April 4, 2025 • 7 mins
Ticket company Ticket Fairy is receiving online abuse and racial hatred after cancellations to Juicy Fest and Timeless Summer Tour.
The events were cancelled after the gig’s promoter went into liquidation.
They owe $2.4 million to creditors and thousands of ticket holders have still not got any refund.
Ticket Fairy CEO Ritesh Patel tells Ryan Bridge his company is merely a technology provider and not responsible for issuing refunds.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. We've got an update for you now on the
story of the Juicy Fest and Timeless Summer Tour liquidation.
You remember this, it was in the news. The promoter
for these gigs canceled the events and went bust. The
company owes two point four million dollars to creditors. Thousands
of ticket holders still not got any refund. Some people
paid if you got the VIP package, paid more than
(00:21):
three hundred dollars per person, so potentially, you know, thousands
of dollars for a household. The ticketing company some of
these for some of these events is called the Ticket Ferry,
and the ticket Fery teams say that since the liquidation
they and their families have been receiving online abuse, even
racial hatred from kiwis who missed out. Ratsh Patel is
(00:44):
the CEO of the Ticket Ferry, joining us from the uses.
Good to have you on the show, hey nicely, So
just give us an idea. You guys basically collect the
money for the tickets and then hand it on to
the promoters.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is that right, That's actually not right. No, So we
act as the technology provider and the vast majority of
larger events in in New Zealand connect their own merchant
accounts into the system, so they use the software that
we provide, but they connect their own merchant accounts and
(01:17):
it's quite a common practice across most.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Platforms actually, So you're just the interface absolutely, but you've
been getting abuse.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What sort of abuse, it's been pretty broad, actually, I
mean the I think the thing that the one that's
been very interesting is people think that where the company
actually running the show or the shows, and I think that,
like maybe because Timeless was a new brand.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's not a new promoter, but it's a new brand.
It was something new that they launched because they wanted
to do something that was kind of retro on the
music side, so they called it Timeless. Maybe people hadn't
been familiar with that before, and also the Timeless shows
were a bit of an older crowd, so maybe they
weren't also familiar with our brand. So maybe they just
thought that the website and the promoter with the same people.
(02:10):
But that's definitely not the case. But we had a
lot of people basically think that we were the ones
running the show and we'd stolen everyone's money, which which
is a lot of saddening because we've been in We've
been around as a platform for well over a decade
and worked with some of the biggest, biggest events in
New Zealand, and it was a bit weird to be
(02:32):
told or for people to claim that we were actually
the promoter.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I think the confusion might have come because in ticket
tick here in New Zealand, like they did the tickets
for the time this summer New Plymouth show and they
refunded all the ticket holders even though the promoter went
bus because they held the money. I mean, that's the
difference between you two. Did you tell people you weren't
going to hold their money when they paid you? And
do you have to hold their money? Is there a
legal requirement or clearly not?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So during the Chechop Ross were actually really clear. So
if the there's there's two scenarios. So when a venue
or a promoter uses the technology, they have a choice
of either using their merchant account or using ours. If
they use ours, we actually do hold all funds and
don't pay until after the show. If they the bigger shows,
(03:19):
they tend to use their own merchant accounts and then
they have to go through onboarding with the with what
with the payment processor and go through. Yeah, there are
they know your business processes for the payment processor, and
that's what most of the big promoters in New Zealand do.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Because money then they want the money straight away to
be able to use that presumably.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And they also take on the risk. Yeah, but what
what when that happens? And in that scenario, during the
checkout process on the payment form, we actually show that
very clearly that the payment's been taken by the promoter
the refund terms of theirs and that also is in
the confirmation email.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Do you obviously you regret partnering with these guys, but
do you check them out before you partner with them?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely absolutely, And the there's a second level of diligence
that happens with the payment processor as well to make
sure and they have to put all their business information,
they have to upload their incorporation documents, so there's two
levels of checks. Absolutely, right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Does this put you off doing stuff with New Zealand
promoters or was this just a one off big No?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean, look, we've we've sold it. We've sold hundreds
of millions of dollars of tickets. I would estimate a
couple of hundred million dollars in New Zealand. So it's
a market that we really love. We have a team
on the ground. You know, we've been we've been in
using for a very long time. It's actually, i would
say in our top three big It's markets. So nothing,
(04:47):
it doesn't put me off, but we did have obviously
the the misunderstanding of people thinking that we'd actually taken
the money and then just given it to the promoter.
