talkmagic.co.uk

Hi TM,

I was recently invited to be the face of something irrelevant to this thread/to my point.

I received an email from generic corporation saying (abridged/altered);

---
Dearest shuffleshuffle,

We saw you at *recent event* and we taken by your godlike magical abilities, affable charm and dashing good looks, and would like you to be the face for our *random crappy publication/company*.
Sincerly,

Douchebag Ltd.
---

This was actually arranged through my FB fanpage rather than phone/email etc.
So I message the person, agree a price, arrange a date and put it in my diary. The deal is sealed. Everyone happy, albeit fairly unofficial as I have yet to send my paperwork and its still just an agreed in principle scenario.

Fastforward irrelevant but insubstanstial amount of time - i get a notification on my FB page, so i have a look, and some random magician has posted a picture of himself beneath my comment with some cr@ppy fire wallet lit up - a toothy grin and a dodgy haircut - the comment saying "Hi Douchebag Ltd - I have all sort of props and will be happy to help you with some photographs - let me know if I can help.

Again, this is on my FB fan page...

Still on MY FB PAGE douchbag ltd replies ACCEPTING HIS OFFER and inviting him to give them a price for the day.
He replies with £50 (a full £250 less that my agreed price) and the deal is done there and then - on my FB page, despite our agreed deal.

I get a PM shortly after saying thanks but no thanks - we have agreed a deal with a different performer from Doughbag Ltd.

Fairly livid, I am yet to reply, and instead thought you affable nitwits might enjoy my misfortune - and ranting on here is better than saying what I want to to these utter ar$eholes.
For the record, the other magician is a amateur - and from what I can see he has no media/website/anything at all.

When was this level of shameful underhandedness suddenly acceptable?



- Shuf
x

commiserations mate.

people like this started in the 80's when:-

common sense was bred out of them.
self respect was eliminated.
large company's were given the go ahead to take the public for mugs legally, and the powerless watchdogs just laughed.
the govements decided it was ok to steal our money right in front of our faces and avoid paying it back.
the general public thought if its ok for the MP's and big business the why not me.
profit over people was the norm for all organisations.
everyone wanted their piece of the free money bubble.

or perhaps it was just the start of the selfish generation as the bung hole gene kicked in.

said in jest with a big tinge of irony..... steely and Goldie .

But they will find out the difference in quality as well as price!

That's low. He should be strung up in Caxton gibbet and left to rot!!

K

Here is what I would do - and I would do every step.

First, if the company agreed a price on facebook, they put it in writing. So I would charge them a cancellation fee. I would charge them a third. If necessarily I would pursue it through the small claims court. You will win that one.

Second, I would contact the prick who posted on your page, and I would invoice him for fifteen percent of his fee, as the gig was organised through your agency. This is less winnable in the small claims court, but you never know - he might pay up. Especially if he is an amateur, who does not know the ropes. And it will give him a wake up call. He will think before pulling off a stunt like this again.

Finally, I would publicise his name far and wide. Name and shame the b*****.



Funnily a similar situation occurred to me a number of years ago. At a gig for a regular promoter there was a second magician present (hired by someone else). The second magician walked up to the promoter, in front of me, and told him that he could do everything I could do, but at £50 a day cheaper. The promoter said: "It takes a special type of prick to try and steal a man's livelihood with the man standing there, and I don't hire pricks." So I didn't have to do a thing.

I think in hindsight the answer is to be very alert to the delete option on your Facebook page. As soon as the job was confirmed it would be best to delete the company message and also to delete the magician's post the second you saw it. Of course I expect you did the latter anyway. And no doubt you took him off your "friend's" list.

But these things happen. Showbusiness is full of sharks and unethical people. I have certainly experienced them myself. I usually put a psychic curse on them.

I agree with Tony, It looks like you did have a contract. I'd be expecting payment in full.

Hi Guys,

Firstly thanks for your advice, some of which I have taken.

So by way of update here are the steps I have taken.

I had already deleted the posts, and blocked this person from my fan page.
I sent an email to The company in question, explaining that as a verbal agreement has been reached and agreed (and i provided the evidence of this) they would need to adhere to my terms and conditions. I hastily added a cancellation clause in my T&Cs as suggested and have requested that they make payment of a third of my fee.

I received a response almost immediately (funny that) saying that they would indeed book me for the gig rather than the newbie and honour the agreed price - which I promptly refused informing them that I had already received another booking for that date as they had already cancelled (I showed him proof of that also - they inboxed me on FB literally saying they no longer needed my services).

No reply since then. How long should I wait before making my next step (which will be to reuest payment?)

I am perfectly happy for this to go to SCC if it teaches them a lesson.

As for the other magician- I am yet to deal with this as I have simply not had time.
I'm not one for openly shaming people, i think i would like him to realise the connotations without incendiary actions - everyone should get a chance to realise the errors of there ways - but what do you think?

again - thanks so much for your advice it was invaluable!!!

I don't have any advice to offer other than what has already been given above (and by the sounds of it, what actions you are already taking)

I just wanted to comment at just how appalled I was at the actions of both the company and the "magician" who poached your job when I read your post - what a d**k!

SCC is deffo the way forward.

The trouble if you go SCC now is that you refused his fairly reasonable offer to reinstate the contract. If as you stated you are booked for the date given then you haven't really incurred a loss.

mdawg wrote:The trouble if you go SCC now is that you refused his fairly reasonable offer to reinstate the contract. If as you stated you are booked for the date given then you haven't really incurred a loss.

I agree. You are screwed. But if you are already booked and for the same fee what the hell are you worrying about? On the other hand if your new booking pays considerably less you will have to chalk the mess up to experience. I am quite sure you will never hear from the company again. And small claims court will be a waste of time. You are always in a much better position being sued that you are doing the sueing. I learned that a long, long time ago.

Are you an Equity member? They are good at sorting these things out.

If not I have a mischevious suggestion. I take great joy from other people's troubles and would be highly delighted if you follow this idea for my great amusement even if it gets you nowhere. Send this company a message linking to this very thread. Tell them that if they don't cough up you are going to name them in public and that this site comes up on search engines. And you can name the magician too which will give me more great delight and schadenfreude galore. And the magician in question may even come on here to defend himself which would be terribly exciting.

Companies hate bad publicity. On the other hand they may sue both you and Talk Magic for defamation and then you will be in great joy over the matter because as I stated it is far better to be sued than to do the suing. And they will have far less chance of collecting from you than you will from them even though you earn the vast sums of money claimed on the other thread.

Of course the best policy would be just to forget the whole thing but I beg you not to do that otherwise I will be deprived of much amusement.

If you are really booked for that date now, great for you. If this is a ploy, then I think you played it wrong. I would have taken the reinstated booking. The company had learned their lesson.

Under the new circumstances I would probably still request the cancellation fee. Though I might not go to court for it, if I had a second booking that day and was at no loss.

Fair play to you for taking action, rather than just ranting.

Sorry to rain on the parade of potential amusement but in ftopic3632.php :

13. Please understand that posts made by individual members are just their personal comments and thoughts which are outside our control. In no way can TalkMagic accept responsibility or be held accountable for them.

Also, the first five posts by newcomers won't appear in public until approved by a Moderator.

No further developments yesterday, and to be honest, I expect no reply from the company.

I did send a message to the magician in question however, explaining the reasons why i felt his actions are unacceptable.

He just said something about sex and travel (f off) and nothing more.

Too busy to care today so nothing will be done. updates will be posted if anything happens, but I'm not going on a massive goose chase to satiate my annoyance, i'll probably just let this one lie.

The jerk learned nothing. I still say name and shame him. After his response to you, he deserves it.

Also, many of us recommend colleagues when we are tied up. It is nice to know who not to recommend.