THE Filthy Girl Mud Run Party was supposed to provide a weekend of fun at Chepstow Recourse, but the organiser’s disappearing act has left venues and paid customers with serious questions.
Customers are now facing the possibility of losing thousands of pounds while venues have encouraged people to contact Police Action Fraud.
Hannah Woodland from Bristol, and the 30 strong hen party she had organised for her twin sister’s wedding, were one group of victims.
She said: “It’s made everyone really angry, frustrated stressed out. All our money has been taken from us and now I have to organise a hen party without any money.”
According to the organiser’s website as late as last week, two weekend long events were scheduled to be held at Chepstow Racecourse and Catton Hall in Derbyshire in August. The same event was run successfully at both venues in 2017.
However, neither venue had heard from organisers in months, meanwhile customers who had been paying for tickets were unaware of any problems until payments bounced in December.
This all came to a head last week with Chepstow Racecourse releasing a statement on their Twitter account, and Miss Woodland taking to social media to elicit a response.
Chepstow Racecourse said: “Please be aware the organisers of an event called The Filthy Girl Mud Run have not made a booking for Chepstow Racecourse for 2018.
“We can confirm this is not the case. There is no contract for this event for this year. All attempts to contact the organisers of this event have been unsuccessful.
“If you have purchased tickets for this event you need to report this by calling Police Action Fraud on 03001232040.”
This was confirmation of an already unfolding nightmare for those who had purchased tickets to the events.
However, this did draw out a response from organisers for the first time in more than a month.
In an long email sent to customers, the organisers said they were still attempting to continue the event, it said: “Unfortunately our company has experienced financial difficulties over the closed season which has resulted in us being forced to take some advice from a firm of experienced corporate turnaround advisors.
“Please note that no refunds can be processed at this time under any circumstances since it is not physically possible to do so.
“Our appointed representatives are not able to deal with any refund requests at this time until it is clear whether or not the events will take place.”
But this comes as little consolation to Miss Woodland and her party who are still without nearly £6,000 and have had difficulty recovering it through other avenues.
As they were asked to pay with bank transfer there was no possibility of a chargeback and as the event has not officially been cancelled she cannot make a claim as it could still go ahead.
She said: “We can’t do anything until we have have proof, if the company does go into liquidation then we can make a claim, until then we just have to wait.”
This has ruined what was set to be the perfect weekend for Miss Woodland and her sister and her friends.
She said: “It seemed too good to be true, it would have been the perfect hen do. So everyone is just so disappointed for her because the could see how much effort we have put in.”
Filthy Girl Mud Run Party were contacted for comment, but did not respond by the time of print.