It is disheartening. I mean, the biggest thing is that,
you know, families who have paid a lot of money
for their tickets have not got that money anymore, right,
(05:09):
and that's a big shame. Obviously the promoter's not in
business right now, but individual families who don't have that
cash that that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
And we we've.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Spent a lot of We put a lot of effort
into making sure that fans have been protected over the years.
So we were one of the first platforms in the
world to have a secure resale system. It stops scalping,
it stops from being ripped off with fake tickets, it
stops tickets from being resold above face value. So we've
put a lot of effort over the years into making
sure that fans are protected just because we know how important.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Though, would you consider not offering the option for promoters
to collect the money directly themselves so that you are
a beck stop for those people who are missing out.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, of course, of course. But what I would say
would happen is that most of the promoters in New
Zealand would no longer be able to run shows because
almost every other platform, apart from say the tickettecs, do
offer the ability to connect the promotero merchant account.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, why do people go with you and see the
ticket ticket to you guys cheaper?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
No, it's not even that. We've put a lot of
work into building technology that helps to drive more sales
for the promoter. It helps them with marketing. At the
same time the fans are protected from scalping. You know,
there's a closedly resale system that makes sure that no
one gets ripped off, like I was saying before, So
we kind of come in as this almost like a
(06:35):
marketing layer that allows the Ironically, it de risks the
promoter because it helps them to drive more sales and
actually give them a better chance of breaking even on
their gig. And what happened with Juicy and Timeless is
it's very much an unusual event. It's one of the
it's actually the first time we've had something like this happen.
And they got canceled because there at the very last
(06:58):
minute their permits were not granted for the alcohol and
so had that not happened, the shows would have gone ahead.
Like so, I think a few people thought that the
shows were fake, but as far as we're aware, all
of the artists had had their deposits paid and they
were ready to tour and Juicy in Australia did actually happen.
That went ahead and so the permit's not being granted
(07:20):
in New Zealand, that's actually what caused the cancelations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Interesting, British, thanks for coming on, British Prattel who's the
CEO and co founder of the Ticket Theory.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Right. We've got an update for you now on the
story of the Juicy Fest and Timeless Summer Tour liquidation.
You remember this, it was in the news. The promoter
for these gigs canceled the events and went bust. The
company owes two point four million dollars to creditors. Thousands
of ticket holders still not got any refund. Some people
paid if you got the VIP package, paid more than
(00:21):
three hundred dollars per person, so potentially, you know, thousands
of dollars for a household. The ticketing company some of
these for some of these events is called the Ticket Ferry,
and the ticket Fery teams say that since the liquidation
they and their families have been receiving online abuse, even
racial hatred from kiwis who missed out. Ratsh Patel is
(00:44):
the CEO of the Ticket Ferry, joining us from the uses.
Good to have you on the show, hey nicely, So
just give us an idea. You guys basically collect the
money for the tickets and then hand it on to
the promoters.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is that right, That's actually not right. No, So we
act as the technology provider and the vast majority of
larger events in in New Zealand connect their own merchant
accounts into the system, so they use the software that
we provide, but they connect their own merchant accounts and
(01:17):
it's quite a common practice across most.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Platforms actually, So you're just the interface absolutely, but you've
been getting abuse.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What sort of abuse, it's been pretty broad, actually, I
mean the I think the thing that the one that's
been very interesting is people think that where the company
actually running the show or the shows, and I think that,
like maybe because Timeless was a new brand.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's not a new promoter, but it's a new brand.
It was something new that they launched because they wanted
to do something that was kind of retro on the
music side, so they called it Timeless. Maybe people hadn't
been familiar with that before, and also the Timeless shows
were a bit of an older crowd, so maybe they
weren't also familiar with our brand. So maybe they just
thought that the website and the promoter with the same people.
