If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Aged 16-25? Share your experience of using the discussion boards and receive a £25 voucher! Take part via text-chat, video or phone. Click here to find out more and to take part.
Options
Giving People A Refund
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I did my Salsa event and it went really well with everyone asking when the next one will be.
Anyway there was just one problem 2 girls that came, stayed for like 5 minutes and walked out before the lesson even started.
They paid me online to attend £7.50p each out of which I paid the teacher, food, and rent to the bar owner.
Anyway they've emailed me asking for a refund cos they didn't like the look of the venue..
They just walked out, didn't come to me to voice their concerns, they didn't have any complaints about the lesson cos they never took it.
What do you think I should do? Offer a full refund? Tell them to go jump?, etc?
Anyway there was just one problem 2 girls that came, stayed for like 5 minutes and walked out before the lesson even started.
They paid me online to attend £7.50p each out of which I paid the teacher, food, and rent to the bar owner.
Anyway they've emailed me asking for a refund cos they didn't like the look of the venue..
They just walked out, didn't come to me to voice their concerns, they didn't have any complaints about the lesson cos they never took it.
What do you think I should do? Offer a full refund? Tell them to go jump?, etc?
0
Comments
I suppose you could look at it this way. They aren't going to come back, and will probably tell their friends they didn't think much of it anyway, so you probably won't get any further business from them, so you could refuse a refund and it won't make any difference to you.
But there is the off chance they may come to other events - though if they didn't like the look of your salsa night, then it's almost certain they won't come to any other events. So, I suppose, once again, you could refuse a refund and it won't make any difference.
As you've said, you still had to pay for food, etc, which had to be paid for in advance. So once again, they should pay for that at least.
Depends upon your conscience. Do you feel any guilt at holding on to their money, even though some of that had to go towards food, etc. Maybe a partial refund - but they'll still probably complain about that, bad mouth you to friends, etc, So once again you've not got anything to loose by holding on to their money.
I don't know how it works for events, but if you buy something in a shop, and you don't like it, and want a refund, then the shop can refuse. After all, it's not your fault. Most shops that don't offer a refund on unwanted/unsuitable products often offer a credit note/gift vouchers, or exchange for other products (provided the original is returned in resalable, unused, condition, and with a receipt.
So, if you think of yourself as a shop, then you don't have to offer a refund, but may be willing to offer them a credit note, exchange. So I'd say that unfortunately you don't offer refunds unless there is prior notification of cancellation (specify a period of notification too), but that you would be willing to offer them the £7.50 towards other future events you may be holding.
Check out what Trading Standards has to say about refunds - under the info/leaflets for consumers section.
how many other events would give them a refund just cos they didn't like the look of the event they booked at?
tell them to stop being cheeky mares.
However im sure if they had came up to you on the night and asked for the money back you would of co-operated.
I think it is just a case of them maybe being a bit cheeky and seeing if they can get there money back.
I think so too, it's taking the piss to be honest... everyone else had a great time, and I structured it so they got to dance with about 4 different people each.
I worked out that if I gave them a refund after what's left having paid for everything like food, teacher, credit card fees, etc they'd get back £2.19p each
I emailed them back and said if they're prepared to keep an opened mind and actually come to a salsa lesson until the end (rather then walk out before it's even begun) they can come for free and if after that lesson they're still not happy they can have their full £15 back.
I didn't want to offer then £7.50 each off another event because often I help friends out with their events and even though it's going through my website I'm not making any money on them.
I reckon what I offered them is fair!!
" oh I remember you sorry about that sir would you like a replacment"
This left me suprised I was expecting to have an argument.
If they didnt want to go, they should have sold their tickets to someone else.
Consider that, for example, some nightclubs will sell tickets and then may not even let people in the door if they don't like their faces.
If you want to make a token goodwill gesture, then you could pay them back any profit that you made on the tickets. If you didn't make any profit then that's that really.
But since you've already emailed saying that they can have the 15 pounds back, I suppose this is academic
If they had cencelled weeks before you would be obligated to refund, as you could have re-sold the tickets or cut your losses, but people cannot do that. If they had not turned up it would ahve been tough luck too.
I would suggest updating your T&Cs to make this quite clear.
How would you know what I make??
And if you'd read the postings you'd have seen that I'd already paid out of the money fees for creditcards transaction, instructors, food, hiring the venue, etc - profit on each ticket was barely more then £2 a ticket.
I had to turn down other women that wanted to come because we had limited room on the dance floor. The fact they booked meant two other women couldn't come that otherwise would have want their place.
No I didn't tell people to come to the venue and pay on the door, everyone that came had to book in advance online... this way we ensured equal number of men and women and people didn't waste their time... other people do salsa and just get people to show up on the door and end up with 5 women to every man.
ok that could have gone a whoooole different way!! Think the poster just wanted to check if he was being legal etc??
Nothing falsly advertised, they just didn't like the venue, but the venue name and address were given 3 weeks in advance and they could have popped down at any time and walked in for free to checked it out before deciding to book.
Theyre trying it on and you know it.
If youre so keen on them having their money back. You give it.
Anyway so far not heard anything back from them so hopefully that's kept the quiet offering them a chance to actually try a shot at another lesson for free!!
I doubt they'd have the guts to show up again in person!!
It was quite funny cos she said we came in and then left .. and I replied yeah, myself, the bar manager and a lot of other people noticed that too ... LOL
Go you!
BritJames: shut up.