Ticketmaster Not Offering Refunds for Postponed Concerts and Events

Ticketmaster is reportedly not offering refunds for concerts and other events postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading angry ticket buyers to fume on social media. Customers were hoping to get refunds for the events to tide them over during the economic downturn, but Ticketmaster appears to have edited its terms of service to let customers know they only get refunds if an event is canceled. If the show has only been postponed, they are out of luck.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Ticketmaster changed the language on its website. A few weeks ago, the site said ticket buyers could get a refund if a show is “postponed, rescheduled or canceled.” Now, the only way to get a full refund is if the show is canceled completely. “Postponed” and “rescheduled” are no longer listed.

“Due to the unprecedented volume of cancellations, please note that you should expect to receive your refund in as soon as 30 days,” Ticketmaster’s site now reads. “If the tickets were transferred to you, the refund will go to the fan who originally bought the tickets from Ticketmaster.”

On March 12, Ticketmaster also published a statement explaining which tickets would be refunded during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of getting a refund, Ticketmaster asks customers to resell their tickets. “If your event was postponed or rescheduled and you are unable to attend (and resale is enabled for your event), you can sell your tickets to other fans on our safe and simple Ticketmaster resale marketplace,” the company wrote. “If refunds are not allowed for your event and you post through ticketmaster.com, we will waive seller fees for fans that create(d) resale postings from March 17 through May 31.”

Ticketmaster is not the only online ticket site making it difficult for customers to get their money back during the pandemic. Back on March 30, Digital Music News reported StubHub would not reimburse customers. Instead, they would be given vouchers for 120 percent of the price they paid for a ticket, and the vouchers expire after just a ear. Like Ticketmaster, StubHub also told customers they could sell their tickets on the StubHub marketplace. The issue with that is it forces customers to find buyers interested in tickets for shows they have no dates for.

Last week, Digital Music News reported customer Matthew McMillan filed a class action lawsuit against StubHub in Wisconsin. McMillan’s lawyers argue StubHub “sought to surreptitiously shift their losses onto their innocent customers, furthering the financial hardship endured by people across the country” by changing policies and not giving refunds.

Ticketmaster told the Times it did recently change the language on its website, but said it did not change the policy. StubHub noted it is a middle-man for people selling and buying second-hand tickets and giving refunds for all the canceled events “is simply not manageable.”

More than 20,000 concerts and events have been canceled due to the coronavirus. On March 12, Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, and AEG announced all their tours would be canceled through the end of March. Since the coronavirus has continued to spread throughout the U.S., it is not clear when touring could resume.