Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Consumer Affairs Commissioner Sandy Otto warns Territorians NOT to buy tickets to the Dinosaur Festival Darwin as it does not have a venue!

Transcript

NT Consumer Affairs Commissioner Sandy Otto warns Territorians NOT to buy tickets to the Dinosaur Festival Darwin as it does not have a venue! · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that the Northern Territory Consumer Affairs they
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: are warning consumers to be aware of the Dinosaur Festival Darwin.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: According to the website dedicated to the event and also
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Facebook advertisements, the Dinosaur Festival Darwin was supposed to take
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: place at the Jingly Water Gardens from the twenty ninth
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to the thirty first of July this year.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Now, I called it quite a while back.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I know that there had been reports in other states
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that it was underwhelming at best and a non event
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at worst. But payments are still being taken from what
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I can gather. Now, joining me on the line to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about this situation is
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs here in the Northern Territory,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Sandi Otto.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Good morning Katy, Sandy. I understand the organizer as well.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: They originally said that this event was going to happen
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: at the Jingle Water Gardens, then they said the Darwin Showgrounds.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Have they got permits in either of these locations?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not. In fact, the one from the Dawn City
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Council be the organizer, yeah, actually pulled the permit, which
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: to me indicates that he's got no intention at all
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: of holding the event.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Goodness me, So, Sandy.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Has there been applications to hold the event on another
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: date or anything like that.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: There's been nothing which prompted me to put this warning out.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: I don't want people spending money on something that's more
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: than likely not going to occur. If there was any
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: chance that was going to go ahead, and we've been
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: given some comfort that it was going ahead, I certainly
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have put the media release out. I'm very confident
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: that it's not going to go ahead.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, at the end of the day, we're
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: talking about presumably families with little kids that are going
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to be buying tickets to this dinosaur festival or show,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: whatever it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Is, and you know it's going to have a big impact.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Then if it doesn't come to town and they can't
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: get their money back.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and what I'm encouraging people to do, more than
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: likely they would have paid by credit. Can't that they
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: approach their bank and try and get a charge back
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: on their credit card. I'm not confident that mister David Honey,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: who's the director of this company, will respond to emails.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: He certainly hasn't responded to us. He hasn't responded to
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: another of other organizations that I'm aware of, and in fact,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I had an interview with Cape Talk, which is a
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Cape Town radio station in South Africa late you see afternoon,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: and they indicate that the same thing is happening over there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Goodness me, Sandy.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I saw reports about this dinosaur festival a little bit
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: earlier in the year, and I'd sort of had messages
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: from people coming through saying we're just not sure whether
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: this is legitimate or not. So I'd said that on
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: air and said to people just be cautious, and we
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: ended up then with the organizer calling us and wanting
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: us to apologize, when in actual fact it looks as
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: though he should be the one doing the apologizing.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, we've spoke with him ourselves back in April and
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: he gave us assurance that it was going ahead, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: at that point he did have an application with the
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Darwin City Council. This time though, he's not contacted us
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: at all, and we certainly give any person like this
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to state their case. In this case, he hasn't,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: and that's why I'm encouraging territories to simply ignore this
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: if it does come to a point where he does
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: come to town, Well, then you know tickets can be
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: purchased quite easily or quickly at that point that at
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: this time, I'm just telling everyone to not waste their money.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a very fair thing that you've done.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: And it does sound as though you've tried, well, you
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: did have an initial conversation with him, but then you've
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: also tried again to have further conversations to determine whether indeed.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: This is happening or not. And did he stop taking
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: your calls?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: He simply hasn't responded. And I think one of the
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: things that people need to be very careful about is
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: that if they're buying anything online, haven't look to see
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: if there's an maybe a number for starters. Is there
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: any other contact other than just simply an email. In
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: this case, the website was a dot com, It wasn't
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: even a dot com dot au. There was no other
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: contact details. You simply had to send an email through
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the website itself, so you didn't even have an address
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: at that point. And hope that someone can get back to.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: You now, Sandy, is the company still selling tickets for
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a Darwin event at this point.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I can't tell if it is. I do know that
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: on one of the I think it was a Facebook post,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: they had a link that directed them to people to
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: a website to buy the tickets. I'm understood that that's
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: now been closed down. And the other worrying thing was
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: last week he had another website that was up that
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: was advertising at the Darwin Showgrounds and that's since been
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: closed down as well. So it seems like he's shutting.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Shop to me, and from the investigations that you've done
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: so far, it seems as though Darwin's not the first
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: location to be targeted.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: No, certainly not. We were aware of another incident in
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Newcastle where he had an event organized and there was
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: a rain event so it was canceled. But he did
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: promise people that they would receive refunds, and from what
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I'm led to understand that no refunds have been given
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: at all for that one. In fact, his terms and
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: additions are quite clear that he basically all the list
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: that he's got in his terms and editions basically denies
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: anyone from getting a refund, and in one part of
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: it it simply says there are no refunds and that's
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: not allowed. Everyone should be entitled to a refund given
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: some no particular circumstances, and this is one of the
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: other reasons why we've been trying to get some cooperation
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: from this gentleman.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sandy, did you end up with Territorians getting in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: contact with you concerned like that had bought tickets.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have had some people contact us about that,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: and we've been telling everyone to please contact their banks
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: re quick charge back.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, so just talk us through those steps.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: If people have indeed purchase tickets to go to this
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: dinosaur festival where originally they thought it was going to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: happen at the Jingly Water Gardens, what can they now
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: do in an effort to try to get their money
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: back if the organizer is not actually going to refund them.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: What they can do so if they go to the bank,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: there's still be time limits for when you can apply
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: for a chargeback as well, So people need to be
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: contacting their banks straight away. They'll need to provide proof
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: that they didn't receive the goods and services or it's
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: unlikely to occur. And what they could do is have
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: a copy of my media release that I put out yesterday.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: They could do a screenshop where they've sent the email
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: to missus David Hunting asking for a refund. Those are
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: some of the steps and the evidence that they can
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: provide to the bank. And I'm hoping that the banking
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: institutions will see this and refund the money.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Well, that's hope that they can.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea of how many you know,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Territorians may indeed have have been impacted by this, Sandy, No,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: But what really concerned me over the weekend when we
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: first started or we started to look at this organization
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: again last week was the number of people that were
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: tagged and commented on his post. He had a sponsored
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: post up over the weekend that said it was going
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: to occur at the Jingle Water Guns when we clearly
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: knew that it wasn't, And you know, there was hundreds
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: of people that may comment and tagged other people. So
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned that some of those people have in fact
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: bought tickets. So I haven't got numbers at all.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Well, and we literally just had somebody call in and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: say that he's on the website and you can still
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: get tickets.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: At the moment. I mean, I don't know.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a look myself, but you know that's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: obviously something that one of our listeners has said. So Sandy,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, really, this is just a big shout out
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to anybody out there listening this morning.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Do not purchase tickets.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly right. And you know, putting a warning out
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: like this when there is a business and that we
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: know there is actually a business telling people not to
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: buy tickets is not something that I take lightly. And
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I just cannot reiterate enough to people to just hold
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: off and don't purchase tickets.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well you spot on.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, if a
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: permit is put in and you know it looks like
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: he's coming to town and it looks like there's a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: legitimate show coming to town, well, you know, fair enough,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: but at this point, there's no permits in, there's no
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: location that's been secured, and you have indeed gone through
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that process of trying to be you know, to get
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in contact, and it's you know, falling short at this point.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Certainly has so just be careful when you're purchasing anything
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: online orlways, look at the terms and conditions and if
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: the refund policy seems too tight, it doesn't allow people
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to do get a refunded. If there's certain circumstances,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: please let us know and just be doublely cautious.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice. Well, Sandy Otto, I really appreciate your
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: time this morning. I know it's a big call for
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Consumer Affairs to actually issue a statement
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: like this, so we really appreciate it, and I think
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that there's going to be plenty of Territory families out
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: there listening who'd maybe been looking at buying these tickets
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: who are certainly going to appreciate it.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Thanks Cody, Thank you.