After Cancelling Because Of The Coronavirus, SXSW Is Refusing To Refund Anyone Because They Have The Most Preposterous Refund Policy In History
After Austin canceled its long-running annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus, the company behind the festival is now refusing to refund thousands of ticket buyers for their purchases.
So it appears South By Southwest has the best running scheme in the game going. There is nothing, and I mean nothing that can make them refund you.
According to SXSW’s terms and conditions of participation, their strict no-refund policy states, “Any and all payments made to SXSW are not refundable for any reason, including, without limitation, failure to use Credentials due to illness, acts of God, travel-related problems, acts of terrorism, loss of employment and/or duplicate purchases.”
Are you sick? No refund. Did you just get fired from your job you were going to help cover at the event? No refund. How about a massive terror threat affecting the entire country? Absolutely no refund. How about a global pandemic set to wipe out the world? Nope, you paid for your ticket knowing the risks. Sucks to suck. Under that refund policy it seems like the event creators could just wake up one day and decide they don't want to do the event because they don't feel like it. Genius.
I have a funny feeling there's going to be a gigantic class action lawsuit coming here. By a funny feeling I mean there's without question a major lawsuit coming. There's just no way they can get away with this since they're the ones who cancelled the event in the first place. Good times all around the country!
Also if you work for SXSW there's a 33% chance you were just laid off because they can't afford to pay you.
Due to the cancellation, the festival also laid off a third of its employees, a decision referred to as “the only way to stop the bleeding” by a source to the Austin Chronicle.
Seems odd they're running out of money since they didn't refund a single person who was going in the first place. It's almost like they're bracing for a gigantic lawsuit that they're 100% going to lose. Hmmmm