EventElephant

ChRoMe · 23-04-2013 7:56am

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

I cannot discuss a person's account on a public forum but if you contact finance@eventelephat.com they can answer your queries.

I wouldn't expect you to.

However if I had customers that were obviously so incredibly unhappy, I'd take some initiative to solve their issues. You know, a basic common decency gesture such as arranging to call them to discuss the matter or similar.

Basically anything other than throwing an email address out (that gives you the ability to continue to ignore the questions).

Event Elephant: Alan · 23-04-2013 12:02pm

ChRoMe wrote: »

I wouldn't expect you to.

However if I had customers that were obviously so incredibly unhappy, I'd take some initiative to solve their issues. You know, a basic common decency gesture such as arranging to call them to discuss the matter or similar.

Basically anything other than throwing an email address out (that gives you the ability to continue to ignore the questions).

ChRoMe - If an Event Organiser has chargeback on their event our finance team contact them regularly with updates. The issue is most certainly not ignored. I am sorry if you feel that we have not given you enough information on this forum, I am giving the email address for our finance team as I cannot give you the details on this that finance can give you over email or phone.

ChRoMe · 23-04-2013 3:26pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

I am giving the email address for our finance team as I cannot give you the details on this that finance can give you over email or phone.

:facepalm:

I've never even been a customer of yours but you are still managing to irritate me.

Once again you show no interest in helping resolve your customers issues.

To everyone else:

Seems like these clowns are causing trouble over here in the uk as well

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/event-elephant-ltd-pay-your-creditors-on-time

frank74 · 23-04-2013 5:26pm

ChRoMe wrote: »

:facepalm:

I've never even been a customer of yours but you are still managing to irritate me.

Once again you show no interest in helping resolve your customers issues.

To everyone else:

Seems like these clowns are causing trouble over here in the uk as well

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/event-elephant-ltd-pay-your-creditors-on-time

http://www.qype.co.uk/place/2063174-EventElephant-Richmond

WAPAIC · 23-04-2013 10:43pm

It's interesting that EE appear to be (a) still holding onto cash (b) still giving the same ridiculous chargeback excuses out and (c) still in business!

It's not like there isn't plenty of alternatives providing a similar or better service for less. Why take the risk with them? I'm unfollowing this thread, it depresses me thinking about my experiences with them.

Bordeo · 23-05-2013 9:46am

Hi,
unfortunately im another person who has been caught by event elephant. Event happened 15 months ago and am owed 10k. they are an absolute joke to deal with feeding me the same spin over and over again.
what regulatory body can they be reported to.

trappedbyEE · 23-05-2013 5:31pm

It seems that not only I have been trapped. Have not got paid after 6 months and the response is always a chargeback. They never provide any advice even though I called them a few times. "sorry, we cannot provide any information to you....".

I am suggesting not using this company.

Reamer Fanny · 23-05-2013 5:45pm

Having read this thread from the start, and Event Elephant's generic responses I don't think you'd have to do much to dissuade a prospective customer from using them.

I am currently using SumUp to process VISA and MasterCard payments, apart from some odd delays here and there in transferring payments into my bank account I can't complain - they only charge 2.75% per transaction and have a handy smartphone app to keep track of your sales and process payments.

Event Elephant: Alan · 23-05-2013 5:54pm

For anyone affect by chargebacks we provide all details to the card companies and liaise with them on a daily basis in order to get them resolved asap. Please note that all funds are transferred to event organisers. We do not hold onto any event organisers funds. If there is a delay due to chargebacks these funds are held by the card companies and not EventElephant. We understand that these can cause difficulties for our event organisers but unfortunately these are beyond our control.

We do promote the use of your own PayPal or merchant bank account to collect ticket funds. We encourage all organisers to collect their ticket funds in this way. By doing this, you still have all the same great features for your event and you have access to the funds as and when the tickets are sold.

Bordeo · 24-05-2013 1:50pm

Lisa, Event Elephant are a disgrace. Yer customer service is a joke. Ye are no way proactive in trying to solve the problem in getting the funds released. Chartities are out of pocket because of yer uselessness and that is shameful. please dont relpy with your usual waffle

ChRoMe · 24-05-2013 4:25pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

For anyone affect by chargebacks we provide all details to the card companies and liaise with them on a daily basis in order to get them resolved asap.

How about sharing the support ticket references you have opened with the credit card companies to allow customers to track their issues?

