Bay Festival Cancellation – advice on refunds

The Office of Fair Trading has continued it's correspondence with HMV regarding their stated intention to process refunds for ticket holders for the cancelled Isle of Man Bay Festival. The following media statement has now been received from the company:

hmvtickets is pleased to confirm that, following the cancellation of the Isle of Man Bay Festival by its promoter - Isle of Man Bay Festival Limited, hmvtickets will process ticket refunds from 31st August 2011.

hmvtickets expects to complete this process by 13th September 2011 or as soon as possible thereafter. Affected customers will be contacted via their email address, where this is known, or via telephone between 10.00hrs - 20.00hrs weekdays during this period.

hmvtickets requests that, in the interests of customer data/privacy protection and also so that the refunds process may be completed in a timely manner, ticket holders kindly do not seek to contact its call centre or representatives during this period.

hmvtickets would once again like to sincerely apologise to all affected customers for the inconvenience and disappointment caused by the cancellation of this festival by its promoter, and also to thank them for their patience and understanding whilst waiting for the refunds procedure to complete.

Although the Office is aware that some consumers have already received refunds by following the advice previously given by the Office regarding "chargeback" procedures, for payments made by credit and debit cards, the Office is pleased to note the statement made today by HMV.

The Office notes from the above announcement that HMV state that ticket holders do not have do anything more to apply for their refunds, as HMV state they will contact ticket holders individually and they hope to complete this process by 13th September 2011.

Chief Officer of the OFT Paul Gelling said

“The Office appreciates that the announcement of the cancellation of the festival by Isle of Man Bay Festival Limited on 17th May 2011 caused significant concern to ticket holders, who were understandably worried about whether they would receive any form of refund. Although there has been a considerable delay and refund deadlines set by Isle of Man Bay Festival and HMV were not adhered to, I am hopeful that today's announcement by HMV will result in the remainder of the ticket holders for the cancelled festival now receiving a refund.”