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Howdy!

Whilst ConFuzzled 2023 is a long way off, and we’re not yet ready to reveal registration opening dates just yet, we are ready to share some news!

Today, we want to update you on a couple of items related to payment, and pricing.

First off, the bad news (sorry!): for ConFuzzled 2023, we will no longer be able to accept payment by credit/debit card.  We know this is going to be frustrating, as it means falling back to bank transfers and other payment mechanisms that are less convenient (if you can’t pay by bank transfer – don’t worry, you can talk to us to discuss alternatives – see the Q&A below).

Why are we making this change? Well, payment providers tend to want to keep hold of the cash until the product you’ve actually bought, has been delivered. With ConFuzzled, we’re not delivering a product, but an event. Trouble is, we have a lot of costs (most notably the venue fees) that need to be paid in advance! So, if we can’t access the funds, we can’t put on the convention.

We managed to work around the problems for 2022, but we can’t take chances. As such, we’re withdrawing the facility for 2023. For more information, please see the Q&A below.

The good news? We’re freezing room costs for 2023! We might still need to make a slight increase in the actual convention-fee part of your registration. However, with the hotel costs being the larger component for most attendees, we’re very happy to be able to keep this the same for 2023, especially in these times of high inflation.

As was the case for 2022, residential registration will again use the lottery process. We feel that this solution for room allocation was successful and fair.

We’ll announce dates for registration, as well as complete pricing information, in due course.

Q&A

Why are you withdrawing credit/debit card payments?

In a nutshell, we can’t find a payment provider that is willing to hand over the cash before the convention has happened.  This is a problem because we have a lot of things that need to be paid for in advance.

As such, we need to use a solution where we have full access to funds in advance.

OK but, how do I pay now?

You can pay by bank transfer. For most people in the UK, this is easy to do via online banking, but there are a myriad of other options for instructing your bank to send us the money, including in-branch, or over the phone.

International bank transfers will be accepted too, for those attending from outside the UK.

My bank doesn’t support transfers/charges a fee

If you aren’t able to pay by bank transfer (or would rather not because you’d be charged a fee), then please don’t panic! You can contact registration@confuzzled.org.uk – and they can assist you in setting up an alternative solution (Please don’t do this yet – wait for registration to actually happen first!)

Is my money safe? What if you cancel?

ConFuzzled UK Ltd is a financially sound organisation (our accounts are a matter of public record). You can trust us to spend your money wisely to put on the best convention we can, just as we’ve been doing since 2008.

When the convention was cancelled for the pandemic in 2020, we moved to offer refunds to everyone. Part of the convention fee was not refunded at that time because, quite simply, the money had already been spent. Some of our annual expenditure is non-refundable and continues regardless of whether the convention happens or not. These include storage costs, business insurance, and a variety of other expenditures that can’t be ‘stopped’.

Whilst a credit card route might offer a ‘chargeback’ solution for a full refund, such options, if taken on mass, would likely have a significant impact on the convention’s credit rating, risk assessments, and other business functions. Plus to cover the costs of chargeback, providers would -as noted above- keep all the money and not release any of it to the convention. This would prevent us from going ahead at all.

Are Bank Transfers safe?

Yes. In the UK, a safety feature known as ‘Confirmation of Payee’ (CoP) lets you know that it’s genuinely ConFuzzled that you’re paying.

The CoP system is a legal requirement, and will help protect you, by ensuring your funds reach the proper account.

For more information on Confirmation of Payee, see: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/policy-and-guidance/guidance/confirmation-payee

For international attendees, protections will vary by country. If you are unable to use a bank transfer, please contact our registration team at the proper time, as they can happily setup an alternative payment option.

Why not just use <insert payment provider here>?

The problem is not finding a payment provider. The difficulty is in convincing them to release funds ahead of the event actually taking place so that we can go ahead, and pay the bills.

So far, no payment provider has been willing to work to those terms.

Other events make this work, why can’t you?

Events have a variety of different structures and work with their venues in all sorts of ways. In the case of smaller events, for example, it’s often easier to set up arrangements in advance with minimal up-front outlay.

Other events might outsource the entire ticketing and booking process to a third party – we are unable to do this because of the way our registration arrangements work.

Will credit/debit payment return in future?

At the present time, we have no plans for this. If we are able to find an arrangement to make it work, then we will investigate this. However, at the current time, the decision is to withdraw this function.

I have another question – how do I contact you?

If you have further questions, please contact communications@confuzzled.org.uk and we will reply back either by answering your question directly or with the address of the relevant department for your query.