The temporary cancellation or postponement of performances occurs from time to time during the current special period, which not only makes people feel regretful, but also disputes between consumers and ticket purchase platforms due to issues such as refunds. Beijing Business Daily reporter recently received a number of consumer complaints that after the performance ticketing platform Dahe Ticketing Network applied for a refund, it was delayed to wait for the refund to arrive, and some consumers said that the purchase of performance tickets that were still normal, but they were told that there were no tickets when the performance was approaching, disrupting their own arrangements. This has caused the Big River Ticketing Network to fall into a whirlpool of complaints. In this regard, the reporter contacted the Dahe ticketing network for the first time, according to the relevant person in charge, the platform has been helping consumers to complete refunds, and has previously raised millions of yuan for refunds through self-financing, loans, etc., but because of the large number of orders involved, it does take time to solve the problems of all consumers.
Consumers: Refunds are delayed, and tickets for the show are not issued
Music fan Ms. Liu is a regular visitor to major music festivals, and every time the "Eleventh" and "May Day" music festivals are intensively sung, it is Ms. Liu's happiest but busiest holiday. However, due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control in the special period, many music festivals this year chose to cancel, and just when Ms. Liu regretted that she could not feel the live performance, she was also more distressed by the refund problem.
"Three months ago, I bought tickets for the Strawberry Music Festival on the Dahe Ticketing Network, and due to the epidemic prevention and control, the festival was first postponed and then cancelled. So I applied for a refund on the platform, but now that it is November, I still haven't received a refund, contact customer service, either there is no response, or let me wait. Ms. Liu said.
When Ms. Liu was worried about the refund, the consumer Mr. Wang also continued to communicate with the Dahe Ticketing Network because of the same problem, "I was the ticket for Zhang Shaohan's Nanjing concert purchased through the Dahe Ticketing Network in June this year, but I did not expect to encounter the postponement of the performance, so I planned to refund the ticket." At that time, the customer service told that it would be returned to the account the same way, but it did not receive the refund for a long time."
In addition to the delay in refunding the account, there are also consumers who report that after purchasing tickets online in Dahe Ticketing, they have not been able to issue tickets normally, and when the performance is approaching, they are notified that there are no tickets, "but I have arranged my own time and itinerary before, and the temporary notice makes all my arrangements burned."
Beijing Business Daily reporter noted that at this stage consumers have begun to complain on multiple platforms, in addition to 12315, black cat complaints and other related platforms, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other social platforms also have many consumers post complaints, pointing out that Dahe Ticketing Network infringed on their rights and interests. Among them, on the black cat complaint platform, the number of complaints about the Dahe ticketing network reached 569 in the past 30 days.
Platform: Millions of dollars have been raised for refunds, and it takes time to solve them one by one
In order to understand more about the incident, the Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted the Dahe Ticketing Network for the first time. The relevant person in charge of Dahe Ticketing Network said that since last year, many performances have been postponed or cancelled, and the number of customers and orders that need to be refunded has increased rapidly, and the platform has been processing refunds for consumers, and has also continued to communicate with relevant departments of industry and commerce, but it does take time to solve all problems.
"In the past two years, the performance market has been greatly impacted, and all platforms in the industry have been under operational pressure, and Dahe Ticketing Network is no exception. In order to solve the problem of consumer refunds, the company has previously raised millions of yuan through self-financing, loans, etc., to solve the problem of consumer refunds, and at the end of May this year, the previous refund problems were all solved. But what I didn't expect was that since June, there have been a large number of ticket purchases and a large number of refunds on the platform, followed by repeated epidemics, heavy rains in Zhengzhou, etc., a number of performances or postponements or cancellations, the rapid rise in the number of refunds to increase operational pressure, the platform is also for consumers to apply for refunds as soon as possible. The relevant person in charge said.
According to public information, Dahe Ticketing Network is a platform established in 2010, which has official websites, apps and other ticketing channels, and the company's address is in Zhengzhou City. The Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that the Dahe ticketing network was also affected during the heavy rain in Zhengzhou, and it could not work normally for seven or eight days, and then transferred to a hotel to slowly recover, but it was inevitable that the handling of business, communication with consumers and performers would inevitably be affected. It is worth noting that due to the emergence of a large number of complaints at present, some consumers have also chosen to refund the normal orders, return on the same day of purchase, and even buy an hour before an hour, which continues to increase operational pressure.
The person in charge said that due to the epidemic and force majeure factors canceled orders, the platform will complete the refund for consumers, but there are some necessary processes in the middle, such as communication with the performance party, etc., and the failure to issue tickets after ticket purchase is that multiple platforms sell the same performance tickets at the same time, so some performance tickets are robbed. Orders for a large number of centralized refunds take time to process, and generally refunds are completed for consumers within 60 working days.
Experts: All parties need to reasonably safeguard their rights and interests, and challenges in the performance industry still exist
In the past two years, the impact on the performance market has been obvious to all parties. The temporary change of performances in special periods not only makes the performer bear a larger cost, but also the ticketing platform is under pressure due to ticket refunds, etc., and there are also cases in the market where the performers cannot continue to operate.
Performance industry analyst Li Xinyu believes that the challenge is the entire industry is facing the common face, when the performance is cancelled or postponed, consumers in order to protect their rights and interests to apply for a refund is the normal way of operation, the performance party and the platform side need to do a good job of communication, refund and other related matters, such as the existence of emergencies in the middle, but also to maintain communication with all parties, information symmetry, to avoid the emergence of greater conflicts.
However, the current unstable market makes consumers feel less secure is also worrying in the industry. Li Xinyu said that consumers will worry about whether the performance they choose can be carried out as scheduled when they see the information around them, and when they are worried to a certain extent, they will directly choose to refund the ticket regardless of whether the performance is still in a normal state, which means that not only can the performances affected by special circumstances cannot be implemented step by step, but also the normal performances are also difficult to get feedback as scheduled, which further increases the pressure on the performers and ticketing platforms.
In the view of industry insiders, practitioners in the performance industry still need to be prepared to continue to face challenges, lay a good foundation in risk control, cost management, high-quality project operation and reserves, etc., to avoid temporary emergencies that make them unbearable, at the same time, it is also essential to strengthen communication in all aspects to promote the gradual recovery of the performance market.
Beijing Business Daily Boiling Point Investigation Team