Back in December 2019 I decided to buy, as a Christmas present, two tickets to see Guns N’ Roses (a band from our youth in 80s and 90s) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on the 30th May 2020.
With the Covid-19 pandemic striking the UK early March, it was obvious that the concert was not going to happen, but I waited for Viagogo to contact. Two weeks before the concert date Viagogo sent an email informing that the concert had “been postponed” and that they would contact “as soon as the new event date” got announced.
A few weeks later, and given the pandemic developments, everyone knew that the concert was not going to happen in the foreseeable future, so I contacted Viagogo. An agent told me that “no refunds could take place until the event organiser cancelled the concert“, and as far as they were concerned, it was going to be rescheduled.
It’s been 3 months since the concert date. It’s clear that no Government will allow thousands of people into a stadium any time soon in 2020, and most likely not even in 2021 – unless a miracle brings a vaccine and the capacity to provide it to millions of people in a matter of weeks.
So I contacted Viagogo again, asking for a refund. The agent told me that “the event organiser has not cancelled the concert, and until then Viagogo cannot provide refunds“.
I said that surely Viagogo and the even organiser knew that concerts were not going to happen anytime soon, to which she replied “as I said sir, the event organiser has not cancelled the concert, and until then Viagogo cannot provide refunds“.
I then asked for how long could the event organiser have the event pending, to which she replied “that is outside of our control. The event organiser has not cancelled the concert, and until then Viagogo cannot provide refunds, it’s on our Terms & Conditions“.
I tried to reason with her and said that customers (who are going through difficult times – some even financially, and to whom £375 would make a huge difference) would surely appreciate if Viagogo showed some empathy and refunded them for a product they bought but could not enjoy, to which she replied “I understand, but the event organiser has not cancelled the concert, and until then Viagogo cannot provide refunds“.
At that point I was finding it amazing how she kept repeating the same thing over and over again, without any regard for our conversation – it was like talking to a machine. I decided to empathise with her, and said that even though I appreciated she had her hands tied by a policy, a script and a system, I would welcome a route to talk to somebody that could help me.
For about 5 minutes (and yes, it was starting to become uncomfortable for both of us), she kept disregarding my plea, referring to the T&Cs, saying she could not do a thing, and repeating “the event organiser has not cancelled the concert, and until then Viagogo cannot provide refunds“.
I had to insist and make an effort for her to stay on the phone (at this point she was clearly trying to end the call), but finally, reluctantly, and almost in whispering tone she said I could “complaint via email to customerservice@orders.viagogo.com“.
I wonder if the founder and CEO of Viagogo, Eric H. Baker, who studied business at Harvard University and Stanford University, was taught to treat customers like this. Maybe the UK authorities were right (and I should have listened to them) when they said…
- May 2018, BBC News reported that the UK Government’s digital minister advised that consumers should not use Viagogo;
- August 2018, UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) took Viagogo to the High Court for breaking the law;
- January 2019, UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Eric Baker risked jail over failure to properly protect customers.
It is in situations of crisis that we see which are the companies, and who are the executives, that really value and look after their customers. I’m sure that coming out of this situation, many customers (including me) will never go back and do business with Viagogo.
Doctor CX 