Ticket reselling platform Viagogo is New Zealand’s most complained about retail company, receiving a whopping 400 complaints from consumers.
If you bought a ticket to the now postponed Metallica show, nothing else matters apart from getting your refund. Unfortunately the news is sad but true for some fans who purchased their tickets through Viagogo.
The online ticket reseller has sent an email instructing people that they will need topost their tickets all the way to Ireland in order to claim their refund.
Making matters worse they have an extremely limited time frame to do so as Viagogo have instigated a hard deadline of this Monday, October 7, for the tickets to be post stamped.
The tickets don't need to be received in Ireland by this date, Viagogo just needs proof they were sent by October 7, a spokesperson confirmed.
An email sent to people who bought their tickets from the site said:
"In order to ensure tickets are received in time, we recommend you use a trackable postage method to return the tickets to us. Any tickets not returned in time will not be eligible for a refund. Please note we are unable to refund you for the return postage."
There is justice for some, however, as the email notes that fans who bought e-tickets or have not yet had their physical copies delivered will be issued an automatic refund within the next seven working days.
Unfortunately, those who have paper tickets cannot scan the tickets and email them to the business.
A Viagogo spokesperson told the Herald in a statement it guarantees a full refund, including shipping costs, if an event is cancelled.
"In some cases, for instance in transactions where paper tickets have already been shipped to buyers, Viagogo may ask customers to return their tickets in order to be refunded.
"Unfortunately scanning and emailing is not an option as in most cases the seller will need to return the physical ticket to their point of purchase for them to qualify for a refund.
"If sellers don't require the tickets back then Viagogo can refund the buyers who have received paper tickets without requiring the tickets to be returned.
"If an event is postponed, Viagogo follows the policy set out by the event organiser. Tickets are usually valid for the new date."
This is not the first time Kiwi music lovers have run into problems with the online ticket reseller.
They were taken to High Court and accused of 'extensive fraudulent behaviour' earlier this year by the Commerce Commission, sold tickets that proved to be fake to big events like All Blacks games and had Google suspended them as an advertiser.
In April, The Commerce Commission appealed the High Court's decision not to issue an injunction against the website.
A judgment for this appeal is to be delivered through the Appeals Registry at 3pm today.
At the February hearing, Viagogo said it had made changes to its website and sales process that addressed the commission's concerns - which its lawyer argued were in any case below the threshold of a Fair Trading Act breach.
But in March, there was further controversy as about 200 concertgoers were refused entry to a Six60 concert at Forsyth Barr Stadium when they tried to enter with "fraudulent tickets".
And as of June this year, the Commerce Commission updated that there was now an "unprecedented" 1034 complaints on its books relating to Viagogo.
Metallica were due to play two shows at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium but announced they were postponing their Australian and New Zealand shows so frontman James Hetfield could return to rehab.
In a statement they said they were "devastated" they could not play the tour.
"We are truly sorry to inform our fans and friends that we must postpone our upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand. As most of you probably know, our brother James has been struggling with addiction on and off for many years. He has now, unfortunately, had to re-enter a treatment program to work on his recovery again."
But all hope is not lost as they did say that they planned to "make our way to your part of the world as soon as health and schedule permit. We'll let you know as soon as we can."
