Why don’t theatres offer refunds? I took a chair back to Staples six months after I bought it. They refunded without question. Even the traders on Southampton’s Friday street market (one of my clients) give refunds.
Theatres are unique in my experience at taking your money months in advance and refusing to offer the basic customer service of a refund if you change your mind. I worked in theatre for many years and still provide marketing consultancy to the industry, so I understand that there are reasons why it is difficult. On the other hand, since I have been working with other kinds of businesses, I realise that everyone has difficulties in giving refunds.
Theatres argue that someone may ask for a refund because the price has gone down. Yet when Marks and Spencer refund you the full price on a jumper six months after purchase, there’s every chance they will only be able to sell it at the sale price. And, just as you probably won’t be able to get your size at the lower price, so you won’t be able to get as good a seat. As a compromise, theatres could offer to refund at the current rather than the original price.
Theatres say their finances are such that they can’t risk being left with a lot of unsold tickets. I wonder how many tickets they imagine will be returned. Have they so little confidence in their shows that they worry the word-of-mouth will be so bad that tickets will be returned in droves? Shops are often stuck with returned items that are unsaleable. But shops offer refunds because it encourages people to buy if they know the item can be brought back. I believe theatres would find their extra sales gained far outnumber the loss from refunds.
What it comes down to is customer service. It seems every field of business has learned to treat the customer as King except the live entertainment industry. Put aside the rare occasion when someone might want a refund on a whim, most people need a refund because they were expected to buy their tickets months in advance and then something unanticipated crops up nearer the time- illness, a family crisis, an unavoidable meeting, whatever. Can it possibly be sensible business practice to punish your customer for something that’s not their fault?
The industry does have a nerve complaining about people selling tickets at a profit on ebay or via touts when they provide no means to sell them back to the venue.
As a halfway house, perhaps theatres could at least offer a sliding scale of refunds as the date of the event approaches, similar to holiday companies. Or maybe a significant charge to offset the anticipated losses. Many local theatres do at least offer exchanges and, slowly but surely, ticket agents are bringing in exchange websites.
Of course, theatre ticketing is complicated by the fact that to offer refunds may require the agreement of a visiting promoter. Theatres that produce their own shows don’t have this problem and now's the time for receiving venues to start negotiating.
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