Bordeo · 24-05-2013 9:58pm

are there any legal eagles on this forum that could advise us on where we stand legally. is there any regulatory body that we could report event elephant to ie. financial regulator, consumer authority, irish payments authority, garda fraud squad etc

from some of the reviews on english sites they seem to be alot of people in the same boat there also

google 'petition event elephant' and you will find a list of english companies and charities who are still waiting payment months after the event has passed

Bordeo · 29-05-2013 9:35am

I have received a handbook specifically on charbebacks from aib merchant banking. makes interesting reading. dont know how event elephant can stand over what they are saying. have it in soft copy. if anyone would like a copy let me know

WAPAIC · 30-05-2013 7:33am

Well, I know I said I was not going to bother with this anymore but something just popped up on Facebook which made me reconsider. Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue ran an event in July 2012, used EE and still haven't gotten their money. This is an example which is in the public domain, which is current and which deserves to be resolved. So it will be interesting to see if EE can redeem themselves a little bit by doing the decent thing and giving the lads their money.

For what it's worth, I'm not involved with Sligo Leitrim MR at all, I just follow their updates on Facebook. I hope it's ok to link to the post:

https://www.facebook.com/SligoLeitrimMRT/posts/641716679176374

Over to you Lisa and EE. Can I suggest you don't use the word "chargeback" in your response? It would be much more credible.

Event Elephant: Alan · 05-06-2013 3:19pm

WAPAIC- Your last comment implies that we are holding onto their funds. This is false. I cannot discuss another persons account with you but I can tell you that when funds are delayed it is the bank that are holding onto the funds not EventElephant and the transfer is made as soon as they have been released

slmrt · 05-06-2013 9:20pm

Its funny that Event Elephant is more likely to reply to a stranger about our account rather than return a call we made to them today. I say this speaks volumes!

In July last year Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team held our charity night walk. This was a very successful night, which we enjoyed sharing with our families, friends and supporters. The funds raised from this walk are used to provide the necessary training, equipment, and resources that are essential in enabling us to carry out rescues in remote and extreme environments. While we are a team of volunteers, we work hard to provide the very high standard that is expected of a 999 rescue service. In order to ease our volunteer workload we used online event management company Event Elephant to organise our night walk. Unfortunately, it has been almost a year and we still have not received any of the funds raised!

We have continued to contact Event Elephant as to when we will receive our funds. Their customer service has been extremely poor and responses vague at best. We strongly advise anyone that is considering using Event Elephant to carefully consider all information, and what they want from them.... and then reconsider!

This issue has put a huge burden on our finances and volunteers time, but we are still a 999 rescue service and we will continue to provide the service to which we are fully committed .... plus we are used to carrying heavy loads!

As always, we would like to thank all our friends and supporters for your continued support.

Stay safe out there

hotdrop · 06-06-2013 2:33pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

WAPAIC- Your last comment implies that we are holding onto their funds. This is false. I cannot discuss another persons account with you but I can tell you that when funds are delayed it is the bank that are holding onto the funds not EventElephant and the transfer is made as soon as they have been released

Listening to Joe Duffy and Father Ted quote comes to mind again: "Cowboys, Ted, cowboys!"

WAPAIC · 06-06-2013 11:56pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

WAPAIC- Your last comment implies that we are holding onto their funds. This is false. I cannot discuss another persons account with you but I can tell you that when funds are delayed it is the bank that are holding onto the funds not EventElephant and the transfer is made as soon as they have been released

Sligo Leitrim MRT seem to be saying that you are holding onto their funds. Their relationship is with you, not the banks. I wanted to hear your side and I want the volunteers in that organisation to get the money they have raised and allow them to get on with the business of saving lives in their spare time. To be honest, I found your response breathtakingly inadequate.

How did you like the Joe Duffy show today? Here's a link in case you missed it:

http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A20210027%3A53%3A06%2D06%2D2013%3A

Fiery biscuits · 07-06-2013 7:29am

I was listening to the Joe Duffy show yesterday on this topic. Disgraceful that the hard earned money of regular people intending to fund wonderful charities has fallen into the hands of these cowboys. I hope a resolution can be found quickly and that the right people are held accountable.

As a contributor pointed out yesterday, it would be farcical only for the serious nature of it. Hearing the whole situation unfold on the radio made for great listening. Backed into a corner with nowhere to turn, hope they are not let out of this corner and people recieve their money.

nevis7 · 07-06-2013 12:50pm

this has all the hallmarks of a collapsing pyramid scheme. no doubt there will be the odd few callback problems. the company have over-egged that little pudding to stall payments. I can see the following current state of affairs. funds received this month from current events are used to pay(in dribs and drabs or depending on pressure), events finished up to 2 years ago. the current events will be paid in the timeframe of 18-24 months as long as the pyramid does not collapse.

you have to hand it to them, focussing on a soft target, such as charities and non profit orgs is perfect for the gambit.

time to name, shame and investigate the directors.

