Template for cancelled event refund

RSharkR · 5 July 2021 at 9:18PM

Hello

I’ve been looking for a template letter to send to a company for a refund for a cancelled event but can’t find one, can anybody advise?

For background … two years ago myself and another team of swimmers booked to do a relay swim across Loch Ness. Last year it was postponed for obvious reasons, and we had no issue with that. This year we were told it was going ahead fine, but 3 weeks ago received an email saying that the company (that provides the safety boat and authentication etc) had decided to cancel it because of other teams postponing due to lack of training making it no longer economically viable to run the swims this year. The company has since ignored emails and phonecalls from us seeking a refund for our deposit (which amounts to about £1000).

My assumption is that as the company has cancelled for business reasons when the swim could have gone ahead, we should be due a full refund, as they’re not delivering the service set out in the contract we’ve signed.

Their Ts&Cs don’t actually set anything out for this situation, as it’s usually the swimmers cancelling or a problem with the safety boat etc. But I’m hoping there’s some statutory way to deal with this and maybe an ombudsman or something?

Additionally, we had accommodation booked and risk losing our deposit on that due to the cancellation. I recall reading that there’s some way of claiming compensation from companies on that basis for loss of money for associated things like accommodation and travel? Can anybody advise?

I feel like we’ve been reasonable in accepting the initial postponement and asking for a refund for the second postponement which is for different reasons. But we’re all angry about being ignored when we email and phone to find a solution, and want to escalate it by sending something more formal.

Thanks in advance.