Karen’s Diner pop-up event in Northamptonshire CANCELLED and customers urged to contact bank for refund

The event, which is a comedic dining experience where wait staff are rude to customers, was originally due to take place this weekend (Saturday July 13 and Sunday July 14) at Grendon Hall.

However, some customers - but not all - were emailed on June 2 to say the dates were changing to September 7 and 8 because “the Karen’s (the actors) weren’t ready”.

Since the email in June, customers have attempted to get refunds from the company, but have not been able to, so have turned to reporting the transaction to their banks.

A statement from Grendon Hall said: “We have had a number of emails and phone calls in the past few days with regards to the Karen's Diner event due to be run this Saturday - this event has been cancelled by the event organiser - as far as we were aware, people had been informed of this, however this would appear to not be the case.

“Grendon Hall was booked as a venue for this event and was not privy to who booked/paid etc - and as such we did not receive any monies by the event organiser for tickets or venue hire.

“We would advise anyone who booked to get in touch with the event organiser - https://www.bemorekaren.com/

“As such there is no event on Saturday, so sadly anyone who turns up will be turned away.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”

Karen’s is a brand, which has restaurants across the UK. The brand appeared to be associated with the pop-up tour as there is a link to it on the website, although the link is now dead.

Karen’s is owned by the Viral Ventures company based in Australia, which according to reports, has entered administration. Viral Ventures UK LTD is listed on Companies House as still trading, however, a statement from the point of contact for the event claims it is on the verge of entering liquidation.

Customers were also sent an email at 12.38pm on Thursday (July 11) confirming the cancellation from Viral Ventures.

The email says: “We are so sorry to have to inform you that this weekend's Roasting Karen Event at Grendon Hall has been cancelled.

“We understand that the UK event company has ceased to trade due to the overseas holding company entering into Administration.

“This is a blow to ourselves, the production company, and also the venue, as like you, we and not the venue - find ourselves now as creditors.

“It is our understanding that the liquidators of the UK event company will be reaching out to you over the next few weeks.

“We share your upset and disappointment.

“p.s. Please do not reply to this email as we are not now in a position to assist any further.”

Paul Levin is the person who initially contacted Grendon Hall to ask if they could host the event and has been the venue’s point of contact for the Karen’s event.

Mr Levin claims that he owns a “theatre staging business” and that he does not work for the Karen’s brand. He says he “trains actors to play the role of Karens, arrange potential venues and then hand the opportunity to Viral Ventures and we invoice them for our work”. However, the media contact on the Karen’s website is listed as: [email protected] and the email address Chronicle & Echo has used to contact Mr Levin has ‘bemorekaren’ within the address.

Furthermore, Mr Levin’s son is the director of the Australian company and an Aden Levin is listed on Companies House as one of the directors of Viral Ventures UK LTD.

On June 19, Paul Levin emailed Grendon Hall claiming that Viral Ventures had entered “a creditors voluntary liquidation”.

In the email, seen by this newspaper, Mr Levin said: “I am told that the ticket holders for the Roasting Karen’s Events would need to either get a refund from their credit card providers or be classed as creditors.”

After several requests for a statement from this newspaper, Mr Levin sent the below statement on Thursday (July 11).

The statement said: “We arranged the venues for productions and the theatre for them and we ourselves are trade creditors.

“I can confirm that the Viral Ventures holding company has gone into administration in Australia and I understand that the wholly owned UK company is about to enter into a creditors voluntary liquidation.

“To answer your questions to the best of my ability, I can confirm that the Roasting Karen’s tour is not a ‘dishonest scheme, or a fraud’.

“During the collapse of their business, we nevertheless managed to put on a full show in Romford and this was a great success.

“Once we realised that future venues might well not be paid, we reached out to each one individually to suggest that rather than cancel the event and disappoint customers, we would be prepared to have our entertainers work for the venues directly and arrange the theatre.

“Although the nominal food costs would need to be covered by the venues (£3 – £5 value at cost), they would have the advantage of being able to sell the remaining capacity themselves at full ticket price and also benefit from wet sales.

“Many of the venues such as Beverley, Grimsby and Plymouth have adopted this idea, but sadly Grendon Hall chose not to participate.

“We have done all this work to help dilute customers' disappointment and also help the venues. There is no benefit in any format to ourselves as we do not even own the brand.

“This morning a representative from the hall questioned whether all customers had been notified of the cancellation. I explained that I had no idea but as we had access to the ticketing platform, then we would send an email before lunch today as by doing so, we would know that this had been done.”

Mr Levin has been pressed for further comment to address the issues of returns on behalf of Karen’s, however he has failed to respond further.

Similar issues have arisen elsewhere in the country, including in Bristol and in Portsmouth, where the local paper said they had been “met with a wall of silence” from Karen’s when they contacted them about people turning up to an event, which never happened.

The owner of Grendon Hall has reported the company to Trading Standards.

A spokesperson for Trading Standards at North Northamptonshire Council said: "Our advice to consumers who wish to exercise their civil rights to request a refund would be to contact our partners at the Citizens Advice Consumer Service Contact the consumer service - Citizens Advice who will be able to provide guidance. Unfortunately we are no longer able to provide civil advice as our role at Trading Standards is to investigate potential criminal offences.

"If any consumers believe they have been a victim of a scam they can also report this to Action Fraud Reporting fraud and cyber crime."