"There are still two months left before the performance, and no tickets have been issued, why can't I refund the tickets?" Recently, Ms. Wang from Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, reported to the reporter of "Workers' Daily" that she bought tickets for a music festival in Hefei on a ticketing platform, but wanted to refund the tickets but was repeatedly refused.
Ms. Wang introduced that the festival performances are divided into two days, October 10 and 28, with different lineups every day. "When I registered out of stock, I chose an early bird ticket of 29 yuan on October 10, but later the system grabbed a 28 yuan advance ticket." Ms. Wang said that in order to watch the performance smoothly, she hesitated to pay for the ticket, but did not notice that she grabbed the ticket on October 199.
Unable to buy tickets for her favorite lineup, Ms. Wang immediately applied for a refund. After several twists and turns to contact the manual customer service, she got the answer: "Because of the particularity and timeliness of the performance tickets, the successful purchase of tickets does not support refunds and exchanges." The festival's real-name ticket purchase and admission plan also states: "The ticket products are valuable tickets, not ordinary commodities, and the cultural services carried behind them have the characteristics of timeliness and scarcity, and once sold, they will not be returned or exchanged." ”
Ms. Wang's experience is not unique. Since the beginning of this year, the performance market has continued to heat up, and the scene of "one ticket is difficult to find" has appeared repeatedly. At the same time, disputes caused by performance ticketing are also increasing, becoming a hot area for consumer complaints.
The reporter learned that whether it is due to changes in the itinerary, changes in the performance lineup, platform bounces, etc., consumers' refund requests are usually rejected. Consumers can only transfer performance tickets on second-hand platforms, or hope to achieve the purpose of refund through complaints.
Some industry insiders said that allowing refunds may affect secondary sales on the one hand, and affect the income of the performance organizer and the local venue; On the other hand, it may also lead scalpers to hoard tickets at low cost, encouraging scalpers' scalping behavior.
In this regard, Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Chinese Minmin University, said that if there is still enough time before the performance, even if refunds are allowed, the loss can be minimized. In addition, at present, the "three certificates in one" method required by many performances with the same tickets, ID cards, and face recognition has played a role in cracking down on scalpers, preventing scalpers from refunding, harming the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, believes that once sold, the ticket will not be returned or exchanged" is equivalent to handing over all the risks to consumers, and the platform is suspected of abusing the advantages of contracting contracts to implement overlord clauses.
Chen Yinjiang suggested that we can learn from the refund rules for train tickets, air tickets, etc., formulate a reasonable refund and change system, and set a tiered refund rate according to the length of time from the performance, rather than letting consumers bear all risks and responsibilities.
Liu Junhai said that to promote the development and prosperity of the performance market, it is necessary to further create a consumer-friendly performance market ecological environment, "The organizer and the platform should disclose the performance information completely, truthfully and accurately, and if the consumer exercises the right to cancel the contract within the scope of the law, he or she should promptly agree to his refund request; Relevant departments shall make full use of the authority of administrative supervision, administrative punishment, and administrative guidance to strengthen supervision. ”
Shi Binna