This is an update to the full entry below, for as of December 18 this matter seems to be finally solved. It was interesting that the day after I posted my frustration on the 14th I was contacted by [PersonB] who immediately posted a credit to my credit card and checked in on a daily basis until the credit finally hit my account online. (And thus I called the credit card company to stop their own investigation) I was wondering if this was some kind of coincidence but the final message I received showed it was not:
Charity went out of business and is now under the investigation of attorney general. We treasure our bidders and we really paid everyone who supported that charity funds back from our own pocket , after we forwarded thousands of dollars to the charity itself,
My CEO has the biggest charitable heart in the world and would not want to hurt any bidder financially
Maybe that part will make your blog 🙂
thank you and Happy Holidays
[PersonB]
Operations Manager
Needless to say I am happy the matter is finally closed out, I am sorry to hear they got burned by a charitable organization, and I am also disappointed by the amount of effort needed to resolve this.
So, for any readers that took the time to read this entire history the question is, if you were me, would you use their service again?
Anytime I have a chance to meet someone doing something interesting I take it. I do this especially if the ‘something’ is way outside of the world I normally work in. Opportunities come from all sources, and in today’s world where one manages to find out the oddest of things from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, you truly never know where you are going to find them. Over the past five or so years I have also taken advantage of special experiences offered via charitable donations for various outstanding causes.
A lot of the time these charity donated experiences come through an auction process that is not directly run by the charity itself. Cmarket.com seems to be one of the most basic places where this can happen. To me their service is really just a type of eBay where you do not have much contact with cMarket itself. You see something you like and if you win it you find yourself almost immediately in direct contact with the organization that offered the item for bid. I have not used it that much but the times I have everything went as smoothly as I would expect and I was never disappointed.
Charity Folks is a real a class act. For some reason I associate this business with Chevy Chase (of whom I am not a big fan) and after some research online (meaning five minutes of poking around) I could find nothing to confirm or deny this connection. In addition to the items up for offer on their web site they also have a wish section where if you have a specific desire they would do their best to connect your offer to the people in their network that just might be able to make it happen.
So let us move on to the real subject of this blog entry. I have used Charitybuzz a couple of times and, though I still would not rate them as high on service as Charity Folks, they seemed to be a reliable organization that brings a winning bid through to a coordinated connection to the donor and ultimately the experience. That is they seemed to be a reliable organization until now. What follows is the factual detail of a recent encounter I had with them and it all started with a winning bid on January 7th, 2009.
Lot #: 85408
Lot Title: Spend a Day on the Set of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Starring Nicholas Cage
Charity Name: The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Description: Includes: a full day visit to the set of The Sorserer’s Apprentice in NYC for 4 people in Spring 2009. Also includes a meet and greet with director, Jon Turtlebaub and other cast members.
Spend an exciting and full day on the set of Jon Turteltaub’s new movie, The Sorserer’s Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage in New York during the Spring of 2009. Jon Tureltaub directed Cool Runnings, National Treasure, Phenomenan and more. We know this will be an exciting day of filming plus you will meet selected cast members!
An Academy Award-winning American actor, Cage has also worked as a director and producer, through his production company Saturn Films. He has been nominated twice for an Academy Award as Best Actor in a Leading Role, winning the award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas.
Hammer Price: X.XX
Shipping & Handling: 9.95
With my older son being interested in the industry I thought this could really be an amazing day to see a real set in action and meet some people he would have seen in other roles he was already familiar with.
The next day I was contacted by Charitybuzz with the following email. I guess all I need to do now is sit back and wait!
Congratulations on winning the day on the set of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from the recent Breast Cancer Research Foundation auction! We are waiting to hear back from the Director with a tentative production schedule and will be in touch shortly with an update. Please let me know if I can help with anything in the meantime as I am happy to do so.
Thanks so much for your support!
Best Regards,
[PersonA]
Auction Specialist
…and wait. When it got to be April 16th, 2009 I was wondering where an update was as the ‘Spring’ time frame was certainly upon us so I reached out and got the following reply:
I am looking into this again for you…stay tuned!
[PersonA]
Auction Specialist
Never heard anything back beyond that and on the 5th of May I read about an injury on the set (so obviously there was a set in current production) and not hearing anything immediately back from Charitybuzz I re-emailed them a couple of days later and managed to get the following reply:
We are working with the director to find a series of dates that will work. I apologize for the delay but we will take care of this for you. Often times it takes a bit to nail down a date but we will work it out.
Thank you so much for your patience.
