If something goes wrong

If something goes wrong with a ticket

Start with the organiser. They ran the event, they hold the money, and they can usually sort it in a message. Every ticket email has their address on it, and replying to it reaches them.

If you bought a ticket and the event was cancelled, you do not need to do anything. Refunds are automatic and go back to the card you paid with, usually within five to ten working days.

Asking for a refund

There is a button on your ticket page. It goes to the organiser, not to us, and they decide — they set the refund policy for their own event and it is shown on the listing before you buy.

They have to give a reason if they say no, and you will get an email either way.

Consumer law note: for most events, the usual fourteen-day right to cancel an online purchase does not apply, because tickets for a specific date are exempt under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. That is the law rather than our policy.

If the organiser will not help

Write to support@tickestra.com with your order reference. We will look at what happened.

What we can do: refund you from money we are still holding, which for most events is until three working days after it finishes. What we cannot do: take money back from an organiser who has already been paid out. This is why coming to us early matters more than being right.

We aim to reply within two working days and to resolve things within ten.

Please do not start with your bank

A chargeback costs the organiser a fee of around twenty pounds whether they win or lose, on top of the ticket price. For a small promoter that is often more than they made on the whole booking.

If you have a genuine complaint we would rather refund you than have you do that. It is cheaper for everyone, and faster for you — a chargeback takes weeks.

We will always cooperate with a bank investigating a payment, and we keep records of every order, ticket and check-in that let us answer accurately.

For organisers

You will be told about any dispute against your event as soon as we are. Respond quickly — card networks give a short window and an unanswered dispute is lost by default.

We hold your payout until after your event partly for this reason. Money we still hold can settle a complaint; money already in your bank cannot.

A dispute rate above about one in every hundred and thirty orders will get attention from the card networks, and eventually from us. We flag it long before it reaches that point.