Justin Bieber

When:

Friday, Dec 10, 2010
7:30pm

Where:

Madison Square Garden
4 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10001

 

  Fi

Find Justin Bieber Tickets

The Ticket Broker Business

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Customer Service - Cancelling Online Orders

When a customer makes a purchase online and they cannot see the merchandise, mistakes can be made and disagreements can arise between the vendor and customer. The problem with canceling an order and making a refund is that many times the vendor did not have the inventory in stock. He was required to purchase it from a wholesaler and have the item drop shipped to the end customer. Cancellation and refund policies should be in place for all to see.

Most online ticket brokers have a clearly stated cancellation policy and must be acknowledged before making a purchase by the customer. Many brokers still receive complaints and chargebacks because of the customer’s failure to read and abide by these policies. Our stated policy which is posted as follows:

"CANCELLATIONS: ALL SALES ARE FINAL. There are no refunds or cancellations of orders. Upon request we will attempt to place your order on an A Try to Sell Basis. If we are unable to fill your ticket order as specified, we will exercise the following procedure: 1) Comparable tickets will be provided 2) Tickets will be upgraded 3) Tickets will be downgraded with a partial refund 4) Ticket order may be canceled with a full refund. For all cancelled events, clients will receive a full refund in the form of a store credit (except for an act of God, strike, act of war, terrorist act, lockout, or any postponements). "

With the acknowledgement of your stated policy by the customer before checkout the vendor has met the criteria to prevent chargeback. However, the end result is with the credit card company. Regardless of what you have in place the credit card company can and many times does go in favor of the consumer. This is because the credit card company will want to make their customers happy and by making the chargeback to the vendor they will receive their money and not have any financial liability. The final outcome will rest with which party is most convincing and persistent with their claims.

The problem is that most online brokers do not own the tickets they sell themselves and therefore must purchase the tickets from other brokers or wholesalers. This creates the largest cost to them and if they refund the purchase price to the consumer they may be stuck with the tickets that cannot be resold. Usually the retailer's profit consists of a portion of the service charge.

If confronted with a mistake like this by the customer try to work out a reasonable solution. However, it is best to tell the customer that you cannot cancel the order but can and will try to sell the tickets or merchandise on a consignment basis for them. Make no guarantee the tickets or other merchandise will be sold. Another alternative is to be willing to buy the tickets or goods but this is usually at wholesale and most times is 20-30% below the base cost. If the retail broker had wanted these tickets or other merchandise in their inventory to begin with he would have been the original purchaser.

The final decision as to what to do is in the hands of the business owner. Is a happy customer with no assurance of repeat business more important than your current sale. However, if this is a long standing good customer that needs your help in rectifying a problem the choice is simple.