We booked in advance two tickets at £23.25 each for the Guildford Odeon’s live showing of the Royal Opera House production of Elektra on 18 June. Clearly the performance was cancelled, and we would like a refund. This was a one-off event and will not be repeated. There is no way to contact Odeon Cinemas about this, unfortunately. Its website is restricted to sales, and its so-called “contact” is limited to a formula which does not include refunds. If I walk in with the tickets and demand a refund, are they legally bound to give me one? I definitely do not want a voucher.
WP, Guildford, Surrey
With thousands of live events axed or rescheduled as a result of the pandemic, many fans have been finding it tricky to get their money back. But cinema chains, where people typically don’t book well ahead (with the exception of more expensive one-off live screenings of opera, ballet and theatre, as in your case) have generally agreed to make refunds after closing all their venues in March. Some cinema chains and independents have been reopening since 4 July but where they remain closed you cannot simply walk in.
When Guardian Money got in touch, Odeon said your refund had slipped through the net. It told us: “Refunds for this particular performance were processed in June. Someone from Odeon will get in touch directly with WP to let her know and see this through.”
Our intervention did the trick – you have confirmed you have now received the full refund of £46.50.
And finally …
NF from Cheltenham contacted us with examples of good service, which we are happy to highlight.
“I would like to give grateful acknowledgement to Travelsphere which refunded most of our payment for a trip booked to China in October. When we emailed to cancel we were told immediately that a refund would be made, less 10% admin costs. Further emails indicated that repayment would be made six to eight weeks after cancellation – and eight weeks to the day we received repayment.
“Aviva insurance also refunded 50% of the premium paid for our insurance policy, having made a deduction on a pro-rata basis that seemed pretty fair to me. This was paid back within 10 days.”
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