(02:10):
But that's definitely not the case. But we had a
lot of people basically think that we were the ones
running the show and we'd stolen everyone's money, which which
is a lot of saddening because we've been in We've
been around as a platform for well over a decade
and worked with some of the biggest, biggest events in
New Zealand, and it was a bit weird to be
(02:32):
told or for people to claim that we were actually
the promoter.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
I think the confusion might have come because in ticket
tick here in New Zealand, like they did the tickets
for the time this summer New Plymouth show and they
refunded all the ticket holders even though the promoter went
bus because they held the money. I mean, that's the
difference between you two. Did you tell people you weren't
going to hold their money when they paid you? And
do you have to hold their money? Is there a
legal requirement or clearly not?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
So during the Chechop Ross were actually really clear. So
if the there's there's two scenarios. So when a venue
or a promoter uses the technology, they have a choice
of either using their merchant account or using ours. If
they use ours, we actually do hold all funds and
don't pay until after the show. If they the bigger shows,
(03:19):
they tend to use their own merchant accounts and then
they have to go through onboarding with the with what
with the payment processor and go through. Yeah, there are
they know your business processes for the payment processor, and
that's what most of the big promoters in New Zealand do.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Because money then they want the money straight away to
be able to use that presumably.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And they also take on the risk. Yeah, but what
what when that happens? And in that scenario, during the
checkout process on the payment form, we actually show that
very clearly that the payment's been taken by the promoter
the refund terms of theirs and that also is in
the confirmation email.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Do you obviously you regret partnering with these guys, but
do you check them out before you partner with them?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely absolutely, And the there's a second level of diligence
that happens with the payment processor as well to make
sure and they have to put all their business information,
they have to upload their incorporation documents, so there's two
levels of checks. Absolutely, right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Does this put you off doing stuff with New Zealand
promoters or was this just a one off big No?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean, look, we've we've sold it. We've sold hundreds
of millions of dollars of tickets. I would estimate a
couple of hundred million dollars in New Zealand. So it's
a market that we really love. We have a team
on the ground. You know, we've been we've been in
using for a very long time. It's actually, i would
say in our top three big It's markets. So nothing,
(04:47):
it doesn't put me off, but we did have obviously
the the misunderstanding of people thinking that we'd actually taken
the money and then just given it to the promoter.
It is disheartening. I mean, the biggest thing is that,
you know, families who have paid a lot of money
for their tickets have not got that money anymore, right,
(05:09):
and that's a big shame. Obviously the promoter's not in
business right now, but individual families who don't have that
cash that that's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
And we we've.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Spent a lot of We put a lot of effort
into making sure that fans have been protected over the years.
So we were one of the first platforms in the
world to have a secure resale system. It stops scalping,
it stops from being ripped off with fake tickets, it
stops tickets from being resold above face value. So we've
put a lot of effort over the years into making
sure that fans are protected just because we know how important.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Though, would you consider not offering the option for promoters
to collect the money directly themselves so that you are
a beck stop for those people who are missing out.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, of course, of course. But what I would say
would happen is that most of the promoters in New
Zealand would no longer be able to run shows because
almost every other platform, apart from say the tickettecs, do
offer the ability to connect the promotero merchant account.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, why do people go with you and see the
ticket ticket to you guys cheaper?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
No, it's not even that. We've put a lot of
work into building technology that helps to drive more sales
for the promoter. It helps them with marketing. At the
same time the fans are protected from scalping. You know,
there's a closedly resale system that makes sure that no
one gets ripped off, like I was saying before, So
we kind of come in as this almost like a
(06:35):
marketing layer that allows the Ironically, it de risks the
promoter because it helps them to drive more sales and
actually give them a better chance of breaking even on
their gig. And what happened with Juicy and Timeless is
it's very much an unusual event. It's one of the
it's actually the first time we've had something like this happen.
And they got canceled because there at the very last
(06:58):
minute their permits were not granted for the alcohol and
so had that not happened, the shows would have gone ahead.
Like so, I think a few people thought that the
shows were fake, but as far as we're aware, all
of the artists had had their deposits paid and they
were ready to tour and Juicy in Australia did actually happen.
That went ahead and so the permit's not being granted
(07:20):
in New Zealand, that's actually what caused the cancelations.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Interesting, British, thanks for coming on, British Prattel who's the
CEO and co founder of the Ticket Theory.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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