We don’t get out much.

Brought some tickets a year ago, chased up the ticket delivery recently & got told to collect them from box office on the night.

Show is at 8pm, at 5pm we pick up a voice mail saying they’ve oversold on tickets, don’t come down to venue and their phone lines aren’t accessable on the weekend.

Do they have a history of doing this?

Pants.

From personal ticket buying experience, no. I’ve never come across the oversold the tickets situation, especially these days, where it’s all done online, and they should know how many tickets they’ve been allocated by the venue. Venues often sell through several agencies, who are given a specific number of tickets, so it’s very difficult to see how they managed to do this.
When you booked the tickets you should have had several postal options, or picking up at the venue, and if your booking was properly confirmed, with a reference number, then your tickets should be there in your name to be collected at the box office. Which venue is it, and what event?

Only bought one set of tickets – on behalf of daughter – and they were fine, tickets arrived by post – not much before event – fortnight or so, not much more – but no problem other than a bit tight timing for my liking..

Used Ticketmaster for years genuinely. Probably 15/20 gigs and never had a problem from <1000 capacity venues to > 50000 venues. Which artist was it and have you been offered a refund?