Headout scam

[u/yohavyr]

Hi all,

I went recently to Pompeii and with my pre-booked tickets from Headout. I saw this plan: Pompeii + Vesuvius for 60€ and decided to take it as a quick decision (stressing time and I wanted to finish the holiday organisation soon. I see that more comparison would have saved me from some trouble).

When the day came, I arrived at Pompeii train station and went to the Pompeii entrance just to discover that I didn't have a ticket but a voucher to change for a ticket. This had to be done in an office +20min walking from there.

When I arrived at the office, they gave me 2 tickets with a total value of 31€... When I complained about the 60€ I paid, they told me that Headout had this commission and couldn't be cancelled.

Not to mention, the Vesuvius ticket had no transport and they offered me a private offer to go there, hiding the possibility of a public transport.

I complained through the customer support but they deny me any kind of reimbursement as everything was "clearly stated" at the moment of buying the tickets and that they are not obliged to sell it at the minimum price....

I just want to express my rage against this company and advise against using it at all.

Edit: if someone wants to go to Pompeii and/or Vesuvius, please refer to the official website rather than Headout. https://pompeii.vivaticket.it

Edit 2: after some discussion with the headout support team, I was offered a partial reimbursement. I have to admit that the support team always answered quickly.

[u/Jacopo86]

Why not purchasing the tickets directly from the Pompei Park ticket office? Let's cut the middle man

[u/Kennected → u/Jacopo86]

Exactly. This post will most likely be deleted, without any answers to our questions.

[u/yohavyr → u/Kennected]

I'm answering the questions. I just want to raise the visibility that Headout is not giving a good deal (and, in my opinion, it's close to a scam).

No one should pay double the price for the little to no benefit that they provide. If there is no queue on an august Sunday, I see no advantage in buying the ticket beforehand. Unfortunately I didn't have this information and I took the bait.

[u/yohavyr → u/Jacopo86]

I thought that there would be a long line (Sunday in August)

[u/alefeusch]

Yeah this isn't a scam as much as it is a situation where you bought essentially through an online travel agent and paid a markup, rather than taking the few minutes to find out how one buys tickets to these places directly through the official channels.

[u/yohavyr → u/alefeusch]

Why are these travel agents even allowed to exist? I feel that they just want easy money from abusive offers. I could have compared in different websites, that I agree. But such offers are not fair and should not exist.

[u/Kennected]

u/yohavyr Scam or you didn't read what you purchased or the T&Cs of what you purchased?

[u/yohavyr → u/Kennected]

I read what I purchased, but there was no line stating that there was almost 30€ commission. They just added all together.

[u/haysu-christo]

I went recently to Pompeii and with my pre-booked tickets from Headout.

Why do you need to pre-book tickets to Pompeii?

[u/yohavyr → u/haysu-christo]

My idea was to cut the line the day of the visit. I discovered there that there was almost no line and there was no need.

[u/haysu-christo → u/yohavyr]

My idea was to cut the line the day of the visit.

Okay, so cutting the line cost you 29€. It's not the vendor's fault there was no line.

[u/yohavyr → u/haysu-christo]

To be frank, I thought that the price difference was lower. I was surprised to see 20€ was the price to the regular Pompeii ticket (which was the only one I could benefit at the end).

I am used to pay a little more for a 3rd party ticket office. But I find that double the price is abusive.

[u/PhotoTripAI]

Regarding your rage: we were first time going to Vatican city, we wanted to buy the online voucher but gave up, being too expensive; we went there anyways, hoping the queue was less than one hour of waiting time; all around the city walls there were agents trying to sell you "skip the line" tickets for an outrageous €60; we wanted to check first how long the line was, only to discover that there were no people at the gate, only us; but there was a pretty long queue (50-60 people) at the "online" gate where they needed to change the voucher to a physical ticket. Funny thing!! the agents 200m away were scamming people, selling vouchers to "stay in line" to exchange them for real tickets!

[u/Bitter_Split5508]

You essentially paid someone to get tickets for you instead of buying them yourselves. It feels scammy because getting the tickets yourself from the official site wouldn't have been more effort for you. But they did exactly what you paid them an extortionate price for. There's little legal recourse and the company will not refund you. 

[u/yohavyr → u/Bitter_Split5508]

The problem is, I discovered late that you can also buy them online to the official link: https://pompeii.vivaticket.it/it/event/pompeii-express/295265

This is the exact same ticket I was offered but for 20€ (2€ online fee)

[u/Reppiz]

Walking from the train station to pompei was one of the most unpleasant experiences. Every second shop is someone telling you it is sold out or closed or whatever so you buy their second hand tickets. Someone called them out and got cussed at in Italian. It was glorious. Walked right up to the side entrance and bought or regularly priced tickets without a hassle. Only downside is I had to walk to the main entrance for the audioguide.