A U.S. ticket seller鈥檚 financial difficulties have left a Shuswap non-profit having to fundraise in order to provide refunds for a cancelled event.
According to Shelley Desautels of Salmon Arm鈥檚 Boxing for Wellness Society, more than $4,400 is owed for tickets purchased for this year鈥檚 Hit2Fit Boxing gala and fundraiser. . At the 2018 event, participating fighters raised $30,000 for the SAFE Society and the Shuswap Hospital Foundation. This year鈥檚 event was to support the Shuswap SPCA and Canadian Mental Health Association Shuswap-Revelstoke.
After the postponement was announced, the Boxing for Wellness Society, which runs the event, emailed everyone who purchased tickets, saying if you want to donate your funds to the society, no action was required. Those wanting a refund were advised to submit a request to Brown Paper Tickets.
鈥淪o everyone did their part in it,鈥� said Desautels. 鈥淎nd then we just kind of left it thinking things were done. And then we started getting word back from ticket purchasers that they hadn鈥檛 seen any money.鈥�
Desautels soon learned Hit2Fit ticket buyers weren鈥檛 alone.
鈥淚 started digging into it and it seems like there鈥檚 a lot of these groups that are owed money,鈥� said Desautels.
Attempts made by the Observer to contact Brown Paper Tickets were met with automated responses.
On the company website鈥檚 contact page is a link for individuals seeking refunds. It takes you to a separate webpage with a message dated Sept. 14 from the company鈥檚 president William Jordan. In it, Jordan sates the company is working through a backlog of refund requests.
鈥淲hile we can鈥檛 offer an estimated timeline for your specific refund at this moment, our team has been and continues to initiate full refunds to ticket holders (including BPT service fees) and pay event organizers on a daily basis,鈥� reads the statement. 鈥淲e continue to examine our processes to identify opportunities to safeguard customers moving forward.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a long process with thousands of events canceled, postponed, or abandoned. Like many businesses, we were unprepared for a crisis of this scale, but we are making headway.鈥�
The next step for Boxing for Wellness was to submit a claim to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General鈥檚 Office in Washington. From this, Desautels said the society received the portion of the ticket money that people chose to donate.
Thinking they鈥檇 made progress, Desautels and the society dropped the matter until they began receiving more complaints from ticket buyers who鈥檇 yet to receive a refund. After this, Desautels learned the Washington Attorney Generals Office, after receiving 583 complaints, .
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鈥淭his is a huge thing鈥�,鈥� said Desautels, explaining some Hit2Fit ticket buyers were eventually able to get a refund through their credit card company. 鈥淎nother person got denied. It鈥檚 been hit or miss on who is getting money back.鈥�
Now the Boxing for Wellness Society is looking at fundraising options to cover the refunds itself.
鈥淭hey are expecting us to (provide refunds) and we鈥檝e said we would,鈥� said Desautels. 鈥淲e have said that because we don鈥檛 know when the money is going to come back, and these are people that bought tables which are $625 on their credit card that they probably want back.
鈥淪o we said we鈥檇 fundraise for it. It may take two years to get the money back but eventually you鈥檒l get it from us.鈥�
Desautels stressed that it is the society which oversees Hit2Fit, not Salmon Arm Bulldogs Fitness and Boxing Centre owner Peggy Maerz, who helps organize it.
鈥淧eople are going to Bulldogs Boxing thinking Peggy owes them money,鈥� said Desautels. 鈥淏ut this is Boxing for Wellness which is completely separate. We鈥檙e the ones that put out the money. We鈥檙e the ones that raise the money and get the funds. Peggy doesn鈥檛 see a cent of it.鈥�
Desautels noted the funds raised at Hit2Fit by Boxing for Wellness goes towards grants for people who want to get into boxing and might have financial difficulties or disability needs.
Looking ahead to 2021, Desautels said plans are in the works for a possible live-streamed Hit2Fit event. While this likely won鈥檛 be the big gala/dinner fundraiser of past years, part of the incentive is to keep the event going.
鈥淲e might just cover our costs. Who knows? But we don鈥檛 want to lose momentum either,鈥� said Desautels. 鈥淪o we鈥檒l do it the way that we can for now so that when we can finally have events in the future it can come back again.鈥�
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