For 23 years SSBE has prided itself on allowing full refunds up to two weeks prior to a show for any consumer wishing to cancel their order…no questions asked. We have far exceeded the event industry standard with these policies and felt that they were essential for maintaining a great level of service throughout the years. However, when the CDC and WHO initiated crucial policies limiting gathering size and then the government mandating stay at home orders; there was honestly no way for us to maintain the level of refunds with the postponement of five consecutive "In Person" events.
As a promoter there is a significant amount of overhead and costs that are associated with our events at the beginning of each year. Our website, ticketing system, workshop photography, digital guides, button program, venue deposits, advertising are just the start. These are “normal” business practices and eventually translate into the wonderful events that we enjoy bringing to all of you.
However, these are unprecedented times and without the foreknowledge of the situation; we like so many others were caught off guard. Unfortunately, this came at a considerable cost not only for our business, but most importantly for our consumers and vendors. This was not a matter of our company mismanaging funds, but a situation where many of our expenses had already been paid out and are non-refundable.
This is a tough question and for several weeks now we have all had to contemplate what could we have done differently. Considering that businesses did not have advance warning, and in our case 6 weeks would have made a considerable difference as to how we managed opening our online pre-registration system. Each event requires a 7 to 8 week window for online pre-registration sales. Our hotel specials (where applicable) require a 12 week window as there are guaranteed room blocks that we must satisfy in order for us to host our events.
Our business can weather one postponement, but five consecutive events online has proved to be very costly. Going forward many businesses around the world are already re-evaluating their policies and or/contracts to better protect themselves as well as the consumer.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic promoters in general such as Ticket Master, Stub Hub and other large event organizers did not offer refunds of any kind. Many of these large event organizers attempted to offer refunds in light of the pandemic, but shortly thereafter found that it was unsustainable given the amount of cancellations that were occurring with no end in sight with regards to stay at home orders.
It has been common knowledge for many years that our competitors have also had a “No Refund” policy. However, after the shutdown occurred in March, our competitors added additional verbiage to their policy to include refunds if events were cancelled. It is worth noting that at the time of this implementation our competitors did not have events online…i.e. they were not selling tickets to their events; so they could plan and manage their capital in a much different manner.
As for SSBE we had five shows open for pre-registration between mid-December through mid-March. Had the pandemic occurred in November or if we were able to have had just one event our financial picture would have looked much different.
Yes! We are actively working towards new online opportunities to offset revenue as our traditional events will likely resume sometime late summer. During the month of June every dime of profit that comes in will be used to start refunding customers orders! You do not need to ask for a refund. As profits come in, refunds will be generated in the order of pre-registration date (i.e. the date that you placed your order online between December - March 2020).
As close to June 1st as possible we will be announcing a schedule of @Home Events and we hope you will join in supporting our amazing Crafting Industry. We will have some cute merchandise that will help generate proceeds in which we can start refunding orders from postponed shows and help get everyone moving forward again.
You are welcome to keep your E-Gift Certificate and use it towards items mentioned in the E-Gift certificate tab. ***Please email us at info@scrapbookexpo.com.com with your "order number" so we can make a note on your account.
There are a few ways that you can use your E-Gift certificate.
NOTE: If you have an E-Gift Certificate for the Hotel Special, please refer to the Hotel Special Reservation section for answers regarding this event.