Dickensian Christmas party disappointment
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The holiday season is a time for friends, family and, of course, the office Christmas party. But some unlucky workers found themselves all dressed up with nowhere to go.
One business that has been affected is Ian Williams Carpentry, a kitchen-fitting company based outside Cardiff.
Jane Llewellyn and Loredana Williams had the job of delivering a cracker of a staff party this year, so they booked tickets for A Dickens of a Christmas, an event run by Surrey-based Amazing Events Ltd which offered a "once in a lifetime adventure".
It sounded so good that the office paid £3,000 for 18 tickets and travelled 160 miles to London for its big night. But once staff arrived at the party, they discovered a note on the door saying that the party had been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
What the Dickens?
After running successfully for just one night the previous evening, A Dickens of a Christmas was cancelled for its two-week run, meaning 7,000 guests would not get their party. To date, Ian Williams Carpentry Ltd has not had any of its money back.
Also looking forward to the same Dickens of a Christmas, at a later date, were the office staff from MAP Partnership, an accountancy firm. Unlike the Dickensian accountants Scrooge and Marley, the company felt it would be money well spent to reward its staff for all their hard work this year.
Joanna Carr bought tickets costing the company £1,800, but before the big night she got an unwelcome Christmas message. Joanna received an email from Amazing Events Ltd saying that the Christmas party had been cancelled and that more information would be sent at a future date.
Joanna's firm had paid upfront for its tickets, by cheque, so had no idea if it would get its money back.
Who's to blame?
Amazing Events Ltd told us it's down to a licensing issue and blamed the nightclub venue, Shunt at London Bridge. However, Shunt told us it's down to a licensing issue and blamed the organiser, Amazing Events Ltd.
With the cancellation of A Dickens of a Christmas, Amazing Events Ltd has now gone into liquidation.
Lucy Corrie of Surrey Trading Standards has received complaints about the event, and is far from full of Christmas cheer. She explained that if there are any people who are creditors of Amazing Events Ltd, they will unfortunately have to go into a big pot of other creditors. Lucy explained how the taxman gets a cut first, then secured loans and then you just have to wait with everyone else to see if you can get your money back.
As a result, Lucy isn't hopeful that everyone will get a full refund.
Scrooged
In this sorry tale it's not just the party goers who have lost out. Amazing Events Ltd hired 48 actors to play the parts of well known Dickensian characters such as Bill Sykes, Scrooge and Fagan. Sadly, although the Dickensian actors have rehearsed their performances, no one is going to see them. They haven't been paid for the show they were going to perform which means that they are owed nearly £60,000 between them. Money they desperately needed just before Christmas.
Amazing Events Ltd promised the "best Christmas Past, Present and Future". Instead they have left many of their customers feeling well and truly Scrooged.
Amazing Events Ltd told Watchdog:
"Amazing Events Ltd places the blame for this failure fairly and squarely on the shoulders of Shunt Events Ltd who failed to obtain a licence for a suitable number of people causing the events to be cancelled. The directors make it clear that they will do everything in their power to try and recover the sums due to the creditors."
Meanwhile Shunt Events Ltd told Watchdog:
"We have sought assurances from Amazing Events that they would keep the occupancy of the building within this limit [of 400 people]. We further asked for confirmed booking numbers. We never received such assurances.
"As Amazing Events Ltd was unable to manage the situation on Friday 5 December in compliance with the licensed capacity, Shunt Events Ltd insisted on a written undertaking from them that the licensed capacity would not be exceeded at any time for future events. No such undertaking was received. On Saturday 6 December 2008 Amazing Events Ltd chose to cancel the event."
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Have also lost out on this fiasco. We are a group of nurses who work for the national blood service and 13 of us booked and paid for this by cheque, fully funded by ourselves, not our company so we have all lost at least £200. Funny thing was, we paid the price stated on the website then they asked for more money, for VAT!! So disappointed I cried! Horrible horrible people they should go to prison for this!
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I am amazed at the incorrect information provided by Lucy Corrie of Surrey Trading Standards. Crown Preference i.e. the tax man gets paid first. Crown Preference was abolished by the Enterprise Act in 2003.
For the vast majority of tax debts HMRC are an unsecured creditor just like the customers and other unsecured creditors.
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We were also on the receiving end of this fiasco. My company spent almost £10k on the all inclusive package for our party on the 13th.
We felt so sick when we received the email on the 5th. Luckily our MD let us rearrange another party for the same night which turned out to be a great success but we've heard nothing about getting our money back which understandably we are furious about. If anyone hears any more about this, please post on here!
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"They should go to prison for this"? The fact that the people involved have lost their business and reputation should be enough punishment, if that is what you're looking for.
You lost a Christmas party; they lost their livelihood and a good business for an issue that wasn't their fault. This report was unbalanced and focused on a company that has lost it all because of something that someone else was supposed to sort out.
Look back on the reports of last year's event to see this wasn't a scam.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Whilst I am sorry for those folks whose parties have been spoiled, it must be remembered that the company employees are no longer employed. They, surely, should be entitled to our sympathy.
Companies such as this enjoy profits in good times, but this can go wrong very quickly in bad times, such as we are experiencing now. The moral of the story is to pay with a credit or debit card, whereby the credit or debit card company accepts the risk when things go wrong. That is why they charge such high interest rates.
Austin
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We came to londen from holland to visit the dickens christmas event, only to find a note on the door saying the event had been cancelled. The mail stating that the event had been cancelled didn't reach us in time.
Eventhough there was just the 2 of us who had paid upfront for this event it still was a lot of money and a big disapointment.
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My understanding is that last years 'Dickens event' which is referred to above was run by a different legal and financial entity who have also left creditors high and dry (albeit the event went ahead)so the comments asking us to sympathise with the owners of this event company fall on deaf ears in my case. Surely if any of the directors are the same for both companies then Companies House should act to avoid them re-emerging again.At the very least we are looking at gross incompetence for not checing their license well in advance.
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