The concert will start in the middle of May 2024, and the pre-sale will start on December 9, 2023.
Recently, the news that Jay Chou's concert tickets will be sold half a year in advance has caused heated discussion. At the beginning of pre-sale, many netizens posted questions, charging the ticket fee half a year in advance, which was expensive and unreasonable. However, 48 hours after opening pre-sale, 30% of the order price will be charged for ticket refund, which also makes some people dissatisfied: some people think that it is impossible to predict whether the viewing schedule will be affected by other arrangements half a year later, and 30% of the ticket refund fee is too high.
With the development of online ticketing platform, many performances and exhibitions release advance tickets to attract consumers. However, in the investigation, the reporter found that there were many disputes caused by online pre-sale tickets, such as the inconsistency between the promotional content and the actual situation, the difficulty in refunding tickets, and the long pre-sale cycle. A consumer complained: "At the beginning, pre-sale tickets had the advantages of discount price and optional seats, but now they have become a 'scarce product', which depends on grabbing. Once encountering problems, subsequent rights protection is time-consuming and laborious."
The propaganda content is inconsistent with the actual situation
On a complaint platform, the reporter searched for "pre-sale tickets" and found that there were dozens of related complaints recently, mainly involving the problem that consumers found that the items they bought were inconsistent with the actual situation or did not exist after buying tickets.
In October this year, Chen Long, a Tianjin college student, spent 688 yuan to buy a ticket for the concert of "Why Youth", a Chinese classic golden song. Near the performance date, Chen Long found that the sponsor had announced that "due to the obstruction of the stage, part of the 688 yuan position was adjusted to 488 yuan", but did not refund the difference for the previously sold tickets.
On the day of the performance, Chen Long took his seat according to the ticket, and found that he was arranged to the farthest place from the stage, and his row was adjusted to 488 yuan. What made him even more angry was that the number of songs sung during the performance was greatly reduced. There were 36 songs in the propaganda, but only 24 songs were sung. "There are more than a dozen songs I like in the promotional list, which is also the reason why I bought tickets. But in the end, only a few songs I like were sung, and the others were deleted or replaced." Chen Long said.
Not long ago, Wang Li from Dongguan, Guangdong, spent 228 yuan on the ticketing platform to buy a "morning bird ticket" (a discount ticket issued in advance by the merchant) for the "Dongguan Tide TAI Music Festival" with an original price of 338 yuan. As the performance time approached, Wang Li found that the price of the tickets that had already enjoyed a discount when he bought them was lower, and they were sold on many platforms at the same time, and the price was lower one by one. What made Wang Li more difficult to accept was that there were refuelling tickets and free tickets from a local university, so Wang Li wanted to refund the tickets and buy tickets with lower prices from other platforms, but the merchants said they could not refund the tickets.
Wang Li had no choice but to accept the reality of watching the performance at a high price. But what made him even more angry was that after watching the performance, he found that the duration of the performance of his favorite guests was only ten minutes, which was obviously inconsistent with the half-hour duration of the previous publicity, which could be said to be greatly reduced. "Not only that, I found that the performance duration of all the guests was shorter than the publicity duration, and the gap between the two guests' appearances was getting longer and longer. It was called the intermission, and the advertisements were broadcast for half an hour."
In this regard, Wu Jingming, director of the China Consumer Association and vice president of the Beijing Consumer Law Society, believes that if the operator does not sincerely provide the promised goods or services, but only uses false marketing methods in the form of "discount pre-sale" to get consumers' money, it not only infringes consumers' right to know and their right to fair trade, It also constitutes fraud against consumers. The merchant shall bear the legal liability for fraud, return the price and pay punitive compensation of three times the price in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Consumer Protection Law.
In the opinion of Ma Lihong, the senior partner of Beijing Deheheng Law Firm, the sponsor sells the pre-sale ticket, and the consumer buys the ticket, which forms a contractual relationship, and the merchant should provide goods or services that meet the sales commitment. If the merchant fails to fulfill the promise made in the publicity, it will constitute a breach of contract and should bear the corresponding liability for breach of contract, that is, refund the ticket or compensate the consumer for the loss caused thereby.
It is difficult to refund in full after buying tickets
Two months ago, Li Li from Ningbo, Zhejiang, spent 592 yuan on the ticketing platform to buy a pre sold concert ticket for a star in Shenzhen. She wanted to return one of the tickets because she got tickets on both platforms at the same time. Unexpectedly, she encountered difficulties.
