What happens when you can’t attend a sold-out show? Just get a refund if you used Dice.
So, what exactly happens when you purchase tickets for a concert or music festival and are unable to attend? They end up on secondary ticket sites, usually with inflated prices. According to mobile ticket platform Dice, music fans in the UK spend close to £169 million ($218.6 million) on concerts and music festivals they then can’t attend. That means 17% of people who purchase tickets don’t turn up to gigs.
So, what’s the solution? Simple. Just give them refunds.
Yesterday, Dice rolled out the Refund Tickets feature on their mobile app. Available now on the Android and iOS, the mobile ticket platform will offer full refunds for sold out events. CEO Phil Hutchison explained in a blog post how Refund Tickets will work.
“We’ve worked closely with the industry to introduce refunds, and initially we will offer full refunds for sold out events on DICE. But the good news is that because each event on DICE is hand picked, over 80% of events sell out and that number is increasing all the time. We’re also using machine learning to figure out the most efficient way to maximize attendances for events.”
The company says that it spent the last two years learning from its ‘Waiting List’ data. Dice had to answer the following questions prior to releasing the new refunds feature.
“How do you instantly return a ticket and ensure someone else purchases it automatically? How is this affected by time, number of tickets and external factors such as weather, etc. And how do we make sure a scalper hasn’t bought the ticket?”
Hutcheon explained that Refund Tickets ensures that scalpers (or touts) don’t get their hands on tickets to inflate their prices. Keeping with the company’s philosophy, “F*** Touts,” he said,
“If someone can’t make a show they either don’t turn up or are forced to put their tickets on secondary ticketing platforms. Those tickets are often snapped up by speculators and sold at insane prices. We believe a fan shouldn’t be allowed to sell their tickets for more than they paid for it, but they have the right to get a refund. By being 100% mobile we make it super easy for fans to do exactly that.”