See tickets disgrace

[grumpyhack]

I checked my bank statement a couple of days after balance payment date and was delighted, and relieved, to see that they'd taken the money.

Whether they send the tickets on time is another thing. So I'll be keeping a print out of the bank statement just in case.

Good luck.

Edited April 18, 2011 by grumpyhack

[hashcity]

Does she have the details of when the payment was attempted to be collected, IE the date, and then proof that there were sufficient funds?

If she does then I dont' see how SEE Tickets could give a 'its too late' stock answer, also does she have free leagal advice through any insurance policies? It coule be worth getting advice.

Let us know the outcome if you can.

[LittlemissC]

What a nightmare! Think I better check my account - I have a separate account for concerts and haven't checked that it's been deducted although I did get the confirmation e-mail.

I hope you get this sorted, and as others have said, check the funds situation and then raise it as a complaint. Good luck x

[rainbow girl]

I spoke to someone at Seetickets yesterday as I had booked tickets for someone but had received no confirmation email - she confirmed that the tickets had been successfully bought, but was at pains to point out that as no payment has yet gone through, it is the customer's responsibility to check with their bank that the payment has gone through, as it is part of their terms and conditions. She said that if it hasn't gone through within a day or two, the customer needs to ring Seetickets to try and organise alternative payment otherwise they are within their rights to cancel the order.

Not necessarily very helpful for your friend, but a good reminder that we all need to check our bank balances immediately to confirm the payment has been taken.

Good luck to your friend in sorting this out though.

[Wanderlei]

I wish her the best of luck. Just don't take it lying down cos that's what these big companies want.

[Ponyegg]

You mean the balance yeah??

Same thing happened to me, paid up, rec'd confirmation.....then got an email saying my funds hadnt gone through, panicked at this point but they wont onto give me a weeks extension to pay the remainder (until the 15th opposed to the original 7/8th)

Seems hugely unfair that she was told too late and not given any opportunity to rectify that.

wouldnt bother trying to reason with Seetickets, id suggest going straight to Glasto HQ, surely they have a heart??

Good luck!

[CrispyRed]

I know you are getting lots of advice and support anyway but will point out similar thing happened to me last year.

SeeTickets customer service were exceptionally unhelpful. They claimed they sent me an email informing me they could not get the funds which I dispute to this day that I never received. I emailed GFL and they were at least sympathetic although they could not do anything.

Luckily I got a ticket in a resale. At least register a complaint. I think See Tickets are crap and have a bad attitude. I never use them for other gigis. The more complaints they get might make them worry about losing the Glastonbury account.

[Mr McJohnson]

no...your friend f**ked up.

I paid at the last possible moment, 10 minutes before midnight on Thursday knowing full well I was short in my account by Friday and it most likely wouldn't go through.

on Saturday the money was still in my account, i phoned see they said the details were on the system and they would take the payment soon.

they attempted to take payment on Monday afternoon and it was returned. within an hour i received an email from see telling me that they payment wasn't successful and I had until midday on Friday 15th to make the payment

I finally made the payment on Thursday afternoon, it went through ok and i called see because i still hadn't received the confirmation email, 10 minutes after the call had ended the email was in my inbox

quite simply put your friend was not proactive enough and certainly deserves not to go to Glastonbury. there are plenty of people they would prostitute their own children for a half a ticket stub for this Glastonbury and i hope her ticket went to one of them

[chris northwest]

no...your friend f**ked up.

I paid at the last possible moment, 10 minutes before midnight on Thursday knowing full well I was short in my account by Friday and it most likely wouldn't go through.

on Saturday the money was still in my account, i phoned see they said the details were on the system and they would take the payment soon.

they attempted to take payment on Monday afternoon and it was returned. within an hour i received an email from see telling me that they payment wasn't successful and I had until midday on Friday 15th to make the payment

I finally made the payment on Thursday afternoon, it went through ok and i called see because i still hadn't received the confirmation email, 10 minutes after the call had ended the email was in my inbox

quite simply put your friend was not proactive enough and certainly deserves not to go to Glastonbury. there are plenty of people they would prostitute their own children for a half a ticket stub for this Glastonbury and i hope her ticket went to one of them

[Gnomicide]

Blimey. Just checked my account to make sure the money had gone out. I didn't want to be undeserving.

[binbag77]

Blimey. Just checked my account to make sure the money had gone out. I didn't want to be undeserving.

[4AssedMonkey]

The very first thing should be tot ask the bank if a payment ws asked for - they WILL know.

If it wasn't, SEE will probably be more open to using one of the reserve stock ( they DO have some every year )

If SEE are politely told that the bank have confirmed the payment wasn't called for, and assuming all the ref numbers and deposit were in place, I can't see them refusing to re-instate the order.

Since 1995 I have had on eor two issues, but SEE havealways, without exception, listened and been reasonable.

however - if they DID ask for the payment, and your bank bounced it, for whatever reason, you have less of a case.

Good luck.

[strudders]

I have had similar to that last year. See rang me to say the payment was not taken. However I was waiting for the call as I knew they had not taken the money from the account. They left a message on our answer machine to say we needed to contact them within a week or the ticket would be released.

Think is without being to harsh....

I would always check to make sure the money is gone from the account. If it is not then I would question it or be expecting a phone call as the amount to be fair is not small.

Contact GFL direct, state your case, explain you never received a call/email from see...

Best of luck

[hashcity]

Perhaps SEE just need to be more explicit in their explanation of the ticketing process.

Specifically the process which they follow if they are unable to process the transaction successfully. Let us not forget that transactions are often declined even when cleared funds are available, for many reasons: e.g. a security check. Most automated cardholder-not-present systems give up as soon as manual clearing is required (the retailer can't be bothered to contact the customer, so usually just waits for the customer to call their bank, override the security and then call them to reinstate the order).

