This cancelled Covid concert is doing my head in
This cancelled Covid concert is doing my head in
We just want our money back, guys.
Here’s a story about a concert I bought tickets to ages ago that would have been amazing but is no longer going ahead thanks to Covid. When I asked for a refund, it turned into a debacle. SAD!
On Friday, at 5.01 pm, I received an email. If anyone’s sending me emails at 5.01pm on a Friday, when I’m likely two beers deep and wondering if the gas bottle will last for one more barbecue, it’s almost certainly because it contains bad news.
You just had to read the subject line to see that was the case. The email read: Fortress Information Systems Limited (trading as Ticket Rocket) (formerly trading as Ticket Direct) (In Receivership & In Liquidation).
That ominous opening word, Fortress! Three sets of brackets! The words, In Receivership & In Liquidation! None of this sounded good.
Attached to this hot mess of an email was a 39-page report full of legal jargon and boring words I didn’t understand, and couldn’t be bothered attempting to read. Thirty-nine pages! On a freaking Friday!
Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I can’t handle emails like this at most times of the week, let alone on a Friday at 5.01pm this close to Christmas after a year in which we’ve survived, you know, a worldwide pandemic.
I couldn’t cope. So I saved the email up, and opened it this morning. Surprise, surprise, it was indeed bad news.
In September, I had applied for a refund for tickets I’d purchased to Bon Iver, one of my favourite groups who were originally scheduled to play just up the road at Trusts Arena on June 5. That gig was rescheduled to April 10, 2021, and I couldn’t make that date.
I’ve seen them play before in Wellington and it was honestly one of the best gigs of my life. Intense, emotional, overwhelming. I was so keen to see them again, so I was pretty gutted. I did what anyone would do and asked for my money back.
It was about $200 all up. Not a lot, but I’m a freelancer. I could use it.
That’s when the emails started. There were quite a few of them. Ticket Rocket, the website where I had purchased the tickets, was in receivership, and I was now dealing with BDO Christchurch. When businesses go belly-up, BDO is the business that steps in and sorts it all out.
Alarm bells were ringing. I Googled Ticket Rocket, and the headlines weren’t great:
Ticket Rocket silent as refund issue grows & users change agent
Ticket Rocket liquidator doubts unsecured creditors will be paid
That last one sounds especially bad for anyone holding out hopes for getting their money back. And clearly, many companies are owed a lot more than my meagre $200. Others are a lot worse off than I am.
But one thing that struck me as odd is that up until a few weeks ago, Ticket Rocket, the company in receivership, was still selling tickets to the new Bon Iver dates.
How was this allowed?
Even now, if you go to the Ticket Rocket website, you’ll be greeted with this message.
The good guys! Lol. It’s only when you click on the page marked Important Announcement that you get the news that should be sitting first-up on the homepage.
By now, Bon Iver’s New Zealand shows, and his Australian ones, are well and truly cancelled. I found this out thanks to an “event cancelled” Facebook post that landed over the weekend. Clearly, everyone who bought tickets to their New Zealand shows are going to be dealing with Ticket Rocket’s receivers. You’re going to get 39-page reports landing in your inboxes. Fun times.
In Australia, promoters Handsome Touring are promising all patrons will automatically receive a refund within 20 business days. Twenty days! That would be nice. For me, it’s been 75 days and counting, and I’d happily pay $200 just to make these damned emails stop showing up in my inbox.
Just level with me guys - it’s over, isn’t it?