An Important notice to all who purchased tickets for the 2022 Comhaltas Music Draw
It was with great excitement that we began ticket sales for this year’s music draw starting last spring. This was a unique opportunity for us because Comhaltas was allowing local branches like ours to keep all of the proceeds of sale. Selling 200 tickets would put $1000.00 in our account to help support our key activities such as Dance Lessons, Irish Language Lessons and our Tuesday night Music Sessions at the Corktown. Sadly, we must report that a problem has arisen that will necessitate our offering a refund of your money to you.
The tickets were prepared and sent well in advance of Comhaltas’ required return date of November 16. They were shipped via Canada Post Priority Post to ensure the speediest delivery possible. Canada Post contracts with Fed Ex for overseas shipments. Our package arrived at the Fed Ex hub in Memphis, Tennessee within a week of being sent. When it appeared to be ‘stuck’ there Hamilton Irish Arts initiated enquiries, which led to us being initially told that the package was being returned (and we would receive a letter explaining why). It was stressed that this was a time sensitive shipment, and any such forwarding must be done in a rapid manner so that we could make alternate arrangements to get the tickets to Ireland by the required date. When the package had not been returned within a reasonable time frame, we escalated to a formal search process. Through this we were initially told that our package had been damaged; this later changed to our package being misplaced, and later to the package being inexplicably lost, no longer traceable and therefore irretrievable. Once we were told that no further search was feasible, we launched a claim for compensation. Hamilton Irish Arts has been able to obtain compensation from Fed Ex/ Canada Post in the amount of $500 plus our shipping costs of $100 ($600.00 in total). We have been told that we can anticipate receiving this within the next 2-3 weeks. At our Executive Meeting on November 29th, it was agreed that the only fair and ethical outcome of this would be to offer any ticket purchasers the opportunity to receive a refund for the tickets they purchased. This is not going to be an easy process as there were patrons of the Corktown who might have purchased tickets but whose names are not known to us.
For any of you who know of a family member or friend who purchased one or more tickets, please feel free to share this information with them. To obtain a refund ($5.00 per ticket), the process will be as follows:
- Print your name on the ‘claim’ portion of the ticket you received at time of purchase (see attached image).
- You may present your ticket(s) in person to Al Greyson, Secretary, at the Corktown beginning on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023. We apologize for this delay, but other activities and a short-term closure of the Corktown over Christmas has necessitated it.
- You may also send your tickets to Al Greyson, 4166 Vermont Crescent, Burlington ON L7M 4A9 and a refund will be sent to you. Make sure, if you are not a member of Hamilton Irish Arts, to provide your return address.
We deeply regret the disappointment this may cause you. We all had dreams of a win of some sort. You may be wondering who was to benefit from the Seller’s Tickets in each book of 10 tickets. Your Hamilton Irish Arts Executive had undertaken an agreement that Seller’s Tickets would be under the name of a member of the Executive and if it were to be selected for a prize that prize would be turned over to Hamilton Irish Arts to further boost our revenue. Please note that if you were one of the three individuals who inadvertently purchased a Seller’s ticket they will be treated as purchased tickets for the purpose of a refund. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact by email Al Greyson
