Angry couple miss Elton John performance after being denied access to £262 worth of e-tickets

Neil Grieves, 67, and Brenda Maughan, 60, bought two tickets to the concert through Ticketmaster, costing a total of £261.45. However, they said that when they went to print their tickets at home, they didn’t show up on their account

An angry couple missed Elton John’s farewell concert because they couldn’t access their tickets, they have claimed.

Neil Grieves, 67, and Brenda Maughan, 60, from Ashington, bought two tickets to the concert through Ticketmaster, costing a total of £261.45.

But when the couple went to print their tickets at home, they didn’t show up in their account.

Neil claims he has tried to contact the company multiple times but has been unable to get through to anyone. He said they missed Sunday night’s show in Sunderland, which is part of The Rocket Man’s final tour.

The retired gardener said: “I was furious if you pay for something it should be there waiting for you – not just disappear. It said there were no tickets for upcoming events so I figured they must have put them in past events but there wasn’t anything in there either.

There was nothing at all. I was panicking. I thought where did the tickets go?

“It has to be the hardest place to make contact. There was no phone number to ring. It’s like trying to contact the Secret Service when trying to find an email address. I must have sent about 10 emails and still have no reply.

“We are big fans of Elton John. We couldn’t get there in the 70’s, he wasn’t in Newcastle very often. We won’t see him again. My birthday was on the 14th and I was looking forward to it It’s very annoying to be disappointed and not given an apology.

Elton’s Farewell Tour was announced last June and Brenda said they decided to limit buying gifts for each other because of ticket costs. She said: “We booked the concert as soon as we heard about it. I just want to sit and cry, it’s heartbreaking. I’ve been looking forward to it.

“We didn’t buy gifts for Christmas or birthdays because the tickets were so expensive. We skipped birthday and Christmas boxes because we wanted to see Elton John.

“I was bragging to my friends because they wanted to go and it was sold out. I said ‘I’m going to see Elton John’ and see what happened.”

The couple, who love live music, have visited other venues on a number of occasions, including the Sage Gateshead. They said that this is the first time they have bought tickets through Ticketmaster.

Neil and Brenda went on a two day trip to Southampton and returned on Friday 17th June – two days ahead of the scheduled concert. However, when they returned home, they were unable to access their tickets online.

Neil said: “When I went into my account before I went on holiday it said ‘tickets are not ready’. Ticketmaster gets paid a lot for this, so I can’t understand why it’s taking so long to get them ready. We’ve had tickets for them for months.

“When I came back on Friday I checked and there was nothing. They just disappeared. It was like I hadn’t paid for tickets. I thought what happened here.

“People should rely on these systems to get tickets. I don’t know if anyone else was treated like we were.”

Ticketmaster informed Chronicle Live that they have refunded Neil and Brenda as a goodwill gesture. Neil said he appreciated the company’s offer of a refund.