Beachdown Festival - A victim of "Climate"
If it wasn’t bad enough that they ruined our bank holiday plans at 48 hours notice, it is now a week on and still the news on refunds is best described as wholly inadequate.
To add insult to injury, every time something remotely helpful is added to the beachdown Facebook “fan” page, it is deleted , and the discussion board on the group page has been deleted all together.
Brighton Fusion’s Alison Waller has setup a seperate group to share whatever information becomes available and allow for uncensored discussion between beachdown ticketholders re. refunds.
So you bought your ticket…festival cancelled…its now a week later and information relating to refunds is all but none existent. What can be done?
It seems if you paid by credit card, the way forward is relatively hassle free… check this link from which? on section 75 of the consumer credit act:
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/understanding-the-consumer-credit-act/your-rights/index.jsp
If you got your ticket through one of the big ticket agencies (see tickets, ticketline etc) you should be able to claim a refund directly from them, in accordance with their terms and conditions.
However, if you paid in cash at one of the many local ticket outlets, including Rounder or Resident, you are, like me, unlikely to see anything at all without a fight.
Advice from Consumer Direct today (the national consumer advice line who deal with calls from the public on behalf of Trading Standards) says in normal circumstances, it WOULD be the vendor of the tickets who you would pursue for a refund. However, in this case, it is clear local outlets have been acting purely as agents for beachdown, so this would not be appropriate.
- First and foremost, it is important that anyone affected by beachdown’s cancellation calls Consumer Direct themselves. The number is 08454 040506. Consumer Direct have already referred this case to Trading Standards who have the power to wind up the company, fine the directors and ensure they never run a company again. The more people lodge complaints, the more weight is added to this case. Please call Consumer Direct, it will take maybe ten minutes out your day.
- Following on from this, the only recourse left to cash-paying ticket holders is the Small Claims Court. The first step in this process is to send a letter to the company directors informing them of your intentions. As we all know the beachdown office has been cleared, but unfortunately for these clowns, it’s all too easy to track down addresses online these days.
Festival Futures Limited is the company behind beachdown. Its registered address is:
4A Gildredge Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4RL
This is an accountant, a very nice man called Graham Ralph, who is also out of pocket thanks to beachdown. He informs me that whilst he is unable to give out the director’s contact information, he will be sure to pass on any correspondence that arrives for them.
Unfortunately for beachdown, it is all too easy to track down addresses on the internet these days. Consumer Direct inform me that, in the absence of the provision of a contact address, any information sent to the private addresses of the directors as listed at Companies House will be considered delivered by the court for the purposes of Small Claims.
Here are those addresses:
Mr John Murphy
22 Egginton Road
Brighton
BN2 4PL
Mr Darren Murphy
Flat 2 St Nicholas Court
51 Centurion Road
Brighton
BN1 3LN
Mr Johnathon Mark Pidgeon
20 Ditchling Rise
Brighton
BN1 4QL
The first step in the small claims procedure is to send a letter detailing your request for a refund, the steps you have taken to secure this so far, and your intention to pursue the matter through the small claims court should it become necessary. Send this REGISTERED POST to any or all of the addresses above ASAP. Once I have written a template letter, I will post it here.
If anyone has any expertise or advice to add please contribute below or on the group.
Letter template
Send this letter registered post to each of the company directors at their home address and also to their registered address today. This is a precursor to a final warning letter, after which you can proceed to a County Court claim, should this still be necessary.
Dear Mr Pidgeon/Mr D. Murphy/Mr J. Murphy,
Following the clearance of your office in North Road, and your continued avoidance of telephone calls I have no choice but to contact you at your home address with regard to the matter of a refund for the tickets I purchased for the recently cancelled beachdown festival.
The statement on your website refers me to the seller of those tickets – as you must surely know, given that you have been avoiding those ticket sellers since the announcement was made, they have no information to offer me.
