorities.

 

Have you ever tried calling Showmasters? I've read before that people tried contacting them over e-mail without success and know they get massive amounts of e-mails... So maybe containg them otherwise could've been a way for you to sort things out. But I guess it's too late now anyway :\

 

I regularly checked with the next tenant. No mail for me. At all.

 

I purchased the tickets in person, and was not made aware of a no-refunds policy. I also have 5 witnesses, who were with me at the time. So yes, I would have a case.

 

I am not responsible for their inability to respond via a contact method that they advertise. This is not a valid defence for a company. "Oh well... we have another contact method."

[jael001]

Sorry but that is rubbish. You can't prove they've received your emails so it's up to you to make sure you keep trying other methods to make sure you get hold of them.

 

As for not being made aware that tickets were non-refundable when you booked them, as someone who obviously knows about events, having gone to Collectormania, I find it hard to believe you're so blissfully unaware that tickets are NEVER refundable for conventions. I think you're just trying it on. And I know that the advertising literature at the events does say that tickets are non-refundable, it's up to you to make sure you read it. You can't blame someone else for your incompetance.

Edited March 22, 2008 by jael001

[DavidB]

I'm a bit confused by a few things:

 

1) Did you only email and that was it? No other attempt at contacting them through other methods?

 

2) Did you not check any of the terms and conditions yourself before contacting them? Common sense would say check first to see what you were entitled to before attempting to claim it.

 

3) Having never received a response, and not being able to get a refund on that card, would you not assume the ticket would come anyway? So if it never turned up, would you not have wanted to talk to them direct to see what had happened?

 

4) What makes you join this forum today one week after the event to sort this situation out? It seems a little ... late?

 

From December until March, I personally cannot believe that you would be happy to simply wait for an email response - not if you were blissfully unaware that refunds simply were not possible. I'd have been chasing that up through every possible means.

 

Having stated that you have used the Eclipse site, you should be aware of the various information that you could have looked at - whether it be the T&C, or the alternative contact details etc.

 

There is absolutely no guarantee that your emails even got through - spam filters etc are often tricky. So I'd be wanting to chase them up ASAP, not the week AFTER an event.

 

If you are annoyed and you've lost money through this then it is an unfortunate situation, but there's a lot that you've done wrong that I hope you learn from in future.

[ZaruZaru]

Sorry but that is rubbish. You can't prove they've received your emails so it's up to you to make sure you keep trying other methods to make sure you get hold of them.

 

Read receipts are lovely things. I'll say it again, by the way. I am not responsible for the failure of a company to respond via an advertised contact method. I have never had this issue with any other company/business in my entire life.

 

As for not being made aware that tickets were non-refundable when you booked them, as someone who obviously knows about events, having gone to Collectormania, I find it hard to believe you're so blissfully unaware that tickets are NEVER refundable for conventions. I think you're just trying it on. And I know that the advertising literature at the events does say that tickets are non-refundable, it's up to you to make sure you read it. You can't blame someone else for your incompetance.

 

So, you consider someone who has been to -one- Collectormania - as someone whom knows about events? That's quite laughable. Collectormania was my first event, and definitely my last Showmasters-affiliated one.

 

Some conventions actually do refund tickets, for the record. I looked into it this evening. Feel free to Google.

 

I think the only incompetent one here, is you. Lovely response, by the way.

 

-----

 

To DavidB.

 

1) Like I said, I am not responsible for the failure of an event to respond via a contact method that they advertise.

 

2) I did. However, being made aware of the T&C after my purchase - does not make them valid. When I purchased them in person, I was not -told- of the T&C. I casually went up to the desk and asked about Eclipse. The person on the desk seemed very happy to make a sale.

 

3) I felt no need to go out of my way. It is a small amount of money, and I'm a busy person.

 

4) Since I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt for quite some time. I decided that enough is enough.

 

I was more than happy to wait, I'm quite a patient person. Oh, I also suffer from social anxiety - so making a phone call is generally a no no.

 

I got a read receipt to more than one of my emails, and out of the thousands of emails I send out on a monthly basis, not one has ever hit a spam filter to my knowledge. They are all routed via a dedicated mail server, which is on zero blacklists, even Yahoo doesn't bloody filter it.

