Imagine how pleased you would be if you could find a way to attend your sports teams' biggest match in years? OK, you're gonna have to pay a little more than you ordinarily would for the tickets, but hey, it's worth it in the end right? Right?
Well, you would be unless the website that you order them from is called Official Tickets aka official-tickets.net
I placed the order, only to recieve - to my shock as I have a more than good credit history - a message that the payment had been declined. Oh well, I thought, I'll order them from elsewhere (as i knew that I had the money, and that it had to be a problem with the company).
I booked my tickets from an alternative vendor, recieved them, and everything was absolutely fine, until I saw my credit card bill at the end of the month, and saw that they had debited nearly 300 euros.
'Excuse me, ' I said when I called them 'when I recieved the only piece of correspondance that I have ever recieved from you, you informed me that the payment had been declined'.
'Oh really, ' they said, 'well we must have tried again'.
'Well in that case, why did I never recieve any confirmation that you had successfully debited the amount from the credit card, and what if - as is the case - I ordered tickets from elsewhere in the meantime?'
'That's not our problem, sir'.
Fine, I thought, in that case I'll read the terms & conditions. I read, and saw that not only hadn't they confirmed that the payment had been successfully debited, but they'd also broken their own rule by saying that - in order to confirm a booking - you had to send faxed confirmation once you recieved notification that the payment had been debited via email.
OK, well I'll give them a call, I thought.
I called, and was met with without a doubt the worst customer service in the history or business (with the exception of one agent named Helen). I had the phone put down on me repeatedly (being told that they had other customers to attend to, when I was looking for a simple solution to my problem), was told that they would not give the address to customers (so no possibility of legal recourse or a cancellation letter.
I eventually sent a cancellation letter via fax, and was told to send it to the accounting department.
I did, and confirmed its arrival 5 minutes later, only to be told 8 days afterwards that - in spite of this, the fax reciept that I had infront of me, marked with the date & time - they had never recieved it.
Time was closing in. It was now down to 7 days before the event, and the only information that I have is that the accounting department 'will respond'. No time delay. No date by which they will respond. Nothing.
Frankly, I am quite happy to issue a full rebuttal of this statement if I obtain a full refund, but all of the evidence points to one large rip-off (you'll be able to see if they have refunded me by this method).
I would never, ever buy tickets from them - or any such company again - and urge you, if you do want tickets to big events, to get them from anybody but Official Tickets aka official-tickets.net.
A copy of my cancellation letter is below:
'Dear Sir / Madam,
I am writing to you following a conversation with one of your customer service representatives, concerning the order of two tickets for the Schalke 04 vs. Manchester City football game, to be held on Thursday 27th November.
These tickets were originally applied for via your website, following which I telephoned your customer service department who informed me of your standard procedure (which involved confirming the order via fax).
Unfortunately, a message was received 48 hours later informing us that the payment for the tickets had been declined (10th November), and the various reasons that this could have happened.
We immediately contacted an alternative vendor, and purchased 2 tickets from them.
We were, therefore, surprised when we received our latest credit card bill, and saw a payment for 278 euros to your company, as we had neither confirmed the order via fax, nor had we taken any of the steps necessary in order to resolve the fact that you had informed us that payment had been rejected (contacting our credit card company, contacting your company).
With this in mind, I would like you to re-credit the credit card account for the sum of 278 euros.
I await your answer, fully in possession of the knowledge that:
1 You informed us that the payment had been rejected
2 At no point did we contact you in order to resolve this
3 At no point did you inform us, before taking payment, that you may attempt to re-charge the credit card
4 At no point did we confirm the order via fax
Please bear in mind that, in my opinion, no other solution is an option, and that if I receive the tickets I shall send them back to you and then pursue this matter via the judicial system.
I therefore ask you to see good sense, and show the customer care and professionalism for which you are no doubt noted.
Yours faithfully,
Xxxx xxxxx, Cologne, November 10th'
Seriouslyannoyed
Cologne
Germany
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