With Elton John recovering from pneumonia after cutting short his concert on Sunday, and tonight's concert postponed, ticket holders may be entitled to a refund.
Sir Elton lost his voice and was tearful and apologetic as he called off the remainder of his concert, 16 songs into his 25-song set on Sunday at the first of three sold-out shows in Auckland.
The 72-year-old performer has been diagnosed with walking pneumonia, a mild form of the illness, and is expected to make a full recovery, but postponed his show scheduled for tonight on doctors' advice, to tomorrow to give him more time to rest.
All tickets for the Tuesday night concert remain valid for Wednesday's show, with all concert details including transport remaining the same for Wednesday.
Consumer New Zealand head of research Jessica Wilson said people from Sunday's show or who could not attend the rescheduled show tomorrow night may be entitled to a refund.
"If you've forked out good money to go to a concert but the entertainer doesn't turn up or only performs half of the promised performance then you do have grounds to seek a refund," she said.
"Same deal if you've bought a ticket and then the event is rescheduled and you cannot attend the rescheduled event, you're entitled to ask for your money back."
Elton John leaves the stage after ending his show early on Sunday night. Photo: Twitter/Elton John
She said regardless of how much of the event people may missed out on they would be entitled to seek repayment.
"Basically it was advertised as that - that is what you're getting for your money and you didn't get it - then yes, you are within your rights to apply for a refund because you only got part of the service you paid for."
She said people wanting to seek a refund should go directly to their ticket agent.
"Really your contract is with the ticket agency, that is who you bought the ticket from. So we would advise consumers to go back ot ticket agents in the first instance and put their for a partial refund to the ticket agent."
People who bought tickets through TradeMe or another reseller might struggle to recover their costs however.
That might be a little trickier as well because if you've bought - basically - a scalp ticket or a ticket from a private seller, that - you're right - may in fact in those cases be more constrained particularly if the terms and conditions of the ticket said that they were not allowed to be onsold.
Getting a refund for transport and other associated costs of attending the concert could also be difficult, unless it was part of a package, she said.
"If you bought your ticket as part of a package deal - you bought it through a promoter who was offering both transport and a ticket - then you would have grounds to get the full amount of what you paid, back. That includes anything that was included in that package."
"If you arranged your transport separately, then you would have to rely on any ... insurance you took out."
