Disgruntled fans of superstar Robbie Williams left counting cost after ticket fiasco

Quoted from: http://www.thisisyork.co.uk

'By Mike Laycock
Sue Edgley, left, and Yvonne Corner who will not be watching Robbie Williams in concert tonight after the agency who sold them their tickets went bust.

IT was meant as a tonic for York mother Yvonne Corner after she underwent treatment for cancer.
Her friend, Sue Edgley, bought tickets last November for them to see Robbie Williams in concert tonight.
But now their plans for a great night out lie in ruins after the agency which sold them the tickets ceased trading.
They will have to stay at home while 80,000 other fans are entertained by the superstar at Roundhay Park, Leeds.


And Sue, 50, of Pheasant Drive, Woodthorpe, has been left £446 out of pocket, having bought four tickets with a Switch debit card and no guarantees of getting the money back.
Yvonne, 38, of Acomb, said: "I had been undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer, and Sue bought the tickets last autumn as a surprise to boost me up.
"It would have been a nice tonic. She bought tickets for me, herself, her husband and as a Christmas present for her daughter, Lisa, from an agency called Harley Street Brokers.
"It was a really nice gesture and we were really looking forward to seeing Robbie. I like him. I had arranged for a relative and a friend to look after my two special needs children.

Michelle Tapper, left, and Lisa Hopkins who have missed out on getting close to Robbie Williams

"But the tickets never turned up and it eventually turned out on Monday that they had gone out of business. It's a real disappointment. We were gutted."
Sue Jones, Westminster City Council's chief trading standards officer, said today it had received a number of complaints about the firm from people who had bought Robbie Williams tickets but not received them.
"It appears they have been using a mail box in Westminster which is now telling people that the company has ceased trading. We will be looking into this and will be trying to establish the status of the company."
Golden' tickets fail to showFOUR other Robbie Williams fans from York dreamed for eleven months of getting up close and personal at tonight's concert.
The York friends paid £170 each almost a year ago for "Gold Circle" tickets near the front of the stage, but their hopes were ruined after the tickets failed to turn up.
Now Lisa Hopkins, Michelle Tapper, Vicky Schofield, of South Bank, and Joanne Maddison, of Huntington, have had to turn in desperation to Ebay and managed to get hold of four tickets - but for somewhere in the middle of the vast crowd, far away from the stage and the singer.
Lisa, of Beaconsfield Street, Acomb, said she had bought the tickets from a London-based ticket agency, Splendid.
After the tickets failed to arrive, the agency first claimed it had sent them and there had been problems in the post. But it later told her that Splendid had not itself received the tickets from its own suppliers, and she would be entitled to a refund. However, this would take two or three weeks, and it would still not get her back her Gold Circle admission. "I'm really disappointed," she said.
"We've been looking forward to this since last October."
Michelle, of Tedder Road, Acomb, said: "We're gutted. I have seen Robbie twice before but never as close up as this."
The Press attempted to ring Splendid more than 50 times before a man who answered said the problem was not due to the post.
He said he would get back to the paper, but failed to do so.
A spokesman for Robbie said there had been no problems for anyone booking tickets directly through the singers' website.

11:05am Friday 8th September 2006'