Is It Legal for Viagogo to Charge Me a Sellers Cancellation Fee?

lbsyc on 03/03/2018 - 03:55

Last year I put up a listing on Viagogo for 2 orchestral concert tickets. The tickets were listed and sold for $267 in total. Due to a unforseen circumstance, the listing was quickly pull off and cancelled right after I was notified of the sale, which was 8 days before the concert.

Today I got a notification from my CC that Viagogo just charged me $197 for the cancellation of sales. I understand that there might be a reasonable transaction cost associated with cancelling a done sale and I am not trying to avoid it. But is it legal for Viagogo to charge me such extortionate fees?

In its FAQ for Can I cancel my sale? it says

No, once your tickets sell, you cannot cancel the sale as the buyer is expecting to receive them.

If you are unable to deliver the tickets you sold, viagogo reserves the right to charge you the cost of finding comparable replacement tickets for the buyer.

So it seems like the extorbitant fee was for them to reorganising another 2 tickets. Should I actually pay for this? Cheers.

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Comments

  • ozhunter on 03/03/2018 - 04:36
    +2

    Viagogo is dodgy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXViB2y2ys

    • poboy on 03/03/2018 - 08:42

      We still haven't reached peak Viagogo. Takes a few years for people to realise they are dodgy.

  • tamckinnon on 03/03/2018 - 08:09
    +1

    caveat venditor - let the seller beware.

    I don't think you've got much to stand on here as you agreed to all of this as part of the service in trying to sell the tickets…

    I do think it's a little shady if they never told you how much the replacement cost fee would be prior to cancellation; Was there a warning prior to cancellation e.g. "are you sure you want to back out of the sale, the average price for estimated tickets would be $xxx which will be charged to you if you proceed"

    • Thrawn on 03/03/2018 - 09:04

      It’s likely impossible to work out in an automatic way how much replacement tickets would cost. Especially for a more obscure event where they don’t have huge turnover of tickets. Viagogo probably had to manually procure tickets on eBay or something

  • stratbargain on 03/03/2018 - 08:59
    +13

    " Due to a unforseen circumstance, the listing was quickly pull off and cancelled right after I was notified of the sale"

    I'm confused. You tried to sell the tickets, a buyer agreed to buy the tickets and then you pulled out "due to unforeseen circumstances"??

    What was the unforeseen circumstance? and how does an unforeseen circumstance suddenly make you require tickets to a concert?

    It doesn't make sense.

    • altomic on 03/03/2018 - 09:45

      This

  • minniethemoocher on 03/03/2018 - 09:19
    +1

    It's the same with ticketmaster resale, it states it clearly in the t&c's, and it can be a very expensive exercise if you don't go through with the transaction. Viagogo either paid a higher price for the replacement tickets or have charged you the full cost of finding the replacement fees without giving you adequate credit for what they received from the buyer. I would definitely question it but I think you don't have much of a leg to stand on.

  • dcep on 03/03/2018 - 16:42
    +2

    once sold, it's sold, no bs

    else try selling at gumtree next time

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