This letter formalises my request for concrete information on how Future Festivals intends to refund the value of the beachdown tickets I purchased at the total cost of £[XXXX]. I would take this opportunity to remind you that the tickets are printed with a statement reassuring purchasers of their eligibility for a full refund in the event of cancellation on the back. Given that it has already been [XX] days since your official announcement of the festival’s cancellation, during which the information provided has been insultingly paltry, I am expecting to hear Future Festival’s firm plans for the return of ticket holders money by no later than [XXXX]
Should this information not be forthcoming, I will not hesitate to pursue this matter through the courts.
Sincerely,
[XXXXXX]
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Statement from Resident:
“To all our valued customers,
“Following the last minute cancellation of Beachdown, we felt it was important to clarify the situation as it stands, with regards to how this affects you as ticket holders.
“We have been operating on behalf of Future Festivals as a ticket agency, as we did successfully last year. We simply handle the transactions for a small booking fee & the face value of the ticket is handed over to the promoters. As such, Future Festival Ltd holds all the money from the sale of Beachdown tickets, not us. All Brighton ticket outlets have fully supported the Beachdown organisers by ensuring all monies taken from the sale of Beachdown tickets has been paid to them promptly.
“Up until now, we have been kept as much in the dark about the cancellation of Beachdown as you have & were given no advance notice of Future Festivals’ intentions. Directing ticket holders back to the outlets where they purchased the tickets from, having not informed these outlets of the situation, was a cowardly & easy way out of dealing with the fallout. Their failure to contact us has caused an immense amount of problems, not least because we haven’t been able to give you any concrete information about whether or not you will be able to obtain a refund.
“However, today, Joe Pidgeon (Managing Director of Future Festivals Ltd) finally got in touch with us & said that they are currently talking to their insurers about how best to handle the issuing of refunds to ticket holders. Realistically, this could be a fairly lengthy process & we certainly won’t hear anything until after the bank holiday, so we would like to ask that you continue to be patient while the situation is worked through. We promise to keep you up to date with progress via email & will obviously put pressure on the festival organisers to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.
“From the feedback we have had to date, if you paid for your tickets on a credit or debit card, it may well be worth you getting in touch with your card issuer to see if you are covered by them – many people are & it might be a quicker way of getting your money back.
“In the meantime, we would like to thank you for your continued patience & understanding & express our apologies for being unable to resolve this for you more speedily.
“Kind regards,
Natasha Youngs & Derry Watkins
(Resident Directors)
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I received an email from Natasha and Derry at Resident this morning, which sheds some further light on the much spoken about section 75 of the consumer credit act, under which a refund can be claimed from the credit card company in the event of a cancellation. This quote, taken from their email, explains how going down this road only makes things easier for the beachdown organisers and more difficult for local outlets like resident:
“…if people do successfully claim a chargeback from their credit card company, they will take the money back directly from us (or Rounder or wherever else they bought it) without any notice, not from Future Festivals, leaving us to try to claim the money back from them. They’ll also charge us for taking the money from us, making us even worse off.
…At the moment we’re still attempting to get an answer from Future Festivals as to whether they are adequately insured & have any way of coming up with the refund money themselves. Any credit card claims will only lessen Future Festivals obligations & frankly, we think they should pay every penny themselves not just to ticket holders but to everybody else who’s lost money because of their failure.”
Brighton Fusion wholeheartedly agrees. Please think about the impact on our local businesses before utilising your rights under the Consumer Credit Act.
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for this advice, it’s been really useful. Consumer Direct were very helpful. I’m writing as a volunteer who not only expected a festival, but the cost of the ticket back when I had worked my shift. I think the biggest slap in the face has been the total silence/ lack of acknowlegdment.
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Hey Antonia, I was also going to be volunteering and paid my deposit in cash. What are your plans? Are you writing a letter?
on Sep 3rd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Thanks for this advice. I brought a number of vip luxury tickets direct from beachdown and have needless to say been left massively out of pocket. I spoke to consumer direct who said it’s worth writing a registered letter to both the company address and a personal address – stating that they are in breach of the ’supply of goods and services act’, they are in breach of contract and full refund required, response within 14 days or contacting small claims.
They also recommended contacting the insolvency services 0845 602 9848 to determine if there was any money to recover…and therefore whether worth taking to small claims.
