Andrew Shute feels he has ‘nothing to show’ for the £1300 he paid for tickets in 2019
A man who paid almost £1,300 on Lytham Festival tickets has voiced his distress over what he says is a ‘lack of communication’ after he couldn’t locate his tickets ordered in 2019 – and now wants a full refund for the stress he’s endured in the time since.
Andrew Shute, 65, bought two VIP five-day Garden passes to Lytham Festival back in 2019 costing him £1,298. He also paid postage, bringing the cost up to £1303.50.
Lytham Festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning Andrew’s tickets rolled over to this year. And while he’s still not received the tickets he paid out for three years ago, its the lack of response to his enquiries which he says has been a ‘nightmare’ experience. Ticketmaster has apologised for the delay in corresponding while Lytham Festival stated the customer first got in touch with them eight days ago. They also stated that his tickets and his booking were safe.
Lytham Festival is set to take place from June 28 and ends on July 10. Back in 2019, Andrew set up to get his hands on the passes released online via Front Gate Tickets. He managed to get his hands on two, but the tickets never reached him. Now, after years of what he says has been “talking to a wall” he says he wants a refund.
Andrew told LancsLive: “They’re fast enough to take your money but not fast enough to do anything about it. £1,300; its not exactly cheap. I sat up on the night because the line-up back then was much better than its ended up being now.
“At one stage, I sent messages to their Facebook and Twitter pointing out that the line-up has changed so dramatically, I’d like a refund please, and there is absolutely no response. I can’t get my tickets, I don’t even have the option of going at the moment, if it carries on like its going I’ll end up going to court to recover the money. We’re just under a week before the festival starting and I’ve still not got the tickets.”
Andrew says that “like many people” he has moved house during the years between buying his tickets and the festival making its return. He told LancsLive he made arrangements for redirection so the tickets would be delivered to his new address but says he still received no response confirming this.
Andrew, from Standish, says he even made attempts to be put in contact with a staff member after a representative tweeted about the festival’s return on Twitter. He explained: “Somebody posted on Twitter from the lounge area, something about the festival, I quickly pounced on that and said ‘I know I’m not in that area, but can you please help me? And if you can’t, can you put me in the direction of someone who can?’.”
Andrew said: “Since November ’19, November ’20, November ’21, I’ve not received my tickets, I’ve had no notification, they’ve not answered their emails, not answered the messages on Facebook. Only last week did I get a response from the lounge area on there, I’ve emailed and tweeted Cuffe and Taylor as well because they’re the actual promoters.
“Its just a nightmare and its got to the point where I don’t know where else to go with it other than getting to the stage where I send letters to their registered offices saying ‘give me back my money or I’ll be seeing you in court’.”
Andrew explained that after the Covid-19 pandemic and numerous lockdowns it “would have been nice” to go to Lytham Festival but fears his booking has fell through the cracks of cancellations or that he will even be turned away at the entrance. LancsLive has seen Andrew’s social media attempts to resolve the issue. He adds: “If I bought the tickets through eBay or even a third-party, I’d understand if somebody said that was at your risk and peril. But I went straight through Lytham Festival’s own website.”
He said: “They’ve had my money for two and a half years but they were bought legitimately and sold legitimately, but there is absolutely no where or no way that I can get to speak to a human and say ‘let’s do something about this’.
“At this stage, I’d rather just get my money back. My circumstances have changed, I was made redundant since and gone self-employed, while I could take the time off at this stage I would rather be working. I’d settle for either or right now, at the moment I’ve parted with £1,300 and got nothing to show for it.”
Since being in touch with LancsLive, Andrew says he has heard from Ticketmaster who he says have apologised for the lack of contact.
In response to Andrew’s claims and demands, Lytham Festival said he only made ‘first contact’ with them eight days ago. LancsLive also understands that any delay in communicating with Andrew may have been down to complaints made to the US arm of Front Gate Tickets and not the UK.
A spokesperson for Lytham Festival said: “The customer in question first made contact with us eight days ago and is in conversation with our team to resolve any concerns he has.”
- 05:39, 21 JUN 2022
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