Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

[Flangie]

Hello All

I wonder if anyone has advice:
My son and his girlfriend bought tickets to a festival called Altfest. They paid there money and the wrist bands/tickets were posted out!

However this festival has been cancelled. They recieved notifichtation to say that they would receive a refund. This was a standard message to thousands of people who bought tickets.

Since then the website is off line and no communication is available. There are rumours that the company have gone bust and were trying to go into liquidation in February 2014.

My son and his girlfriend have messaged on several occasions, but never hear back.

Help and advice needed please

[Amethyst]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

How much were the tickets purchased approx (ie over or under £100)

[Kati]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

It is with a heavy heart that we must confirm we have had to cancel Alt-Fest. We tried to put on a ground-breaking event for you & the alternative scene, and it was your support that was helping to make it happen. From our early days on Kickstarter through to all of you who have purchased tickets we thank you. We the organisers of Alt-Fest have done everything we can to save it, but this week we ran out of time to raise all the required funds that was needed upfront of the festival.

We also wish to apologise for the delay in releasing a formal statement cancelling the festival. We realise this has severely damaged our personal and professional reputations, we can only sincerely apologise for any additional stress and upset this has caused, we were honestly looking to act in your best interests.

We are very sorry to tell you that we have been advised to not reply to any individual comments or emails regarding the festival and instead make a comprehensive statement. It's not how we like to do things, it feels wrong to walk off and let your questions, thoughts and opinions go unanswered. So we'll try to answer them all briefly here.

We were doing very well for a first year festival. We sold over 7.5 thousand weekend tickets, and as you were aware we had a great line up with plenty going on. This however meant we had to pay for over half of all the band's fees, with the remainder due just before & at the festival itself. Securing bands was not the only cost. The festival was going to cost £1,703,000 in total to put on, including artists, riders, travel, accommodation, production: power, staging, sound, lighting, track way, fencing, water, waste, the venue fee, security, medical assistance, traffic management, health & safety, marketing and much more. We ourselves and all of the Alt-Fest team have put in huge amounts of effort and time over the past two years and done everything within our power to make this work.

If we were to sell a minimum of another 1,000 tickets between now and the festival, we'd have suffered a significant loss that we couldn't carry. This recently came to light based on a costing error explained below & inevitably down to the fact that the investor unfortunately pulled out last minute. We were expecting to sell more tickets based on our line-up, and if we had sold just 3000 tickets more then we would have been over the breakeven line, or if we could have deferred a percentage of our contractor's payment, which they sadly were not prepared to do.

We thought our logic was sound and this was also backed by other promoters and people we respect in the music industry in general – Marilyn Manson can easily sell out a 5000 capacity venue, as can The Cult, Arch Enemy or Cradle of Filth. Then there's the rest of the line-up plus the circus, steampunk, traders and art installations. Perhaps the people who would go to see them at a gig wouldn't go to a 3 day festival, but they could still have bought day tickets and seen some of the 60-odd bands on that day as well as the headliners, and bring their kids along for free too – we are still trying to understand why we haven't sold more tickets despite the offering & energy that has gone into it.

We've also been contending with a costing error made and ultimately poor advice in the early stages by a company who were supposed to help us work out what the festival would cost to put on. Coupled with the fact that in order for us to compete against the larger festivals then we had to put in very strong offers to be listened to by the agents & hence secure the talent. Additionally during the latter planning stages we were forced to move our main arena, through no fault of our own. This caused many extra costs that further increased the budget upfront of the event.

We have held continuous meetings and tried for months to secure investment & had genuine interest to cover this shortfall from individuals, investment firms and equity funding companies. Whilst there was every likelihood of this happening due to the positive feedback we were receiving, it was this week that our last option had run out. This was mainly because they didn't understand the festival market or the alternative scene. We even tried, as a last resort to save the festival for you all, going to the corporations that dominate the music and festival industry to offer an ownership over the event to ensure it's facilitated for our customers, but to no avail. We had exhausted all options but please know that we did everything within our power to make this happen.

We even looked at how we could make it to the festival and then recover this year's loss from next year's sales to get back on track. Unfortunately, we can't manage that either because of the way the festival industry and its operators are prone to work. We would have to pay all the contractors before they even come on site to build the festival – they all want the full fee upfront due to the state of the market. We also had the remainder of band deposits to make up before and at the event. We just could not raise all the money needed upfront to continue, nor offset it against any revenue coming after the event – bar, car parking revenue as examples.

We are so, so deeply sorry, it's awful to think of all the people who bought a ticket in good faith, who booked travel, some from the other side of the world. We massively appreciate the support you have shown, especially all the people who championed and defended us.

We do want you to know though, that it was never a scam or a con. We tried to do something new and different for you and the alternative scene, which was not easy. We have not gone on any exotic holidays or feathered our own nest, in fact exactly the opposite. We did not embezzle the money, or spend it recklessly, we used it to secure some of those great bands we had in the line-up, who required considerable deposits, and other aspects of the event as previously mentioned. We intended to make it an exciting event that would be enjoyed by every single one of you who supported us, so that we could grow even more in future years. Those of you who know us, we work tirelessly to put on excellent events. We never expected it to turn out this way and tried desperately to stop it from happening. However we could have done with better costing advice at the start and stronger ticket sales in this final period to get us through to the event.

