COVID-19 Impacts on Kings Dominion

[rswashdc]

Have you ever read a contract for a park pass? I'm 99% willing to bet that there's a part in there that there's no guarantee of a certain amount of available days. A lawsuit based on "bait and switch" right now would not likely gain much traction. Somewhat like the class action lawsuits against parks for not opening in 2020 went nowhere, this would likely go nowhere.

Per the T&C - A Cedar Fair L.P. Gold Pass is valid only at the park from which it was issued and grants a revocable license to the registered holder for admission and use of all open rides (unless restricted by conditions which could ultimately prohibit someone from riding safely, including but not limited to height, weight, age, physical limitations such as pregnancy and heart conditions, or observed inappropriate behavior), shows and attractions on any regularly-scheduled operating day of the season to the amusement park or outdoor waterpark for which it was issued.

The 2020 schedule was out at the time passes were sold. Drastically changing (I.e. not just a bad weather day) that schedule without compensation materially alters the contract signed into.

 

[Zachary]

regularly-scheduled operating day

The park determines which days those are and they can be changed by the park at will—announced or not.

From the Terms:

All operating dates and hours are subject to change without notice. All rides and attractions are subject to closings and cancellations for weather or other conditions.

”Other conditions“ certainly includes a pandemic.

 

[warfelg]

The 2020 schedule was out at the time passes were sold. Drastically changing (I.e. not just a bad weather day) that schedule without compensation materially alters the contract signed into.

Did you pay much attention to the class action lawsuit? Courts determined that extending the expiration date counted as compensation.

Secondly @Zachary found what I would be looking for. These are well compensated contract lawyers that write these T&C to anything for any company. They know how to cover their asses in every single case.

If you want to sue them for breach of contract...good luck.

 

[horsesboy]

While I agree that there is no legal case that can be brought i do think that this is a bad PR look that CF has to address company wide before it hurts their bottom line especially if SF open-air parks at close to the normal time. I think that the quarterly call on the 17th should answer some questions as to what the reasoning for the latter date is and how they intend to proceed. But honestly in all frankness as a pass holder at BGW, SF gold level, and CF platinum that has been considering cutting one for a few years the CF one is more likely be the one that bites the bullet then it would have been a few years ago. No that is not entirely related to this but this might be the final nail in it.

 

[warfelg]

While I agree that there is no legal case that can be brought i do think that this is a bad PR look that CF has to address company wide before it hurts their bottom line especially if SF open-air parks at close to the normal time. I think that the quarterly call on the 17th should answer some questions as to what the reasoning for the latter date is and how they intend to proceed. But honestly in all frankness as a pass holder at BGW, SF gold level, and CF platinum that has been considering cutting one for a few years the CF one is more likely be the one that bites the bullet then it would have been a few years ago. No that is not entirely related to this but this might be the final nail in it.

Oh I don’t disagree with the fact that there’s going to be reasoning and hopefully it’s good as to why it’s different (I’m gonna venture a guess it has something to do with employment+rides/merch/food being down for 12+ months) from other parks. This could have an impact on people’s willingness to purchase in the future.

 

[horsesboy]

And the other shoe just fell for KD as SFA is now officially opening March 6 meaning KD is going to be almost 3 months behind all the other parks in the region..

 

[rswashdc]

Did you pay much attention to the class action lawsuit? Courts determined that extending the expiration date counted as compensation.

Secondly @Zachary found what I would be looking for. These are well compensated contract lawyers that write these T&C to anything for any company. They know how to cover their asses in every single case.

If you want to sue them for breach of contract...good luck.

I stated at the time the class action lawsuit had little merit and anyone wanting to be party to it would be better off going through small claims court, where well compensated lawyers aren't allowed, vice having trial lawyers take a large cut of any settlement.

Well written T&Cs are useful, but can't override basic UCC contract code and don't provide unlimited allowances to change an offer in a contract. There are plenty of gyms and other membership based companies that have found themselves on the losing end of legal complaints lately and COVID has not been a viable excuse nor have their T&Cs saved them.

