The 1399 yuan concert ticket was refunded and only 280 yuan was left, why is it so difficult to refund the ticket

It only takes 2 minutes from payment to applying for a refund, but a 50% handling fee will be charged, and the refund application due to family changes or physical reasons is still rejected after showing the relevant certificate, the return ticket is not eligible for a refund at all, and the refund rules for the same concert project are different in different cities......

The reporter recently interviewed and found that consumers have many complaints about the refund system of performance tickets, especially the high handling fee. They don't understand that it is only a few minutes from the time the order is placed to the time of cancellation, and there is still a week or even more than half a month before the performance, which does not affect the secondary sales of tickets at all, so why should they charge such a high handling fee?

According to the statistics of the Shanghai Municipal Commission for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, a total of 9,208 cultural ticketing complaints were accepted in the first half of 2023, and the complaints caused by the inability to refund or transfer tickets after real-name ticket purchase accounted for a relatively high proportion. The "2023 China Performance Consumer Insight Report" also shows that about 40% of consumers encounter difficulties in purchasing tickets and cannot refund or transfer tickets.

Why is it so difficult for consumers to refund their tickets, who sets the refund rules, and how should the refund mechanism be improved?

A loved one died and could not attend the show

Ticket refunds encounter a "tug of war"

If a loved one dies, you still can't refund the concert ticket after providing the death certificate and household registration information. When the reporter contacted Chen Han on a social platform, she had just posted this post asking for help.

At the beginning of this year, Chen Han, who lives in Guangdong, bought tickets for Rainie Yang's Foshan Station on March 23 and Jolin Tsai Foshan Station on March 30 on January 24 and February 29 respectively. In mid-March, Chen Han's grandfather died suddenly, due to the need for funeral and funeral, and the two "strong real-name" tickets she purchased could not be transferred, she had to apply for a refund to the ticketing platform before the performance.

I didn't expect the road to refund would be so tortuous: the customer service initially agreed to the refund application, but the premise was that "the death certificate of the deceased and the certificate of kinship are required";

According to the customer service requirements, she provided her grandfather's death certificate, but the kinship certificate needed to be issued by the community, and her community required relevant express regulations or official letter proof, but the customer service could not provide it, saying that "it is okay to take pictures of yourself and the deceased's household registration page";

Chen Han uploaded all the death certificate and household registration information, and received a text message from the ticketing platform two days later to refuse the refund application, on the grounds that "the performance ticket is a valuable performance voucher, not an ordinary commodity, and it carries cultural services behind it and has the characteristics of timeliness and scarcity, and this order does not support return", and suggested that Chen Han should adjust the time to watch the performance normally.

"Why was the refund application rejected after submitting a certificate that I promised to submit a certificate?" Chen Han asked the customer service, and the reply he received was to wait for feedback. In desperation, she tried to contact the organizers of both performances.

Because she could not find effective contact information through public channels, she called 12345 in Jinan City, where the organizer of Rainie Yang's concert belongs, and 12345 in Guangzhou, where Jolin Tsai's concert organizer belongs, respectively, to inquire, and at the same time called 12345 in Beijing, where the ticketing platform belongs, to complain.

On March 22, Chen Han received a call back from the staff of Jinan 12345, saying that the organizer of Rainie Yang's concert could not be contacted, and the company's registration location had been abandoned for a long time. Chen Han asked the ticket-buying platform again to get the contact information of the organizer, but the feedback he got was "I can't find the contact information". That night, Chen Han applied for a refund from the ticketing platform again for Rainie Yang's concert tickets, but was still refused.

In the process of applying for a refund on these two occasions, the ticket-buying platform first refused to refund on the grounds that the courier had been sent (reporter's note: Chen Han purchased a paper ticket), and Chen Han never signed for the express delivery of any paper tickets for the performance during the appeal period, and later said that "the organizer does not agree to the refund".

During the communication between Chen Han and the customer service of the ticketing platform, the organizer of Jolin Tsai's concert contacted Chen Han and agreed to refund the ticket after deducting 20% of the handling fee. After Jolin Tsai's concert organizer agreed to a refund, Chen Han again asked the ticketing platform to provide the contact information of the organizer of Rainie Yang's concert and provide evidence that the organizer did not agree to the refund, and the other party told her that "the organizer will be contacted through cooperation channels". On March 24, Chen Han received a notice that the full refund of Rainie Yang's concert was successful.

For nearly a week, Chen Han said that he seemed to be engaged in a protracted "tug-of-war for ticket refunds", during which he not only had to repeatedly fight with the platform, but also had to follow up on the progress of complaints and contact the organizers, which was too tiring. Chen Han was very aggrieved: "The definition of special circumstances can't all be decided by the organizer, right? Why can't consumers even deduct the handling fee when they have special circumstances, and are directly refused to refund their tickets?"

Compared with Chen Han's experience, Zheng Xin from Henan has a deeper understanding of the difficulty of refunding tickets.

On March 20, Zheng Xin bought a ticket for Deng Ziqi's performance in Hefei on March 31 on a ticketing platform. That night, Zheng Xin suddenly felt unwell and needed to be hospitalized after examination, so he applied for a refund to the ticketing platform, and the other party replied that 80% of the handling fee would be deducted.

