Cancellations - One-Time Cancellation or Schedule Change Form (OTSC)

A Site Needs to Cancel One of Their Events

Sometimes the show cannot, in fact, go on! Sometimes, the site gets booked for a private event; there are impending weather concerns; maybe they are experiencing tech issues like their payment system going down; or they just have some plain-old, boring maintenance scheduled and they are unable to host trivia as usual. It happens!

To make it easy for them and us, Trivia Mafia includes in the FAQ section of our Venue Resources page access to our "Schedule Change Form" for site contacts to cancel events as need be. However, there may still be times that site contacts reach out to you directly to inform you of their plans to cancel an event - so here's how to do it and what happens when you hit "Submit!"

This is the only form we do give our sites access to complete on their own. All other "Forms" you will see are For Internal Use Only.

Where to find the Schedule Change Form

Whether you are sharing the link with them or needing to fill out the form for them yourself, you can find the Schedule Change Form conveniently located at triviamafia.com/schedulechangeform.

Bookmark/Star this URL in your Favorites. You will visit this page more often than any other one.

If a site reaches out to you letting you know they need to cancel an upcoming event, feel free to let them know you will submit the schedule change as requested but also don't be afraid to remind them they can do it too! Something like: 
"In the future if you need to cancel an event, you can just fill out this super quick and easy Schedule Change Form at triviamafia.com/schedulechangeform and we'll take care of the rest! Just in case you ever need to cancel and I am out of office or it is on short-notice and are unable to wait for my reply."

Will A Site Get Charged If They Cancel An Event?

Per the Trivia Mafia Agreement signed by the site contact, as stated under Section 2 of "Cancellations":
"Trivia Mafia requires 48 hours advance notice to cancel a scheduled trivia night and prevent billing. Notice must be communicated to info@triviamafia.com or a member of the management team – Hosts are not responsible for scheduling notices. If Client fails to cancel 48 hours in advance of the scheduled quiz time, Client agrees to pay as though the quiz had occurred. Exceptions granted at the discretion of Trivia Mafia."

Now, some of that is a lot of legalese for liability purposes and to an extent, a little outdated, but the short answer is "Not as long as you give us a heads up with enough time to communicate the cancellation."

It's not just billing that needs to know about it. It's also the marketing team to communicate to players that there is no event and avoid any potential frustration or disappointment if they showed up, as well as the staffing manager and the event's host to make sure they don't show up to find their event is cancelled!

Really, that last part about the host showing up is key to avoiding charges. If the host shows up to their site not knowing the site cancelled, Trivia Mafia still pays them, which means we still have to charge the site for not letting us know.

And that's where the Schedule Change Form comes into play to communicate that change 

Same-Day Cancellations

While you can continue to let sites know we require 48 hour lead times for cancellations or if it can be communicated sooner even better (like if they book private events, let us know as soon as they book one that conflicts with our events), sometimes there are things that sites just can't plan for in advance!

Same-Day Cancellations are highly discouraged and seen as inconsiderate to the host as well as players who now have to adjust plans on short notice or may still show up without proper advance notice, but we do still make exceptions for.

The main exception is weather-related cancellations. We're based in Minnesota with a bulk of our sites in Minnesota. We know weather happens and we know you can only know when weather happens when it's happening!

Additionally, Trivia Mafia even tries to stay on top of things ourselves when we know snow is coming in large quantities and put out emails in the morning to request sites scheduled to host events that day communicate their intentions to cancel, so that we can alert our hosts and include them in a shared "Cancellations" social media post later that day. 

Other exceptions can include other sick staff/short-handed resulting in early closing, same-day equipment breakdowns that prevents the site from functioning properly, or other emergency-related reasons.

If there is seemingly no way to have foreseen their reason for cancelling until that day, Trivia Mafia will make an exception and not charge for the same-day cancellation.

However, if you get the "Oops, I forgot to let you know we're closed for a private event!" or "We want to watch the Wolves game tonight instead!" then use your discretion with the lead time provided and use that as an opportunity to remind them of our 48-hour cancellation policy and where they can find the Schedule Change Form.

Please note that there is a high chance that the billing process for Same-Day Cancellations will not get caught in time and the charge will still go through. Let the site know that this may happen and if so, we will comp them on their next event to even out the charges.

Filling Out The Form For a One-Time Cancellation

"So easy, even a site contact can do it!"

Made to take no more than 30 seconds of anyone's time and only needing the bar minimum information to get site contacts (or you!) back to your regularly schedule programming.

Step 1: Select the event from the dropdown menu:

Remember that some sites host multiple events and make sure to select the correct event needing to be canceled.

Step 2: Enter Site Contact Name & Email

Even if you are filling it out, use the Site Contact's name and email so that they receive the Schedule Change confirmation email.

Step 3: Enter the Date that the Site is Looking to Change

Step 4: Select Whether The Site Wants to Cancel or Make a One-Time Schedule Change

Step 5: Notes (Optional)

If you are filling out the form on behalf of the site, it is recommended to make note that you submitted it. Any additional context is optional.

That's it! Once you hit the "Submit" button, you will see a new message on the screen and a new Slack message in the the # existingevents-alerts channel sharing the change for visibility to the host staffing manager and Social Media/Morning Rounds team:

The SAM for that site will also receive an email with the Subject Line: "Airtable forms: someone has responded to One-Time Cancellation or Schedule Change Form" with the results of the form submission included.

That's it! Included in the automations triggered will also be to billing to remove the charge for that event, an email to the host to notify them of the cancellation, and communicating the cancellation for that event on Trivia Mafia's social media accounts' "What's Happening This Week?" posts and the "Morning Rounds" daily e-newsletter.
Nothing more needed from the site or you!