How do I cancel or reschedule an event people signed up for?

The short version

• Tell people first, by email, before you change the website.
• Don’t delete the event. Mark it Canceled or Postponed so saved links still work.
• Close or update the form so nobody signs up for the old date.
• Refund from one place, and note each refund on the entry.
• For a new date, ask people to confirm they’re still coming.

What do I do, in order?

1. Decide the plan before you announce

Know the answer to the question everyone will ask. If it’s postponed, do you have a new date? If it’s canceled, is it a full refund, a credit for a future event, or a choice? Check your published refund policy. If you sold through a ticketing platform, check its refund settings too.

2. Email everyone who registered

Export the current list from your form or ticketing tool. Send one email, with registrants in BCC or through your email platform, never in the To or CC line. Keep it short:

• Subject: “[Event name] on [date] is canceled” or “is moving to [new date].”
• What’s changed, in the first line.
• What happens to their money: “We’ll refund your card in full by [date]. No action needed,” or “Your place moves to the new date. If you can’t make it, reply by [date] for a refund.”
• Who to contact, with a phone number.

Send it the same day you decide. People hear about cancellations from each other fast.

3. Update the event page

Edit the event you already have. On The Events Calendar, the built-in statuses are Scheduled, Canceled and Postponed, according to its event status guide. Our help article on updating events shows where the Event Status setting is and how to add a short reason.

For a postponement with a new date, change the date on the same event. Don’t create a second event, or you’ll have two pages competing.

Keeping the page also keeps search results accurate. Google’s event guide has an eventStatus property for canceled, postponed and rescheduled events. Check that your calendar plugin includes it after you change the status. Our guide to event markup covers it in detail.

4. Stop new sign-ups

• Canceled: close the form. In Gravity Forms, the scheduling setting under Restrictions lets you set the end date to now and write an Expired Message, such as “This event has been canceled.”
• Postponed: update every date in the form, the confirmation email and the notifications. Then send yourself a test registration.
• Ticketing platform: pause or cancel sales in the event dashboard.

5. Process refunds

Do refunds from one place only, and note each one on the registration.

• Gravity Forms with Stripe: the Stripe entries guide puts a Refund button in the Payment Details panel of each entry. It refunds the full amount.
• Stripe Dashboard: Stripe’s refunds guide says you can refund many full payments at once: tick each payment on the Payments page, select Refund and choose a reason. Partial refunds have to be done one at a time.
• Ticketing platform: use its own refund tools, so its records match.

Stripe says customers usually see a refund in about 5 to 10 business days, and that its fees on the original payment aren’t returned. Tell people when to expect it.

6. For a new date, confirm attendance

Ask people to reply if they can’t make the new date, and refund them. Their places can then go to anyone waiting. Eventbrite’s waitlist page says a refunded paid ticket opens a spot for the next person on its waitlist automatically. With a form, you email the next person yourself; see running a waitlist.

Why does handling it well matter?

People forgive a cancellation. They don’t forgive finding out at a locked door, or chasing a refund. A prompt email, an accurate page and a refund on the date you promised protect your reputation for the next event.

What are the common mistakes and edge cases?

• Deleting the event. Anyone with the link, or who finds it in Google, sees “page not found” instead of the news.
• Refunding twice, once from the form and once from the provider. Pick one route.
• Forgetting other listings: your Google Business Profile post, Facebook event, newsletters and partner sites.
• One date of a series. For a weekly class, cancel only that date; see recurring events.
• Disputes during a refund. Stripe’s guide notes that if a customer disputes a charge while a refund is pending, you should respond to the dispute rather than refund again.

What if something goes wrong?

• A customer says they weren’t refunded. Check the payment in your provider’s dashboard. Stripe can show a reference number for many card refunds, which the customer can give their bank.
• A refund failed. Stripe says a failed refund returns the money to your balance, which can take up to 30 days. Arrange another way to pay the customer back.
• People still turn up. Put a sign on the door with a phone number, and check whether your email reached them.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

Updating the page and form takes about 30 minutes. Refunds take a few minutes each, or less in bulk from the Stripe Dashboard. Stripe doesn’t return its original processing fee, so a full refund costs you that fee.

How does E-3 handle this?

If you need to cancel or move an event on a site we look after, send us the event, the new date or the cancellation, and the wording you want on the page. We update the event and the form, and a person checks the page and a test sign-up. You handle refunds in your own payment account, or add us as a user if you want help.

Related questions

• How do I take payment and issue refunds?
• What should my emails to registrants say?
• How do I offer freed-up places to a waitlist?
• How do I cancel one date of a weekly class?
• Back to the complete events and registration guide

Sources

1. Adding a Custom Event Status (The Events Calendar, Nexcess docs)
2. Refund and cancel payments (Stripe docs)
3. Managing Stripe Entries (Gravity Forms docs)
4. How To Schedule When A Form Is Active (Gravity Forms docs)
5. Event structured data (Google Search Central)
6. Waitlist management (Eventbrite)