I am currently in the process of court action against TM & AEG for a full refund of my opening night VIP tickets.
AEG are so far disputing the entire amount and have submitted a defence which amongst other things claims there was little wrong with this reception and that it was basically worth it's money, which is laughable.

Anyway, what I would like to ask of those who were also there that evening, is whether any of you would mind writing a brief statement or something about your experience/opinion of this reception???
Submitting a few witness statements along with my own evidence, would really help to show what liars they are.

If any of you can help, please orgnote me and I'll send you my email address.

(Oh and also, if any of you has a copy of the later reception itinerary that shows how they improved it, that would be useful too.)

Many thanks

Lovecat said:

many of us including myself recieved a full refund from them.
i got mine b4 xmas n it was via ticketmaster UK who refunded by credit card.
as far as i know those claims were settled n others got £31.21 back r a replacement nite @ the 02.
peace,
WOLFY

Lovecat said:

Oh my. What happend?
[Edited 4/17/08 14:25pm]

irishwolfhound said:

Yes I am well aware that many of you have had full refunds so congrats for that, but it seems that getting money back has been more straightforward for some than for others.

I did the boat vip and that was good if short.

What happened or rather what didnt happen for you guys at the other vip thing?

Lovecat said:

thanx best wishes n gettin ur dosh.
[Edited 4/18/08 11:53am]

syble said:

Well, I can honestly say it wasn't anything more than a few vol-au-vents and 3 free alcoholic drinks. No entertainment and lots of running around after waiters. I can't for the life of me work out how it was worth £10 a head, let alone £200.
I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing them in court (if they show up) and hearing what they have to say about it.

Lovecat said:

Where was you seated for the concert VIP ticket? most people I've heard complain about VIP (myself included) was based on not being 'in the golden circle' which was supposed to be within the first 10 rows of the stage 'amongst the best seats in the house' as Ticketmaster/3121.com advertised it.

I was stuck behind the drumkit and keyboards in block E2 towards the back of the stage, so had a restricted view, other poeple who got refunds were in blocks like F2 way back behind the stage or had restricted views, with people infront of them who just paid the standard £31.21 rather than £250, so these tickets were not as advertised, so quite a clear case of breach of sales of goods act.

Good Luck with your claim.
[Edited 4/18/08 15:06pm]

Lovecat said:

I hope you are a layer as the only people who gain from litigation are the lawyers and i spak from some experience last year, they are still fighting over costs all the time running up more!!!

Why didnt you complain at the time it may have been resolved sooner like wolfys and other peeps

I did complain at the time to both AEG & TM and got no-where with either of them, which I think was the same for a lot of people. I am taking legal action a few months later than others but have been advised that under the law you have up to 4yrs to do so.

Our VIP seats were in block 111 so weren't great considering better seats went on sale later for standard price, but were not restricted view as others had.

My main issue is with literally spending £200 extra on nothing at all. Under Sale of Goods things must be as described and of a satisfactory standard/quality taking into account their price, so the VIP reception was in breach of that.

So far my costs have been minimal in comparison with what I'm claiming so at this stage it's still worth battling on.

Hi

I agree it was £200 extra for nothing basically, I think you have a stronger case arguing over the seat you was allocated not being upto the standard described, rather than the standard of the VIP reception, its hard to define what a good VIP reception is, but Ticketmaster clearly stated in their advertisement that the VIP pqackage would give tickets 'in the golden circle' which are within 10 rows of the stage and are the best seats in the house, if you did not receive such tickets, you are in a strong position to win your case, as I did.

The cases I have heard for people winning refunds has been based upon poor ticket allocation, we all mentioned the VIP reception was poor, but's thats more difficult to prove compared to a block/seat number not meeting the description of the VIP package when sold.

I could only attend one O2 gig due to work/family commitments and when the tickets went only sale, I was online and I was being offerred really poor tickets for the night I could attend, so I took the plunge and paid well over the odds for VIP to guarantee a great ticket, no VIP package is worth £200 more, your pretty much paying for the guarantee of a great ticket in my opinion.

