A number of families who thought they had booked tickets to a Santa’s grotto event at Earlswood Garden Centre in Solihull have had to break the news to children about mistakenly booking for an event in Guernsey.
The Midlands garden centre in Solihull had previously hosted Christmas themed events but has not done so for the past two or three years, so staff were certainly surprised when people arrived for a non-existent event.
The confusion stemmed from a garden centre on the channel island of Guernsey sharing the same name, a number of consumers has complained the address was not clear on the booking page.
Garden centre bosses in the Midlands were said to be upset at having to turn away a number of children.
Brett Sheridan, sales and marketing director at the Solihull centre told the Birmingham Mail: "For kids, this is devastating to be told they are going to see Santa and then find out he's not here," said Brett Sheridan, sales and marketing director at the Solihull centre.
"We've had to deal with rightfully angry people, it's created a whole mess. I'm a father myself and I know I'd be pretty annoyed to book tickets then get to the venue and find it's not on."
He added: "We've put an update on our Facebook page and a Solihull Facebook group where people are talking about it. They've been understanding.
"I wish we could help them out. If we had a grotto here, I'd say they could visit but we decided to err on the side of caution because of Covid restrictions and so we haven't got a grotto this year."
The post on the Solihull-based Earlswood Garden & Landscape Centre Facebook page said: "*IMPORTANT CUSTOMER NOTICE* We’ve been informed of a confusion regarding Grotto tickets being sold by another garden centre that is not associated with us, but shares a similar name.
"Unfortunately, we do not have a Grotto this year so if you have purchased tickets to see Santa, it will be for Earlswood Garden Centre in Guernsey.
Earlswood Garden and Landscape Centre
Facebook
"It seems the event is being managed by a third party, who may have caused confusion with the location of the event.
"If you have mistakenly purchased tickets, our advice is to contact the garden centre in Guernsey as soon as possible.
"Their Facebook page is: Earlswood Garden Centre
"We appreciate this may cause some upset to families and children looking forward for visiting Santa however, we are not connected to this event or the Guernsey garden centre in any way and are unfortunately, unable to help with ticket refunds."
The event organiser Sprinkle of Magic has apologised for the mix-up and offered to partially refund disappointed families as a gesture of good will.
A spokesman for Sprinkle of Magic said: "We do apologise for any confusion caused. All of our social media posts tagged our local garden centre and our website shows as based in Guernsey.
"At no time have we ever advertised as this being based in Solihull.
"As per the description on our product page for the grotto, all tickets are non-refundable, however as a gesture of goodwill for any confusion caused we will be contacting anyone affected by this within the next seven days to offer a 50 percent refund."