Can I claim compensation?

malibusami86

Hi, I’m back on this board after a long time looking for advice please. 

I recently won a competition which was for VIP tickets to an event for me plus some friends. It included a 2 course meal and I think a welcome drink. We found out through social media weeks before the event that they had moved the location and were no longer in a hotel function room in town centre (easy for everyone to get to) but in a tent in the middle of nowhere. This because quite stressful as I had everybody messaging me asking me how we were to get there. I booked a minibus which was £50 return. The food was now from stalls rather than kitchen. One of us was veggie, another dairy intolerant so this was a bit of a worry too. Tried to ignore this and just be grateful for the tickets. The day before they cancelled that evening and the next afternoons event due to high winds. Being in a tent in a field this was understandable, although frustrating as at the original function room this wouldn’t be an issue. We messaged the company as we were worried our event would also be cancelled and needed to cancel taxis and babysitters etc if it would be cancelled too. We were assured that our event was still going ahead because the weather stated that the winds would have died down (which they did). With this assurance we carried on as planned and jumped in a minibus. On the way there we had a message to tell us that the company had put a note on their website an hour before the event was due to start to say that they had to cancel. They told us that the forecast had been reversed?! There still was no winds though which confused us. Because we were in the minibus on the way there we told it to stop and we went to go and get some food as we were all starving. 

My question is this; is there a policy or law which states that if you are out of pocket because of a cancelled event that you can claim them back, even though you won the original ticket price? We spent £50 on minibus and £250 on food for 10 people which we otherwise would not have done with sufficient notice. 

I’m sorry if this post is too long. I just wanted to explain the whole situation.
thank you 

mjm3346

From the resolver site

"If an event is cancelled, you are entitled to the refund of your ticket cost. It is unlikely that the ticket refund will include any administration, booking, postage or card fees that you paid, but you should check your contract to make sure. 

You are unlikely to be able to make a claim for any travel or accommodation costs, unless these were booked as a package along with the ticket"

"If the event that you were going to attend is cancelled, you are entitled to a full refund of the face value of the ticket. This does not necessarily include any booking fees that you might have incurred. 

If you paid less than the value of the ticket – for example if you received a discount – you are only entitled to a refund of that discounted amount."

By the looks of it you can claim back the cost of the tickets less the 100% discount so that's nothing back and whether they were paid for or free it is unlikely you can claim any other costs.

https://www.resolver.co.uk/consumer-rights/ticket-sales-event-cancelled-complaints

grannybiker

What Mjm says  
Maybe worth contacting the company you won through, describing what happened. They may be able to offer you and your friends tickets to another event?

malibusami86

They have offered more tickets but that means another taxi.... were not sure we trust them now