PA Haunts under attack!

[UndeadProd]

Honestly, how low can you go?

I don't normally like to publicize this kind of garbage, but when it hurts my business and those of my friends I don't seem to have much choice.

Someone from the "Demon House" haunt in PA is attempting to undermine haunted attractions in Pennsylvania, particularly those in Western PA. I've so far confirmed that ScareHouse, 100 Acre, and Castle Blood have been targeted... so it seems likely that others have been hit.

I strongly suggest that any of my fellow haunters check out their google and yahoo listings asap... because you may see anonymous negative reviews, requests to have your attraction removed from Google, and other sabotage efforts to screw with your map, your listing, and bascially hurt your entire business.

Many of us have quietly dealt with these guys for years: the google adwords nonsense, passing out flyers for their event in our lines, calling our fire marshalls with "concerns about safety" ... and I realize now that if I don't speak out, they will likely continue to screw with us.

Competition is fine, but this is just all kinds of ignorant...and also exactly the kind of thing I have NO time for right now.

[Jolly Pumpkin]

That's a shame. I know of a few haunts that do the same thing, but take it to another level. When will haunts learn that it's better to work together then fight each other? If more haunts would cross promote with each other they would have a lot more business and it would create a much more stress free environment then always having the mind set that you have to destroy your competition.

[Gravely]

Scott, of course we have no time for it. That's why they waited. hell, who the heck writes reviews on Aug 14th for cryin out loud.

They have their computer genius boy up at carnigie mellon with nothing but time on their hands.

You remember him, the stinky guy from the saftey seminars?
lets not forget, that these are the folks who stood up in front of all the haunts in pa a couple years ago, AND the state firemarshall, and declared that the state safety seminars were something we should all ignore, and just pay an independent inspector whatever it took to get our haunts passed.

not makin that one up gang, there were a hundred people in the room.

so now I have a cast member cruising the internet every day looking for this crap. and the true haunters in pa, are all sharing this info with others, AND going public with it on social networks.

wondering if this is true?

ask this, how often do Scott or I come on here to raise hell about something. almost never.


for me, not since October 2001, and for Scott, I can't ever remember anything negative about anyone.

these folks are not part of our community. they don't play well with others, and just want to cause trouble. they have the time to do it, because it's my feeling, they aren't spending that time making themselves better.

I don't know why they do this, and in all honesty, I don't know why they haunt at all.

[SomeThingInTheIce]

I hate to say this but all of you PA haunts should gang up on them and get them shut down. I know everyone is bug eyed now that I posted that but hay these guys are screwing with your lively hood and you know it will only get worse. It's sad that they want to tear down everyone around them when they could be lifting themselfs up. Good luck with dealing with them, they sound like A holes.

[Motograter]

That's a bunch of crap man! I would fight against it even if it has to get ugly.

[Brandon_K]

/me hugs Ricky & Scott. I thought it was only us that got targeted, I never thought to check you guys out. I put a request in with Google on the 16th to have the review removed, since it obviously couldn't be legit since we don't open for another month...

What's funny is, for a review that was posted on August 14th, this year...

Hundred Acres Manor - "Swimming... - 000000d67abd179a - Aug 14, 2009
Hundred Acres Manor is located within South Park, a massive park in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The park setting itself is beautiful and ... More »
Hundred Acres Manor is located within South Park, a massive park in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The park setting itself is beautiful and dramatic; particularly at night, when you drive into the hills, the setting is spooky and eerie enough to be its own haunted attraction. So when you round a curve and see Hundred Acres Manor itself, a tacky commercial building with a neon sign above it, there is at first a sense of let-down, a sense that you've been conned. Where is the manor?

Hmm.. Let's see, we put a facade on it well before LAST season. That "tacky neon sign" wasn't a neon sign at all, but rather huge letters painted day-glo green, lit with a number of 4' blacklights. We haven't used that sign for at least 2 seasons, I'm pretty sure the 06 season was the last time that got used.

I also like how the "review" goes on to say how dimly lit it is. We're one of the brightest lit haunts in the area, we used clamp lights with 25, 60 and 100w color dipped bulbs for christ sake.

