Students left in the dark about refunds on Notts club night tickets

Students are still waiting on refunds for their Notts club night tickets, The Nottingham Tab has learnt.

Of those who The Notts Tab spoke to, it can be confirmed that Ocean owe a total combined refund of at least £150 and Shapes, £199.50.

Students claimed that they had not heard anything from Ocean or its owner Andy Hoe since the beginning of lockdown. However, Andy Hoe later released a public statement about tickets after being contacted by The Nottingham Tab for comment about the students’ allegations.

Meanwhile, Shapes released a statement via Instagram but student ticket holders say they have not heard anything else since or received any official communication about postponing events or refunds on tickets from Shapes directly.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B96qpQXlxW-/

Students say there was no official communication between them and Ocean about events being cancelled or postponed, or even any acknowledgement of the global pandemic at all.

Third year student George, who is waiting on a refund, told The Tab Notts,”I’ve had absolutely zero communication [from Ocean] about it, they’re pretending it’s not even happening it feels like”.

Another student told us this isn’t the first time he has had an issue getting a refund from Ocean, “In the past I have tried to get tickets refunded when it becomes a ‘free’ Ocean but its always – don’t worry, just use it another time. They never refund.”

Meanwhile, second year student Grace, when commenting on the way Ocean have dealt with the situation, told The Tab Notts “I shouldn’t have to ask the owner of a company directly what is happening with refunds, that really isn’t a great way to run a business.”

Grace also added that some students might be fearful to speak up about their lack of refund as “with him [Andy Hoe] it always feels like any slander against him will result in you being banned or at least publicly shamed on his account.”

Andy Hoe’s silence on tickets ended when he posted a screenshot of The Nottingham Tab’s request for comment on his Instagram profile, along with an explanation on tickets. And, it appears, if you want a refund, you must contact him directly. He says that, if you want your money back, it will take “a while”.

Similarly with Shapes, students allege that they have heard nothing about re-arranging events or refunds.

Shapes, in their Instagram post, requested students seeking refunds contact them via Facebook. However, Carys, a final year student, told: “I’ve had no email, nor message from them [Shapes]. I have sent them several Facebook messages stating the requirement of refunds and I’ve had no response, not even a ‘read’ tick.”

In response to this claims, Shapes said they have now “messaged back everyone who has contacted us on Facebook.”

Carys is still waiting on a refund of upwards of £70 as she bought tickets for her friends as well as herself. She then decided to contact Fatsoma, the platform that sells tickets for Shapes, directly. She received the following response (pictured below):

It was also reported to The Nottingham Tab by a ticket holder that tickets for Shapes’ event ‘Summer Party’ scheduled for 8th June were still being sold online as late as June 1st, despite lockdown still being place and with no way this event could be carried out legally under the current government guidelines.

However, Shapes responded, saying the screenshot we provided by a ticket seller of the website selling tickets was “old” and that they have now gotten “in touch with all the venues & also Fatsoma to get everything moving in a positive direction.”

The screenshot in question.

Students, in regards to Andy Hoe’s recent Instagram post on tickets, are glad that he has made a pubic statement, although some say they feel it should have come earlier.

A student, Izzie, said she is “glad he’s finally posted something about what he’s doing even if he was pressured to do so. It’s frustrating that we can only get refunds if we ask, we shouldn’t have to ask him directly.”

“It seems fair,” another student said, but he felt it “should have been done slightly earlier.” He added that “I don’t think he’s [Andy] is trying to rip anyone off.”

A different student, however, said that she felt there should be a way to request a refund on the website and not have to directly ask for a response themselves.

Meanwhile, other event holders have been able to provide full refunds to all their customers.

Crisis contacted The Nottingham Tab to say: “We’ve refunded all our ticket holders so we are happy to follow up on anyone who hasn’t received a payout for some reason yet.” They added that if a student has not received a refund from them yet that they should get in touch.

The general consensus from those who got in touch with The Tab Notts is that their anger surrounding the situation is not that they haven’t received refunds or heard about postponement of events yet, but rather the lack of communication from the clubs.

Andy Hoe refused to provide comment to The Nottingham Tab directly, however, he posted on his Instagram after we messaged him. Below if an excerpt of his comments:

“Since we announced closing back in March, and I posted saying at the time that outstanding tickets would be sorted out once we knew more what the situation was, I’ve basically been processing refunds as people have asked.

“Every time someone has messaged for a refund and got one it’s spread to a few friends who have then contact me, people have posted on Buy/Sell, Nottsfessional etc… Basically people who have wanted or possibly needed a refund the most have wanted or possibly needed a refund the most have got them first. It’s spread nicely, but not got out of hand. You could say it was a bit like flattening the curve!

“In short… if you have outstanding tickets remaining you can… 1. Hold onto them. Once we have a date for re-opening I’ll allocate them for next academic year… 2. If you’d like your tickets refunded drop me a DM.”

To view the full post that was made, readers can request to follow his profile on Instagram to find out more about tickets and refunds.

Shapes issued the following statement:

“We’ve messaged everyone back who has contacted us on Facebook (we always ask people to message us there as opposed to Instagram) letting them know we’ve seen their message & will be updating them soon.

“We have been lucky enough to confirm a new date for our Rooftop Summer Party so do not have any event listed for June 8th anywhere officially anymore.

“All the information for ticket holders for that event will be going out in the next few days or as detailed on the event people can also message our ticketing partner Fatsoma if they’d like information sooner – rest assured the people who come to Shapes. are the people who make Shapes what it is & we have never & will never let them down, so no-one will be disappointed when the information gets released, it’s just not the easiest process to organise with so many people in the industry currently furloughed.

“We’re now in touch with all the venues & also Fatsoma to get everything moving in a positive direction!”