Warning to screenwriters

The Script/Stage/Screen section could probably help you out more than the newbie section, try asking them!

It might also be worth your while to drop a note to the folks at Writer Beware:
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/

They may have additional information on this already.

Good luck, and sorry to hear you may have gotten scammed. )-:

Hi there! I don't know if you know about the disaster that happened at a pop festival in Belgium? A couple of people died and several got wounded when a violent thunderstorm hit the grounds.
Well, the organisation doesn't have to pay back the tickets - that' up to your own insurance. I suppose this will be a similar case, but it can't hurt to ask around (do you know other people who bought a ticket?) and together you can make inquiries. Don't you have an organisation there in the US that helps people for free with legal questions?

I saw the news article a few months ago where he said "There are refunds due (to participants) and we are on schedule to repay those. However, approximately half of those writers are leaving their funds in with us and are pre-registered for the 2012 conference."

Once I saw that I figured it meant that the money won't be seen again. It had all the classic red flags -"schedule to repay" instead of "we are repaying" and the hint that people might want to leave the money with him anyway. There was other claims about him being sick as well.

Just to clarify - what has Larry Stouffer actually said? "You are due a refund but we don't have the money" or "We are scheduled to pay you back some time in the far distant future" .. or what?

Or is he using the original clause that " All refunds & credits incur a $75 cancellation fee. You may cancel at any time through May 1st, 2011 and receive a refund. After May 1st, the refund converts to a credit for any future SCSFe events. "

That would seem pretty scummy of Larry Stouffer if that's the case. 'I didn't have enough customers to make ends meet so I'll choose to cancel your order. And since I've cancelled your order after the refund deadline - you don't get a refund' doesn't seem like a good reason.

Good luck,

Mac

EJT said:

Does anyone have any idea how one gets his fee returned to him when a screenwriting conference cancels the entire conference and then refuses to refund entrance fees. That's what happened to me with the 2011 Santa Fe Screenwriting Conference.

Click to expand...

Presumably you've asked? What answer did you get, if any?

-Derek

Just a thought, if you paid by credit card, complain to them. A refund might be forthcoming that way.

You can't take money for a service and then not provide the service. That's called fraud.

If YOU cancelled your order after the refund time and the conference still went ahead, that would be differrent. Because it is YOU breaking or changing the contract. In this case, it's the vendor breaking the contract so they must refund the money.

In the event and example of attending a pop concert, you bought a ticket, you attended the concert and the concert went ahead as scheduled.

If some disaster befell you at the concert, (in this case, an act of God) the concert promoter is not responsible unless that accident was through the concert promoter's negligence.

This case is more akin to buying a ticket to a concert and then the promoter cancelling the concert. In that case, you are due a refund.

Selling a service across state lines, then cancelling? Yeah - he's got bigger problems than no conference.