In the past few days, Phoenix Legend has defended the rights of fans who bought "pillar tickets", which has resonated with netizens. The reason is that Ms. Wang bought tickets for the Phoenix Legend Changzhou concert on Damai.com, only to find out that it was a "pillar ticket" when she arrived at the scene, and her request for a refund was rejected because of the poor viewing effect.
Although Ms. Wang has successfully defended her rights, the cross talk line "the refund gate is at the foot of the Himalayas" has unwittingly become a vivid portrayal of the difficulty of refunding tickets for concerts. On the one hand, there is the explosive concert economy, and countless people are looking for emotional value under the "self-pleasing economy". On the one hand, it is difficult to refund tickets, and there is not even a channel, and the consumer experience is very bad.
Screenshot of the live video taken by the netizen who bought the "pillar ticket".
>> April 21, netizen Ms. Wang posted that when she came to the concert site and found her seat, she found a huge cement stone pillar in front of the seat, "I couldn't see anything, and the audience looked at the pillar without any impression."
On April 22, >>, Ms. Wang contacted the Damai platform to tell how she encountered the "pillar ticket" when she watched the concert, and it didn't take long for the platform to reply that she did not meet the conditions for refund.
On April 23, >>, Ms. Wang posted her experience on social platforms, and the topic of "pillar ticket" appeared on the hot search, and many netizens shared similar experiences. Some netizens said that they also encountered "pillar tickets" at the concert site on the 20th.
On April 23, >>, Damai.com said that the company verified the seats for the first time, and after the second exploration on the site, it confirmed that the occlusion problem fed back by users did exist, and actively communicated with users about the follow-up processing process.
On April 24, >>, Damai.com said that the refund had been fully completed. Damai apologized for the obstruction of the view.
On April 24, >>, @凤凰传奇De玲花 issued an article to speak out for Xiao Wang, a fan who bought a pillar ticket for the Changzhou concert, and supported his rights protection.
Linghua posted an article to defend the rights of fans
Requests for refunds due to poor location are refused; 50% of the handling fee will be charged for only 2 minutes from payment to application for refunds; applications for refunds due to family changes or physical reasons are rejected after presenting relevant certificates; return tickets are not eligible for refunds at all; and the refund rules for the same concert in different cities are different......
On social platforms, many netizens shared their experience of encountering "difficult refunds": the refund process is complicated, the rules are not clear, the handling fee is high, and the process is ups and downs, and they are finally forced to compromise, calling "very hurt" and "take care of it".
Starting from 2023, the domestic performing arts market will usher in an explosive recovery, but with the explosive growth of the industry, there is a rapid increase in complaints about consumers' difficult ticket refunds.
According to the analysis report on the complaints received by the National Consumers Association in the first half of 2023 released by the China Consumers Association, it is not uncommon for consumers to encounter "blind selection" of seats, "pillar tickets", "wall root tickets" and suspected "skipping tickets" when buying performance tickets online.
The data shows that the difficulty of refunding tickets for performances, and the inability to realize reasonable transfers, refunds, and changes have become one of the biggest consumer pain points in the performance market in 2023. 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.
It is by no means an exception to the difficulty in refunding tickets for performances. In terms of black cat complaints, there are more than 60,000 complaints about performances, one of which is the first platform on the black list in the field of entertainment ticketing, with a total of more than 39,000 complaints, only 2,569 complaints have been replied, and even fewer complaints have been completed, only 1,891, and most of the complaints are "difficult to cancel and change performances" and "high handling fees".
A concert ticket that explains what it is "easy to please God, but difficult to send God"
If you can't travel temporarily to buy train tickets and plane tickets, it is not difficult for passengers to refund their tickets, but it is difficult to refund tickets in the current performance market, and you need to pass the customs, what is going on?
A performer who has been performing landing performances for artists for a long time revealed part of the reason for the "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 of preparation and operation, 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.
Consumers are not incomprehensible to the concerns of the organizers and platforms, and are willing to bear the corresponding risks and losses. What people really resent is the "overbearing" rules that refuse refunds regardless of the situation at all, or set up high fees.
In September last year, 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 clearly stated: "The performance organizer 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......
However, the regulations do not give clear details: what should the organizer do if he deliberately delays and makes things difficult? Can the timeliness and process of ticket refund be clarified and optimized? How to stipulate the standard of refund handling fee? The rights and responsibilities are not clear enough, resulting in consumers still encountering many "checkpoints" in the actual refund process.
For example, there is no unified system and standard for refund fees in various departments and regions, and some places stipulate that a 20% handling fee will be charged for refunds 10 days before the performance, while 50% will be charged in some places. The refund time period also varies, ranging from 2 months to 2 days, and the handling fee varies from 20% to 80% of the ticket price.
In addition, in the process of implementing the clauses, many platforms have also set more thresholds and complex processes. For example, Damai.com, according to the prompts to find manual customer service, but after entering the keyword "concert ticket return", it did not transfer to manual customer service, but the machine replied that the refund and exchange of tickets "subject to the ticket purchase details page". On some ticketing platforms, concert tickets are still non-transferable and non-refundable once purchased, and some platforms do not give a clear refund path.
For the Wu Bai concert project, the platform uses paper tickets and does not support refunds
With the strong recovery of cultural tourism, concerts are "blooming everywhere" across the country, and some cities have used concerts to build their own reputation and earn praise. According to the official data, from January 1 to March 31, 2024, there will be 119,000 commercial performances (excluding performances in entertainment venues) nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 72.71% over 2023, box office revenue of 10.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 116.87% over 2023, and 38.8699 million spectators, a year-on-year increase of 77.88% over 2023.
The benign long-term development of the industry is inseparable from the ticketing platform, the organizer and the consumer. The bad experience of "can't be refunded after buying" and "returned like no return" will inevitably affect consumers' willingness to pay for the concert next time.
In fact, before 2018, movie tickets could not be refunded or changed after they were sold, but since then, the Film Distribution and Projection Association has actively promoted the national cinema chain and third-party platforms to improve the regulations on movie ticket refunds and changes, and now, movie ticket refunds are not a problem.
In addition, hotel accommodation, aviation and railways have faced the problem of difficulty in refunding tickets, but with the continuous improvement of the ticketing mechanism of related industries, consumers' needs for reasonable refunds and exchanges have been met one after another.
Concert tickets can be used as a reference, allowing consumers to refund and exchange tickets within a reasonable period of time, formulating differentiated handling fee charging standards according to the morning and evening of the time, and differentiating treatment in special circumstances.
Only by establishing reasonable tiered refund and ticket collection standards for performance activities can we better protect the legitimate refund rights of ticket purchasers. In this way, there will be no strange situation of "2 minutes from payment to refund, but 50% service fee will be charged".
The booming performance market should not come at the expense of infringing on consumer rights. People's enthusiasm for watching the show should not be ruined by the dilemma of refunds again and again. Only when the rules get rid of the "one family dominates" and run on a standardized, convenient and humanized track, can consumers be happy and feel at ease.
(Source: Poster News)