we interrupt your regularly scheduled camera basics mini-series to bring you this breaking news... in a recent blog post there was talk about the boston 411 spring home and bridal show. i have been registered for the show since october and was very excited about it up until this afternoon. why would the excitement die off one week before the actual event? one very big reason was this:
the bridal show was a scam
i wish i was kidding. i really do. $1400 for the hotel room and the booth, hundreds more dollars for printed material, hundreds for booth setup items, and tons of hours planning and thinking about it - all gone in an instant. you see, the show was supposed to be at the hynes convention center in boston, but i received a disturbing call from them today notifying me that there is no show scheduled for next weekend. to make a long story short, i ended up speaking with the legal department of the convention center and was told that the show never existed and that federal authorities were being contacted to investigate the case. jamie edwards of the boston 411 had sold numerous booths to unsuspecting wedding vendors. on top of that, she sold hotel rooms that were supposedly blocked by the boston 411 to be sold to vendors at a discount. a phone call to the hotel returned the fact that no rooms had ever actually been booked. fraud. lies. how many tickets were sold to attendees? how many people will show up friday night expecting a bridal show only to find locked doors to the convention center?
this woman, this 'company', lied to so many people, deceived so many people, stole from so many people, and now has fallen off the face of the earth. she stole from brides who were trying to plan their wedding, families of brides who were supporting their daughter/sister/friend, and vendors who are trying to move their business forward by investing in it so they can make an honest living. it blows my mind that there are people who have such a calloused conscience that they can mess with so many unsuspecting and presumably honest people. i spoke with jamie edwards on the phone multiple times leading up to the show. this woman had conversations with me about table sizes, booth colors, and rules about food samples not being more than 2 ounces. the detail that was invested into this calculated and premeditated fraud scheme was impressive. my guess is that jamie edwards is not new to the con-artist game.
to the people that were planning on attending, i apologize.
to my fellow vendors that were slated to be involved, i sympathize.
to the blog readers that are not directly involved, be warned that these types of people are out there.
to jamie edwards and the boston 411, you should be ashamed of yourself. enjoy the money, hopes, and aspirations that you stole from us all, you obviously needed it more than us...Labels: rant