Electrikal Free Festival = Electrikal Big scam
A few months ago on Facebook I was invited to join a group for a big free camping party in Galashiels. 4 days camping, good banter and music, camping and friends sharing a good vibe. For free?! Awesome, I decided it'd be fun for the Day Trip Crew to go along and enjoy it, after all it was free you had the choice to donate at the gate. As there were 6 of us going along we decided to donate 60.00 at the gate because after all the folk organising it had to cover costs somehow.
After being advertised as a free party the organisers released a statement saying to guarantee entry you had to donate 10 pounds via paypal before the event. As we really wanted to go along, we did. My friend - Ms Berry - noticed that the money was going into Mr Ince's account not one registered for 'Electrikal' or some company name. There was no suspicions raised at that point, there was no real reason for it.
Around a week ago (the festival was meant to be this weekend) it was anounced on their offical site that the festival infact had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. They blamed the unforeseen circumstances on a guy named 'Jamie' who they then decided to publicly slate and post personal information about (URLs of social networking sites etc) accusing him of sabotage. I found this to be both unfair and unproffessional. Also, I was later informed illegal to post such contact information in a public forum.
They said people who had donated would recieve (quoted from the website):
"However, our next party will still be free and anyone who has donated to help the Electrikal cause, we have a surprise for you all….. Multiple offers to cheap nights out in Edinburgh and V.I.P at the rescheduled Electrikal Festival, and also hopefully our t-shirts and stickers will be ready by then, you can see our designs on the website!"
I don't believe this is a fair refund - after all not everyone wants to go to the next event or have offers on cheap nights out. Most of the people I have spoken to feel cheated and just want their money back. Sure ten pounds isn't a lot of money but it's their money at the end of the day. When asked about refunds of the money Mr Ince becomes very evasive. Deleting comments on the facebook group and his profile and ignoring emails. Surely if it was just a case of unforeseen circumstances then they'd be happy to offer a monetary refund? Although a party on the dates of Electrikal is going a head at the venue it is for friends of the organisers only. When they are being so evasive about refunds is it hard to see why everyone thinks the whole thing was a scam?
I for one am very angry. I am going to take whatever action I can to see that people get their money back or some form of satisfactory refund. There are already steps in place to take them to trading standards if the don't reply to our emails in the allotted time. I want to do more though but I can't think of what. Thankfully
madame_corbeau is on the case and helping me organise what I need to do. I ask if you have paid money to the organisers of electrikal you file paypal disputes and report them to facebook for now. Any other ideas will be added here in due course.
After being advertised as a free party the organisers released a statement saying to guarantee entry you had to donate 10 pounds via paypal before the event. As we really wanted to go along, we did. My friend - Ms Berry - noticed that the money was going into Mr Ince's account not one registered for 'Electrikal' or some company name. There was no suspicions raised at that point, there was no real reason for it.
Around a week ago (the festival was meant to be this weekend) it was anounced on their offical site that the festival infact had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. They blamed the unforeseen circumstances on a guy named 'Jamie' who they then decided to publicly slate and post personal information about (URLs of social networking sites etc) accusing him of sabotage. I found this to be both unfair and unproffessional. Also, I was later informed illegal to post such contact information in a public forum.
They said people who had donated would recieve (quoted from the website):
"However, our next party will still be free and anyone who has donated to help the Electrikal cause, we have a surprise for you all….. Multiple offers to cheap nights out in Edinburgh and V.I.P at the rescheduled Electrikal Festival, and also hopefully our t-shirts and stickers will be ready by then, you can see our designs on the website!"
I don't believe this is a fair refund - after all not everyone wants to go to the next event or have offers on cheap nights out. Most of the people I have spoken to feel cheated and just want their money back. Sure ten pounds isn't a lot of money but it's their money at the end of the day. When asked about refunds of the money Mr Ince becomes very evasive. Deleting comments on the facebook group and his profile and ignoring emails. Surely if it was just a case of unforeseen circumstances then they'd be happy to offer a monetary refund? Although a party on the dates of Electrikal is going a head at the venue it is for friends of the organisers only. When they are being so evasive about refunds is it hard to see why everyone thinks the whole thing was a scam?
I for one am very angry. I am going to take whatever action I can to see that people get their money back or some form of satisfactory refund. There are already steps in place to take them to trading standards if the don't reply to our emails in the allotted time. I want to do more though but I can't think of what. Thankfully
madame_corbeau is on the case and helping me organise what I need to do. I ask if you have paid money to the organisers of electrikal you file paypal disputes and report them to facebook for now. Any other ideas will be added here in due course.