DinoRex · 07-06-2013 1:08pm

Just adding the not-for-profit community development organisation I work with to the list of people messed around by this.

Amalgam · 07-06-2013 2:06pm

Extra Joe Duffy coverage today as well.

EDIT: RTE have seemingly jumped the 'information gap' and got answers from some of the CC companies. They do not stall payments in the way a certain company are making out.

RasTa · 07-06-2013 2:39pm

This is a <SNIP>, I used to deal with a lot of chargebacks when working for a big international payment processor.

The charge back should only affect which payments where charged back and anything over 10% would be high in most cases. In no way can they hold onto the entire amount that was collected. I'd get onto the Gardai fraud squad since they are Irish based.

ningnong · 07-06-2013 2:46pm

Adding the national non-profit organisation for disabled children & adults that I am Chairperson of to the list. We are waiting over a year for our funds. We are currently seeking legal advise so can't name it just now.

smcgiff · 08-06-2013 10:58am

ChRoMe wrote: »

Its a LTD company so you can just pull their accounts/returns to see how healthy they are.

Just did just that.

Going by the publically available information - Last accounts filed were back in May 2013. but only the June 2011 are currently available for viewing. At that stage the company had P&L reserve losses of €3.8 million! :eek:

It has a credit score of 3 out of 100. This is waaaaaaay below junk bond status.

I'm very sorry for anyone that has money tied up in this company.

I was listening to the Joe Duffy show on Thursday afternoon while out driving and on my return I sat in my car outside the office listening to this. It's maddening.

Someone else used the word Ponzi scheme. Alas, this may be true. I'll not speculate further for legal reasons.

However, I suggest it's every man/woman for themselves. If there is any significant money due I'd go legal straight away. Unfortunately, it may already be too late. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about this in the media shortly.

Jdjj · 08-06-2013 11:20am

I have been waiting over 18 months for ee to pay over £10,000 to a charity that I did an event for. I am unable to say much due to legal reasons and due to taking the company to court.

All I will say, Event Elepahnt, you have not heard the last of this. It seems you have been stealing a lot of charity money for a very long time and you will NOT get away with it!!!!

45ofgd · 08-06-2013 1:39pm

It's obvious this company is holding onto the money, or likely spent it already. Have a look at their last year accounts in CRO, huge losses and question whether they are a going concern.

wmpdd3 · 08-06-2013 11:53pm

As far as I can see, Event Elephant have dragged VISA through the mud and Joe Duffy's researchers have managed to get a statement from the. But there is no mention of who is the merchant services bank. Is it one of the 4 or is it someone like Flexco?

If I was one of the organisations waiting on money, I would get the legal ball rolling as soon as possible as the money doesn't look like its there.

Company Information
EventElephant Limited is Registered at Gainsborough House, 2 Sheen Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1AE, UK. – Reg. No. 452571. Directors: Eamon O’Brien FCA, Ron Downey, Eamon Walsh FCA, Alan Barrett.

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Eamon-O'Brien/26275428

Also two of the directors are FCA and have insurance backgrounds. Is there a chance that an arm of Event Elephant are the merchant company? That would be interesting.

Plenty of references to a merchant here too, but not by name:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/139570739/Please---EventElephant

Until the name of the merchant company is revealed it will be as clear as mud where all the money has gone.

Event Elephant: Alan · 09-06-2013 9:42pm

Further to some of the recent comments, it should be noted that;

1. EventElephant is an investment led company due to the low fees that we charge to event organisers that use the site
2. Under accounting polices and standards EventElephant cannot capitalise the development of the web portal
3. Card Holders & Event Organisers transactions are held in a client trust account

Jdjj · 09-06-2013 10:24pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

Further to some of the recent comments, it should be noted that;

1. EventElephant is an investment led company due to the low fees that we charge to event organisers that use the site
2. Under accounting polices and standards EventElephant cannot capitalise the development of the web portal
3. Card Holders & Event Organisers transactions are held in a client trust account

E.E, can you provide proof to everyone that all funds are held in a client trust account?????

Peterdalkey · 10-06-2013 9:17am

Given the damage to the Event Elephant brand from all the negative publicity they seem to be able to generate and the market for this type of service, there is an interesting business opportunity to be exploited by someone!! The key would be to get the operations/payment end as good as the marketing of the incumbent.

