Streisand fans in line for refund

BARBRA Streisand fans left furious by organisational chaos at her Irish concert last month should get their money back plus compensation, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) has said.

The CAI released its recommendations yesterday after investigating written complaints from almost 350 ticket holders who were angered and disappointed at the way they were treated at the much-hyped gig.

Chief among their complaints was discovering they had no seats and missing all or much of the performance because of traffic mayhem at the lone entrance to the Castletown House venue in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Others complained of rows erupting around them because of the shortage of seats, of a lack of ushers and attendants to assist people and of unsupervised and dangerous parking conditions, which left some motorists unable to move for up to two-and-a-half hours after the show.

In his report to concert promoters, MCD, CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell described the fiasco as “one of the worst examples of a failure to deliver the quality of customer service that is purported to exist within this company’s culture”.

Mr Jewell said MCD was in breach of its contract with ticketholders to provide a properly run event as set out in the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980.

MCD spokesman Justin Green said the company had received the CAI’s report last week and acknowledged their contents. However, he said a committee set up in the aftermath of the concert to examine complaints had not yet reached its conclusions

“The committee plan to publish their report week commencing on September 10, 2007,” he said.