Good Luck with the claim.

syble said:

Lots of us complained at the time, I got my tickets about 4 days before the show and knew they were poor tiockets,so I did lots of phone calls to Ticketmaster/AEG/O2 and got no help at all, the customer services was appalling, Ticketmasters attitude was 'how can you complain, you haven't been to the show yet', they were arrogant about not giving any refunds/concessions/exchanges, I pointed out I had been to an earlier gig and I knew where my seat was located and it was very poor for £250.

I attended the gig then sent a few letters in August detailing my complaint and conversations I had prior to the event to AEG/Ticketmaster, all I received was an aknowledgement of receipt. I then sent a last letter in December, still no reply, so In February I started legal proceedings through Money Claim Online, within a week I had a cheque for a full refund and a letter from the Ticketmaster solicitor detailing this was full and final payment for my claim.

So complaining at the time did no good, only the onset of legal action made Ticketmaster/AEG act, to my knowledge, Wolfy is the only person to receive a refund for a bad VIP package without actually starting legal proceedings, or has anyone else got a refund without starting a legal case ?

I'm still annoyed that Prince's people didn't get involved with the promoter to resolve the situation, the forums were full of complaints at the time about the VIP packages, AEG/Ticketmaster/O2 were getting lots of complaints, there were articles in the newspapers and even some forum members went on the radio to discuss the ticket problems, I will not goto the Dublin gig after the treatment I received with VIP, I'm voting with my money !

I got refunded for restricted view without having to go to court.





Ticketmaster is who you should take to court, IMHO since they were the point of purchase and you have specific rights against them under the sale of goods act, Ticketmaster then have to deal with AEG themselves.


If they sold you your ticket, without telling you where your seat was, they are also breaking the law. This was the case with ALL VIP seats for approximately the first two weeks of august, there are specific laws that deal with this that ticketmaster have broken inadvertently due to AEG's Actions.


If you don't get satisfaction, showing up at their office seems to work too.
[Edited 4/19/08 12:52pm]

Yep, I have taken action against both of them.
Were any of you guys on this thread there on the first night?

Lovecat said:

I was VIP on 10/08/07.
[Edited 4/19/08 16:42pm]

yes, i was there on the first night, but on the boat. So i can't help you from my personal experience..

Spud80 i think was in there for the normal VIP. She was offered another night as goodwill, and took it, where apparently AEG did much better.



if you go to www.web.archive.org and use the wayback machine on the ticketmaster site, you can access the original text from the ticketmaster.co.uk site describing the shows, and also note where and when it changes..

glyn said:

Thanks. Yes I think I remember some other 1st nighters too. Though am a bit reluctant to send them orgnotes about it when they'd probably rather forget the whole thing. Still I guess the worst they can do is tell me to bugger off

Hi!!we're still waiting 2-haven't been on the site 4 a while but thought i'd check it out with the whole dublin thing goin on-apparently TM have sent it 2 their paralegal dept-2 wks ago-so we'll wait n c!!i also threatened them with court action n its only now their taking me seriously-will keep u updated...

Lovecat said:

Hi lovecat
I was there the opening show and I was reaaaaally disappointed. I mean, I loved the Prince's show (of course), but I wasnt able to see even the shoulder of him.
So, I am with you on this. Let me know how we can proceed.
Many thanks.
Dan

Lovecat said:

I have just send you an org note.

Lovecat said:

Hi there - i was there. I complained at the time and got nowhere either. I totally agree with you the reception was terrible and we actually got charged for some drinks too that we waited forever to be served for. I had 3 bites of food and that was all.

I would love to complain also and would be more than happy to write something for you. Would you help me by giving me all the details of who I can complain to about this even though it's a while after. I stopped listening to Prince after all this as I felt so sick about the whole thing and wasn't aware that anyone got a refund!

so 1st Aug I was there, the VIP reception in the O2 and seats behind the stage where I didn't see any of the dance routines or much of the gig at all.

Lisa