We feel we have let the alternative community down, this saddens us immensely & the process we are about to go through is going to bankrupt us, which as I'm sure you can imagine adds huge strain on us as people & as a family.

It is just simply awful and we can only thank those of you who have shown us kindness and endless support, especially now in our most testing hour.

To claim a refund on your tickets, please look carefully at the following list, and at your email confirmation, to ensure you claim a refund from the correct retailer.

Festival Tickets via Festickets = direct with them festicket.com = Amazon Local are contacting their customers direct and processing refunds now.

Clubtickets.com - Festival tickets, Dismembership and addons (car parking etc) purchased through our website via clubtickets.com or by email at helpdesk@clubtickets.com

Festival Tickets via Festickets = direct with them festicket.com

Dismembership purchased through our webshop (with glamping/merch in) = contact Paypal to a raise a dispute.

Glamping purchased through our webshop (with merch etc in, NOT the same as the ticket page)= contact Paypal to raise a dispute.

Viewing platforms = contact Paypal to raise a dispute.

Tangerine Fields = direct with them at tangerinefields.co.uk.

Big Green Coach are contacting all of their customers directly with advice on refunds. Refunds will be issued automatically.

Now that we have had to cancel the festival we need to take steps to place the Company into Liquidation and we want to express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all our staff, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us.

Our deepest & sincerest apologies go out to you.

Missy & Dom

Hope this helps :tinysmile_grin_t:

(quoted text can be seen here) http://www.alt-fest.com/index.html

(main site log-in page here) http://www.alt-fest.com/2014/

Kati

[Amethyst]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

Regarding the February issue - it looks like they hadn't filed their accounts so were under a proposal to strike off at companies house however then submitted accounts 2 weeks later.


They also have a trading style of TicketLogic based at the same address so if you can't contact anyone at ClubTickets try TicketLogic. e-mail: clients@ticketlogic.net phone: +442070339462

The defunct clubtickets website DID state

''Canceled events

If an event is canceled you will be contacted as soon as possible after we have received the notification from the event organiser. Please contact us for a refund or to rebook for another event

Please note it may take up to seven working days for your account to be credited. ''


If it was over £100 and they paid by credit card then they could make a section 75 claim through their credit card company or do a chargeback if they used a visa debit card.

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

it was £295.00 for the two of them.

x x

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

But these were paid on debit then on a credit card

xx

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

Amethyst does that mean they were trying to go bust?
xxx

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

we paid by debit card as we do not own a credit card. Would you know if there is any sort of protection with a debit card, or would the bank be able to help us.

x x x

[Amethyst]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

Amethyst does that mean they were trying to go bust?
xxx

Could mean anything really but formally it means they submitted their accounts 2 weeks late, that's all.

[Amethyst]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

it was £295.00 for the two of them.

x x

Blimey these festivals are insanely expensive aren;t they.

we paid by debit card as we do not own a credit card. Would you know if there is any sort of protection with a debit card, or would the bank be able to help us.

x x x

Here's some easy to follow info on chargebacks for Visa Debit. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...ard-chargeback

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

I did receive an email that did state that we would get a refund but it would be slow as they had do it individually due to the large volume of refunds. but I had contacted them ages ago yet not had a reply since august 1st, and I have since hounded them for answers yet not one word from them.

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

yeah they are not cheap lol but the line up was amazing you had classic bands who haven't been seen since god knows when so it did seem like a blast.

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

ah thank you. xxx

[Amethyst]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

How long ago was the initial message saying you would be getting a refund ?

[Flangie]

Re: Altfest - festival not refunding money for cancelled festival (clubtickets.com)

I have one email from clubtickets saying that they are waiting for confirmation that the festival is cancelled that was from july 31st and the second4th of august

Chris (Ticketlogic Support) 04 Aug 15:53 Thank you for getting in touch. If you have yet to see our statement regarding refunds, please see the following information below: www.clubtickets.com/info/altfestrefund Refunds: In line with our cancellation policy detailed here: http://www.clubtickets.com/info/legal/purchase we will be making full refunds to all ticket purchasers. A full refund covers everything related to this event including the various add-ons and booking fees. We'd also like to take this opportunity to remind any ticket holders of their consumer rights, as detailed here: http://www.onlineshoppingrights.co.u...omplaints.html and elsewhere. We intend to make the refund process as fast and seamless as possible for our customers. To that end, we will get in touch with all ticket holders soon to confirm what day to expect cleared funds. Please help us to deal with this as quickly as possible by using our helpdesk service sensibly. Ticket Plan customers: Please do not contact Ticket Plan regarding a refund for this event. Ticket Plan protection is intended to compensate a ticket buyer in the event that they are prevented from attending the event due to certain unforeseen circumstances that affect them. It is not designed to refund the ticket buyer if the event is cancelled. That is our job. For this reason all fees paid to Ticket Plan by Clubtickets customers for this event will be refunded at the same time as the ticket costs are refunded. Exclusions: We can only deal with tickets and others add-ons purchased through our website or from the Alt Fest website where we handled the transaction. We cannot deal with any questions relating to Kick Starter or any other ticket agent. To summarise:  You are entitled to a full refund.  You WILL get a full refund.  We will work as quickly as we can.  We will keep you updated every few days days. Best regards The team @ Clubtickets