Gahaunter
08-13-2007, 11:25 AM
We lost our location for this year!!! This is long, so forgive me, but I need to get this off my chest!!!
I am so angry. I have been working on a deal for our haunted house since January of '07. When I found a location that I liked, I contacted the owner's of the building (a very large firm that owns buildings all over the South East). We initially contacted them in February. They said they were very interested so we sent them a proposal in April.
The building in question happened to be an old Walmart. Now, the actual Walmart (store) part of building was entirely too big so we only needed the Garden Center side of the space. We made our intentions known to the owners. We also asked if we could use the old auto center as a spot for our makeup and greenroom for the actors. We were told that would be ok. We even sent them a DVD of our past work so they could view it and see unequivocably, what it is that we are looking to do. Not a tent in a parking lot, not a haunted forest, not a corn maze, but an indoor seasonal haunted attraction. How difficult is that?
We checked back to make sure they had recieved it and they said it looked fine. told them exactly what we wanted, how much we wanted to pay, etc. I was told everything looks good. We would be in contact from then on.
Now, at no point during this transaction from April till July, did they ever say there was a problem with the amount we were looking to pay, or restrictions on the building use, problems understanding our proposal etc. Again same line of corporate b.s. : everything looks good. No problem!
We contact them back and after playing weeks of phone tag we get all the info set to start our lease. Right off the bat they hit us with a price increase of $1200 above what we were already willing to pay. We reluctantly agreed becuase 1) We needed the space and 2) We thought they were throwing in the use of the auto center as well.
Then they sent us the lease. We were ready to sign and get the check off in the mail when we noticed a few things that struck us as odd. They had told us utilities would be included since we were a temporary lease, however our contract showed that they were not included and still would be our responsibility. Also, we noticed that they did not color in the area of the map that included the indoor portion of the garden center, which is what we were going to lease. On top of everything else they wanted us to give them a gross annual sales report of all our traffic and ticket sales.
Calling them back with a few questions about the copies we were sent, they were astonished that we wanted to rent the indoor portion of thier building. We never once told them we were producing an outdoor event. Then everything got ugly. We went back and forth. This delayed us getting in the building on time. Then when we finally get everything straightned out, they told us we would have to pay to have their building re-key'd becuase they did not want us to be in the main portion of the Walmart. That was just fine with us becuase they were taking it off the rent (the locksmith bill) and we didn't need in portion of the space anyway.
Flash forward. We jump through hoops and have the building re-keyed. We are finally ready to go ahead and sign the lease. Then suddenly, they restrict us to one portion of the building refusing to give us the auto center. Now citing that it's too great a liability. Hello? Could you not have checked that before we are already a week behind being in our space. We would have looked for another building all together.
Now we are struck in only the garden center, which we wanted, but it has no running water or bathrooms. Now, I'm not the smartest person in the world but when someone tells me I'm getting utilities for free that usually means electric and water (being utilities plural and not utility, singular). How in the heck are we supposed to be in a building with no access to running water? No way that would pass inspection and no bathrooms for use to use.
Then the @$$ clown who has been telling us everything sounds great suddenly starts to show his true colors and will not allow us any access to another part of the building to have running water or a bathroom. He actualy becomes angry with me when I tell him that won't work for us. He then irrately points out that he is out $1K dollars becuase they had to have their sprinkler system inspected. Pardon, me but isn't i the property owners responsibility to bring everything current if they want to lease it?
We lose an entire years operating profits, expenses we've already paid for, marketing, website, and he's worried about a measly $1,000. Thank god we never signed the lease and went forward.
On top of all this I finally talk to my partners and they say the deal is off. I politely email him, going so far as to even thank him for his time. I explained very politely that we with all the restrictions now imposed we could not operate there. I also mentioned that it would have been nice if during all these problems someone would have either metioned that this deal would not work at the particular building or suggested perhaps, an alternate location that we could have looked at.
Then (and this is just the icing on the cake) the guy goes postal. He starts calling my cell phone 3 times and telling me he has serious issues with my email. He then demands that I call him at his office. I was already hot, but I just ignored it. Then he leaves me another threatning email at the end of the day saying if I don't get back to him before 5'oclock his time to discuss this email that we would never be allowed to do buisness with his company again. Hello! Mentally unbalanced, part of one....you're table's waiting. What part of we don't want to buisness with you do you not understand?
I couldn't believe it. So now here we are stuck without opening and wasting the better part of a year. Talk about sucking!
I know, I know...there's always next year everyone says. Somehow that's not very consoling during the present. I guess I'll go check out Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando.
