SGF Travel and Tours of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the promoter of the Jose Marie Chan Concert in Edmonton and Calgary last December 8 and 9 is still under fire. This is after they failed to completely refund the unused tickets which they allegedly oversold for the concert.
The sit-down dinner concert event was held at the Royal Palace in Edmonton where there is a maximum capacity of 800. Many ticket holders were not able to sit down and even have their dinner because the place was already overcrowded. Most of the ticket holders and event sponsors who were supposed to have a table had to leave because they had no place to sit. Based on reliable sources, the organizers only ordered one full-size roast pig and the two other full-size roast pigs were donated by a sponsor. How can three roast pigs feed 800 people? In her Facebook post, Sarah Goching Febra of SGF Travel denied that they oversold tickets and has promised to refund the tickets, giving priority to those that they signed during the event. It is not clear as to how she is going to refund tickets that were not signed.
The biggest question is if they really did not oversell tickets, why did the same problem occur in both Edmonton and Calgary?
You cannot just organize an event and not have proper procedures in place if things fail. As organizers, SGF Travel and Tours failed to deliver a service to people who bought tickets for the Dinner Concert event and should refund ticket holders of unused tickets. What bothers me most is that how they could organize an event here since they do not even have an office in Alberta. Do they have an Alberta Business License? If yes, under what address?
The failure of SGF Travel and Tours has affected a lot of local promoters who do business and hold office in Alberta. It is high time that I challenge our Legislators to put in legislation that will protect the interest of businesses in Alberta.
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Talking about the interest of consumers, a nice example would be home builders. If you have a new house being built by a home builder, inmost cases they normally use the same subcontractors. And because they are on a per-project contract, these subcontractors do their best to finish it quickly.
Because of this, you will see a lot of cosmetic problems in newly built homes. If you try to complain about it, you will be surprised that cosmetic issues are not covered under your home warranty. In short, you paid for something you are not getting a guarantee on. So why is cosmetic not included when you paid for it?
How much does it cost to repaint your walls if the builders did not do it properly? There needs to be a review on how people get home warranty because buying a home is one of the biggest investments of their life. On top of that investment, people don’t need the extra aggravation of having to fix issues when something is not done right. What is the Provincial Government and City of Edmonton doing to stop this problem? Paging Premier Rachel Notely and Mayor Don Iveson. How come new homes are getting City approval stickers when their floors are squeaking, or they are not screwed to the jolts?
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Going back to the Jose Mari Chan concert, there was allegedly a lady who told a sponsor to leave their table and used the words “You Filipinos”in a condescending manner. What bothers me is that this lady is Filipina. This was a remark that was not necessary at a Filipino Concert Event or anywhere, for that matter. I was surprised to hear why that individual reacted the way she did. My column is open to them if they feel the need to give us their side on what happened.
Photo by Moses Billacura | Alberta Filipino Journal