Li Li told reporters that for the tickets sold at 3:30 p.m. on October 11, the ticket purchase page showed "unconditional refund is available 24 hours after opening", but when she applied for refund, the customer service replied that "unconditional refund has ended on October 10". "Isn't it the end of unconditional refund when the tickets are not sold? I have been contacting the platform since then, even making complaint calls, but the customer service will only say a few words to perfunctory me. I strongly demand a full refund, which is my legitimate right, and I can't condone their rogue behavior." Li Li felt very "speechless".
Zhou Xing in Shanghai met the same situation. He once spent 1280 yuan on the ticketing platform to buy a pre-sale ticket for a singer's concert in Hefei. Half an hour after the payment, Zhou Xing found that his schedule had changed, so he immediately applied for a refund, but was reminded that 20% of the handling fee should be deducted.
A few hundred yuan was deducted in half an hour, but Zhou Xing didn't agree and applied for a full refund, but until now there has been no following.
This kind of situation happens from time to time. Many interviewed consumers said that some ticket purchase platforms published ambiguous information, for example, the "refund fee" on the page misled consumers into thinking that the full amount would be returned, but in fact they were told that the refund was "deduction" or "service fee".
Recently, Jay Chou's pre-sale and refund rules for his concert in Fuzhou were "complained" by many netizens. Taking May 16, 2024 as an example, the pre-sale starts at 10:00 on December 9, 2023. The refund rules specify that 30% of the order price will be charged for refund from 10:00 on December 11, 2023 to 10:00 on May 9, 2024. "That is to say, there will be a service charge 48 hours after the ticket is purchased, but the concert will be held nearly half a year later. How do we know if there will be other arrangements at that time? Without considering the rights and interests of consumers, is it a bit ugly to eat?" netizens posted an article expressing dissatisfaction.
In response, the ticketing platform said: "Each project has its own ticketing rules and refund rules. The commission is the result of the final confirmation by many parties. After the order is placed successfully, the specific ticketing rules and refund rules shall prevail."
Wu Jingming said that according to the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers and the Measures for the Punishment of Acts Infringing on the Rights and Interests of Consumers and other legal provisions, the demands of consumers for repair, rework, replacement, return, supplement of the quantity of goods, refund of payment for goods and service fees or compensation for losses should not be unreasonably delayed or rejected.
Ma Lihong believes that for the problems such as the long pre-sale period and unreasonable refund fees reported by consumers, businesses must clearly inform the ticketing interface that they are not allowed to play word games. Consumers should also integrate ticket sales information and consider personal time arrangements before placing an order. If the merchant intentionally delays the time of refund or unreasonably refuses to refund the ticket, in addition to the corresponding civil liability, other relevant laws and regulations have provisions on the punishment authority and punishment method, the provisions of the laws and regulations shall prevail; If the laws and regulations do not provide for it, the relevant administrative department shall order it to make corrections, and may, according to the circumstances, separately or concurrently give a warning, confiscate the illegal income, and impose a fine of not less than one time but not more than 10 times the illegal income, or impose a fine of not more than 500000 yuan if there is no illegal income; If the circumstances are serious, it shall be ordered to suspend business for rectification and its business license shall be revoked.
The ticketing market needs to strengthen supervision
"What the relevant departments need to regulate is not the pre-sale ticket sales model, but the act of false publicity." Ma Lihong believes that if businesses conduct false publicity, they will face civil and administrative responsibilities. If the circumstances seriously violate the criminal law, they should also be punished by the criminal law.
Turning to the issue of how to regulate online pre-sale tickets, Wu Jingming said that if there is widespread false propaganda and fraud in this marketing model, the market supervision department and relevant industry authorities should exercise their law enforcement power to supervise, so as to maintain the normal market order and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. If the propaganda content is exaggerated, the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law shall be applied to impose administrative penalties on it, including ordering it to correct, imposing fines or even suspending business for rectification. If this way has infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of many unspecified consumers and social and public interests, consumer organizations at or above the provincial level and procuratorates at all levels can file consumer civil public interest litigation according to law.
Then, how should consumers protect their rights when they encounter problems in purchasing pre-sale tickets?
Ma Lihong suggested that, first of all, consumers should timely retain the advertising content promoted by merchants and their purchase records, and retain the relevant evidence of "wrong goods" for the need of rights protection. Secondly, consumers can protect their rights in the following ways: First, they can directly find businesses to protect their rights and ask them to refund tickets or compensate for losses according to the actual situation; Second, report complaints to the local market supervision and administration department; The third is to file a lawsuit to the court. No matter which path, consumers need to have the awareness of evidence retention and keep good evidence.
Wu Jingming reminded consumers that they should not trust merchants' propaganda, and they should pay easily for cheapness. Once they are cheated, they should safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through legal means, including complaining to consumer organizations and competent authorities and applying for mediation. If the amount of money cheated is large or huge, they can also directly sue the court for punitive compensation.
