Is this legal?/Advice needed.

[Puffing Devil]

I would go with the Consumer Rights Act 2015, see schedule 2

Correct, that sucked up the UCT, in this case Schedule 2, Part 1, item 11:

"A term which has the object or effect of enabling the trader to alter the terms of the contract unilaterally without a valid reason which is specified in the contract."​

 

[Puffing Devil]

The tickets weren't sold by the venue. The venue website simply redirects potential purchasers to the promoter in this case.

Neither does the promoter have any ticketing info or Ts and Cs.

 

[londonbridge]

If you feel like going on the radio, the JVS Show on BBC 3 Counties Radio has a consumer clinic at 11 am each weekday morning. He generally gets good results.

Cheers, I called them and had a chat and they're going to investigate and get back to me.

 

[Howardh]

Reminds me of the time everyone had bought their air tickets, and then turned up at Blackpool Airport only to be told a compulsory £10 each airport development *tax* had been added and they had to pay up of not get their flight. Ouch. You were given free parking..."but I've come on the train".

The airport now is now just a glorified airstrip - don't think there are flights now to the Isle of Man, let alone Malaga. Their current website strangely omits this part of their history... https://blackpoolairport.com/Aerodrome-History

 

[londonbridge]

Just been on the radio! The view is that they're within their rights to ask for the extra as long as they offer the option to cancel if you don't want to pay it, which they did, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pay up. Frustrating, yes, but worth finding out one way or the other.

 

[northwichcat]

Reminds me of the time everyone had bought their air tickets, and then turned up at Blackpool Airport only to be told a compulsory £10 each airport development *tax* had been added and they had to pay up of not get their flight. Ouch. You were given free parking..."but I've come on the train".

Your story reminds me of booking a trip in Italy. I'd booked in a 4* hotel (which was only just a 4* hotel and cheaper than some of the 3* hotels) for 6 nights and there was supposed to a tourist tax of 2 Euro per night to pay at the end of the stay. However, the mayor of the city decided to hike the tourist tax and the amount you paid depended on the date you stayed, not the date you booked so I ended up having to pay 6 Euro per night, but the tourist tax would have been less in one of the 3* hotels which had a higher price per stay!

 

[Howardh]

Just been on the radio! The view is that they're within their rights to ask for the extra as long as they offer the option to cancel if you don't want to pay it, which they did, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pay up. Frustrating, yes, but worth finding out one way or the other.

Well done! There's an interesting analogy; if you buy something in a shop for a tenner, you pay for it, they take your money and off you go; and as you are walking towards your car can they chase after you and say "sorry mate, the price displayed was an error, it's actually £20 and you owe us a tenner or give it us back"?
What if it was a consumable (eg box of chocs) and you had already started eating them before you drove off??

 

[DavidGrain]

Sales in a shop are covered by the Sale of Goods Act The contract is made and completed at the till so end of story. Buy a concert ticket and the contract is not completed until the end of the show. As I have said in a previous post, if you were refused admission to the concert all you would have been entitled to in compensation is what you have lost i.e. the price of the ticket. In this case the OP was offered a refund so that would have been the total value of any compensation if he had not paid the extra requested.

 

[Strat-tastic]

Just been on the radio! The view is that they're within their rights to ask for the extra as long as they offer the option to cancel if you don't want to pay it, which they did, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pay up. Frustrating, yes, but worth finding out one way or the other.

I look forward to listening later on the iPlayer.

 

[Barn]

Just been on the radio! The view is that they're within their rights to ask for the extra as long as they offer the option to cancel if you don't want to pay it, which they did, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pay up. Frustrating, yes, but worth finding out one way or the other.

I think it's possible two things are being conflated there. The first is whether they are 'within their rights' to demand more. I would say no, they are not. The second is how much damage it has caused. There is an argument that the damage would be the amount paid for the ticket, on the basis that the consumer took the risk that it might be cancelled in any event. So the answer may well be that their actions are not lawful but that it does not have any practical effect on the basis that a refund is being offered anyway. A distinction without a difference.

I can see scenarios in which this would be unenforceable. Imagine that the consumer had bought a travel + hotel bundle from the same company, and this was not included in the refund offer. In that scenario, the consumer would be held to ransom: asked to pay more to avoid losing the existing outlay. I wouldn't hesitate to challenge that in court.

 

[PeterC]

Neither does the promoter have any ticketing info or Ts and Cs.

I dodn't say that they did, I was simply pointing out that the OP was slagging off Union Chapel for something that wasn't down to them.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Just been on the radio! The view is that they're within their rights to ask for the extra as long as they offer the option to cancel if you don't want to pay it, which they did, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pay up. Frustrating, yes, but worth finding out one way or the other.

I've listened to the recording, just after the two-hour mark: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060c1yf#play

I'm not convinced by the "advice": it was all "I think", "I believe", and "probably". The argument about employer overpayment was not relevant in this context, completely different context. I would be very keen to know where the presenter got his advice from - sounded like his opinion and not qualified advice.

 

[londonbridge]

I dodn't say that they did, I was simply pointing out that the OP was slagging off Union Chapel for something that wasn't down to them.

I never said I was slagging off Union Chapel, I just posted all the info I felt was relevant.

 

[londonbridge]

Update. So I paid the extra tenner, got an emailed receipt but no link to print off a new ticket, so I’ve turned up with the original ticket which I’d already printed off and which says £25. Guy on the door looked at it and waved me straight in without scanning the barcode or checking the ticket in any manner whatsoever! Wonder how many people may have got in without coughing up the extra??