Gigsberg is a secondary marketplace for events taking place around the world. Based in Switzerland, the company has only been around since 2018, but has already cornered a chunk of the resale market, especially for concerts and festivals. Live music and comedy are Gigsberg’s specialities, but you can also get hold of tickets for sports events, from tennis Grand Slams to Champions League knockouts.
Customer service is a cornerstone of the company’s success, helping it stand out in a crowded industry. Several parties are involved in each transaction, including the seller, buyer and the event organiser. So there’s scope for occasional mishaps, and Gigsberg responds to these with efficient troubleshooting and clear communication.
In this review we’ll look at the website’s functionality and try out the Gigsberg buying process. We’ll pore over everything that the company does right, and assess the things that occasionally go wrong. Going further, we’ll also do a deep-dive on what customers are saying about Gigsberg right now.
Speed of ticket delivery depends on the seller, but also the event organiser. A common bug in this industry is that the tickets for the event are only issued within 1-3 days of the date. On these occasions there might be a lot of stress for all involved.
To ease any doubts, Gigsberg does inform buyers that tickets for certain events will be released close to the date. To go with this there’s a communicative and responsive customer service department, smoothing things along.
On those occasions when the tickets are issued later, you can expect contact checking to see if you’ve received or been able to download them. So Gigsberg will reach out to you without being prompted. This dedicated customer service sets the company aside from some of its competitors in the secondary market.
- To reassure customers when they make their purchase, Gigsberg restates its guarantee, the tenets are as follows:.
- You get your money back if an event is cancelled and not rescheduled
- You receive your tickets safely and on time
- You’re able to contact the Gigsberg Support Team either by email or messaging for queries and assistance
You can start by using the search function on the landing page, or the dropdown menu. We’ll navigate the concerts by genre.
This leads to a page with a selection of clubs.
We clicked on FC Barcelona, who had a couple of fixtures to choose from.
We opted for the game against Real Sociedad. Here you can see a wealth of ticket listings, with menus to help you select the quantity of tickets you want, as well as price range and category. These listings also point out whether the ticket is a Mobile Ticket or E-ticket.
Throughout this phase of the purchase, note the WhatsApp and chat icons in the bottom right of the screen.
Hovering your cursor over the tickets highlights where they are on the seating plan.
Then, even when you click on the listed tickets you still have the option of adjusting the quantity via the “Number of Tickets” menu.
After that, you proceed to payment, where Gigsberg’s guarantee is restated to offer additional peace of mind.
You can also see the original face value of the ticket here.
We didn’t see PayPal in Gigsberg’s list of payment options, so this presented a good opportunity to try out Gigsberg’s customer service with a simple question.
So, as you can see the reply from Gigsberg’s customer support team was extremely quick, taking only seven minutes. The only problem was that they didn’t explicitly answer our question. If you’re still wondering, the answer is no, PayPal is not supported on Gigsberg.
We always recommend that you take the time to browse companys’ Terms and Conditions pages before you make a purchase. The secondary market has a few quirks, and you may get a nasty surprise if you rush into a purchase unawares.
“2. Description of the Services
…Gigsberg, through the Website, also provides a marketplace service to Sellers who have an account with the Website which allows them to sell any title/value which allows access to a public spectacle or an event (other than those which cannot be listed as described in the Seller Policies)(“Tickets”).
All Tickets sold in the Website are sold in the secondary market and their prices may exceed the face value.”
Many people will purchase their tickets on a secondary marketplace like Gigsberg and then express their anger at the price they paid being much higher than the face value of the ticket. Gigsberg takes pains to explain that it is the seller to decide the price of the ticket, and up to the buyer to decide whether it’s reasonable.
“13. Buying Tickets
By placing an order through the Services you are entering into a binding contract with the Seller to purchase the Ticket for which you placed your order. All sales are final, except for cancelled events, and you will not receive any refund for purchases unless otherwise provided under these Terms. Any amendment to any orders after the sale is complete is not possible.”
This is an issue that comes up time and again. Unless an event is cancelled, there are no circumstances in which you are entitled to a refund for your ticket purchase. If you can’t get to an event, there’s nothing to stop you re-listing your ticket on Gigsberg.
