the VIP concert I attended at the O2 on 11th August 08

ecnirp98 said:

Did they also pay costs towards the time machine you own?

Hi all

Just wanted to let you know that I just received a full refund from Ticketmaster/AEG for the VIP concert I attended at the O2 on 11th August 08, I was seated in Block E2 row 8, straight behind the keyboards and drum kit, so these were not the best seats as promised in the VIP adverts.

For the last few months since the concert I have phoned Tickjetmaster/AEG and sent letters of complaint without any joy, on 06/02/08 I followed lisaf advice and filed through moneyclaionline for a joint claim against AEG and Ticketmaster £474.95 (2 VIP packages) + £35 costs for filing.

Today I received a cheque from ticketmaster for £509.95 which covers the original cost + my court costs and a letter from ticketmaster conceeding a full and final settlement (that was even more satisfying to get than the cheque after the conversations I have had with their so called customer services !!).

Thanks to LisaF for her advice on how best to claim and Irish/glyn for keeping us battling against AEG/Ticketmaster, I would encourage anyone who does not feel they received a real VIP package and the 'best seats' tickets they had paid for to use moneyclaim, its easy to use and they settled in just over a week, they will not respond to phone calls or letters, so this is the way to get your refund.

Anyone need any advice on how to claim, please PM me, keep fighting !

I would have posted this on one of the existing threads, but they seem to be locked now.
[Edited 2/16/08 13:18pm]

ecnirp98 said:

Did they also pay costs towards the time machine you own?

ecnirp98 said:

Xcelent news...thats wicked.
like U i also got a free backstage upgrade so we got free booze n food as well 4 r troubles.
lol.
luckily 4 me i got my ££ refunded b4 xmas so that was great as i had Xtra dosh 2 play around with.
anyway...we now know better not 2 purchase VIP prince tickets n the future cause even if they promise U something they just come round after n change the terms of what we originally agreed.
after complaining 2 the 02 direct as well they sent me out VIP upgrade tickets 4 the next time i go back 4 any event as a goodwill gesture.
best wishes 2 all who got there £££ back n got a free prince concert.

WOLFY

irishwolfhound said:

Yep, i did get the free access to the VIP area for my second concert, but AEG were very insistant to point out at the time this was gratuity for the disappointment of the first VIP concertm, rather than any aknowledgement of a refund from AEG, and I took that as on top of the £500 i paid for 2 VIP tickets, my flights and hotel came to about £500, so they owed me for those expenses anyways !

I wouldn't book VIP now out of principal, I think next time I will buy normal tickets for the nights I want to attend, no doubt they will be rubbish in the upper tier 2 minutes after they are released on the web!!!! then closer to the gig I will keep a look out on ticketmaster for the decent tickets being released in the floor area or lower tiers, and worse case,if I don't get any, I've got my original tickets on the day they went on sale.

I think it will be a few years before he hits Europe again anyways, will be the US next I think.

ecnirp98 said:

the euro is strong now so i think a european tour would b very profitable now anyway....lol.
taking everything n2 consideration i got a good deal during the summer of 2007...was there 18 nights n had a blast....i miss it n i will have fond memories....needless 2 say i will know better next time round.
the likes of AEG were forced 2 listen 2 ppl power n if i was of any use 2 anyone getting there £££ back then my job is done.
i really hate 2 see folx get ripped off cause that VIP package we got was nothing but a con n looking back on the time i bought the VIP package i must have needed my head tested cause i was mad forking out that kinda £££.

WOLFY

I really like AEG and think they do a great job bringing out and promoting excellent events all over. Ticket Master, on the other hand, I've been less than thrilled with. AEG are really good communicators historically, and they are really fan based... so I'm not especially amazed that you got your money back. I'm sorry you had a bad time at the show, or the seats weren't exactly where/what you expected.
If we come away with anything from this is that the buyer should be aware of what they purchase and that, more times than not, the promoter and the venue prefer to have you happily return to the venue.
Please remember that +85% of that money goes to the artist, so if the check was written by AEG than it came out of their pocket. AEG is one of the few companies out there that has a viable chance of competing with Live Nation worldwide. If you don't like monopolies, please encourage and support your independent promoters and venues. I hope you get a chance to write a nice thank you letter back to them.

irishwolfhound said:

I think they were exploiting the Prince fans desperate to get tickets when they sold the VIP packages, I was online when the concerts went on sale at 9am and there was no availability, but VIP was available, I could only get to the O2 for 2 dates, so I had to bite the bullet and pay over the odds to guarantee seeing Prince. With hindsight decent tickets started appearing soon after and closer to the gigs, but I couldn't risk that, next time I'll be allot more chilled over it and wait !!! whatever happened to first there gets the best tickets ???

