Karen Platt’s blog

Is Money Put Before the Safety of Visitors to the RHS Flower shows?

Garden tour operator and garden author Karen Platt believes that visitors to the RHS Flower Shows may be at risk. She found that anyone can pose as a tour group and purchase tickets for the RHS flower shows. Before beginning to trade, Karen Platt was encouraged and allowed to purchase tickets without being vetted as a tour operator despite claims on the RHS website that all tour operators are vetted as bona fide. Not only can this put the safety of visitors at risk, but Karen has been left holding tickets worth £1,200.

As a new tour operator, Karen explained that she believed it imperative to obtain tickets for the RHS flower shows, even before she started selling tours. As a garden author she fell foul of the misleading myth perpetrated by the RHS as to how fast tickets sell out. She explained:

“The RHS promote the shows as though tickets are gold dust. They have created an aura around the shows claiming that they could sell twice as many tickets as they do for the Chelsea Flower Show”.

On the RHS website, tickets can be purchased by individuals and a group sales email is given for tour operators. However, no telephone number is given. Karen found the number by searching on the Internet. 

“I searched the Internet for over an hour trying to find the agency used by the RHS to sell their tickets. The agent does not use the name the RHS gave. When I got through to the ticket office, I hung on for half an hour or more. There is no automated line telling you how many people are queuing nor how long you might have to wait. I did not get to speak to anyone. You cannot leave a message. I was desperate to follow the RHS procedure to purchase group tickets.” says Karen.

Thinking she would be left without tickets for Chelsea and putting her trust in the RHS, she bought tickets in sets of four on the RHS website. She managed to buy 52 tickets. With no discount given for tour operators, no matter how many tickets you buy, the cost was the same. Karen subsequently succeeded in sending an email through to the agent and received a reply several days later to the effect that she could be invoiced for Hampton Court tickets. She explained how she had bought the Chelsea tickets (she was amazed that tickets had not sold out) and that she was new to tour operating but wanted 50 tickets and the latest date to pay as she was still awaiting approval of membership of the Travel Trust Association (TTA) that would enable her to trade as a tour operator. She received an invoice and a date to pay. She checked the absolute final date for payment twice more before paying by personal credit card and explaining again that she was not yet in business. The total cost of tickets for the two shows was approximately £3,500. 

Although there was ample interest in her other garden tours, there was none at all in the Chelsea and Hampton Court show tours, even though Karen spent a considerable amount of money to advertise and promote them. Therefore, she wrote to the RHS explaining the situation. She received a refund on the 52 tickets purchased as an individual for Chelsea with the exception of excessive £117 administration fees, but not on the 50 tickets bought as a tour operator (before she was one) for the Hampton Court flower show. The terms and conditions were the same so you would expect the same treatment. She was only offered 10% on the Hampton Court tickets even though the RHS replied that “had you explained to the ticket agency at this time that your tours were selling more slowly…it would have been possible to extend the deadline”. 

Karen had done that on three occasions. No-one offered to extend the deadline, no help nor options were given. Karen has since made several pleas to RHS Director General Inga Grimsey on these grounds to no avail. She offered to return the tickets as early as 8 March 2008 to enable the RHS to sell them. On 22 April she received a reiteration of the 10 per cent offer from Inga Grimsey and was told not to make any further requests nor communication. The implication is that Karen is lying and she finds this defamatory. She is known by many people in the profession and is an honest person with high morals and principles. 

Karen says “Had I been dishonest I could have sold them online as single tickets (this is not allowed) at a profit or even sold them to a ticket tout. Tickets were being sold by touts two and three times the £41 ticket price on the first day tickets went on sale. I’m not looking for a profit, just for the return of the original payment, I know I cannot withstand a loss of £1,200 at this stage of my new business. The set up fees for new tour operators are astronomic. I have already sunk many thousands of pounds into the business. In future years, I might be the biggest group seller of tickets, but they would rather I was left with unsold tickets through their mishandling of sales and they are willing to lose a potentially good source of income. They are not seeing the big picture. Stating that they are a charity, it appears that the RHS put money before the safety of visitors and before considering the very people that help them sell show tickets. I firmly believe that had the RHS and their agent handled this correctly, the tickets would not have been purchased at that time. Am I being forced to make a donation? I should have a choice in that matter. This is nothing more than a cover up and an unlawful way to keep the £1200.”  

On this hangs the dilemma. Karen asked for help three times and made it clear that she was not yet trading or selling. According to the RHS she should have received help which was not forthcoming. She has explained the situation fully to the RHS and given them eight opportunities to make a refund. The RHS now insist she did not ask for help. Karen is aware that other flower shows offer later payment options for tickets and that other they vet tour operators in an effort to protect the public. She has been contacted by three other group tour operators encountering difficulties selling tickets. They have not sold all the tickets yet, so even at this late stage, tickets could have been bought online if she had not followed the RHS protocol to purchase advance tickets through the agent. 

“The RHS have been the only negative aspect. How can they imagine that as a new business, I just bought tickets without asking for help and guidance? I had to ask for help or I would not have known how the system worked, especially with regard to payment. They admitted fault by offering a refund of any sort - I have returned the tickets to them for a full refund, I am not accepting 10%, it’s an insult. If they cannot handle sales correctly, they must expect people to ask for a refund.“

It would appear that anyone can purchase numerous tickets on the RHS website - and that there is no check on the validity of group purchases, so are visitors unnecessarily being put at risk? It is simple to check the validity of tour operators. Karen is a past exhibitor at the Chelsea flower show and knows the rigmarole of safety regulations. She also knows that many stand and booth holders do not perform the safety regulations. Terrorist threats are on the increase, organisers of shows and events open to the public owe it to them to do everything to ensure safety. I appeal to the public for their support.

This is available as a press release to editors and writers and I am grateful to anyone who spreads the word. Watch for more RHS horror stories.

I am available for interview. 

N.B. The agent the RHS use are known as Applause, Seatem or Keith Prowse Ticketing, but the RHS did not give the correct name on their website - most confusing to say the least.