chichow

in the survey monkey form that you click into, co sport is returning the ticket price + shipping price but keeping the 20% handling charge per ticket

----------- CoSport will cancel my existing order in accordance with Tokyo's 2020 policies and the Terms and Conditions to which you agreed to when you purchased your tickets.
Your requested refund amounts to the face value of each Individual Ticket purchased plus shipping charges.
You will have no rights to any items included in this order once the order has been cancelled.
By exercising this option, I also agree to forever discharge and release CoSport and its affiliates from any and all claims arising out of or in connection with your order. You also agree you have read and understand the refund process outlined in the accompanying letter, dated March 25, 2021.
You agree that electronic versions of this document, including but not limited to word documents, PDFs and/or facsimiles and any copies thereof, that contain your acknowledgement of agreement via handwritten or electronic signature or other affirmative notation from you, shall be treated the same as originals of this document. Both parties also agree that nothing in this letter serves to modify or replace any provision of CoSport’s Terms & Conditions.

cockpitvisit

Quite shocking that in the age of e-commerce, handling costs make up a whopping 20% of the ticket price

hailstorm

Also I would think that handling costs would be a flat fee, as all ticket handling is basically the same irrespective of the ticket price.

evergrn

BS

BS

wow they're giving you a 2-week window this time! Last summer it was literally a 3-4 day window between email notification and deadline to request refund.

How is this legally allowed?
They won't give back your rightful money if you won't agree to vow not to sue them?

These clowns need to be thoroughly investigated.

jmastron

It certainly seems like, despite their threats in the earlier messaging, it might very well be a good idea for victims of this to first try credit card disputes and other legal action to get the full refund -- they're not planning to pay out anytime soon anyway, and attempting those avenues likely won't affect the partial refund they eventually might give. Trying to get people to sign away rights with a fake deadline (April 9th is some magic date after which you aren't due a partial refund?) is pretty slimy IMO, and designed to not give enough time to file disputes.

YariGuy

I agree.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if law firms start class-action suits. These would benefit no-one except those law firms.

nnn

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/olympic...234725189.html

YariGuy

For what it's worth, we got a full refund when we went through the Chase. But this was back when the games were rescheduled.

MSPeconomist

They say they're cancelling all tickets even if no refund is requested, yet there could be some people who legitimately purchased through them more than a year ago who are legally entitled to attend the games, for example if someone has acquired Japanese residency (perhaps for a new job there or even transfer to the Embassy, or someone who was sent to Japan by the military) or married a Japanese citizen.

nnn

Any pointers on what you had to say/do to get the full refund? Did CoSport try to fight it, and if so what did they argue? Was it Chase that ruled in your favor, or did CoSport back down?

Thanks!

hailstorm

Those people would have required an existing residence in Japan, and would have had to have gone through the regular channels for people in Japan to request tickets. Also, they'll once again have the opportunity to do so when reservations reopen again with whatever new arrangements are made (still undecided as of this posting).

Basically, all tickets arranged through the former system are null and void, regardless of the person's Japan residency status.

YariGuy

Didn't really do anything special... just started the process with Chase, saying Olympics aren't happening and shared some email exchanges with CoSport indicating they said they'd refund, but noting it's been X weeks and they haven't done anything. Then Chase just dealt with it and we got the full refund.

If it were me I'd just start the process with Chase and not mention anything about the 20% handling charge. The April 9th "deadline" is a tough call, but I would ignore it and not sign anything. Because what are they going to do, not give you a refund to an event that's not happening because you didn't agree to their unfair terms? If anything this may make a even better case with the credit card company, that you didn't agree to their terms.

Just thinking out of the box, if this route doesn't work for you, another option may be to sue Cosport in small claims court. I don't know too much about this but depending on your state, and how much you're suing for, it might be worth it.

Good luck.

jmastron

I think tickets for Japanese residents are through a different channel (the Tokyo Organizing Committee itself?), not Cosport -- are those also being unilaterally partially refunded? Canceling all tickets, skimming 20% of the refund, and then making people rebuy their tickets at full cost would be another level of sliminess for sure.

Yeah, I don't see a lot of downside to filing a dispute and ignoring the fake April 9th date -- that form they want people to fill requires waiving rights instead of adding them, and since they're not planning to partially refund until later in the year anyway it's worth a try.

And hopefully when future games have MUCH lower prepaid ticket purchasing from now-knowledgeable consumers, the IOC, Cosport et al will realize this sheme was foolish. But that may be wishful thinking. At least when THOSE customers get stiffed we can shrug our shoulders and say they knew what they were getting into.

hailstorm

There was no middleman in Japan that I'm aware of. You went on a site to register in a lottery, and the chosen ones got to purchase the tickets that they requested.

As of now, there is still no idea what sort of capacity or crowd layout will be allowed, so no announcement on refunds for Japan customers has been made.

Oh, this gets funnier ever time I read it:

Edit: Aw man, now I feel bad about laughing.

hailstorm

Interesting nugget from this article:

Overseas Tokyo Olympic ticket holders may get only partial refunds

So quite possible that they literally don't have the cash to give everyone a full refund.

And if they hoped on getting some cash flow from the 2022 Games: