It has been nearly two months since the Vancouver FIA Formula E event was formally cancelled, but ticket buyers have yet to receive a refund.
Daily Hive has received a small update on the status of refunds for the once highly anticipated Vancouver event, but it might not be what ticket buyers want to hear.
The OSS Group was the organizer for the event and is now the group responsible for giving ticket buyers their money back. Daily Hive received a statement from OSS earlier this week as well as an email from a ticket buyer who said OSS denied a chargeback attempt.
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A ticket buyer attempted to initiate a chargeback through their bank.
The bank received a response via a document to the ticket buyer’s chargeback attempt saying that because the event was postponed and not cancelled, a chargeback wasn’t necessary. The ticket buyer said the document was from OSS, but OSS denied that claim.
“I am not hopeful that I will see any of my money returned to me,” the ticket buyer said.
An OSS Group spokesperson told Daily Hive that an official statement would be made soon but that “everyone that wants a refund will get one.”
OSS Group also told Daily Hive that they were “very confident we will have an event in 2023,” despite FIA Formula E’s decision to not include Vancouver in the provisional calendar.
At the 100-day countdown mark before the race, OSS Group reported that about 30,000 tickets had already been sold. At the time of the cancellation, OSS Group said they were developing a refund strategy.
The Formula E statement issued in June stated, “Formula E has terminated all contractual agreements with the OSS Group, the promoter and operator of the Vancouver E-Prix.”
“We expect OSS Group to ensure that it proceeds to a full refund of these tickets and to provide details on this process in the short term.”
The City of Vancouver recently said they would give the OSS Group a security payment of $500,000 with the assurance that it would go towards “financial obligations associated with the cancelled event.”
In a statement to Daily Hive, the City states that the “next steps in the process now reside with OSS. No new applications for any future Formula E event have been received by the City.”
The City also states that any inquiries about ticket refunds have been referred to the OSS Group and that it isn’t involved in the refund process. This undoubtedly leaves more questions than answers for those who haven’t received a refund, but it’s a curious situation and one that the OSS Group isn’t clarifying.
Are you one of the many ticket buyers still waiting for your refund for the Formula E event? Let us know in the comments.
With files from Kenneth Chan
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