I am a huge fan of Brian Wilson and when I came across a picture of him on Viagogo advertising the Beach Boys at the Royal Albert Hall, I bought tickets.
Normally, I wouldn’t look twice at a concert advertised as “the Beach Boys”, even though I love their music, because the band now under that name is led by Mike Love and contains only half the original band.
The others tour under the name of Brian Wilson, the band’s main songwriter and the only surviving Wilson brother. I am a fan of the Brian Wilson band; I am not a fan of Love.
I bought the tickets based on the photo, which clearly shows Wilson and fellow original bandmate Al Jardine. But when I checked the Royal Albert Hall website I discovered I’d actually bought tickets to see Love’s band.
I contacted Viagogo asking for a refund based on the fact it had misrepresented the event.
It emailed back saying: “We are unable to offer you a refund or exchange. Viagogo is a secondary marketplace … at the time you purchased your tickets, as well as guaranteeing your purchase, we guaranteed the seller that they will be paid for their sale. Therefore, the best and only option is to relist them for sale.”
It was too close to the date of the concert in June to resell my tickets, but why should it be my responsibility to shift them on to someone else?
Could you ask Viagogo for a fair resolution – at the very least, to stop misrepresenting events?
MC, London
It is not often the case with Viagogo but I am happy to report some good vibrations coming your way.
After we contacted the firm, it agreed to refund your £123 and it has updated the listing with an accurate picture.
Viagogo says: “This does not represent the standard of service or experience that we strive to deliver for our customers.
“We are very sorry for the customer’s experience in which incorrect imagery was erroneously representing an event, but we have quickly corrected this on our platform, and have also refunded the customer.”
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