"The ticket bought for 1399 yuan can only be refunded 280 yuan according to the customer service. Zheng Xin, who felt that she was "too lost", asked again if she could get a full refund after providing a hospitalization certificate. The other party said that it was necessary to provide a complete and valid machine-printed certificate and payment certificate stamped by the hospital, and only after verification could it be confirmed whether it was fully refunded.

After Zheng Xin provided the corresponding proof according to the other party's request, she received a message refusing to refund the ticket: "Because the refund rules have been publicized on the website in advance, your order does not support a full refund." In the meantime, Zheng Xin tried to contact the organizer, but could not get through on the phone.

Because he was a "strong real name" and couldn't transfer the free ticket, and he couldn't bear to lose thousands of yuan, Zheng Xin could only be discharged from the hospital early and dragged his body that had not yet recovered to watch the performance.

Is it reasonable for a consumer to apply for a refund due to family changes or physical illness, but the other party refuses to refund the ticket after presenting relevant certificates?

Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the China Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association, analyzed that after consumers buy concert tickets, it is equivalent to signing a consumer contract with the ticket seller, and both parties should abide by the contract under normal circumstances. However, if one of the parties is unable to perform the contract due to force majeure, the contract can be terminated. For example, in a major family event such as the death of a loved one, whether emotionally or legally, the consumer has a reason to terminate the contract without bearing the corresponding liability for breach of contract.

"If the seller or ticketing company stipulates that once the ticket is sold, it will not be refunded, exchanged, or changed, it is suspected of being an unfair and unreasonable standard clause, commonly known as the 'overlord clause', which obviously restricts the rights of consumers and reduces the liability of the operator. It is not legally binding under the Consumer Protection Act. Chen Yinjiang said.

Refund reminders are not eye-catching

Different cities have different rules

In addition to not supporting refunds and charging high handling fees, there are also many consumer complaints about the lack of detailed refund rules and different refund rules for the same concert in different cities.

On a third-party complaint platform, the reporter noticed that some consumers reported that after they found out that they had bought an extra performance ticket, they immediately asked for a refund from customer service, and the other party told them that they needed to pay a 50% handling fee. However, he did not see a refund on the purchase page, and he could not view the refund details when paying.

Beijing's Wang Lin encountered the problem that the same concert has different refund rules in different cities. On the evening of March 20, Wang Lin spent 1,380 yuan to help her family buy tickets for Lin Junjie's Tianjin concert on April 14 on a ticketing platform. What made her speechless was that at the Jinan Station and Suzhou Station of Lin Junjie's concert, no matter whether it was the first or second public ticket sale, you can get an unconditional refund within 24 hours or even 48 hours, only Tianjin Station does not support refunds. "Why are the refund rules so different in different host cities?"

Zhang Min from Jiangsu even encountered a situation where "the refund deadline is earlier than the sales time of return tickets (referring to the concert tickets that have been purchased, which cannot be used on the day of the concert or need to be refunded due to personal reasons, and the tickets are returned to the ticketing platform or ticket office for others to buy) The situation is on sale".

At 12:20 p.m. on March 21, Zhang Min grabbed a return ticket for Zhang Jie's concert in Shanghai on March 23, but suddenly a new work arrangement appeared, so she had to apply for a refund, but the customer service refused on the grounds of "exceeding the deadline for refund".

Zhang Min carefully read the refund notice and found that the return ticket he purchased was on sale at 12:20, but the refund time was already closed at 12:00 on the same day.

The reporter noticed that the product details page of Zhang Min's purchase of concert tickets showed that "the refund tickets generated during the period from March 18th to 21st for this performance will be released for resale at 12:20 on March 21, 2024". In addition, the ticket purchase instructions for the concert also show that "the ticket sales channel for the second show on March 23 will be closed at 12:00 on March 23, and the refund will be stopped at 12:00 on March 21".

Zhang Min said that after clicking to buy a return ticket, the ticket purchase platform jumped directly to Alipay face recognition payment, during which there was no pop-up window showing the non-refundable and refund rules, "and the refund rules on the details page did not clearly write the refund rules of the return ticket, which does not mean that the return ticket cannot be refunded by default?

The reporter downloaded the ticket purchase App mentioned by Zhang Min and found that at present, the refund services for each performance are mainly divided into "conditional refund" and "no refund", these return rules mainly appear in the small print "service" column below the performance address bar on the product details page and under the performance information on the payment page. In addition, some concerts have set up a "Instructions for Watching Performances" pop-up window, which will automatically pop up after clicking on the product, and consumers can scroll down to read it and click the "Confirm and Know" button before further ticket purchases. However, these reminders of the "conditional return" rules are not eye-catching, and it is difficult to find them if you don't look closely.

For this kind of phenomenon, Chen Yinjiang believes that if the consumer requests a refund due to some non-force majeure factors, it is a unilateral breach of contract, and it needs to bear a certain liability for breach of contract and compensate for the corresponding losses. However, the refund information is information that has an important interest in the consumer, and the operator should remind the consumer of the relevant refund rules in a conspicuous or effective manner, so as to ensure the consumer's right to know.

