ArFF / Statement COVID-19 #03 - EN

Baubao

City of Buenos Aires, April 5th, 2020.

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) - STATEMENT N° 3

For weeks, we have been following the situation and the advance of the virus in Argentina. As we mentioned in our first statement, we believe it is important to give it the attention it deserves and keep you informed in a clear and transparent way.

We spoke with the Hotel expressing our concerns, and we agreed that the best course of action is to postpone the event to a future month which gives us a safety margin to celebrate the event.

This is a difficult decision, where the organization has no room for maneuver: The dates are decided by the hotel and we are not the only event that will be rescheduled, which is why:

Argentina FurFiesta 2020 will be held at the Hotel Castelar on September 25th, 26th and 27th, 2020. All tickets issued for ArFF 2020 are fully valid for the new date.

We KNOW that this raises many questions, so read carefully all that follows:

On the website, when you enter your account, the system will inform you of the date change and will ask you -among other options- to confirm your attendance for 2020. Please note that when selecting one of the offered alternatives, it's impossible to undo the operation.

If you know that you are coming to the event on the new date, we kindly ask you to confirm. Knowing this information in advance helps us to act accordingly understanding the situation we are in.

What if I cannot attend?

We are going to open an exceptional period, ending on May 4th, 2020, in which you can choose between 4 alternatives:

1. Rollover to 2021: keeping the same level of your current ticket, accessing all perks that category offers in the 2021 edition. 
   IMPORTANT: Confirming the rollover of your ticket to 2021 makes it no longer valid for 2020. Tickets rolled over to 2021 cannot be transferred or refunded.
   As a result of this process, all released tickets will be available for purchase after May 4th, 2020.
2. Transfer your ticket to another person: This operation is performed between the interested parties: the account that receives the ticket must generate a token from its profile, which will then be entered by the person sending the ticket to complete the process. 
   IMPORTANT: The tickets are only transferred in full, there is no partial transfer of them. For example: If my account has a general ticket for the current edition of the event and receives a sponsor or super sponsor ticket, my general ticket will be lost in benefit of the higher category.
   All transferred tickets have no commercial value, but can be transferred again or rolled over to 2021.
3. Refund: Until May 4th, 2020, we will receive all refund requests through our support portal not admitting any other means to start the process. At the end of this period, we will review all received applications, and the corresponding refund will be made.  
   Before requesting a refund, we ask that you please consider rolling over your ticket to 2021 or transferring it, since refunds are detrimental to the execution of the event. 
   IMPORTANT: Only the person who has made the payment may request a refund. When requesting their refund, the ticket will be revoked immediately. 
   Confirming, transferring, or rolling over your ticket cancels any refund request in progress or the possibility of requesting it.
4. Donate your ticket: The best thing you can do is confirm that you are attending the event. If you know that you cannot attend, you can give us notice through our support portal and we will keep your attendee kit for a future opportunity or we will send it to you by mail at your expense.

After May 04, 2020, any ticket that has not been confirmed, rolled over to 2021 or started a refund request, will be automatically confirmed for the 2020 edition of Argentina FurFiesta on September 25, 26 and 27th, 2020 at the Hotel Castelar.

We would like to remind you that once you have chosen any of the alternatives that the system offers, there is no possibility of undoing the operation.

What if I want to attend and I don't have a ticket?

We will allow ticket transfers until May 4th, 2020, during that time you can receive a ticket from anyone who cannot attend the event. You will need an account created on our website to receive a ticket.

After that date, the convention will sell the tickets that are released as a result of transfers, rollovers and refunds offering a new opportunity to purchase your ticket. 

The prices for this new sales stage -always subject to availability- will be: USD 45 for General tier, USD 90 for Sponsor tier or USD 135 for Super Sponsor tier.

What about my reservation at Hotel Castelar?

We ask that you contact them, as they handle reservations directly. To date, the hotel remains closed, but they asked us to report that starting Wednesday, April 15th, 2020 -provided there is no extension of quarantine- they will receive requests to reschedule reservations.

If you made your reservation with a third party, we advise you to contact them to learn about cancellation or postponement policies.

What about my travel plans?

With the advance of the pandemic, tourism companies have relaxed the criteria for processing refunds and rescheduling of trips. The terms vary between companies and countries, so we suggest you contact your company to get adequate information.

We advise you to take advantage of this time to see how the situation evolves and it's probably a good idea to wait a bit to establish travel plans, since new updates are being made available week by week. 

What if it gets worse?

All the scenarios are on the table and are part of reality in constant study. We follow the evolution of the pandemic week by week and our commitment is and will be to keep you informed whatever decisions we make. 

Today we are over 5 months away from the new date of the event, we believe that it is a reasonable period and a much more favorable scenario for its development.

What about Dealer's Den, Panels, Guests of Honor and Others?

All applications are still standing and will be considered for the new date. We will communicate with the Dealers via email as soon as possible to inform them about the result of the call.

The panels will be on hold until we finish all ticket confirmations and transfers, and we do not rule out the possibility of reopening the call.

Dance Competition and DJ calls are open and will continue to be.

Our Guests of Honor, Negg and Peritian are aware of the situation and both have confirmed their attendance at the event on the new date.

To conclude...

As always, the keyword is Patience, we are grateful for the support we have received over the past few weeks. We said that going ahead will require a huge effort, so here we are. 

It’s been days of very intense work. We designed a whole new system and put it into operation to bring certainty as quickly as possible and give you time to decide, adjust and reprogram whatever is necessary.

The exceptional measures we have taken today will be reflected in a series of transitory articles added as Chapter 7 of the ArFF! Terms and Conditions.

We understand you may have questions, and that is why we set up a support and help center, so that your concerns, reports and requests can be handled in one place: https://2020.furfiesta.com/#/support 

We are going to publish any update on our networks and on our Telegram channel (@furfiesta).

Greetings, thank you and please #StayHome.

The ArFF Staff!