Cancel an event date
Cancelling an event date marks it as cancelled in the system and handles your buyers according to the mode you choose. This action is irreversible — once cancelled, a date cannot be restored.
Before cancelling: If you only want to change the date or time of the event, edit the date instead of cancelling it. See Reschedule a date for the recommended flow.
How to cancel a date
- Go to the event detail page
- Click Edit (top right)
- Select Cancel date
- If the date has existing buyers, a guided step-by-step wizard appears — follow each step in sequence
- If there are no buyers, you can cancel the date directly with no further steps required
The wizard is adaptive: it only appears when the date has existing buyers. The system shows the message "There are no ticket buyers for this date, so no refunds are needed. You can cancel the event directly." when there is no purchase history to handle.
The cancellation wizard
When the date has buyers, the wizard walks you through each decision one step at a time. On mobile the header shows Step X of Y. You can move forward with Next or go back with Back at any point before confirming.
Step 1 — Refund method
The first step is labeled Refund method. There are two cards (not three):
Notify only Cancel and send a notification email. No refunds are processed.
- Marks the date as cancelled and sends a notification email
- No buyer action is required or expected
Best for: Free events, ticket-office-only events, or when you want to handle refunds manually.
Refund / Alternative event Refund buyers or let them choose an alternative event. The next step is where you pick how.
Step 2 — Notification or buyer options
If you chose Notify only, this step is Notification:
- Email template — Fanz default template or one of your saved templates
- Create new — create a template from this step
- Preview email — see the email before confirming
- You can skip the email if buyers were already told another way
If you chose Refund / Alternative event, this step is Buyer options:
| Option | What buyers get |
|---|---|
| Refund or alternative event | They choose a refund or another date |
| Alternative event only | Transfer only — no refund option |
| Automatic refund | Platform-paid purchases are refunded automatically. No buyer decision. Free, courtesy, and ticket-office purchases are excluded — handle those manually |
Automatic refund is a buyer option inside this card, not a third card on step 1.
When buyers must choose, set Decision deadline: they have N days to decide. After that they lose the option.
Step 3 — Alternative events
This step only appears when Refund / Alternative event is selected and the buyer option is not Automatic refund.
Use the full-screen date picker to select one or more dates buyers can transfer to. Search, Select All / Clear All, and confirm with Done. Dates from the same event are grouped under that event's name.
You must select at least one alternative event to continue with this mode.
Confirm
Once all steps are complete, review that the summary shows This action is permanent and click Cancel and notify buyers, Cancel and refund all, or the equivalent confirmation button for your chosen mode. You can still go Back to any previous step before confirming.
Cancellation mode comparison
| Choice | Refund | Buyer action | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notify only (step 1 card) | None (manual if needed) | None | Free events or manual handling |
| Automatic refund (buyer option) | Automatic for platform purchases | None | Quick, hands-off cancellation |
| Refund or alternative event | Optional, buyer decides | Required (choose via link) | Offering a refund or another date |
| Alternative event only | None | Required (transfer via link) | Transfers only |
What buyers see with Refund / Alternative event
When you use the Refund / Alternative event mode, each buyer gets a personal email with a unique link. The link takes them to a secure cancellation page on your website.
The cancellation page shows:
- The cancelled event name and date
- Their purchase details (tickets they bought)
- The options available (refund and/or transfer)
- Alternative dates they can transfer to (if you added any)
- The deadline to act (if you set one)
Transfer to a seated event
If an alternative event uses a seating map, the buyer is shown an interactive seating map to choose their new seats. They must select exactly the same number of seats as tickets they purchased.
Transfer to a general admission event
For non-seated events, the buyer sees a confirmation modal before finalizing the transfer.
If a transfer fails
If a ticket transfer fails during the cancellation process — for example, because the selected alternative date no longer has availability — buyers are no longer stuck on an error screen. Instead, they can go back and choose a different event or alternative. This recovery action returns them to the event selection step so they can pick another option and try again.
