From 1 June, visitors will be able to start redeeming tickets. In this blog, we’ll show you how ticket buyers can redeem their prepaid tickets and gain access to an event through final payments.

Down payments & final payments

According to the Dutch government’s opening plan, events should be possible starting from the 30th of June, signalling the start of step 4. As such, many organisers have decided to start their ticket sales with the help of down payments. Below, we’ll go through all the intricacies of down payments, residual payments and what steps you still need to take as an organiser.

What is a down payment?

A down payment is when a ticket buyer pays a portion of the cost of a ticket in advance and thereby secures the privilege of purchasing a ticket when they become available. Generally, these down payments are a fraction of the total ticket price. Ticket buyers receive confirmation in the form of a down payment ticket. These tickets contain a unique code that can later be used to redeem the actual tickets for the event. Down payment tickets are therefore not valid admission tickets.

What is a final payment?

To gain access to an event using down payments, ticket buyers must redeem their down payments by paying the remaining cost of the order. We call this the final payment. Once the final payment has been made, ticket buyers will receive their new tickets in their mailbox. Only redeemed tickets count as valid admission tickets.

What does a down/final payment look like?

Let’s say that Event X will take place in September, has a maximum capacity of 3000 and each ticket costs €50. The organiser previously decided to use advance payments for this event and put the sale live with a price of €10.00 for the down payment on a ticket. With this down payment, ticket buyers reserve the right to buy the actual tickets when they go live. The final transaction is therefore called the final payment. Final payments can only take place once the organiser has determined the period for this (e.g. start and end date).

In the case of Event X, the final payment is €40.00 per ticket. Ticket buyers can only redeem the tickets over the entire order, not for individual tickets within an order. If a ticket buyer has bought 5 tickets for event X with a down payment of € 10 per ticket, then they have paid €50.00 in advance and the remaining payment for that order is: € 40.00 x 5 = € 200.00.

What’s left to do?

What Eventix will do for you

Making sure that your ticket buyers are not hindered in any way in redeeming their tickets is important to us. To make the process of redeeming tickets as easy as possible, we do the following:

We send your ticket buyers an email, on a date specified by you, containing a personal link to the final payment form. Here they can make the remaining payments directly.

Sometimes ticket buyers lose this email, or it ends up in their spam filter. That's why we made sure that ticket buyers can also open the refund form from the order status page (where ticket buyers normally download their tickets). This can be done in two ways:

• Ticket buyers reach the order status page via the link in the confirmation e-mail (which they receive from us after paying the deposit). To do so, they click on the 'Download ticket(s)' button.
• Are ticket buyers unable to access their mailbox? Then they can use our search tool to be directed to their order status page by entering the payment reference on their bank statement.

Once on the order status page, visitors click on the blue 'redeem tickets' button to go to the refund form. The refund form looks like this:

After the final payment has been made, ticket buyers will receive a new ticket that ultimately grants admission to the event. The tickets will be sent to the same email address that was used to make the down payment. Ticket buyers then have a set number of days, determined by the organiser, to make the final payment. Once this period has expired, the organiser can release the remaining tickets (or any unredeemed tickets) for regular sale.

Caution! When making a final payment, only the full order can be redeemed and not individual tickets. If an order consists of five tickets, the full amount for five tickets must be paid before the tickets are redeemed. You cannot partially redeem your order.

Admission control

The only valid admission tickets are the tickets received after the final payments. We’ll ensure that the down payment tickets can’t be scanned on location. Instead, these tickets will cause an error message when scanned - a red screen within the Eventix Scanner App. We can make this easier for the visitors too by making sure there is a clear distinction between the ticket images of the down payment ticket and the valid admission ticket.

Valid tickets from the previous edition

Do you have ticket buyers who have transferred tickets from a previous edition? We’ll send these ticket buyers a new email with the valid tickets three days before the event so they don’t have to search for them in their mailbox.

This is what we need from you as an organiser

We’ll make sure to create new tickets in the Dashboard that can be redeemed and we’ll copy the existing capacity, prices and VAT percentages. You’ve already received an email about this, if you cannot find it, please contact us.

To streamline the process, we ask you to provide us with the following information:

• The ticket image for the valid admission tickets (final payment tickets). By giving these a different design from the down payment tickets you avoid confusion at the entrance.
• The ticket image for the down payment tickets (if you haven’t already uploaded them). This can be a simple design that clearly indicates that it is only a down payment ticket and that it is not a valid admission ticket.
• The date you want the final payments to start (we’ll send an email to all ticket buyers on this date): the starting date.
• The date until which the remaining payments can be made: the cut-off date.

We’ll need the above information at least three working days before the starting date. We recommend that you give us these details well in advance to give us enough time. We’ll confirm when everything is in order, and only then can the process start. After this point, you can inform the ticket buyers about the process of redeeming their tickets.

Communication to ticket buyers

It’s crucial for you as an organiser to inform your ticket buyers about the process of redeeming tickets and the conditions that apply. We’ll send an email to the ticket buyers notifying them that they can redeem their tickets, but it’s important that you communicate this to them as well. This way, we make sure that as many ticket buyers as possible can cash their tickets within the given timeframe.

Below, we’ve prepared an example of how to communicate to your visitors that they can now begin the final payments. Feel free to copy this email:

Subject: This is what you need to do to redeem your tickets

Hi < name >,

We have good news for you: Starting from < starting date >, you can redeem your tickets for < event name >. You’ve already completed a down payment for these tickets, but now you can complete the final payment. You have until < cut-off date > to redeem your tickets.

Where do I complete the final payment?
Using Eventix’s final payment form, you can select a payment method and redeem your tickets. There are a few ways to open this form:

1. You’ve received an email from Eventix with a direct link to the final payment form. Open the email and click on the link.

2. Once you’ve completed the original down payment, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Eventix. By clicking on the ‘Download ticket(s)’ button in this email, you’ll be redirected to the so-called order status page. Here, you can open your final payment form by clicking on ‘Redeem your tickets’.

3. If you can’t access your mailbox, you can use the Eventix search tool to be redirected to the order status page. To do this, enter your payment ID for the ordered tickets, which can be found in the description of your bank statement.

What happens if I don’t redeem my tickets before the cut-off date?
If you don’t redeem your tickets before the cut-off date, there’s a chance that the tickets will be put up for sale again and will be sold to someone else. If this happens, the down payment will not be refunded, so make sure you complete the final payment on time.

Caution: When completing the final payment, you’ll need to redeem all the tickets in your order at once. You cannot redeem tickets individually. For example, if your order has five tickets in it, you’ll need to complete the final payment for the value of five tickets before your tickets are redeemed. You cannot partially redeem your order.

If you have any questions, please contact us!

Kind regards,
< signature >

We also recommend sending at least one reminder email to ticket buyers who have not yet redeemed their tickets when the cut-off date is approaching. If you need help in figuring out who hasn’t completed their final payment yet, we’ll be happy to help you.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us through info@eventix.io.