As I have been urging everyone to do, I too am filing a complaint with all of the agencies listed on the links. The following is one of my attachments.
Summary of complaint:
After unsuccessfully trying to communicate with Mr. Bridgers, I and the other members of my group cancelled our reservations on July 22, 2007 for the reasons that follow. Our/My scheduled visit date to the Olde Geneva Retreat was to be on July 26, 27 and 28, 2007.
The website promises the following
The "Olde Geneva Dairy" is an all-inclusive scrapbook retreat and was created by scrapbookers (and an experienced, popular local chef) exclusively for scrapbookers, determined to offer the very best in value and creative atmosphere available, surpassing any other scrapbooking retreat in North America. This "World Class" scrapbook retreat is very affordable however, especially taking into consideration all of the amenities and extras included with your weekend retreat stay. At the "Dairy", you'll be able to scrap, chop, crop, stamp and paste non-stop for days without any of the distractions that plague you at home or at other commercial venues for scrapbooking. You can get a massage, manicure, pedicure, facial or several other professional spa treatments from licensed and certified technicians over the weekend or just simply relax and unwind.
Yet, Mr. Anson Craig Bridgers would not communicate with me or my group abouth the location of the retreat, even though the website reads:
The Olde Geneva Dairy is located about 42 miles south, south-east of Indianapolis, Indiana near Flat Rock, Indiana in what is called the "Geneva" community. Only about 40-50 minutes from the Indianapolis Airport or downtown area. To help you plan your drive to the "Olde Geneva Dairy" we have listed below, the approximate* driving times from several other cities in the region. Remember that internet maps, although helpful at times are not always the "best" or "fastest" routes. We will be happy to help you with directions
He would not/did not communicate that he was relocating our group to an alternate location, yet he has added to his policy the following statement:
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MOVE OUR RETREAT LOCATION AT ANY TIME THAT OUR FACILITY AT 1208 E VANDALIA RD / FLAT ROCK IN IS UNAVAILABLE FOR SCRAPBOOK RETREATS. IN THIS EVENT, A FACILITY WITHIN 50 MILES OF OUR LOCATION WILL BE UTILIZED THAT CAN OFFER COMPARABLE AMENITIES AS OUR ORIGINAL LOCATION. ALL GUESTS WILL ALWAYS BE ACCOMMODATED AS NORMAL
He could not/would not tell us that he was going “accommodate as normal” at an alternate location, yet he still contends that the alternate location was going to provide the "World Class" scrapbook retreat is very affordable however, especially taking into consideration all of the amenities and extras included with your weekend retreat stay.
And we were suppose to be able to “scrap, chop, crop, stamp and paste non-stop for days without any of the distractions that plague you at home or at other commercial venues for scrapbooking. You can get a massage, manicure, pedicure, facial or several other professional spa treatments from licensed and certified technicians over the weekend or just simply relax and unwind.”
Mr. Bridgers contends that his cancellation policy gives him the right to NOT refund the reservation deposit, however the fact remains that Mr. Anson Craig Bridgers does not hold a license or permits to have a business or in this case a Bed & Breakfast in Shelby County, not at this time and not at the time of my reservation on February 26, 2007. Copies of the “policy” are included with this form.
Since our cancellation Mr. Bridgers has communicated by email with a member of group, Patti Schmitz, he told her:
We chose to accommodate your group at the best hotel in the area that still had rooms available no matter what the cost. This hotel was the Lee's Inn in Seymour, IN and is considered to be the best in the region (voted in several local publications)
This motel is located at 2075 E Tipton St, Seymour, IN, exactly 45.64 miles away from the original retreat location. Therefore, I assume he felt he was fulfilling his portion of the “contract” for the services he was suppose to be providing because it was
A FACILITY WITHIN 50 MILES OF OUR LOCATION WILL BE UTILIZED THAT CAN OFFER COMPARABLE AMENITIES AS OUR ORIGINAL LOCATION.
We are all baffled in regards to how he was planning to provide the “comparable amenities”.
Patti was invited to call the Lee’s Inn and confirm that he had done this, she did. What she learned was he made reservations for our group on July 16, 2007 and the cancelled them on July 25, 2007.
However, in the email response sent to the members of my group on July 22, 2007 he specifically states:
Until a few minutes ago the owners, along with a half dozen other people, were feverishly working to get the new location up and running so that it would be ready for your group. We have all be working toward that in the last few days. Whatever location someone said was “red tagged” was not our current retreat location.
At the last meeting that the owners, attorneys and county officials had, it was decided that we would not attempt to get the old location up to speed again as problems with neighbors and commercial building requirements would make the changes unreasonable and that we would simply accelerate our ultimate plan of moving to a bigger and better location, already zoned for the activities we do.
I have included a copy of the email in its entirety.
The Shelbyville News reported on August 15, 2007 "that Bridgers is no longer allowed to hold the scrapbooking retreats at the Olde Geneva Dairy, he has relocated them to another undisclosed location outside of Shelby County".
And his website does confirm that.