“16. Event changes, cancellation or postponement
If an event is cancelled and not rescheduled, the Buyer must retain the Tickets and, if originally sent from the Seller, send them back to the Seller. The Buyer shall be refunded for the Tickets once the Seller has received the Tickets (if applicable) and no payment shall be awarded to the Seller for such transaction.”
As a buyer, it’s vital that you know your rights and the steps you should take to get a refund if the event is cancelled.
“If an event is postponed, Gigsberg will instruct the Seller and the Buyer how to resolve any Ticket issues. Refunds will not be issued for postponed events, unless they are ultimately cancelled as stated above.”
Again, this is a recurring issue on the secondary market, so as a buyer it’s worth doing extra research about the date of the event if you are unable to be flexible about attending. Again, you are normally free to resell the tickets on Gigsberg if you can’t attend the rescheduled date.
As you can see, Gigsberg has a respectable 4-star rating on Trustpilot, from more than 1,450 user reviews. The company also gets back to almost all negative reviews on this platform, responding within a couple of weeks.
Gigsberg Positive Reviews
Most people who use Gigsberg only have good things to say about the company. A recurring theme in the positive reviews is customer service.
Buying tickets from a secondary marketplace requires a bit of a leap of faith, and you need evidence that a company is going to help you with any issue that might come up. This is especially true for first-time users, which makes up the majority of the company’s customer base.
There’s also a lot of scope for small things to go wrong, like sellers sending tickets late, tickets being sent to people’s spam inboxes, and mobile ticket apps malfunctioning.
In response, the customer care department at Gigsberg appears dedicated to solving the little or big problems that can arise. This includes a lot of help with technical issues, mainly revolving around payment, and tickets not appearing to load in people’s ticketing apps.
Given that tickets are occasionally issued 1-3 days before an event, it’s natural that some customers will start to get anxious in the countdown to their event. These users are reassured by the availability of reps, responding to their queries.
In fact, availability of customer service is a constant theme in Trustpilot reviews, helping to resolve problems seven days a week via the Gigsberg’s by phone, emails, live chat or WhatsApp.
While we’ve shown that the speed of ticket delivery depends on the seller, in many of the positive reviews the tickets were emailed to buyers within days. At any rate, many customers’ minds were set at ease by Gigsberg’s guarantees and contactability.
In summary, here are a few of the headlines in Gigsberg’s positive reviews:
- Responsive and proactive customer service representatives
- Technical issues dealt with efficiently
- Easy to use website
Gigsberg Negative Reviews
So that’s the good news, now for the not-so-good. As you can see, a minority of users have registered their displeasure with Gigsberg, posting 1-star reviews.
First off, a lot of these reviewers appear to have rushed through their transactions without noticing that Gigsberg is in fact a secondary marketplace. So when they receive their tickets, many complain that their purchase was well in excess of the face value of the ticket.
This is the nature of a secondary marketplace where the sellers can set the price, and buyers decide whether they want to pay that amount. A good everyday comparison is eBay, where the price of items is usually set by the market.
In their defence, Gigsberg has a notice to this effect at the top of every single page of their website. For our part, we’re not calling out the negative reviewers on Trustpilot, more pointing this fact out for anybody reading this review.
Another issue that crops up in the negative reviews is a buyer being unable to resell the tickets on their platform. This is the case with a minority of the events listed on Gigsberg, and the site makes this clear when you purchase the tickets.
Going further, yet another recurring theme is people’s inability to obtain refunds for tickets. As we pointed out, Gigsberg’s Terms and Conditions are explicit about this. You are not entitled to a refund unless there is a cancellation.
Lastly, occasionally Gigsberg charges considerable service fees, increasing the price of the tickets. Purchasers have noticed this and mentioned it in their reviews. As mentioned in the Terms and Conditions, Gigsberg does inform the purchaser about these fees when they make their purchase.
So to recap, here’s a summary of the negative reviews for Gigsberg on Trustpilot:
- Certain tickets can’t be resold
- Lack of a refund aside from when events are cancelled
- Service fees can be hefty