Way back in April of this year my girlfriend and I decided to go to the Bestival festival that takes place on the Isle of White each year in September.  It's only been going for a few years so isn't really in the same league as Reading or Glastonbury and so tickets don't normally sell out at any where near the same rate but we decided to get ours early anyway so brought a couple from lastminute.com

So lastminute.com got £244 of our money and we got an email informing us that our tickets would be with us 10 days before the event...

A few months past and it was late August.  The Bestival had sold out long ago and it was now 10 days before it all starts and no tickets had arrived.  I emailed lastminute.com and a few days later received a reply telling me not to worry and that the tickets will be with me within the next few days.  4 days before the event and still no tickets, I email again and this time received an automated response thanking me for my email and informing me that I would receive a reply from a human being within the next 4 working days... not very helpful considering I'm meant to be there ticket in hand in less than 4 days time!

A couple of calls to a computer later shouting YES and NO in all the right places and I finally got to talk to a human being, they said they would look into the problem for me, great I thought, I'm sure they got lost in the post and they can just reissue the tickets.  But then i received an email this morning:

Greetings from lastminute.com

Please note that as per the update from the supplier, there has been a
technical error due to which your booking was not processed. They have
tried their level best to secure tickets for you. However, there are no
more tickets left for the event.

Thus, we have processed a full refund for the booking. The refund of GBP
244.90 will be processed to the original form of payment within the next
7 days.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused, please do not hesitate to
contact us should you require any further assistance.

Regards,

Sylvester Chiu
Customer Services Team
lastminute.com

How disappointing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I think the worst thing is that the email comes from an unmonitored account so the only way to discuss this with them further is to shout YES and NO at a computer again!  This is the problem with internet only companies, They are all too keen to sell you the services/products but they don't have the customer support to back this up.

Rant over...

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