Calgarian asks to speak to the manager after not receiving refund from Karen’s Diner

A Calgary woman and huge fan of the Karen chic unleashes her inner “Karen” and demands a refund from a one-of-a-kind dinner event.

Brita Smith told Global News she was thrilled to find out Karen’s Diner was due to make a pop-up visit to the city late last year.

“We were pretty excited,” she said. “We don’t go out much, so we were like, ‘Let’s get scolded.'”

Smith bought two “early bird” tickets for the popular experience, which is described as diner food served with a dose of sarcasm and insults from the staff.

“Just over $40 for two tickets, which I thought was totally reasonable.”

Karen’s diner tour. Courtesy: Karen’s Diner

She said the ad said the event would take place in November. But November came and went, and she still hadn’t heard from the organizers.

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Smith said that when she finally heard from Karen, she said she was told it would happen, but a date hasn’t been set yet.

“Sorry. You planned this whole thing. You sell tickets. And you don’t have a place or dates?”

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Smith said she finally received another email last weekend with new dates for Calgary. Along with the date was a link for a new price.

“I thought I already had my tickets,” she said. “So I go and it’s about an extra $80 now for both of us.”

Smith said what was originally a cheap night out just became too expensive. She then asked for a refund.

“All I got was an email that said, ‘Okay, I’ll speak to my manager and I’ll get back to you.’ And I didn’t hear anything.”

Global News reached out to the organizer of the event.

In a statement, they said, “…All were offered a refund when the event was postponed, were notified once it was postponed and were also offered to move to the tour date.”

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The organizer said the pushback was due to “set designs”. When asked why the ticket price was increased, Global News was told there had been a “misunderstanding.”

“The tickets were for two different things. The Early Birds purchased last year are for the permanent diner set opening later this year,” the statement said.

“This is Karen’s Diner on Tour, a pop-up coming to Calgary for a very short time, which is unrelated to the longer-term pop-up. However, as the original plan moved forward, we offered all of our existing customers the option to reschedule/credit the event for this earlier event if they prefer.”

Another explanation read: “Our tickets for the tour were only released this week so she would have had early bird tickets for the extended dinner which would have acted as a voucher for her meal bill at the extended dinner.”

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Organizers have told Global News that the team will reach out to Smith to clarify what happened and reimburse her if she chooses to go that route.

But Smith told us the only way she wants to go now is to get her money back.

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“By that point I lost all interest. I just played around for so long I lost interest and I don’t really want them to have my money.”

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