Event Elephant: Alan · 10-06-2013 9:33am

Jdjj,

This can be found on our website:
Use EventElephant Client Trust Account to take bookings. This is subject to Terms & Conditions
http://www.eventelephant.com/56,features.htm

It is also in our T&Cs for Event Organisers which is a legal contract http://www.eventelephant.com/uploadedFiles/organiser_terms_and_conditions.pdf

Oryx · 10-06-2013 9:54am

If that is the case Lisa why have you withheld money for 18 months?

Event Elephant: Alan · 10-06-2013 10:05am

Oryx,

EventElephant are not withholding any funds. Any funds which have been delayed are held by the card companies and are transferred as soon as they are released. Any Event Organisers affected by this are notified and kept updated by are finance team.

fcrossen · 10-06-2013 10:16am

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

Any Event Organisers affected by this are notified and kept updated by are finance team.

I would guess that if you had kept even organisers informed you wouldn't be fighting this PR disaster here.

Timfy · 10-06-2013 10:45am

Just a quick observation here...

Last year, an event that I'm involved with got caught for over €7000 by event elephant. Some 15 months on they are still awaiting their funds, held back by numerous supposed credit card chargebacks (let's ignore the fact that the statutory period for chargebacks has long passed)

This year I wrote and hosted our own payment system. We have mostly repeat customers, probably over 90% of tickets go to returning entrants. How many chargebacks did I have to process? Zero, none, zilch!
(note to mod... this is NOT an advert for my coding, but an observation on chargebacks, or the lack of them when you actually have access to observe all the transactions)

The biggest problem is that event elephant do not pass on any details of chargebacks and as such it is not possible to investigate the individual case circumstances. I would strongly suggest that anyone hosting an event looks past these "payment facilitators" and arrange their own payment system. Cheaper, more transparent and funds are under your direct control.

I wish everyone fighting these jokers the very best of luck and I hope you get your money before this crowd finally and deservedly go to the wall.

Oryx · 10-06-2013 1:32pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

Oryx,

EventElephant are not withholding any funds. Any funds which have been delayed are held by the card companies and are transferred as soon as they are released. Any Event Organisers affected by this are notified and kept updated by are finance team.

The card companies seem to say different. And the charge back system does not take 18 months for resolution. Nor does it tie up all funds.

Trojan · 10-06-2013 1:37pm

I've cleaned-up this thread by removing meta-discussion, so it's easier to follow the main topic. No reply necessary (they'll be deleted ).

Trojan · 10-06-2013 1:44pm

Event Elephant: Lisa, thanks for answering the questions here. I'm interested in this topic personally because I almost recommended Event Elephant to someone last week for their charity event.

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote:

if there are chargebacks on the event and these are above 5% of the bookings, the bank will put a hold on all of the funds until the chargebacks are cleared.

That seems very reasonable for the bank to do. On the vast majority of events, particularly charity events I'd expect a tiny, tiny chargeback rate (way under 1%).

In your experience, approximately how often do chargebacks go above 5% for events run by your customers, thus leading to held funds? Over 5% once every 100 events? Over 5% once every 10 events?

Rather than asking them to accept your word, can you promote trust by actually providing evidence to your customers that a bank has put a hold on all of their funds?

Event Elephant: Alan · 10-06-2013 1:56pm

Trojan wrote: »

Event Elephant: Lisa, thanks for answering the questions here. I'm interested in this topic personally because I almost recommended Event Elephant to someone last week for their charity event.

That seems very reasonable for the bank to do. On the vast majority of events, particularly charity events I'd expect a tiny, tiny chargeback rate (way under 1%).

In your experience, approximately how often do chargebacks go above 5% for events run by your customers, thus leading to held funds? Over 5% once every 100 events? Over 5% once every 10 events?

Rather than asking them to accept your word, can you promote trust by actually providing evidence to your customers that a bank has put a hold on all of their funds?

These queries would be best directed at our finance team. I will be happy to send them your details to contact you or you can get them at finance@eventelephant.com.

We also always promote the use of the Event Organisers' own PayPal or bank merchant account so that they can collect their funds in real-time.

Reamer Fanny · 10-06-2013 2:00pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

These queries would be best directed at our finance team. I will be happy to send them your details to contact you or you can get them at finance@eventelephant.com.

We also always promote the use of the Event Organisers' own PayPal or bank merchant account so that they can collect their funds in real-time.