I'm in wait and see mode to see how they handle compensation as I think corporate acted unilaterally on start dates without considering impacts to some of the individual parks, but if compensation isn't forthcoming and the amount is sizeable then remedies would need to be looked at. Honestly it's just bad business practice to stiff your customers that way, particularly with memberships where you want the customers to keep buying every year.

 

[warfelg]

So yet again it comes back to where we were a year ago with BGW, Pantheon Liens, KD: assumptions that they are screwing you without seeing what the full plan is or anything announced.

 

[horsesboy]

If you have a pass from 2020 that are on a payment plan. Check your payments I am hearing multiple people saying that charges went live today and that they are not being charged correctly in some cases by BIG amounts

 

[vacoasterfanatic]

I'll have to check. Hopefully nothings wrong EDIT: my pass was charged for 4 months worth of payments

 

[Crunchewy]

I got my platinum pass from Canada's Wonderland. I just checked and the remaining payments are still pending. I guess I should check the exchange rate and see if I should pay this thing off or just let it ride. There's 6 payments left. In any case it doesn't look like they've resumed payments yet.

EDIT: looks like the exchange rate is still in our favor.

 

[BGW Family]

For Carowinds, but yes there was a large charge applied. No phone lines open to ask why.

 

[Crunchewy]

Someone named carowindsfansonly said on Instagram that Carowinds has said this was a glitch and they are working on it.

 

[I305Evan]

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I got an email saying my payment declined. So I updated my card # and got charged a crazy amount immediately. Guess I should have waited...

 

[horsesboy]

Someone named carowindsfansonly said on Instagram that Carowinds has said this was a glitch and they are working on it.

Maybe but I saw on one Kd FB page that a member was charged over 1,000 when his charge should have been around 100 and that since it was through PayPal it over drew his account that is an extremely big oops.

 

[I305Evan]

I was using Paypal as well (until I updated it to my card) and got charged the equivalent of 4 payments. Now when I attempt to go back to the payment update screen, they have a banner saying that the system is locked out. I wonder if this issue is isolated to those that used Paypal as their payment method?

 

[horsesboy]

Maybe but I saw on one Kd FB page that a member was charged over 1,000 when his charge should have been around 100 and that since it was through PayPal it over drew his account that is an extremely big oops.

A little clarification on this since he has since posted more details it's a family set of platinum with dining his monthly charges should have been around 110 for the whole set but when the payment went live he said the entire balance on the 2020 passes were charged coming to just over 1,000.

 

[BGW Family]

Concerning going back to the page after updating your card, I was told by CF that when the payment is complete, there is no more access to your "payment portal". I was also told that small print above the update card page (which you also can't get back to) gives them to right to charge the whole amount, which seems to negate the whole payment plan idea and contract. Mine was not connected to PayPal so this is a CF issue.

As stated at the top of the payment portal page "By entering a new credit card, you are agreeing to allow all future payments to be deducted from the new card. To change the credit card on file, another valid credit card must be placed on file. By changing your credit card on file, the system will automatically charge the new card for any payments that are past the current date (including those that are paused and past the current date)."

We do not have a way to back a single payment out of the system. At this time the only way to return the funds would be to refund the entire order, and repurchase the order.

Please let us know if we can help further!

 

[I305Evan]

...

....
We do not have a way to back a single payment out of the system. At this time the only way to return the funds would be to refund the entire order, and repurchase the order.

Please let us know if we can help further!

Interesting they say that because looking at my account (the new one that was setup)- they have already issued a refund for the 4 payments (still in a pending status, it hasn't actually cleared yet).

So far, I do not see a new transaction for the correct amount (a single month payment).

 

[warfelg]

This is a massive screw up. Yea people may of hated when SEAS did continuing to charge, but I rather have this than to see my card randomly charged a huge amount and not be able to get an explanation.