'I went on a night out - now I'm being threatened with debt collectors'

Revellers have slammed a popular Manchester venue as 'ridiculous' after they were threatened with debt collectors following a night out.

A number of attendees of 'Girls Night Out' on August 23 at The Deaf Institute were mistakenly refunded AND left with working tickets after an 'error' which the M.E.N understands was caused by 'a member of venue management pressing the wrong button' on the night of the event. The mistake triggered automatic refunds for anyone buying through the venue's own ticketing site.

Multiple partygoers say they have now been issued with texts threatening that their details will be "passed to a debt collector" if they fail to repurchase their ticket before September 26 - even if they did not receive a refund for their ticket. In a statement to the Manchester Evening News The Deaf Institute said the messaging was 'clumsier than we would have liked' and 'not intended to cause upset'.

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They added the refund occured after ticketing partnber Eventim refunded a group of customers 'in error'.

"If you attended Girls Night Out on Aug 23rd, please check your emails and use the link to repurchase any refunded tickets to avoid enforcement action," the text reads.

"You have until Sep 26th to pay, or get in touch, otherwise your details will be passed to a debt collector. If you did not attend the event, please ignore this message."

One attendee, who reached out to The Deaf Institute on X, said: "Categorically have no refund for this, checked my bank statements multiple times; threatening debt collectors is completely ridiculous."

Speaking to the M.E.N the event organisers Girls Night Out said they were 'extremely unhappy' with the situation it was an 'unfortunate decision by venue management to send out such an aggressively worded message', adding that they 'apologised on behalf of the venue' for the 'appallingly worded messages'.

They said they had attempted to point out how such wording would be received, but this advice was 'unfortunately ignored'.

"Rather than just taking the hit, they've decided to contact anyone they believe received a refund with threats of debt collection," the organiser continued.

"With the current cost of living situation, it is already a struggle to convince folk to buy event tickets in advance, so to decide to punish people for doing just that is baffling.

"Ultimately it has been their decision to threaten debt collection for refunds they sent out themselves, and it is a situation I am extremely unhappy with. I apologise on their behalf to anyone who received those appallingly worded messages."

In a response on X to attendees, they said they were "really sorry for the wording of this message" and added it was "absolutely nothing to do with us and 100% down to the venue".

"We can only apologise for this, but this is something we did not agree to or sign off on. Please direct all queries to them as we've got nothing to do with this."

A Spokesperson for Deaf Institute said: "Unfortunately Eventim our ticketing partner refunded a group of customers for a Live Event in error, the error was corrected but some customer received both full refund and a valid ticket which left the event promoter 'Girls Night Out’ losing out of ticket money.

"Messaging via our ticketing agent was clumsier than we would have liked, it was certainly not intended to cause any upset to any guests.

"These kind of mistakes happen very rarely in this case human error was to blame, messaging should have been clearer to the small number of guests affected."

A spokesperson for Eventim said: "All contractual relationships are between the promoter and the consumer. Eventim only acts as an intermediary for the purchase transaction."