Ticket buyers charged twice for insurance
TICKETMASTER customers who were double-charged for insurance on their tickets are being offered refunds after a technical glitch saw some customers pay more for cover over the past two years.
Insurance company Allianz, which was selling insurance to customers after they made a purchase on the Ticketmaster website, has been contacting customers about the refunds in recent weeks. Some of the refunds relate to tickets and insurance bought two years ago.
Allianz has apologised to customers. It declined to outline how many customers had been affected in total, but said the figure was less than 1pc of all its sales.
It said the issue arose because of a “duplication” in its automated systems that saw customers who purchased ‘‘missed event insurance’’ for tickets charged twice.
Ticketmaster had not been aware of the issue until last week. Neither Ticketmaster nor Allianz linked the issue to specific events but the Sunday Independent understands tickets sold for a series of outdoor concerts at Trinity College last summer were affected, with New Order, Paul Weller, Janelle Monae and Foals among the acts.
Allianz said the issue was first discovered in 2019 after a peak in sales and a series of customers contacting the company to say they had been charged twice in error for their insurance cover.
The company eventually discovered the issue had been ongoing over a two-year period. However, after it was uncovered it was decided to issue refunds in batches, which have been paid over some time. People who attended the Trinity concerts last year were among those to receive refunds last week, a year after the gigs took place.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “Allianz Partners would like to provide assurance that the issue which impacted a small percentage of our Ticketmaster customers has been resolved and we apologise for any inconvenience experienced.
“The technical error in question was caused by a duplication in our automated systems and affected 0.9pc of all Ticketmaster customers who purchased an Allianz Partners policy in Ireland over a two-year period.”
“Customers will be refunded automatically to the card they used to purchase the policy and notified via email. For those with expired cards, contact details have been provided so that customers can get in touch to arrange their refund.”