A european tour would be cool, fancy visiting a few cities, Paris 88 for Lovesexy was awesome, I went there with the Revolution fan club, they were based in Otley near Leeds, the shop was cool, had all Prince rarities there and the walls/ceilings were all painted in Prince album covers, all they sold was Prince/Related material, they got some funny looks in this farming village lol it all went abit wierd on the nude tour in Holland 1990, Chris who ran the club/shop was arrested I believe for selling tickets for a Prince aftershow, there was allot of backstabbing at the time I think, oh well, great times and great gigs ...

So, these upgrade tickets, are you gonna save them incase Prince does the O2 again, or have you already used them for the Spice Girls ?
[Edited 2/18/08 12:37pm]

I really like AEG and think they do a great job bringing out and promoting excellent events all over. Ticket Master, on the other hand, I've been less than thrilled with. AEG are really good communicators historically, and they are really fan based... so I'm not especially amazed that you got your money back. I'm sorry you had a bad time at the show, or the seats weren't exactly where/what you expected.
If we come away with anything from this is that the buyer should be aware of what they purchase and that, more times than not, the promoter and the venue prefer to have you happily return to the venue.
Please remember that +85% of that money goes to the artist, so if the check was written by AEG than it came out of their pocket. AEG is one of the few companies out there that has a viable chance of competing with Live Nation worldwide. If you don't like monopolies, please encourage and support your independent promoters and venues. I hope you get a chance to write a nice thank you letter back to them.

5tewsday said:

AEG LIVE CAN KISS MY WHITE IRISH ASS....BUNCH OF TOSSERS

irishwolfhound said:

lol great response, pretty much a summary of my thoughts !

Great to hear you got a full refund
Anyone heard of someone getting a refund out of an aftershow-no-show?

ecnirp98 said:

thanx...there was me thinkin i was the only one thinking that way.
4 the thousands of folx who went VIP im surprised there was not more complaints on here r housequake.
perhaps they stayed quiet n the background n claimed after seeing the details on here....i certainly hope so.

WOLFY

5tewsday..

i am glad your experience of AEG was a good one, from what i can tell, their actions were actually criminal, (you legally have to identify restricted view tickets, which they didn't.) dishonest(after being made aware of seating problems and admitting them- they continued to sell them as vip) and frankly insulting.

It should not take being taken to court or a visit to their head office to get a refund for an admitted problem.

Added to that the non disclosure agreements that are going out to people prior to them getting their cheques and you are left with something that is in my opinion very ugly.


This summer was my first experience of AEG, and i will endeavour to make it my last.


Well done to anyone that got a refund, and especially to anyone that played "hey that first thing you gave me was good will- NOW GIVE ME A REFUND angle" that i suggested.

If anyone else is still wanting a refund, the quickest solution seems to be small claims.

glyn said:

hi glyn,
i got my refund from ticketmaster UK n was refunded by credit card the way i paid originally.
they sent me no disclosure agreement....perhaps they meant 2 n 4got....i didnt get any letter from them after with no apology admitting liabilty.
there nothing but a bunch of tossers n i mean that from the heart.
i agree with what U say n the way they sold shitty seats 4 £239.95 was criminal..i was placed n F2....the WORST seats n the house.

WOLFY
[Edited 2/20/08 13:32pm]

I never needed to make a claim, but I pushed two friends who got raw deals with VIP tickets.

As I said in Aug/Sept, its not worth mucking around with customer services, they don't listen. My friends filed an online claim for a full refund, plus costs and they both received a cheque two weeks later.

SquirrelMeat said:

Squirrel are you still whinning...?