Day on the Green : punters could die in heat

SAT FEB 11, 2017

For reasons of commerce, Day on the Green are running a concert outdoors at Bimbadgen in the Hunter Valley this afternoon with Simple Minds and the B-52s. When the forecasts had predicted 44 degree temperatures; and the audience are ‘mature’.

The current temperature there at 3pm is 44 degrees. While weather insurance generally covers rain over a measured amount, today’s foreseeable disaster should not have happened.

Advertisement

Let’s drill down to what is happening on the ground.

From the DOTG Facebook: Nicole Jones says: All major events in Sydney seem to be cancelled tomorrow. Catastrophic fire warning for the hunter! Are there any grounds to refund tickets for those people feeling this is too much of a health risk for them personally??

Here’s the reply: A DAY ON THE GREEN Hi Nicole, please refer to the ticketing FAQs section on our website. Thanks ADOTG https://www.adayonthegreen.com.au/help/faq/4257

Advertisement

The consumers are pissed off and in some cases in distress up there.

DOTG are stonewalling them as they line up at the box office asking for refunds.

Here’s what the law says:

Consumer guarantees applying to goods

Businesses that sell goods guarantee that those goods:

• are of acceptable quality – the goods must be safe, lasting, have no faults, look acceptable and do all the things someone would normally expect them to do
• are fit for any purpose that the consumer made known to the business before buying (either expressly or by implication), or the purpose for which the business said it would be fit for
• have been accurately described
• match any sample or demonstration model
• satisfy any express warranty
• have a clear title, unless you otherwise advise the consumer before the sale
• come with undisturbed possession, so no one has the right to take the goods away from or to prevent the consumer from using them
• are free from any hidden securities or charges
• have spare parts and repair facilities reasonably available for a reasonable period of time, unless the consumer is advised otherwise.

We suggest that if you are there, or did not travel because it was too hot, you approach the point of purchase and demand a refund as follows:

1. Be polite but firm.
2. Note the time and the name of the staff person denying you a refund.
3. Advise them that under Australian Consumer Law they are or have attempted to deliver you a product that is not fit for purpose.
4. Advise them that you will lodge a compliant with Safe Work NSW that you were placed in personal harm by their company.
5. Document the process, if denied a refund complain like crazy to the NSW Dept of Fair Trading.

The promoters of this event KNEW in advance they were putting their audience, crew and performers at personal risk.

Here’s what should happen from now on, given temperature extremes are a reality.

• Promoters should properly insure their events, meaning for cancellation in extreme heat as well as storms.
• Ticket holder should be offered cancellation insurance (by the promoter) to cover travel and accommodation losses in the event of an extreme weather cancellation. No buy, no bitch.
• Where both of the above are not in place (ie; today) the promoter chooses to recognise that they have a brand that they wish to trade with (DOTG is a major brand) and they cop a hit on the chin by cancelling the event (like, YESTERDAY) or even this morning. They give the punters a refund, and a fresh replacement ticket to a DOTG event of their choice in the future – because the promoter recognises that their CUSTOMERS are out of pocket. (And, because steps 1 and 2, above were not in place!)

And pigs will fly, because as Hunter S. Thompson observed: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”