Woman ‘livid’ and £150 out of pocket after missing out on Coronation concert

A receptionist said she is “livid” after paying £150 for a hotel in time for the Coronation Concert, only to find out that she could not get tickets for the event.

Una Driscoll, from Staffordshire, said that she has been “left out of pocket” after amending her hotel booking, which cannot be refunded, and said the ordeal has been “disgusting”.

“I’m livid,” the 50-year-old, who works for salad brand Florette, said.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’m £150 out of pocket and no tickets. It’s disgusting.”

Members of the public were invited to apply via a ballot for a chance to receive free tickets to the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle on May 7.

On Tuesday, those who passed the ballot received an email stating they were successful and were advised they had until midday on April 27 to claim tickets.

“It said you’ve got until the 27th to confirm, so it took a while to sort out the hotel booking, but by the time I had sorted it and changed my hotel booking, I had an email pop up to say that tickets had sold out,” explained Ms Driscoll.

“It wasn’t even 24 hours, it was literally two hours.”

Ms Driscoll said there was “no way that I was going to miss out on the opportunity” to attend the Coronation Concert, which will see performances from Take That, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry.

“That’s why we went into overdrive to sort our weekends out in order to make ourselves available and do the mammoth journey down to Windsor,” said the receptionist.

“Now it’s just absolute frustration, disappointment, and upset. I’m just absolutely shocked.”

Tickets were distributed through Ticketmaster, which Ms Driscoll described as “a shambles” and many have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration at not receiving tickets.

“This isn’t the first time Ticketmaster has been a shambles – they were a shambles with the Taylor Swift tickets, so they haven’t got the best reputation in the world,” Ms Driscoll said.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said that unclaimed tickets released on a first-come, first-served basis sold out “very quickly”.

“Everyone who was successful in the two main ballot rounds for the Coronation Concert was offered a guaranteed pair of tickets, provided they claimed them within three weeks,” the ticket sales company said.

“Today, any unclaimed tickets were released on a first-come, first-served basis to those who had previously applied to the ballot (and were unsuccessful). These inevitably went very quickly.”

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