All the Best,
[PersonA]
Auction Specialist
I replied I was worried that with summer fast approaching and committed vacations schedules it might become very difficult to schedule a mutually acceptable time to visit the set. Waiting to hear anything back I got wrapped up in the summer schedule and in August I checked the IMDB just out of curiosity and to my surprise the movie was noted as being in post production! What?! Thus I reached out to Charitybuzz again asked for a refund on August 5th and this was the reply I received:
I am so sorry for the delay in all of this. I will discuss with Alex how we can handle this. Of course, if we can’t get you on set, you would be entitled to a refund. Alex is out ill this week but I assure you that this will not be forgotten. You have been very kind and patient and we will make this situation right for you,
Thank you so much,
[PersonA]
Auction Specialist
The next day the real news came in the following email:
I apologize for delay in this case. The Donor of the experience as well as the head of the charity has been out of touch with us. I know his charity was going through financial problems and we are looking into this case for you. Just as Erin said we stand for absolutely everything we sell on line so If I can get that resolved within next few days we will issue you a full refund for the purchase. I apologize for the inconvenience – it is not a custom for our company not to be able to find a resolution for so long however we are strongly limited to what is being donated.
I will keep you posted on detail shortly , please feel free to ask any questions you might have.
[PersonB]
Operations Manager
Okay, now wait a minute. If they were indeed working with the Director to find a series of dates what would it matter if either the donor or the charity was ‘out of touch?’ Well, in any case, as much as I was looking forward to the set visit I was glad to hear I would be getting a full refund. I would have taken full responsibility if my schedule did not coordinate with the production schedule. I would have understood, if for some reason, the movie was cancelled, but it was not. What did happen was that I reached out numerous times to get information and not once did Charitybuzz contact me with an update unless I asked for one.
The ‘next few days’ turned into October 27th and after more emails and attempted calls to a full voice mail box I received the following short email from [PersonB]:
Hi John we will. Process your refund on Friday. Thank you
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Great! I thought it was finally a closed conversation until I had to ask on November 11th how the refund was processed as I have yet to see anything. Once again, not getting a reply from [PersonB] I reached out to[PersonA] by phone and was told, after she spoke with [PersonB], that the check was now going to go into the mail. My reply was that this was the exact same thing I was told on October 27th so I had my doubts but will wait and see what happens. A follow up came just after the holiday on December 1st:
Your check went out Wednesday before thanksgiving for the full amount. Erin requested it a while ago and we were unable to send you a refund through charity as they went out of business therefore we issued you one directly from our pocket
Please excuse our delay and confirm when check is received.
With Warmest wishes and apologies for all inconvenience!
[PersonB]
Operations Manager
And, unfortunately and quiet expectedly, I sent out the following email a couple of weeks later:
It is now the 8th of December and I have yet to see anything come in the mail. I need a check by overnight courier by the end of this week or will need to take other action as emails and phone calls are obviously not working.
The amazing thing is I never heard anything past that last email which is now going on a week ago. I sent it to [PersonB] and copied it in on [PersonA] and [PersonC]. (I have no idea who [PersonC] is but they were copied in on some emails from [PersonB] so I wanted to be complete) In the completely off chance situation they were having trouble getting a hold of me I also added my full contact information to the email to be sure they had alternate method of contact. Yes, I have obviously edited out the actual names of the people in the emails as I really have no way to determine if it was their issue or something deeper in the organization that was wrong.
The reply? Well, as already noted – nothing, absolutely nothing! I have escalated the matter to my credit card company and hopefully will get resolution that way or I will be on the road to different routes. Should Charitybuzz refund something when the people they pay supposedly go out of business? I have no idea, but what any company should do, as does any individual with integrity, is to do what they say they are going to do. It seems pretty clear to me that at least in this case it simply has not happened.
I have no idea who The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is and whether or not they had, or are having, financial or other difficulties. I am also sure that most, if not all, of other the charities Charitybuzz works with are very reputable institutions that efficiently deliver funds to outstanding causes. As I said previously, I have used them in the past a couple times and when I did I was very satisfied. In fact without an exception, be it a Charitybuzz auction or from some or the other organization, I have always had my expectations exceeded when going on an adventure. Yes, always, and without an exception. When unique experiences meet charitable causes the result works, and works extremely well. It some cases the people I have met have become long term friends and in some cases even business partners.
When it comes to Charitybuzz, however, I do not see how I would be able to use their services again without a major shakeup in their operations. Maybe I am the only one who has suffered a problem but given the above I feel I have been lied to at least twice. What the true story is, giving yet another benefit of doubt, I do not know and Charitybuzz is certainly not talking.
So, if you are surfing the web doing a little background search before you bid and are looking for someone with a complaint, problem, issue, or challenge with charitybuzz.com then I offer you this one data point to add to your knowledge base.
In summary, and for little lesson in Latin, Caveat Emptor – Let the buyer beware.