 

So, no - I really haven't done anything wrong. If anything, I've been patient for too long. I'll be informing my bank of the fraudulent charges (nothing was delivered, so Showmasters is at fault there - there is no defence to this), first thing on Tuesday.

 

Oh, for the record - I won't be posting here any further. Just wanted to make people aware of the situation, and my intentions.

[jael001]

I dont know why you wont accept that you have no case here. You can try, but you will find that it's your responsibility to make sure you're aware of the terms and conditions before you purchase, not to come along after and whine. As for nothing being delivered, you've not bought a product, you didnt make sure before the event that you had the information you needed so 'non-delivery' is your own fault, not Showmasters.

 

And how am I incompetant? I've been to lots of conventions by lots of different convention organisers in this country and not one of them offers refunds for someone basically changing their minds. The only reason ever given for refunds is if the event itself is cancelled.

 

Oh and making excuses for not phoning by having 'social anxiety'...don't make me laugh, if that was a real problem for you, I doubt you'd ever decide to go to a convention where you'd be attending alongside 800 other people in a close environment like this. If the cost of a ticket is a small amount of money for you, you must have a decent-ish enough job. I find it hard to believe that any job that pays a reasonable salary doesn't necessitate the use of the phone on occasion.

 

This whole thing is clearly just a wind-up. Take your trolling elsewhere.

Edited March 22, 2008 by jael001

[DavidB]

I felt no need to go out of my way. It is a small amount of money, and I'm a busy person.

 

Yeah, clearly it's a sensible idea to post on this forum that you clearly couldn't be bothered to attempt to even rectify the situation yourself.

 

It's a small amount of money, yet you were willing to sign up here and make a 'complaint'? But you couldn't be bothered to write a letter or get someone to phone on your behalf etc? That makes sense.

 

Being patient for too long is what you did wrong - you clearly shouldn't have waited until one week after the event to post on here.

 

Check this section, and others, to see that people have had their queries dealt with by Jola and Showmasters/Massive Events if they have brought them to light. But then they actually bothered to make the effort to try and get it sorted out.

[Kenny]

Read receipts are lovely things. I'll say it again, by the way. I am not responsible for the failure of a company to respond via an advertised contact method. I have never had this issue with any other company/business in my entire life.

 

Probably a bit off to post this sort of thing in a public forum in the first place, and I have nothing of value to say about any of the legalities or anything, I just wanted to comment on the whole 'read receipt' thing. As a network admin, specialising in email, specifically Exchange 2003/2007, I have to say that the chances of getting a read receipt back from a mail sent over the internet are pretty remote. They're only supported by a few email clients, a lot of people with those clients disable them, and others simply click 'No' when prompted if they want to send one. They also won't be sent if using the outlook preview pane instead of opening the email. The thing that makes it most unlikely though, is that by far the vast majority of internet facing mail servers block any mail with a blank sender field - which is how read receipts are formatted.

 

They're great within individual companies, where email clients are likely to be the same or identical between users, and mail servers can be configured how the IT department wants - read receipts over the internet though? Pretty rare that they'll work, and if they do, even more rare that they'll find their way through myriad mail servers back to you. That's not to say you don't have them, it's possible. In my opinion it's just extremely unlikely though. Extreeeeeeeemely.

[babygurl1853]

3) I felt no need to go out of my way. It is a small amount of money, and I'm a busy person.

 

Then why make a fuss about it now?

 

And you obviously joined this forum - so you knew it existed... so why didn't you just post on here sooner explaining your problem?

 

And...thank you for your concern in making us aware. But we already knew.

 

And I had been to only one Showmasters event before Eclipse, and I knew it was non-refundable. So yes, I did know having only been to one event.

 

I think you're just trying to make a fuss about nothing. You're clearly just trying to get Showmasters in trouble, you've already stated you don't care about the amount of money.

[showmasters]

ZaruZaru

 

jola deals with all this stuff and try's to help everyone and gets nothing out of not responding to am email so i do not see why this would have happened ?

 

i do find it odd to only here about it now ? and that someone would only join to come on here to say this after the event

 

i think most of things have been covered on here i just wanted to say i have not had a email like what you say you have sent

 

yours

 

jason