Friends asking for their money back

they paid for concert tickets, so the tickets belong to your friends. Send them the tickets and let them worry about what to do with those. Your 'friends' will otherwise for sure ask for a refund for the tickets as well, whether you manage to sell them or not.

Loads of generalisations and chav bashing on here. Ewwww.

Sounds like you made a real effort to make the trip affordable for them OP so it’s a pity they don’t see this.

I have to say that I’m usually too nervous to book non-refundable hotel tickets though.
I know they’re cheaper but plans do often change! I usually take the ‘cancellation possible until 48 hrs in advance’ option. Was this not a possibility because you’d used your points? (Not sure how the points work.)

I really feel for you OP, this happened to me, and on another occasion to a friend, leaving us both several hundred pounds out of pocket. Now if I organise any event, I will not book it until other people have paid me, (ie I won't pay upfront out of my money) and I send out texts or emails saying that if they cancel, I will try to get refunds, but if refunds are not available, then they forfeit the money. If they object, I simply tell them of my previous experience and say I can't afford to lose money on someone else's behalf.

Or, “luckily, as I shared my points with you, at least you are only down £30 each”.

I hope their tickets don’t sell.

yanbu

OP, are you Goldilocks?

And maybe send them the tickets so they can do the admin of trying to sell them.

I wouldn’t lie about it, your point about either travelling 4 hours to see it alone rather than being a few hundred quid down is good enough. Decent friends wouldn’t mind you making the most of it and wouldn’t want you to be out of pocket. Fuck em.

I'd just send back 'lol'

absolute piss takers. I'd reduce their concert tickets to really cheap, so they actually sell, and then keep that money as well rather than refunding them. How will they know? Tight sods. Lazy as well, why is it up to you to try and sell their tickets? At least you got the money from them upfront, well done on that.

I know you've explained several times they won't refund the points but just wondering if there's any chance they'd let you swap the date as an alternative, so you and a partner/different friend could make use of it? If it's a chain they might even let you swap hotels as well as long as it's within the same brand? Worth a try.

How come suddenly they're too ill to go? It doesn't sound very likely. And why did you pay the ,£200 upfront yourself anyway,? They've let you down badly. See

I know this response is superfluous because you've had great advice but tell them to get to fuck

I’m so sorry you’ve got shit friends you don’t owe them a penny it’s their loss just remember this in future and only ever book for yourself hope you have a great time

I have never been so unwell as to not be able to attend a concert. I’d go with my eyes hanging out.

The flakiness of this is annoying enough on its own, without the cheek of expecting you to refund them.

If you're going to be flaky and bail out of things because you've got a better offer or can't be arsed, you have to accept the financial penalty. I don't buy their 'too ill' excuse at all.

Do not pay them back! You’ve already subbed them £200!!! And let them deal with the tickets, if possible (probably isnt).
Disappointing friends. I always wonder why friends never cease to be disappointing 😪

We had a weekend cottage booked for a group. We all paid. Then one friend realised she couldn’t go got a better offer. She didn’t charge the rest of us to make up her share as we were still making use of the cottage. Obviously that would have been completely ridiculous. It was on her that she couldn’t come. We would have booked a smaller / cheaper cottage at the start if we knew there would be fewer of us going. (As it was, I was somewhat peeved as we had booked the cottage to be close to her. A good 4.5 hour drive for me. And then she bloody well didn’t come!)

No one in their right mind would ask for that money. Only an utter CF. Seems you have 2 to contend with. Not sure if actually want to be friends with people like this.

Please tell me they’ve paid you for the tickets already..?

Yes they do. The ceo office of boots added £5 points into my advantage card this week When an offer didn’t work at the till.

Customer services weren’t very helpful.

What crap friends.

Just tell them the room is still available and paid for if they want to use it. Was it just one room?

In theory, as they've cancelled, they should pay you back their share of the Expedia voucher they wasted. A £260 room would be £87 each, so they owe you another £57 each!

As they've been so crap, then I hope karma strikes and they end up with their tickets not selling. Is that likely?

Who wants friends like this.. hotel is non - refundable cheek of the pair of them.

Ask them how they think they are going to get their money back if the hotel is none refundable? Some people are really thick!

@Nicolasaa9 sadly I've learned not to use points of any kind on anybody as well.

They might be confused about the costings but you just need to tell them straight how it breaks down and that they owe you money. I think they just saw it as cheap and just didn't care about you losing your points.

i'm also not sure why you are listing the tickets - is it because you bought them?

I'd insist, even if it cost me the friendship. Because if my friends treated me this way, I'd rather have £30 than them.

Yep, say you aren’t feeling well either, so they owe you for the non-refundable hotel. £30 each.