Viagogo accused of trying to manipulate online reviews
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Version 0 of 1. Ticket resale website Viagogo has been accused of trying to manipulate online reviews as it contends with a flurry of negative publicity. The company is the focus of a campaign by more than 100 customers who say they suffered financial hardship after Viagogo allegedly overcharged them and then withheld refunds. Viagogo has also been criticised for seeking to profit from charity by reselling tickets to an Ed Sheeran gig in aid of the Teenager Cancer Trust. Just days after its actions were revealed in the Guardian, Viagogo emailed 37,000 customers who used the service nearly a decade ago. It offered them the chance of a €100 (£85) voucher if they posted reviews on Trustpilot, a website that allows consumers to share their experiences. Nobody who joined the Victim of Viagogo group on Facebook, which has 105 members in 11 countries, has said they received the email. The Facebook group has secured nearly £40,000 in refunds but says at least £27,000 more is outstanding. Members of the group have told the Guardian that they struggled to make ends meet and suffered considerable stress. Group founder Claire Turnham is to meet MPs this week to ask that Viagogo be brought before a select committee, with an evidence session understood to be pencilled in for mid-March. Turnham said: “I am not aware of anyone within our group who has been contacted by Viagogo and asked to provide a review to Trustpilot. Had they been, I am confident they would have shared how buying tickets through Viagogo has been a distressing, shocking and frustrating experience which they would advise anyone else to avoid.” Those customers who did receive a request for a review appear to be limited to those who attended events about a decade ago, before an upsurge in complaints. Good heavens, @viagogo. You want me to leave a review now? This was 9 1/2 years ago! pic.twitter.com/ZKgREGsKwY “We ask companies to invite all or none of their customers to review,” Trustpilot’s guidelines state. “If that’s not possible, companies must select an equally impartial system – such as inviting every third customer.” Viagogo, which pays Trustpilot nearly £30,000 a year according to an invoice seen by the Guardian, declined to comment. But a Trustpilot spokesperson said Viagogo claimed that it “accidentally” sent the requests for reviews, which are now being removed. Viagogo’s email offered customers a place in a €100 prize draw in return for a comment on Trustpilot. Trustpilot says its review pages always make clear whether companies are offering financial incentives, but no such information appeared on Viagogo’s listing. The website said it was not aware that Viagogo was offering financial incentives and that its compliance division would look into the matter. “If we find that any company is violating our guidelines, we investigate and take appropriate action,” it said. A spokesperson for FanFair Alliance, which campaigns for reform of ticketing, said: “Viagogo enables the industrial-scale rip-off of British audiences, makes a mockery of UK consumer law and even profits from charity tickets. “It is a business without ethics. Little wonder it has to manipulate its own reviews.” |