Extremely disappointing experience with BOL Tickets for YE concert
I am extremely disappointed with how BOL handled our Golden Circle tickets for the Ye/Kanye West concert at Estádio Algarve.
I purchased three Golden Circle tickets at considerable expense because we specifically wanted the premium experience of being close to the front. They were part of a birthday surprise for my son, and we travelled from the UK and planned our holiday around the concert.
We were then informed that the Golden Circle was being removed due to a change in the venue layout. BOL's solution was to replace each Golden Circle ticket with three standard standing tickets. Although this may sound generous, extra tickets were of no use to us as we were travelling from the UK and didn't have another six people to bring. More importantly, standard standing tickets were not an equivalent replacement for the premium experience we had paid for.
I emailed BOL the week before the concert asking for a reasonable alternative. Despite the urgency, I received no response and had to telephone two or three times asking them to reply to my emails. I was already in Portugal on holiday by this point and became increasingly stressed as the concert approached with no resolution.
BOL finally responded on Wednesday, just two days before the concert. Their solution was for me to purchase four new seated tickets and then receive a refund for my previous tickets.
Unfortunately, because they had taken so long to respond, the better seats had gone. We ended up in Row T, towards the back, instead of the premium position at the front that we had originally paid for. Had BOL responded promptly, I would have had a much better opportunity to secure suitable replacement seats.
I was also told that the refund could take up to 30 days. This left me with nearly €2,000 charged to my credit card while waiting for approximately €1,300 to be refunded.
I understand that event layouts sometimes have to change. My complaint is about how the situation was handled. I should not have had to repeatedly chase BOL for a response while suitable replacement tickets were disappearing, particularly when I was already abroad on a holiday planned around this event.
Although BOL eventually agreed to refund my original tickets, a refund for tickets that could no longer provide the experience purchased is not compensation. Nothing was offered for the significant downgrade from a premium position at the front to Row T, the delay, inconvenience or stress caused.
What should have been a special birthday surprise for my son became an unnecessarily stressful experience. I expected much better communication and customer service from BOL.