A couple of weeks ago, we saw that fall was gearing up to be a busy one, as far as architecture tours go: the MAK Center, the Committee to Save Silver Lake's Reservoirs, CA Boom - doesn't anyone just through a good old-fashion benefit with bad food, silent auctions for luxury spa weekends, and anorexic junior leaguers groomed for future appearances in the social diary? Apparently not.
So when we post about CSSLR's future tour, one of our readers with a bone to pick, sent us her tale of woe from the last time CSSLR mounted a tour, back in the halycon days of 2000:
We had a very negative experience with this group a few years ago. We ordered tickets, leaving a credit card number on the phone, they never let us know we were "approved" (they had a complicated process for registering for the event), we didn't attend and they charged us anyway. A guy named [redacted] was running it and he was totally unpleasant, refused to refund us and basically stole 100 bucks from us (25 tix times four).
Tragically, the four of us did our own self driving tour in the neighborhood that day unaware that we had the tickets to go in the homes. He charged our credit card and refused to refund contending it was an honor for us to contribute to their non-profit. We made if very clear that we had no interest in making this kind of contribution, we were only trying to attend their tour.
In the interest of "fairness" and "balance" we pretended to be "real" "journalists" or something like that and asked CSSLR to respond. Their rather concise response: This is the first year that CSSLR has accepted credit cards via PayPal, and all seems to be going swimmingly. So there you have it. Phone orders bad. Paypal good. Technology shall save us all.