BTS fans struggle to get refunds for concert cancelled due to COVID

Some big-name acts including Elton John, Olivia Rodrigo and Shawn Mendes are coming to Toronto on concert tour this summer, but some fans are still waiting for refunds for shows that didn’t happen last year due to the pandemic.

Elsie Nguyen of Toronto bought tickets to see the K-Pop sensation super group BTS for a concert that was to take place in Toronto in May 2020 and her children were excited to see them.

"They love them. I don't know if you have ever checked out BTS but they are a pretty amazing group with their singing and dancing," said Nguyen.

BTS had to postpone their show and, later in August 2021, the concert was officially cancelled.

Nguyen bought three tickets for $1,860 from someone who re-sold their tickets through a ticket re-selling website. Her family was upset when the concert was cancelled but Nguyen was relieved to know she should get a refund.

Nguyen contacted Ticketmaster, but was told any refund would have to go to the person who originally bought the tickets.

“Ticketmaster said to me sorry I can't help you. We can only issue refunds to the original ticket purchasers and we can see you are not the original ticket purchaser," said Nguyen.

Ticketmaster told CTV News, "the fan did not purchase tickets directly from Ticketmaster. In order to obtain a refund, the fan will need to refer back to the original point of purchase.”

Nguyen bought the tickets through the website Ticketsmeters. When CTV News Toronto reached out to Ticketsmeters a spokesperson said, “the marketplace policy for events that have been cancelled is for clients to have the option of receiving their choice of a full refund (less delivery fees where applicable) or a credit voucher good for 110 per cent of their purchase price, good for future ticket purchases on the marketplace.”

“In this instance, the event was marked as cancelled by organizers on August 20, 2021. That same day, this client was contacted via email informing them of their choice. When no response was received, a voucher was generated and emailed to the client on August 22.”

“Our customer service system shows no record of this client contacting the marketplace at any point requesting a refund prior to your outreach. Our assumption is that the emails informing them of their refund option and subsequent credit voucher were simply missed at the time they were sent.”

“Considering this, our customer service team has taken the action of cancelling the credit voucher that had been issued in August and issued a refund of their purchase price instead. That transaction was authorized on this end February 1 and should clear to the client’s original payment method soon, if it hasn’t already.”

Nguyen said she doesn’t recall getting any email about the tickets, but was relieved that seven months later she will get her money back.

“I finally got my refund," said Nguyen.

When buying tickets for concerts or any type of event it's always best to check cancellation polices and if you use third party websites or resellers it could be more difficult to get refunds if a concert doesn’t go ahead.