The problem is the time-limited nature of the ticketing process here. It is not reasonable to tell ticket purchasers that they cannot buy a ticket due to a problem arising during transaction processing. It is not even reasonable to expect the purchaser to check their bank statement, or check with their bank, because the bank does not have to post all transactions to the account immediately (it may delay doing so for many days, even weeks). Trying to guess whether or not funds have been withdrawn from an account is nothing short of voodoo, and only the bank can tell you if a transaction has been authorised. And even then the bank have a certain amount of time to reverse the transaction.

The customer has fulfilled their obligation so long as they have provided valid card details to an account with cleared funds. The fact that SEE tickets (the merchant) are unable to authorise the transaction through the EFT clearing house is not the customer's fault.

I cannot understand why SEE tickets cannot take an online EFT authorisation from the bank, like every other merchant does. When you order something from Amazon, they instantaneously process the transaction, then ship it immediately.

Since demand for tickets is high, and there is plenty of time between the sale of tickets and the occurence of the event, SEE tickets should take the view that once tickets a ticket order has been placed through their system, the buyer will honour payment for them. After all, if it gets through their system, it should have been pre-authorised from the bank. Any cockups at this stage are therefore unlikely to be intentional on the part of the customer. If the buyer defaults, SEE will have no problem reselling them at a later date (e.g. third resale).

In my view SEE tickets should

a. Authorise all transactions online with the bank (not offline if that is what they are doing)

b. In all instances where the transaction fails, endeavour to contact the buyer and resolve this. They should also give the buyer a resonable period of time to sort this (e.g. a week or so)

c. Provide a means for those who are concerned to provide 'backup' payment details - just like Paypal does. Better yet provide an option to pay by Paypal.

Am I correct in thinking SEE tickets offer their services for 'free' for the purposes of building their brand? If so, this is the ideal place to demonstrate the quality of their service and their good customer service. As it stands, I don't think most people would buy from them, given a choice.

Edited April 22, 2011 by hashcity

[al_coholic]

This thread has just sent me straight to the ticket tracker, phew looks good for me. Hope your friend sorts it out.

[acripaul]

Just a general point about this type of 'customer service'.

A friend of mine used to work for one of the UK's huge banks around the time when the whole unfair overdraft/general charges thing happened a few years ago, when thousands of customers were looking for refunds.

The staff were basically told to point blank refuse a refund the first time a customer complained. They were also told to refuse the second time.

It was only when someone bothered to continue to complain and contacted them a third time that they'd look into the issue and generally pay up.

The point being most people give up after the first no, and big companies are very aware of this and use it to filter out a lot of complaints.

I'd find out the facts, and if your friend has a case, read some of Hunter S Thompson's complaint letters for inspiration, and get onto See!

[london_ajay]

I agree that see have failings in their system. However, see have redeemed themselves in my eyes recently as when i got my ticket on the resale, my bank treated the transaction as suspect fraud. They bounced the payment, called me up to bring the devastating news...

The next day, See sent me an email telling me the payment did not go through. The email provided a link to pay again!! I paid. Then i called see the day after and they confirmed they had my money. I have never been so relieved!!

So i think that while this doesnt help in your case, see i am sure could lend their ears to your friend's situation, you never know...

Edited April 22, 2011 by london_ajay

[beodeejay]

I agree that see have failings in their system. However, see have redeemed themselves in my eyes recently as when i got my ticket on the resale, my bank treated the transaction as suspect fraud. They bounced the payment, called me up to bring the devastating news...

The next day, See sent me an email telling me the payment did not go through. The email provided a link to pay again!! I paid. Then i called see the day after and they confirmed they had my money. I have never been so relieved!!

So i think that while this doesnt help in your case, see i am sure could lend their ears to your friend's situation, you never know...

[LondonTom]

I think in general See due to the nature of tickets doesn't do the full card checks and grab the funds so as to speed it up and not weigh down on the banking system?

Does seem odd as I know last year my payment bounced due to natwest randomly sending me a new card and canceling my old one without my knowledge, it was about a week before the deadline See phoned me up to tell it hadn't gone through, I talked to my bank and found out about the card issue then phoned see and explained and they put my tickets on hold while I waited for my card to arrive.

[Hermia]

This also happened to me this year. I put this down to when I paid the full amount on 1st April I used a Credit Card. They accepted my payment, I got the email saying I've paid up and they had charged my card. Then last week on the 12th I was checking my email (I don't read personal ones that often) and they had sent one saying they were unable to charge my card. I know for fact there were plenty of funds in there. Anyway, so I went back on the site and went to use my Credit Card again but this time I"m told they won't accept CCs only Debit Cards. Personally I think Seetickets have cocked up and allowed Credit Card data to be accepted and then later realised the problem and released a fix to the site to check against CC numbers. First time I've ever had any issues with them though, still don;t know why they don;t take CCs though.

[bass1999]

I don't think Seetickets do it to build a brand name.

They make £4.95 booking fee off every ticket. You do the math.

[LondonTom]

I don't think Seetickets do it to build a brand name.

They make £4.95 booking fee off every ticket. You do the math.

[bass1999]

Do you not think they have costs then? :S

[LondonTom]

Every business has costs and Seetickets do not only sell for Glastonbury.

[london_ajay]

I don't see the relevance to this thread which is about the level of service and bass1999's post about making money. Every business exists to make money, end of.

What is important is how these companies treat the people giving the business their money.

Most pertinently, how seetickets perform in organising our tickets for glastonbury and how our enjoyment and lasting memories depend on see's ability to succeed in assisting us getting there!!