I personally don't get all of the "OMG our haunt is so much better than yours!" crap and mud slinging. What it comes down to is, Scott puts on a completely different show than us and Ricky puts on a completely different show than probably anyone else in the industry and they're all excellent, high quality shows. Chances are, unless the customer is only going to go to a "local only, close to home" haunt, they'll come visit all of our haunts. We have a month and a half, most people don't visit just one haunt. I know we get people from over a hundred miles away as I'm sure Scott and Ricky does as well.

Blah.

[lerandell]

man that sucks.. I guess i need to start watching my stuff. Although just about every haunter I have meet here in North Texas are really good guys and gals.

[Brandon_K]

This is cute;

http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid...31&hl=en&gl=us

The person, who hasn't created an account, that left 5 reviews... I'll let everyone look at the reviews, look how they were rated and look how they were meticulously worded and you can draw your own conclusions.

I'm wondering why said person was walking down Route 40 to go to Ricky's place? Personally, I use the 4 foot wide sidewalk next to the road.... I'll also add that there are road flares placed for probably a half mile up and down the road to alert the few drivers that travel that road that something is up ahead. For those that aren't from the area, Route 40, while it sounds like a busy highway, is a old 2 lane (one each direction with a double yellow) 'country highway'. You can count the cars that pass in an hour on one, MAYBE two hands.

[chuck weber]

the demon house losers will get theirs

Does their haunt suck ? What do you guys think of the demon house as a haunted attraction? The proof is in the haunt. You legit haunters like RICKY (and friends) have nothing to worry about. Tacky, hurtful, immature marketing ploys like this are always found out in the long run. The demon house people doing this are insecure and immature losers. Thanks for making us aware of the situation. Hopefully, everybody will expose these idiots and not support their haunt. That will really hurt them in the long run. it's a given. GOOD LUCK !!!
It's a shame in this supposed tight-knit haunt community that this stuff has to happen.

[The Forsaken Crypt]

Yeah seriously, Why screw with other haunts, When you said working together is better it really is. What a bunch of dumb asses

[graystone]

From........................

The looks of their website you can see why they act childish. My dog is not in this race. Scott I really don't know you but I sure as hell would not loose any sleep over this. This just goes to prove that instead of them trying to improve their own haunt its easier for them to try and disprove yours ( ScareHouse) or others they feel threatened by! Can I get an AMEN?

This is whats great about us Bama boys Atrox and Graystone Manor is the best of friends. I have the upmost respect for Paul and the guys as they do me/us I am sure!

Shane and its guys (Deamon House) get a damn life and grow up! Shane this time.

[SomeThingInTheIce]

AMEN, preach it brother Shane.

The looks of their website you can see why they act childish. My dog is not in this race. Scott I really don't know you but I sure as hell would not loose any sleep over this. This just goes to prove that instead of them trying to improve their own haunt its easier for them to try and disprove yours ( ScareHouse) or others they feel threatened by! Can I get an AMEN?

This is whats great about us Bama boys Atrox and Graystone Manor is the best of friends. I have the upmost respect for Paul and the guys as they do me/us I am sure!

Shane and its guys (Deamon House) get a damn life and grow up! Shane this time.

[Jim Warfield]

What is the population of Penn.?
Not enough customers to go around?

[hsmag]

I've had the displeasure of working with these guys in the past (on a project not related to their haunt).

To me they seemed like stuck up, know-it-all's who were only concerned with their bottom line and nothing else. I don't think they did any of their homework before starting up this haunt and I've seen their shady business practices in the past. I wouldn't put it past them to be doing this. I cant remember their names but one of them was named Dave (that much I do remember).

Not fun guys to work with and I'll never work with them again as long as I'm around

Like Ricky said: these guys aren't part of this industry - they're outsiders. It seems that they're just looking to make a quick buck without investing the time or money into making their event fun and safe and don't care who they have to step on in the process.

[Killer Katie]

Disgusting

I've had crap like this happen out here in Ohio, and I think it boils down to lack of professionalism. As someone who has worked at haunted houses, I tend to keep my opinions of other haunts to myself, because i hold a higher standard of things than the average haunt-goer. Maliscious, negative postings of other haunts is plain immature and irresponsible and DOES NOT help the industry.