Attention friends and all serious scrapbookers – We’re moving! As you could expect, there comes a time for all business that have outgrown one location to face this situation and our time has now come. In early 2004 we thought hosting 6-8 guest 2 or 3 weekends a month would be great but we love to do what we do and thanks to the many scrapbooking friends we’ve made that love what they do also, things just got a little faster and bigger than we expected before we knew it. Everyone loved the old dairy barn for sure, but when looking at expansion needs, update possibilities and new zoning considerations it made more sense to chose a location already suited to accommodating “the most popular weekend scrapbooking retreat in the world.” Yes, we’ve actually lined-up a bigger and better location for the Dairy and can’t wait for you to see it. Still the same great amenities, food, free equipment and work area just a location much better for keeping up with the number of scrapbook guests we have hosted for several years and just a few miles away from the original location! We plan to have the move complete in just a few days and all guests that could be effected during the moving process have already been contacted. At this time, ALL pictures and property descriptions on this website relate to our OLD location that we do not hold retreats at any more. New pictures and property descriptions will be put up in short order as soon as we have the new location ready for the guests and we’re putting of course all efforts into that goal as we hope you understand. For more information on the move please CLICK HERE. – Otherwise, please enjoy the site and rest assured that if you like what you see now, it’ll only get better. Reservations are still being taken as normal. Thanks!
The article also reports that Bridgers said. "The customer got everything they should have gotten."
There is no possible way he could or can fulfill that statement as was reported to me by Sharon Kofmehl in her email of August 14, 2007, about her "retreat" experience the weekend of August 9, 10 and 11, 2007.
Hi - I'm not sure how much help any of my "foursome" would be, as we FORCED him to refund our deposit before we left the motel premises and watched him refund the money through a PayPal account.
We did stop at the Shelbyville Police Department and file a report with them as to what this guy had going on. I think our police report may have precipitated an article published in the Shelbyville newspaper about his operation. It was published on 8/12/07 and someone posted it on the TwoPeas forum page, if you haven't already seen it.
He (Craig) told us that his "retreat" was 4:40 hours from the Detroit area. We all live about 40 miles north of the City, so we planned for a four-hour drive. The day before we were to leave for our wonderful experience at the "world's premier scrapbook retreat", I visited his website (which I hadn't done since we booked the trip months ago) and read that the pictures on the website were of the "old premises" and that they had moved to a new and grander site, yet not giving any specific details or addresses.
This didn't sit well with me and I contacted the person who booked our trip. She said she put a call in to Craig and was waiting for him to call back and confirm the situation. He called her LATE Sunday night and assured her that all was fine. He told her to call him on his cell phone when we got to a certain point and he would "walk us through the rest of the directions because you couldn't trust an internet map to be accurate".
Well, 7-1/2 hours later, per his instructions, we arrived at the Lee's Motel in Greensburg. The place was hot (the temperature outside that day was about 100 degrees and they were in the throes of an official heat wave) and it was DIRTY and SMELLY.
When we asked for Craig, the lady behind the desk said he had been there "over the weekend, but wasn't there [now]". We asked a staff person and she didn't even know who he was.
Needless to say, things were not looking up. Craig showed up about 5 minutes later, running in sweaty and hurried. He said he had been sitting at a red light "just outside". We all suspected he was in his vehicle watching to see who would show up, in case of a sting-type operation by the authorities.
We came to this conclusion after the events that transpired next. He showed us to the "crop room" which was a dirty conference room in the motel. On a table sat a jar of pickles, an unopened bag of chips, half of a pitcher of tap water and two slices of pound cake in a "reduced for clearance" plastic container such as you would get at Walmart. I suspect this was leftover from the two unhappy guests who were there previous to us. He also had a web cam hooked up at ceiling level.
When my friend and I asked him about it, he said it wasn't on (however, the lights were on ...). We immediately told him we DID NOT WANT TO BE ON ANY WEBCAM.
He gave us keys to two rooms and we went to the rooms to speak privately. The rooms were unacceptable to any of us, as was this ENTIR E situation.
We demanded our money back at that point and he became very angry and belligerent. When I asked him why he didn't call us to tell us there was no longer a retreat at the dairy, but in a dirty motel, he became very angry and told us that we "all know what a hotel" is like.
I informed him this was not a HOTEL, but a motel, and we could have made better accommodations than this five minutes from our home.
I also told him that this was definitely a "BAIT AND SWITCH' scam. He became increasingly more agitated with us. As I said, we forced him to refund our money and we left.
We COULD NOT BELIEVE what we had just experienced. My friend who booked the trip was almost in tears and said she didn't know if she was going to vomit or faint.
One of my friends had the presence of mind to write down his license plate number, which we gave to the police and they immediately identified him. They said they couldn't do anything for us because he did refund the money, but that they were going to file a report with the Greensburg Police Department which, they determined, was where the motel was.
I DO NOT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS GUY. He appears desperate and desperate people do desperate things. We shudder to think of the web cams that may have been in the rooms he booked. HIS WEBSITE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN, if at all possible. If you need/want any further information, just e-mail me again. Sorry for your bad experience too! S.
Question 17 on the Consumer Complaint Form asks, “How would you like your complaint resolved?”
I would like to see the website taken off the internet, all of his websites, not just http://www.oldegenevadairy.com/, but also http://www.scrapbookdairy.com/.
I would like to see charges filed against Mr. Anson Craig Bridgers for Fraud and Larceny.
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