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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Rebecca Smithers

My ‘two for one’ tickets brought double trouble

Petite Meller at the Wireless festival on 8 July.
Petite Meller at the Wireless festival on 8 July. Photograph: Ollie Millington/Redferns

I bought tickets for the Wireless festival in London on Friday 8 July, through a flash sale which I spotted via an email marketing push by Ticketmaster.

I purchased two “two for one” tickets online. However, on arrival at the venue we were denied entry as we were told that it was one such ticket per attendee, so we had to buy two additional full-priced tickets. This was an extra £134 that we had not accounted for, but were forced to spend to avoid disappointment on a day when we had all booked time off work.

Once I originally booked the tickets I had an email confirmation that clearly stated I had purchased “x2 ‘two for one’ tickets”. My understanding of the concept of “two for one” – and, I think, that of most rational people – is that you receive two tickets for the price of one ticket. I’m seeking a full refund for the tickets as I believe I was deceived by this offer. DB, London

We are sympathetic, but unfortunately Ticketmaster won’t budge. It said that on the online drop-down menu you needed to select “four” tickets (not two) in order to receive four tickets at the two-for-one price. You had only selected two tickets at this point, it says.

It claims there are points in the process when you might have been able to realise you had only purchased two tickets, and you received a confirmation email tuat stated you only had two tickets, while you would also have received only two tickets in the mail.

Ticketmaster said: “Thousands of tickets were booked via this particular promotion, and no other complaints have been received. All of our two-for-one offers are set up in this way and our teams have not come across similar confusion from customers.”

We went on to the Ticketmaster site ourselves to book a two-for-one promotion on another concert. Like you, we are not regular buyers on the site and we could see where confusion might arise over whether two two-for-ones were actually two tickets or four. We feel Ticketmaster could go further in making its site more precise – and in helping out when things go wrong, such as in your case. Over to you, Ticketmaster.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number

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