Pollen allegedly took $3.2 million worth of unauthorised payments from customers before collapse
The events company, which is now in administration, was exposed in a new BBC Three documentary, ‘Crashed’
A new BBC Three documentary titled Crashed: $800m Festival Fail has shared details on the collapse of Pollen, a start-up events company that entered administration last summer.
BBC Three revealed that Pollen took $3.2 million worth of unauthorised payments from customers just months before its collapse in August 2022.
It was reported to have affected some 15,800 customers, per a report seen by BBC Three written by former Pollen staff, many of whom have not received a refund in the year since.
Pollen, which operated a ‘peer-to-peer’ marketing technique where customers were encouraged to sell tickets in order to attend festivals and events for free, went bust last year owing more than £78.6 million.
Of that £78.6m, £4.5 million was owed to recruiters and management consultants, and £150,000 to a private jet charter firm. The documentary also raised questions over company expenses, of which more than £100,00 was allegedly put towards a villa in Ibiza. Pollen said the villa was not used for personal purposes.
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In April 2022, Pollen was valued at $800m (£632m), just months before going under. At the time, 15,800 customers were signed up for a monthly payment plan according to BBC Three, each of which was unknowingly charged up to three times for their next instalments.
The overcharges were pinned as a "mistake" by Pollen’s founders Callum and Liam Negus-Fancey, who claimed that there was ‘no instruction to double or triple charge any customers’.
Crashed: $800m Festival Fail suggests that the computer code responsible for sending out multiple charges to customers was written by a senior employee at Pollen, and was tested on May 20, 2022, before being triggered on May 21, 2022, without customer authorisation.
The BBC contacted 18,000 Pollen customers about the incident and said that just 10 of 259 respondents had said that they received a partial or full refund.
The documentary also shared screenshots of proof of payment confirmation to vendors such as chauffeur companies, but allegedly the company did not follow through with those wire transfers.
The owner of an Ibiza chauffeur company hired by Pollen in the summer of 2022 told BBC Three that he’s still owed €17,000, despite being sent proof of payments for the money he was owed.
“I mean nobody expects something like that…when someone takes your money they are thieves, no?” he told BBC Three.
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Pollen said in a statement to Mixmag that they had “provided BBC3 with documented evidence that allegations made in the documentary were factually untrue".
"Regarding the overcharge - the company accepts there was an overcharge, which was an error. All customers were refunded or got a voucher; at their discretion," they claimed. "The refunds being referred to in the BBC3 documentary were not related to the overcharge, but due to the company entering administration."
"When a company is unable to pay its debts, it enters administration. However, tens of millions of dollars have been recovered for creditors and impacted customers through the administration process and more money is still coming in through the sale of company assets. 95% of customers whose events were due to go ahead post administration have either been refunded or the event has taken place.”
A former Pollen employee also added that in order to get a vendor to “do what needed to be done”, the events company was “communicating that a wire had been sent” and a screenshot would be sent to the vendor.
“On the accounting team, they were inserting all the information necessary to initiate a wire through the banking site, getting to the final confirmation page, taking a snapshot of that page, and sending it to the vendor as a confirmation that the wire had been sent,” they added.
“In reality, the final confirmation button had never been pressed and that money was never sent to the vendor.”
[Via BBC Three]
Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter