Earlier today, popular Bolton-born comedian Peter Kay broke some bad news on Twitter. Unfortunately, he is cancelling his sold-out “Have Gags, Will Travel” stand-up comedy tour. His statement explains that he is cancelling all of his upcoming work commitments due to an unforeseen private family matter.
Statement from Peter Kay: pic.twitter.com/gYhZkq12Q1
— Peter Kay (@peterkay_co_uk) 13 December 2017
The initial tour dates sold out so quickly and were in such high demand, Peter Kay chose to extend the tour to a massive 100 dates. The tour would have brought him to Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Leeds, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield, and Liverpool. Each city was expecting multiple shows, and in some cases multiple visits, between April 2018 and June 2019.
This would have been a celebratory return to stand-up comedy for Peter Kay after a hiatus of almost 8 years. He took time away to focus on other projects, such as his sitcom Peter Kay’s Car Share. His last tour, which ran across 112 dates from 2010 to 2011, won him a Guinness World Record. With a total audience of over 1.2 million people, it was the biggest-selling comedy tour of all time.
This makes it even more disappointing for the thousands of fans who got their hands on tickets after waiting a long time for the opportunity to see Peter Kay. Many fans also expressed frustration at the ridiculously high ticket prices on resale sites after the shows sold out. Some fans might have been desperate enough to pay hundreds of pounds for these tickets.
At this point, Peter Kay has made it clear that he is not postponing the tour, but completely scrapping it. There are no plans for rescheduling the 100 dates, and all tickets for these shows are now invalid. This means that if you bought any tickets, you’ll need to get a refund for the money you spent on them. This guide will tell you how you can make sure you at least get your money back.
How to Get a Refund From a Primary Seller
Primary sellers are direct sources for ticket sales, such as the venue hosting the event or an authorized website. If you got your tickets from one of these, all you need to do in order to get a refund is contact the company you bought the tickets from directly.
In the event of a cancellation, the retailer should contact you first to let you know. Usually, they will directly inform you whether you can get a refund and anything you need to do, so check your e-mail. Otherwise, find the contact details for the retailer and get in touch by phone or e-mail to request your refund. Make sure you have all your order details such as your reference number to hand.
Whether you bought from Ticketmaster, See Tickets, or Gigs and Tours, they will usually issue an automatic refund when an artist cancels an event. Call them to make sure they are processing your refund, and to ask any questions you might have about this – especially if you paid using a voucher or gift card.
The same goes for venues which sell their own tickets directly to customers, like The SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Some venues, including Genting Arena at the NEC in Birmingham and the FlyDSA Arena in Sheffield, confirmed they will also issue refunds automatically. If the venue you bought tickets from hasn’t contacted you about Peter Kay’s cancellation yet, call them yourself.
Some venues sell through partner ticket sites. For example, First Direct Arena in Leeds and Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle both sell tickets for their events through Eventim. If you bought from a venue via a ticketing company, you need to contact that company and not the venue itself.
Under their terms and conditions, all such ticket vendors must reimburse the customer for the ticket upon cancellation of the event. However, some only owe you the face value of the ticket. When you buy from sites or venues, they often add booking fees, facility fees, and delivery or collection fees. Face value means the price of the ticket before these fees, so you might lose out on these other costs. Contact your seller to check if their policy covers total refunds.
How to Get a Refund From A Secondary Ticket Site
Secondary sites are the websites which allow individuals to resell their tickets through them, such as Viagogo and Seatwave. Many secondary ticket sites are part of the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents. This means they are bound to a code of customer service conduct, and if you don’t receive what you paid for they will have to reimburse you.
Resale sites like StubHub and Seatwave have a protection policy offering a full refund of your order costs in the event of cancellations. Sometimes sites like Viagogo can be tricky, as they won’t refund if the promoter reschedules an event, even if you can no longer make it. However, since Peter Kay is definitely cancelling and not postponing, they should definitely offer you a refund.
If you can’t get through to the company or for some reason they refuse to refund you, contact your bank. If you bought your tickets using a credit card and spent over £100, you can claim a refund according to Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. This makes the lender equally liable for failure to provide a product you’ve paid for.
If you paid with a debit card, you can also call your bank to request a refund. Under the Chargeback scheme, you can ask the bank get your money back when you don’t receive goods you paid for. If you paid via PayPal, contact them for a refund under their Buyer Protection policy.
What If I Bought My Tickets Somewhere Else?
If you bought tickets directly from an individual either in person or via a social media website, unfortunately, you may not be able to get a refund. You would need to contact that individual and request your money back, which would be at their discretion. Since many people reselling tickets tend to be touts trying to make a profit, it’s unlikely that they will agree to refund you.
However, you do have a few options to try and get your money back. If you paid the reseller using PayPal, as above you could be covered by Buyer Protection. Since the reseller can’t provide you with the product you paid for, PayPal will reimburse you. If you paid them via any other money transfer app, get in touch with the app company. They might have a similar protection in place.
If you transferred money directly from your bank, contact your card service provider as soon as possible. Your bank may be able to cancel or reverse the payment, depending on how long it’s been since the transaction. Quote your rights under the Consumer Credit Act or Chargeback scheme as above.
This may not get your money back, but if the reseller refuses to co-operate, you can report them to the ActionFraud police for Advance Fee fraud. When they take a payment from you for goods they won’t provide, this counts as fraudulent behaviour.
Will I Be Reimbursed For Travel and Accommodation?
Ticket sellers are not liable for any other expenses relating to the event. For example, if you book a hotel or train tickets to attend the event, you’ll need to contact the retailers directly. Their cancellations and refunds policy will usually be shown to you at the time of purchase.
A lot of the time, hotels or transport services will only refund you in the event of an issue with their service. This could be if the trains aren’t running due to poor weather conditions, or the hotel accidentally overbooked. Your reason for travelling or staying there isn’t the responsibility of their business, as they did not sell the event tickets to you.
If you made sure to choose a refundable payment option, you can contact the retailer to cancel and arrange a refund. If you didn’t, you have two choices. Cancel anyway and lose your money, or go ahead with the travel and hotel night and make your own event of it.
Rather than waste the money you’ve spent on the trip, create a new trip. Find another event or attraction available on the day of your visit which you can attend instead! You can make the best of your situation rather than letting the original cancellation ruin things.
