Truck farmer says Truck has 'lost its way' as he reconsiders festival future

A CONSUMER champion has appealed for anyone who thinks they were ripped off by this year’s Truck ticketing system to get in touch.

Shane Govern, commercial manager for a national construction firm, believes many people may have been affected and is looking at the case for legal action.

He made his appeal after a family friend asked if he could help when she had her tickets taken away from her after paying nearly all her money.

Beth Luscombe, 18, from Benson, decided to go back to Truck for a second time this year after she had an 'amazing time' in 2016.

She started paying direct debit monthly instalments in January but the week before the festival, when she called to ask where her tickets were, she said she was told the company had never taken her final payment in June.

She said she was given no reason why.

As far as she could tell the company had made no attempt to tell her there had been a problem.

She phoned her bank Nationwide and said she was told that no attempt had ever been made to take the final payment, and there were sufficient funds in her account.

Beth ended up driving from her home to the other side of Oxford the day before the festival to pay £150 for a replacement ticket.

She said: “The whole experience has put me off going again: given I spent £280 in total in the end, I’d rather spend that money going to Reading.”

Her story comes after long-time trucker Louise Carr from Wantage had a similar experience, forking out nearly £200 for her and her boyfriend’s tickets only to be told Truck never took the last payment.

Truck Festival has now said it tried to take the final payments in both cases but the attempt was decline by the respective banks. It also said it emailed both Miss Luscombe and Miss Carr to tell them the payment had failed and tried to call each of them once.

In a statement the festival said it had a policy that tickets would be 'released with no refunds if any payment is missed', though it has not explained why it thinks these payments were missed. It also said it would take feedback on board.

Anyone who has a similar story is asked to email shanegovern@icloud.com