Token expiry
If you set a deadline, the link expires at that date and time. Buyers who haven't acted by then lose the option. Their purchase remains unchanged (not refunded, not transferred).
Already-processed tokens
Each link can only be used once. Once a buyer refunds or transfers, the link shows a confirmation and cannot be used again.
After cancelling
Once a date is cancelled:
- The date appears as Cancelled in your event's date list (the header chip is (CANCELLED))
- Cancelled dates are filtered out of the public event page
- Buyers with Refund / Alternative event tokens can still act until the deadline
- A full-width banner sits under the event title
This date was cancelled
The banner copy is This date was cancelled, with the subtitle Click to see refund status, transfers and buyers. Click the banner or View summary to open the Cancellation summary drawer.
If automatic refunds failed, the banner also says how many need attention so you do not have to discover the drawer first.
Cancellation summary
The drawer shows:
- The option you chose (Automatic refund, Notify only, Alternative event only, or Refund or alternative event)
- Cancelled on, Cancelled by, decision deadline when it applies
- Whether buyers were notified by email
- Progress chips: Pending, Processing, Refunded, Transferred, Failed refund
Processing means a refund is in flight. The drawer keeps polling until those rows finish. There is no separate “Completed” chip — a successful auto-refund becomes Refunded.
Retry failed refunds re-submits every failed processor refund. Each buyer gets a confirmation email when their refund succeeds (they may already have received a “processing” email at cancel time). If nothing is eligible you see that there are no refunds to retry.
View cancellation details opens a full-screen Cancellation details table (title Notification-only cancellations when the mode was notify-only). There are no List / Transfers tabs — one buyers table: buyer, event, payment, response status, ticket count, refunded amount, new event, processed date. You can still export PDF or Excel from the existing summary tools.
Buyer tracking on the General tab
Under Events → [your event] → General, with the cancelled date selected in the top date picker, a section may also appear at the top of the tab (only when there are purchases tied to the cancellation flow):
- Summary with totals and breakdown of pending, refunded, and transferred buyers (plus common transfer destinations when relevant); you can export the summary as PDF or Excel
- Per-purchase table: buyer, cancelled event date, payment method, response status, ticket count, refunded amount when applicable, processed date/time, and the chosen new event/date if they transferred
- Search and, for buyer-choice flows, status filters (pending / refunded / transferred / notified without choice, depending on your setup)
- Resend cancellation email: only for pending buyers and if your role has write access to orders; not available for notify-only cancellations (no choice link)
- A button opens a detail view with the aggregated breakdown (including transfer splits when data is available)
Note: The Orders tab remains the main purchase list for that date; cancellation-flow tracking lives under General.
No. Cancellation is irreversible. If you want to "un-cancel," you'd need to create a new event date manually and move orders to it. This is why we strongly recommend using the Reschedule flow if you're only changing the date/time.
They are excluded from automatic refunds since there's no payment to reverse. You can process refunds or take other actions manually through the Orders tab.
Yes. When using Refund / Alternative event mode, the alternatives can be dates from the same event or from completely different events.
Their token expires and the cancellation link no longer works. Their purchase remains in its original state — it is not automatically refunded. You'd need to process any refund manually if desired.
Yes. On the Buyer options step, choose Alternative event only. If you want automatic refunds with no buyer decision, choose Automatic refund on that same step — it is not a third card on step 1.
No. Only the specific date is marked as cancelled. Other dates in the same event continue normally.
Buyers receive an automated cancellation notification. For Refund / Alternative event mode, the email includes their unique personal link. For Notify only, you can optionally use a custom email template from your saved templates.
If the transfer fails — for example, due to unavailability in the selected alternative — the buyer can go back and choose a different event or alternative instead of being stuck on an error screen. The flow recovers gracefully so they can complete their choice.
The wizard does not appear. The system confirms that no refunds are needed and you can cancel the date directly.