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Beware When Buying from Headout.com

Bought Paris Pantheon/Sainte-Chapelle combo tickets for June 21st, 2024. Sainte Chapelle tickets were timed tickets, issued for a specific time slot on that specific date. We arrived at the venue and got in line 30 minutes before the scheduled time of 9:00am (which is also the opening time for the venue). About 10 minutes before the opening time, employees of the venue came out and informed us that they were going on strike and turned away everyone standing in line.

Upon contacting Headout for a refund, I was told that my ticket will remain valid till 2027. This does me no good since I'm not planning on visiting Paris again. When I conveyed this to Headout and also pointed out that they owed me a refund since my tickets were purchased for a specific date and time slot which the venue failed to honor, they just went silent and will no longer respond to my emails despite repeated attempts to contact them. And I'm unable to get a hold of them on their customer service phone number. This is not how a legitimate, upstanding company would do business. BUYERS BEWARE!!

Posted by
7683 posts

I'm sorry that you had this problem. This is one reason why I always try to book tickets directly with the venue, rather than 3rd party sellers. You just have more protection that way. Good luck with Headout.com and I hope you find some recourse.

Posted by
14605 posts

I agree with purchasing directly from a venue BUT OP did not cancel, the venue did and Headout should refund his money since the venue was in effect closed for the time frame of the ticket.

Very aggravating, Ravi. I'm not sure if your Credit Card company can help with a refund or not. You might contact them to see.

They do have a FB page but I'm not sure they are responsive since every reply on the site seems to be that they are "scammers", lol. I dod not look to see if they have a Twitter/X or IG page but contacting thru socials might work as well.

Posted by
5 posts

Pam is exactly right. I didn't cancel. I showed up at the scheduled time and the venue cancelled on me. I kept my end of the bargain, but was not allowed access to the venue, which is what I paid the ticket seller, i.e., Headout for. So Headout owes me a refund since they weren't able to provide what they promised me in return for the purchase price of the tickets and they should pursue the matter with the venue. I will try to see what recourse I have with my credit card company. Thanks!

Posted by
4765 posts

You should contest with your credit card yes, but frankly Headout isn't responsible for government employees who decide to go on strike. This sounds like force majeure to me.

Posted by
1077 posts

It might be worthwhile contacting the Centre des Monuments - if Headout is an authorized reseller, you could at least get a negative report into their file. You could also inquire how tickets bought directly would be handled for a cancellation such as you experienced:

https://www.sainte-chapelle.fr/nous-contacter

Also see clause 3 of the Terms and Conditions - you could try to submit a request directly to the Centre - there is a provision for those who can't use the ticket on a future date:

https://tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr/en-GB/terms-of-sales

Posted by
5 posts

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions and comments. My put is that the ticket seller is always responsible for providing the buyer with what he paid for when he purchased the ticket, in my case, entry into a specific venue, on a specific date, at a specific time. If the venue is in effect not operational at that time (even due to circumstances that are beyond the control of the ticket seller), the ticket seller should then provide the buyer with a refund (since the buyer didn't receive what he paid the ticket seller for). The ticket seller can then pursue the matter with the venue to get themselves reimbursed.

But I'm happy to say that after posting on this site and several others, Hedout.com did come through and provide me with a refund of the purchase price. So, kudos to them for living up to their obligation.

Posted by
14605 posts

Ravi! That is very interesting that they came thru after your posts on social media. Good outcome for you and hopefully others will find this thread and book directly with the venues.