Doncaster man’s dismay at digital tickets

David Hammond, aged 56, and his partner Patricia Urquhart, 45, were looking forward to seeing the stage version of hit BBC1 comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys earlier this month, as a birthday present for David.

They booked two tickets, to the value of around £100, for December 5 at Sheffield Arena, Broughton Lane, via online ticket retailer ViaGoGo.co.uk last month.

However, the day before the show the tickets still hadn’t arrived at the couple’s home in Lime Tree Crescent, Rossington, so David rang the company to ask why.

He said: “They told us we needed to download the tickets and print them ourselves.

“I didn’t realise when I booked the tickets as it didn’t say so on the website.

“I asked if the tickets could be picked up or if I could have a refund and they said no. It’s false advertising –it’s wrong. They’re not thinking of people who do not have computers or printers.”

The same day, David and Patricia went in to Doncaster town centre to attempt to print the tickets. However, they then discovered the link sent via e-mail by the company to enable them to download the tickets was faulty.

The Amazon worker claims he was called by one of the company’s managers later the same day, who admitted the tickets had not been correctly advertised.

He said: “He said that previously they had sent tickets out in the post, but they recently changed their policy to have people print out their tickets themselves. He admitted this information has not been put on the website.

“He offered to send me another link, but I refused to travel all the way to the town centre again with no guarantee it was going to work.”

David has since been given a full refund.

A spokesman for ViaGoGo said the tickets had been sold via a third party and added: “Viagogo is an open marketplace and we allow anyone to sell on our platform. It is the individual seller’s responsibility to provide the correct information regarding their tickets.

“This looks like a rare case where it wasn’t made clear by the seller that the tickets were e-tickets. An agent from our Customer Service team spoke to Mr Hammond to see if there were any alternatives to enable him to attend the event, but ultimately as he was unable to print the e-tickets, the only solution we could offer was a full refund, which has now been issued to the customer.”