Next year, I'm hiring a real estate agent to do all this for us!!!
Gahaunter
I am so angry. I have been working on a deal for our haunted house since January of '07. When I found a location that I liked, I contacted the owner's of the building (a very large firm that owns buildings all over the South East). We initially contacted them in February. They said they were very interested so we sent them a proposal in April.
The building in question happened to be an old Walmart. Now, the actual Walmart (store) part of building was entirely too big so we only needed the Garden Center side of the space. We made our intentions known to the owners. We also asked if we could use the old auto center as a spot for our makeup and greenroom for the actors. We were told that would be ok. We even sent them a DVD of our past work so they could view it and see unequivocably, what it is that we are looking to do. Not a tent in a parking lot, not a haunted forest, not a corn maze, but an indoor seasonal haunted attraction. How difficult is that?
We checked back to make sure they had recieved it and they said it looked fine. told them exactly what we wanted, how much we wanted to pay, etc. I was told everything looks good. We would be in contact from then on.
Now, at no point during this transaction from April till July, did they ever say there was a problem with the amount we were looking to pay, or restrictions on the building use, problems understanding our proposal etc. Again same line of corporate b.s. : everything looks good. No problem!
We contact them back and after playing weeks of phone tag we get all the info set to start our lease. Right off the bat they hit us with a price increase of $1200 above what we were already willing to pay. We reluctantly agreed becuase 1) We needed the space and 2) We thought they were throwing in the use of the auto center as well.
Then they sent us the lease. We were ready to sign and get the check off in the mail when we noticed a few things that struck us as odd. They had told us utilities would be included since we were a temporary lease, however our contract showed that they were not included and still would be our responsibility. Also, we noticed that they did not color in the area of the map that included the indoor portion of the garden center, which is what we were going to lease. On top of everything else they wanted us to give them a gross annual sales report of all our traffic and ticket sales.
Calling them back with a few questions about the copies we were sent, they were astonished that we wanted to rent the indoor portion of thier building. We never once told them we were producing an outdoor event. Then everything got ugly. We went back and forth. This delayed us getting in the building on time. Then when we finally get everything straightned out, they told us we would have to pay to have their building re-key'd becuase they did not want us to be in the main portion of the Walmart. That was just fine with us becuase they were taking it off the rent (the locksmith bill) and we didn't need in portion of the space anyway.
Flash forward. We jump through hoops and have the building re-keyed. We are finally ready to go ahead and sign the lease. Then suddenly, they restrict us to one portion of the building refusing to give us the auto center. Now citing that it's too great a liability. Hello? Could you not have checked that before we are already a week behind being in our space. We would have looked for another building all together.
Now we are struck in only the garden center, which we wanted, but it has no running water or bathrooms. Now, I'm not the smartest person in the world but when someone tells me I'm getting utilities for free that usually means electric and water (being utilities plural and not utility, singular). How in the heck are we supposed to be in a building with no access to running water? No way that would pass inspection and no bathrooms for use to use.
Then the @$$ clown who has been telling us everything sounds great suddenly starts to show his true colors and will not allow us any access to another part of the building to have running water or a bathroom. He actualy becomes angry with me when I tell him that won't work for us. He then irrately points out that he is out $1K dollars becuase they had to have their sprinkler system inspected. Pardon, me but isn't i the property owners responsibility to bring everything current if they want to lease it?
We lose an entire years operating profits, expenses we've already paid for, marketing, website, and he's worried about a measly $1,000. Thank god we never signed the lease and went forward.
On top of all this I finally talk to my partners and they say the deal is off. I politely email him, going so far as to even thank him for his time. I explained very politely that we with all the restrictions now imposed we could not operate there. I also mentioned that it would have been nice if during all these problems someone would have either metioned that this deal would not work at the particular building or suggested perhaps, an alternate location that we could have looked at.
Then (and this is just the icing on the cake) the guy goes postal. He starts calling my cell phone 3 times and telling me he has serious issues with my email. He then demands that I call him at his office. I was already hot, but I just ignored it. Then he leaves me another threatning email at the end of the day saying if I don't get back to him before 5'oclock his time to discuss this email that we would never be allowed to do buisness with his company again. Hello! Mentally unbalanced, part of one....you're table's waiting. What part of we don't want to buisness with you do you not understand?
I couldn't believe it. So now here we are stuck without opening and wasting the better part of a year. Talk about sucking!
I know, I know...there's always next year everyone says. Somehow that's not very consoling during the present. I guess I'll go check out Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando.
Next year, I'm hiring a real estate agent to do all this for us!!!
Gahaunter