Velo Birmingham cancelled?

I was entered for their Velo South year before last which was cancelled at the last minute due to bad weather and I received a full refund.  I am inclined to accept their explaination for Birmingham this year for that reason.

I was an early booker at an hotel in Warwick for an Easter event, the event has been cancelled and I received a full refund. York rally has been cancelled this year, again I have been refunded my booking. Having always considered sportives as over expensive events and on the make I am not surprised at this outcome. Some of my refund from York Rally will be contributed back to the organisers as I consider them to be a worthwhile charity.

for comparison I entered the hell of the ashdown run by a club, it was cancelled due to one of the winter storms, but after sensible deductions the entry fees went to the charity that the event supported so  missing the event was a disappointment  but I couldnt be that upset at losing my entry 

This virus is showing the true colours of people. While some are doing their best to help others, Velo are the worst kind of Sc*m, profiteering from it. 
I've even heard their insurance (Yellow) is backing out of paying the cancellation cost too.

Let's all make sure we remember how they reacted to this and when we come out the other side of C-19, make sure we never ever book another event with them, and make sure all our club mates don't do so either.

If you live in a town where Velo run these events (Birmingham, Chelmsford, etc) it may also be worthwhile writing to the local council to explain that Velo should not be trusted to run events and they should get another firm in to do it.

I would have accepted my money being returned less a small admin fee or being moved free to next year (as Tour of Cambridge have done) but Velo are just making money from misery.

The e-mail from the event organisers explains that, despite their T&Cs allowing them not to, they would normally refund for cancellations due to force majeure but that they can't in this case because a public health emergency doesn't meet that definition in their insurance policy..

I'm not an insurance expert, but that sounds like utter nonsense to me. Especially as the Government is passing legislation this week to plug any loopholes in insurance policies regarding ill effects businesses face due to the their COVID-19 response. If what they claim is true then they would've failed to obtain adequate event insurance to begin with.

I suspect that the organisers realise that keeping the funds would be seen as egregious and have invented an excuse to save face. 

I doubt they have taken any advice before issuing that statement, nor will they consulted with their sponsors. And I wouldn't be suprised to see a co-ordinated challenge mounted once the dust has settled.

I'm not concerned about the financial loss or inconvenience to me - it's trivial under the circumstances. But I can't abide companies profiteering off a human tragedy.

I find myself feeling quite pragmatic about this.  In their email, they were clear that the Ts&Cs stated that they didn't have to give a refund (who read these before spending their money?) and, that if they did pay the money back, they would go under.  Perhaps they'll still be around next year and I'll get to ride the event again?

I paid the standard fee and it's one I can afford to lose.  In fact, it's already spent so I know I won't miss it.  I'm not getting anything for it but I've got more important things to worry about at the moment. 

Good luck to them and good luck to you all.  Wash your hands and I hope you all remain healthy.

Looking into this company, I'm surprised that such a high profile event is being ran by a company which has but a single director, all the others have resigned and if I didn't know better, looks to be going under. The account filings only cover to the end of 2018, but still they made quite a loss. The administrative costs for the year 2018 was over £1million, which seems exceptionally high. To me, untrained in the workings of businesses, what admin costs could possibly amount to that much?

Whats interesting though, is that the parent company, Chime Group Holdings Ltd, made a very healthy profit, the adjusted profit for the year ending 2018 was over £35m.

If all of the 15,000 paid for fasttrack, the total revenue would be £1.8million, so the actual revenue and therefore refund costs are way less than this. Easily affordable by the parent company.

Being cynical, I could say that taking peoples money, then cancelling the event without having to give refunds, is a blessing to them! It isn't our fault that they didn't take out insurance to cover all eventualities.

Rant over with.

Emails sent out to all and sundry saying that they won't be refunding anyone, as per their T & C's. As for changing event, they will possibly move people onto the Essex event if it isn't cancelled, but nothing as to moving people to the 2021 editiion.

I wonder what profit this company makes, as no doubt the majority of the costs for this event won't happen now, but they still have everyone's entrance fee, it will be boosted after this. If the Essex event is cancelled as well, then they will certainly have a good year, profit wise.

Having entered into the event as a priority entrance for the girlfriend and myself, if they don't offer a partial refund or move to another event, either 2020 or 2021, then I won't be entering again! (I've entered into all of the Birmingham events so far.)

All cancelled and email confirmed. No refunds either which may get interesting. Annoyingly looks like they're keeping the money and not rolling entries over to next year. Bunch of Muppets.

I strongly suspect that the event will not go ahead and that the organisers will already have realised this. However, they will not be willing to cancel it until they are forced to. I also don't think they will cancel the event as such but will "postpone" it and not offer any refunds to entrants who are unable to meet the deferred date. 

This is the same event organiser of the Etape Caledonia which has been postponded to an as yet undecided date without offering refund options. The organisers T&Cs also state that there are no refunds for force majeure.

I'll be avoiding this company's events in future.  

Yes, ironic indeed that cancellation may occur for the same reason that people are 'trapped in their houses'!