15 April 2008 - MR PRICE TO REIMBURSE ALL CUSTOMERS WHO BOUGHT JOSH GROBAN TICKETS AT MR PRICE STORES

In light of the recent liquidation announcement by Ticket Connection, the ticket sales agent of the cancelled Josh Groban concert, Mr Price has announced that it will fully reimburse any customer who paid for tickets at any Mr Price Store.

Ticket Connection, which used Mr Price stores as an outlet for ticket sales, announced it had been placed under provisional liquidation.  Ticket Connection had said that it could no longer continue funding credit card charge-backs as all money had been paid to the promoter.

The Mr Price Group confirmed that due to the liquidation, Mr Price stores would no longer be selling concert or event tickets as an outlet for Ticket Connection.  With many members of the public disappointed by the news of the concert cancellation, the Mr Price Group will fully reimburse all customers who purchased and paid for tickets in Mr Price stores.   Customers who bought their tickets online through Ticket Connection will need to seek reimbursement directly from the promoter.

Mr Price facilitated concert ticket sales through its association with Ticket Connection in two ways:

• Customers could purchase tickets in store. In the case of a cancelled concert, Mr Price would reimburse any customer, which they are doing in the case of the Josh Groban cancellation.

• Customers could buy tickets online through Ticket Connection and simply pick up their ticket printouts at a Mr Price Store. In the case of a cancelled concert, they would be reimbursed by Ticket Connection, as the company to whom money was paid.

Mr Price believes that the cancellation was most unfortunate with many individuals and companies affected.  Mr Price is working with the promoter to try and resolve the current state of affairs as swiftly as possible.

Ticketconnection, the exclusive ticketing agent for the much publicised Celine Dion and Josh Groban concerts released a statement yesterday:

"We have not previously publicly commented on the controversy attached to this promoter as we believed it would further aggravate the media uproar.”

Ticketconnection’s role as a ticketing agent, as with the other major industry player, Computicket, is to handle the sale and distribution of tickets only. Agents are provided with signed off seating plans of the venues by the promoter.

Due to the enormity of the Celine Dion event, and the limited resources of the promoter, Ticketconnection was asked to assist with the communication to the public regarding the outcome of the events and refund requests. All refund requests received by Ticketconnection have been forwarded to the promoter for direct reimbursement.

“Ticketconnection, as per the ticketing agency contract with all promoters is not contractually responsible for the refunds on events sold through us” Kuhle said “by assisting this promoter with Celine Dion we have incurred costs that have escalated to hundreds of thousand of rands."

In respect to the postponed Josh Groban tour promoted by Kusasa. “Kusasa has breached major clauses of the ticketing contract, that include reneging on the dates by which financial guarantees are to be provided to Ticketconnection, prior to Ticketconnection refunding customers.” said Kuhle.

"In addition, the ticketing contract specifies that the promoter must provide us with new dates and venues 2 days post the postponement announcement. We have yet to receive these and we now consider this event to be cancelled."

"We went ahead with the postponement announcement from the promoter in good faith on commitments made by themselves. We also put specific procedures in place to refund the public. In the event of any cancellation, these procedures are different, all tickets are automatically cancelled and transactions reversed. If customers did not purchase their tickets through a store then they do not have to visit a store to drop off their tickets” she said.

"Just the cost involved from our side of cancelling this event is in the region of R1 million rand, the majority of which has already been incurred by ourselves. These costs are mostly made up by credit card charges which are incurred twice with the reversal of these transactions.” Kuhle said.

Kusasa has given Ticketconnection the assurance that the guarantees required will be put in place. Ticketconnection does not yet have a date from the promoter as to when these will be provided but will do their utmost to ensure that the public is refunded as soon as possible.

Ticketconnection deeply apologises for the inconvenience caused especially to customers who have purchased Web, Call centre and Group booking tickets and have already visited a store to drop off their tickets to be refunded.

"These tickets have all been processed for refunding as per our 7 – 10 day commitment. The promoter has reneged on their commitment to provide a guarantee within that period so the physical refund can't be done”

"Everyone besides the promoter has acted in good faith here and followed the correct procedures. It is the responsibility of the promoter to provide the guarantees and we shouldn’t and cannot, afford to carry further costs for this promoter” Kuhle said.

As the media partner of the Josh Groban concert, we are facilitating the communication between Kusasa Entertainment and Ticketconnection to find a solution to this situation. We will endeavor to put forward the best interests of our listeners to the promoter and trust that he will honour the refund of tickets.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you.

LOS ANGELES, CA. March 10, 2008. It is with great regret that Josh Groban announces that dates for his upcoming South African tour have been postponed. The new concert dates will be rescheduled and announced as soon as possible.

Groban was due to perform a series of concerts commencing in Durban on March 16th. Groban's management has been trying to coordinate the tour for weeks, but due to the failure of the tour promoter, Duncan Heafield of Kusasa (PTY) LTD, to perform his obligations with regard to the tour, the tour dates have to be pushed back.

Says Brian Avnet, Groban's manager, "We made the decision to reschedule the dates to ensure Josh's fans have the best possible live experience. To continue with the tour in March would just not be in the best interests of Josh's many fans in South Africa and we do not want to disappoint them."

Says Josh Groban, "South Africa is very dear to me and I have never forgotten the spirit and passion shown to me on my last visit. It saddens me that due to circumstances beyond my control these shows must be postponed.

But I am looking forward to returning very soon and giving my fans the experience they deserve."

We have been advised by Ticketconnection that refunds for the shows they are involved with will be available at point of purchase (online at: www.ticketconnection.co.za or call: 0861 121 333 or at Mr. Price Everyday, Home and Sport outlets). Sun City refunds are available through Computicket (www.computicket.co.za).

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