The statement from Resident gives me hope that future festivals are trying to do something about refunding…but the way they have dealt with it up till now gives me none – my guess is they are playing games with Resident.
If future festivals don’t honour their obligations we need to make sure they never profit from brighton again.
on Sep 4th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I’ve just been told by Consumer Direct that the Directors of Beachdown aren’t liable to pay unprotected refunds as they are not the Company (i.e. it’s not a Limited Company) they are only employees of the Company.
C.D. were helpful and honest and said if you’ve bought an uninsured ticket, by cash or cash card, then you’re unlikely to see a whole refund and you can’t take the Directors to the small claims court because it’s the Company that’s gone into liquidation not them.
I’m gutted and want to know next steps, help!
on Sep 4th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
As yet, Future Festivals are not in liquidation, which means that for the time being, ticket holders can pursue Festival Futures through the small claims court should this become necessary.
The Director’s personal addresses are provided only as a means of delivering a request for a refund or other small claims related documents – given that their office is known to be cleared there is little point sending anything there, but letters delivered to their home address can be considered delivered to Festival Futures for this purpose. Just put Mr X, Festival Futures, C/o etc… on the envelope.
Obviously the Directors won’t be personally liable for the refunds, that is after all, the point of a limited company. But should Trading Standards find evidence of illegal behaviour on their part they can be personally prosecuted and fined.
At the end of the day though, you are right. With all the best efforts, refunds, most especially for those who paid in cash, are looking decidedly unlikely.
on Sep 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I am in the same boat as Rob, having purchased the luxury camping as well for five of us! I would like to thank all of the people that have uploaded information on to this site as it has been extremely helpful. I am afraid that I can add my own bit of research which was that I was astounded to find that Joe Pidgeon was given an IVA in January of this year to stop his current creditors taking legal action action him. Being that I am not a person who undertstands anything to do with this – just a girl that fancied going to a festival because she couldn’t afford a holiday – I don’t understand how he can then be a Director of a company?
on Oct 5th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Joe Pidgeon has been a Director of FOUR companies (not including Future Festivals) that have gone into liquidation in the last 10 years. They are Touch Magazine, The Sorting Office, U Influence and Contenda. Many people have lost a great deal as a result. This is someone who couldn’t care less about other peoples’ money.
Good Luck.
on Oct 13th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I think that none of these people should ever be able to run a festival again!and certainly im surprised that (if i have read the info on the website correctly!)the company hasnt gone into liquidation and may be able to run it again !They not only must owe money to punters and ticket sellars-what about the independant traders-some of wich rely on the summer festivals as their main income-they dont trade there for free-they have to pay for their pitch and its not cheap!Those directors who were in “dire straights” financially surely should have been aware that it was looking bleak way earlier-the worst thing is i know some traders who were unsure wether they should trade at this years one because of the rubbish organisation last year and gave them the benefit of the dought as it was its first year! so wanted to support it one more time!and some even gave them money the day before it was cancelled(bit odd wouldnt you say!!!)in good faith and with re-assurance that this year would be better.I dont think that alot of the traders (or the people they hired equipment etc from) will touch beachdown with a bargepole if they tried to run it again!!They should have had way more respect for those dissapointed and angry people that were giving their festival support.(hiding away and not having any answers the day and week following its cancellation was a bad move)good luck to everyone trying to get results!
on Apr 8th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
A company called “Marks Bloom” are managing a CVA arrangement for future festivals. If you haven’t got any money back for your beachdown ticket you need to contact them to get a claims form. I sent an email to info@marksbloom.co.uk. The information I got back is:
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1. The CVA proposal states that if creditors are paid 20p in the £ (ie 20% of the debt owed to you) then this will be considered full and final settlement of the debt.
2. The CVA is reliant on a third party paying £60,000 per year for the rights to run the Beachdown Festival this summer (and in 2011 and 2012). If the first payment is not received this year, the CVA will fail and the company will go into liquidation, and with no other assets it is extremely unlikely creditors will get anything.
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