Wow there's a line I haven't heard before

DinoRex · 10-06-2013 2:36pm

How close to the 5% does the number of chargebacks come for everyone else?

Just happens to skim over 5% for me.

Trojan · 10-06-2013 3:34pm

Lisa, thanks for the quick reply. While I have sent on these questions to your finance team, it does strike me that these should be fairly basic questions for a representative of the company to be able to answer.

Email to EventElephant finance team wrote:

1) How often do chargebacks go above 5% for events run by your customers, thus leading to held funds?
2) Can you provide evidence to your customers that a bank has put a hold on all of their funds?

Given the questions and experiences detailed above, and even if you have to go ask the finance team yourself, surely for the sake of your company's reputation you can go and do that so you can provide answers these questions? If you don't have the authority to do so, surely you can ask someone to authorise you or to post answers themselves here?

Otherwise, it is very difficult to interpret the form replies as anything other than simply avoiding the question, which I'm sure is not your intention.

ASIMON0V · 10-06-2013 3:41pm

DinoRex wrote: »

How close to the 5% does the number of chargebacks come for everyone else?

Just happens to skim over 5% for me.

tantalisingly close to sub5%.....we have c. €10,000 still owing to us after 15 months....our total event revenue was c. €14,500. We received nothing for the first 13 months and then three partial payments since then.

Trojan · 10-06-2013 4:57pm

Event Elephant: Lisa wrote: »

These queries would be best directed at our finance team.

In fairness to the EventElephant finance team, it took them less than 3 hours to avoid answering my questions.

Emailed questions to EventElephant finance team wrote:

1) Approximately how often do chargebacks go above 5% for events run by your customers, thus leading to held funds?
2) Can you provide evidence to your customers that a bank has put a hold on all of their funds?

EventElephant finance team form reply wrote:

Dear $firstName,

Please note that our web portal runs a wide range of different types of events. Some Event Organisers that use our Client Trust Account are not affected by charge backs and then there are others that are. EventElephant cannot control the charge back process as we do raise them nor do we control the resolution.

If the event organiser chooses to use the EventElephant Merchant Account to process their bookings the funds are held in a Client Trust Account.

The best way to avoid the 5% threshold risk and the potential delay in event transfers is to use your own merchant account. This means that you receive funds in real time and we facilitate in the set up. If you set this up with PayPal you are also charged a preferential charity rate as a registered charity.

We also donate 20% of our fee to registered charities.

Please use the following link (hxxp://www.eventelephant.com/uploadedFiles/ee-payment-options.pdf) which discusses the pros and cons of each payment option we offer.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards,
Finance Team.

I've asked them again to answer the 2 simple questions above but at this point I'd expect nothing more than further prevarication.

This is not a company I could recommend to my clients or friends, regardless of their claims about avoiding risk with your own merchant account. Nothing they've said in any of their communications leads me to trust them with event finances. Good luck to everyone involved in trying to get their money back from these guys.

DinoRex · 10-06-2013 5:06pm

Has one of these chargeback issues EVER been resolved is another question.

miju · 10-06-2013 8:04pm

Lets try an even more basic question for Lisa. Can you confirm or deny if Bank or Ireland or AIB are amongst the banks you are currently dealing with?

r3nu4l · 10-06-2013 8:31pm

At this stage I think it would be much more beneficial to both Event Elephant and their customers if a member of the EE Finance team was given access to the Event Elephant Rep account to answer questions.

That is of course if Event Elephant have any real interest in answering any of the questions...

Right now this PR exercise is failing badly and appears to be simply alienating people further and making people even more suspicious than they already are. There really is such a thing as bad PR folks. In fairness to 'Lisa', she is simply toeing the line here and trotting out approved statements. No real communication here.

OU812 · 10-06-2013 10:27pm

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Given the damage to the Event Elephant brand from all the negative publicity they seem to be able to generate and the market for this type of service, there is an interesting business opportunity to be exploited by someone!! The key would be to get the operations/payment end as good as the marketing of the incumbent.

There's another one already out there - www.ticketfriend.com - NOTE: Not involved with them, have just used them for an event.

Absolutely fantastic & very happy with the results with them

Roscoe Holscomb · 11-06-2013 10:38am

A general question re: EE and chargebacks - has anyone with experience of using similar companies (eg. EventBrite etc.) encountered such chargeback issues that prevent the payment of any funds to event organisers for years (nearly 2 years in our own case)? Or is it something that affects EventElephant customers alone?

EventElephant

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