Sunday 29 September 2013

Back In the Loop and the Dodgy World of Craft Fairs Bites Back

Sorry I haven't been around too much over the last week, I think moving my mum took more out of me than I realised.  It wasn't so much the physical side of things, carrying boxes etc, I didn't have too much of that to do to be honest, it was more the emotional side of it.  I wasn't prepared for the fact that I would get upset to see my mum leaving what had been my home before I got married and left but also the fact that my dad had passed away in that house.  I have to admit to having tears that day.

So today I am up and feeling much more with it and back in the loop of posting and keeping up the comments on my Facebook page otherwise it will disappear into the Ether and I wont be getting the air space I need to keep going.

You may remember a while back I voiced my feelings about the world of craft fair organisers and how it can sometimes backfire on you.  Well, sadly for myself and many of my fellow crafters, it has.  For legal reasons I am not allowed to name names on here as it may be considered slander although if I had my way then the woman and her company would not be allowed to have any privacy at all!!

Back in early March I paid £30 for a table at an event to be held at the Winter Gardens in Weston Super Mare in Somerset, advertised as being in the Grand Ballroom, on two levels with an ice rink and Santa's Grotto. 

A couple of weeks ago a fellow crafter pointed me in the direction of this woman's page on Facebook and suggested I may like to read the posts there, I was horrified to read that many people were demanding their money back for fairs that had been arranged in Taunton and cancelled without warning the day before, no monies refunded. 

The next day a badly spelled message appears on the page informing us that the lady organiser was in hospital and was unwell, okay but could that same person not have taken her friend or relative's work papers and telephoned all those concerned?  Apparently not!

A few days later and another message appears this time supposedly from the lady's parents and informing us that she was being kept in hospital for another week, please bear in mind that at the same time several very reliable people had seen this lady outside her daughter's school, laughing and joking and doing the school run without a care in the world, someone who was having a nervous breakdown, NO MOST DEFINITELY NOT.  Ive had one years ago and believe me you don't get over it and feel that much better immediately.

Alarm bells ringing I then emailed and requested information as to whether the fair in November was going ahead.  I received a fairly abusive email back, again supposedly from her parents, rudely informing me they had no idea and In shouldn't be taking that tone with them!!  I still don't understand how my polite email could have been considered offensive.

I then telephoned the venue and was told by the events team that they hadn't been able to get hold of this lady, all she had done was make a provisional booking and no monies had ever been paid for the event and as such the venue themselves were now cancelling the event because of other genuine people wanting to book it.  So I posted this information under the event on this lady's business page, and on other facebook pages informing people about it.

It turns out that I am only in the minority of people who have lost money to this scammer and also some people had paid for about six or seven fairs with her and not had any refunds on any of them and all of them had been cancelled without warning!

As I said I am unable to name names but suffice it to say if you come across a page using the title of a little green plus yellow coloured bird and the word events after this, don't touch em with a bargepole, one very dodgy and very very badly behaved person!!

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