I booked to see Take That at the new Co-op Live venue in Manchester.
The concert has been moved to the AO Arena, Manchester, but the new seats I’ve been given are 53 rows behind those on my original tickets. What are my rights?
L.M., Derby.
Dean Dunham replies: This is a common complaint among those who have elected to transfer their tickets to the alternative venue following the delay in the Co-op Live arena opening.
Firstly, it is understandable that the organisers have had problems issuing like-for-like tickets, as the AO Arena is not comparable to the Co-op Live because the seating configuration and venue sizes are completely different.
Back row: A reader isn’t happy with his news seats after the Take That concert at the Co-op live in Manchester was moved to the AO Arena
However, this does not diminish your consumer rights.
Your obvious right is to demand a full refund before the concert. Some readers have queried if they can do this after initially choosing replacement tickets rather than a refund. The answer is yes.
The Consumer Rights Act says consumers should get the goods or service as described.
And, if the trader (here the venue or ticket seller) must give you a replacement (here replacing the Co-op Live tickets with AO Arena tickets), the replacement must be like-for-like.
This means your seats should either be exactly the same, comparable, or better — anything less entitles you to a remedy.
If you have already attended the concert you cannot demand a full refund, but you still have rights.
Section 24 of the Consumer Rights Act provides consumers with the right to a ‘price reduction’ (basically a partial refund) in situations where the goods or service received are not in accordance with the contract, and are worth less than what the consumer paid.
This is the situation here, as seats 53 rows back will be worth less than the originals.
If you haven’t yet attended the concert and still want to go, you could tell the ticket seller you will keep the tickets if you are given some money back to reflect the fact they are inferior to the originals.
They may say no and only offer a cancellation and full refund. If this is so, you could say you are entitled to a price reduction, as under the Consumer Rights Act they had the right to invoke one remedy and exhausted this when they gave you the replacement tickets, meaning you now have the right to demand a reduced price.
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