BALDWIN CITY, Kan. -- Some holiday train ride customers aren't feeling jolly after they say they feel scammed.
The Snowglobe Express train excursion in Baldwin City they paid for isn't running after all. In fact, FOX4 is learning the Snowglobe Express train no longer exists.
Families tell FOX4 communication with the company has completely gone off the tracks and they're now wondering if a train is not coming and hundreds of dollars worth of tickets will go to waste.
Matt Alexander and his family frequent train rides with 4-year-old Cash. Now, they're down a load of money after buying Snowglobe Express train tickets in September of last year.
That December, they got an email saying the ride was canceled due to dangerously cold temperatures.
Snowglobe Express told people who purchased several tickets last year and didn't get to go, the tickets could be used this year. But that's not the case and this family's not along.
"In this situation we don't have a train ride, and we don't have our money back," Alexander said. "And there's really nobody that we can contact.
"We go on Facebook and look at Google reviews, and it's comment after comment of this happening to lots of other people. I saw another family that had close to $500 and another that had like $1,000 that they had spent cause they were taking like a big group with them.
The problem, Snowglobe Express never actually owned the railroad.
An attorney for Ottawa Northern Railroad says his client actually bought the railroad assets when a prior sale to Snowglobe Express investors fell through.
Scott Beeler says Ottawa Northern never received any Snowglobe ticket sales money and had nothing to do with those excursions.
The new railroad, which took over in March, actually hauls freight.
Ottawa Northern's attorney confirms there won't be a Snowglobe Express this year. He said "they're empathetic to people who may have purchased tickets from Snowglobe Express, an entity who did not own the right to sell the tickets."
Angela Ortiz purchased five tickets, paying more than $300.
"I was upset, not because of the refund, but because I really wanted to take my family still," she said. "As of the last couple weeks, I'm not getting any response from anybody."
When you click on the link to "Snowglobe Express" it takes you to a website that isn't set up.
Ortiz said she filed a complaint with the Kansas Attorney General's Office.
FOX4 also sent an email and messaged the Snowglobe Express team on social media but have not heard back.