Xiang Min, a lawyer at Beijing Yunting Law Firm, believes that the burden of refund fees is actually the liability for breach of contract that should be borne by the ticketing platform and the consumer in the case of unilateral termination, and the liability for breach of contract is premised on losses and needs to be reasonable in principle.

"Since the performance from the early publicity, ticket sales to the official holding of the performance, has a certain period, if the ticket is refunded after the ticket is sold, the time left for the ticket to be sold again will be shorter and shorter, the ticket sales unit to carry out the necessary and appropriate restrictions on the refund behavior, but also to urge people to make a rational choice, if the ticket is refunded due to personal reasons, the handling fee has a certain reasonableness. Xiang Min said.

Mr. Chen, who runs a small performance venue in Shanghai, told reporters that most of the time the organizers set the rules for what kind of ticket purchase and admission requirements are implemented for a performance, and whether "strong real name" is required, and sometimes the conditions of the venue holding the event must be referred to. They sometimes organize some music parties, which generally cannot be refunded, and if they really can't come, they can only let the ticket buyers resell themselves.

"We have to pay a lot of money to prepare the venue and invite the singers to promote it, which will then be spent from tickets and other revenues. "If refunds are open, there will be a lot of uncertainty in our operations." ”

A performer who has been performing for artists for a long time revealed to reporters the reason for "non-refundable": performance tickets are scarce and time-sensitive, and once the time passes, the tickets are waste paper. Holding a concert is usually not something that can be completed by any one company, but many companies and platforms work together, coupled with the high cost, which makes it more difficult to "agree to a refund". At the same time, it is also to prevent malicious competition and "scalpers" speculating on tickets.

Improve the ticket sales mechanism

Unified tiered refund standards

In September 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Large-scale For-profit Performance Activities and Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Performance Market, which provides guidance on the standardized management of large-scale for-profit performance activities with more than 5,000 people, and clarifies that "performance organizers shall establish a refund mechanism for large-scale performance activities, set reasonable tiered refund fee standards, and protect the legitimate refund rights of ticket buyers".

"To a certain extent, echelon refunds have avoided some non-standard behaviors, but a unified system and unified standards have not yet been formed, and there will still be some impact on consumers. Mr. Chen said frankly that at present, the rules for cascade refunds at different stations of the same project are also different. For example, the refund rule for a celebrity concert in Guangzhou is to refund unconditionally within 48 hours of pre-sale, and a 20% handling fee will be charged for refunds 10 days before the performance. However, at Suzhou Station, unconditional refunds will be made within 48 hours of pre-sale, and a 50% handling fee will be charged from 23 days before the performance to 10 days before the performance, and refunds will be stopped from the 9th day of the countdown.

In the interview, the reporter also found that the refund time period is as long as 2 months from the performance and as short as 2 days, and the handling fee ladder ranges from 20%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 80% of the ticket price. Some interviewees pointed out that the "strong real-name" ticket purchase principle adopted by most performances has become the biggest obstacle to ticket refunds.

For this kind of phenomenon, a number of interviewed experts suggested that the real-name refund and change system and ticket sales mechanism should be improved, and the rules for refund and change should be further refined, so as to create a formal circulation space for tickets, so as to solve the contradiction between consumers buying tickets in advance and watching uncertain performances, fully protect consumers' right to know and choose, and let consumers buy with confidence.

Xiang Min believes that timeliness, exclusivity, and limitation are not the unique characteristics of concert ticketing, and that air and railway ticketing also have it, and the ticketing platform can learn from the air, railway, and other tiered refund fee calculation methods, formulate refund and change rules based on the principle of fairness and reasonableness, and disclose them to consumers, so as to facilitate consumers to consult and learn.

"Consumer refunds may cause losses to the platform due to the inability to sell in time, and refunds and resale may also increase the operating costs of the platform, so it is recommended to improve the ticketing mechanism, such as the standby ticket purchase system, the person who continues to buy tickets after being sold out belongs to the standby, as long as someone refunds the ticket, then the standby can get the ticket in turn, which will reduce the loss of the ticket party, and correspondingly, it can also reduce the refund handling fee. Zhang Yuxia, a senior partner at Shanghai Shenhao Law Firm, said.

Xiang Min suggested that the refund rules should be refined as much as possible, even if the ticketing platform has formulated a refund and exchange policy for the tickets sold in light of the actual situation, the refund rules should be formulated according to the situation, such as the full refund of the ticket if it is not attributable to the consumer, the refund shall be made in full if it is agreed that both parties shall bear the risk, and the refund shall be made according to the proportion; it is a risk that the consumer should bear and cannot be refunded.

Chen Yinjiang emphasized that the real-name ticketing system has played a certain role in curbing "scalpers", but the cost of refunds caused by non-transferability should not be borne by consumers unilaterally. Since the real-name system for ticket purchase is to be implemented, as an operator, it should do a good job of supporting measures to take into account the subsequent protection of consumer rights and interests. If the consumer does encounter some force majeure factors and is unable to watch the performance, the operator needs to provide them with a convenient refund channel.

Source: Legal Daily