Am I entitled to a refund? As i'm being refused!

vikingaero

I've had quite a lot of involvement with paranormal groups through escorting them in our mines and caves. For an average group of 12-24 people we charge them £150-£300ish. For most groups the trips are a labour of love for the organisers rather than a huge moneyspinning exercise. Whereas we are a volunteer group the charge of £150 will be for 2-6 of us escorting a group from 8pm to 2am with any necessary PPE which represents terrific value. Commercial enterprises/National Trust/Historic houses often charge far more. One NTish type place local to us charges £900 minimum.

We know through experience that paranorma groups have the highest drop out rates. A group of 15 booked will probably end up with 6-8 attendees which shows the importance of getting payment upfront from people or the event becomes too expensive for those that do actually attend. I imagine that those who are unable to attend for whatever reason rarely get a refund because of the high costs.

NiallB

goater78 wrote: »

Theres a possibility that the coughing becomes so bad that the OP makes a ghostly appearance themselves at the next ghost hunting tour!

Has anybody made a 'major coffin fit' pun yet?

nox118

As a bussiness you need to take precautions. e.g. purchase public liability insurance, so why not purchase insurance against late cancellations, surely a few pounds on the cost of each ticket is not much?

As to the NT charging £900, there running it as a commercial operation to support themselves.

So any concenus as to the latest time a refund should be offered? 1 week before, 2 weeks before?

Takeaway_Addict

nox118 wrote: »

As a bussiness you need to take precautions. e.g. purchase public liability insurance, so why not purchase insurance against late cancellations, surely a few pounds on the cost of each ticket is not much?

As to the NT charging £900, there running it as a commercial operation to support themselves.

So any concenus as to the latest time a refund should be offered? 1 week before, 2 weeks before?

Probably because the excess would be more than the ticket.

The company wouldn't lose against the OP as its not reasonable to cancel one day before the event.

As to whats reasonable then surely it depends on the event, the lower the cost the nearer the time IMO but really 2 weeks before hte event would be my cut off.

nox118

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Probably because the excess would be more than the ticket.

The company wouldn't lose against the OP as its not reasonable to cancel one day before the event.

As to whats reasonable then surely it depends on the event, the lower the cost the nearer the time IMO but really 2 weeks before hte event would be my cut off.

The excess should be fairly reasonable as there are companies which offer event ticket insurance to individual customers (ticket master do this and the premium is £3.99), so to me it would not be unreasonable to for companies to negotiate a deal whereby all tickets are covered.

Thank you all for increasing my knowledge on this subject and forcing me to do my own reasearch and alter my opinions. It's the only way I'll learn.

So from now on I'll read the T&C's extremely carefully when purchasing tickets to an entertainment event.