I've mostly lurked in recent months but I am so mad that I have to post this.
I finally received a letter from HOCS today and I am furious! I had such
problems trying to register for Cherry Hill and finally gave up, intending to
stay home. I said to the people in my e-mail loop that I probably shouldn't be
surprised if they found my registration, put me in classes, charged my debit
card, and threw my checking account out of balance. Well, it appears as if they
have done exactly that!
I received a note, postmarked last Thurs., which said that class 116 (an Ursula
Michaels class on designing and selling patterns) is unavailable. That means
they must have found one of the on-line registrations, which I presumed lost,
and processed it! I share a checking account with my mother and I have orders
from her to keep a certain minimum amount available. If I did get put into most
of the classes that I requested, my account balance would be below this
minimum! My mother deposited some money into the account last Tues. and there
weren't any charges from HOCS reflected so the registration must have been
found only last week.
All of this after I decided that I wasn't going to the festival and not making
any hotel reservations or travel plans. Plus the festival is this weekend! I'm
not sure if I could get a full refund now if they did put me in classes. And if
I can't get a refund, I'm not sure if my father would be able to walk away from
his business this weekend because it is such short notice. I can't drive and
the original plan had been for us to drive there on Fri. morning, stay Fri. and
Sat. night, and then drive home on Sun. We scrapped it when it seemed like HOCS
wasn't interested in having my business.
Grr... I called Clapper and got someone's voice mail so I left a message and am
waiting for them to call me back. Does anyone know if they could possibly mail
the class kits to me if I can't get a refund?
What happened when I tried to register was:
1.I did not receive a catlog until the day that member registration started.
2.I attempted to register in the wee hours of 4/12, when member registration
started, using a directory passed on to me by a friend who had received an
extra one.
3.Some time later, I heard that some on-line registrations were lost.
4.I had my mother check my account balance and my card had not been charged.
5.I attempted to call but couldn't get a live person.
6.I sent another on-line registration with a note in the comments section
asking them to e-mail me to confirm receipt of my registration. By this time
(around the end of April), one of my first choices (608 Dogwood Stitchery with
Rae Iverson) was already full.
7.I never received an e-mail acknowledging receipt of my registration.
8.After they added the searchable database, I searched for my name and zip code
and found that I was not registered.
9.It was finals week at NYU and I was too busy to deal with HOCS's (IMO) cow
manure. Therefore, I decided that I would not go and that they had lost their
chances of seeing a cent of my money.
10.Towards the end of May, about 6 weeks after member registration started, I
finally received a directory at my business address. That was the only address
which I gave while requesting a directory. The earlier one must have been from
the SOCS mailing list because it had my home address on it.
11.Last Tues. (6/8), I received a reminder to register by 6/4 for Cherry Hill.
A bit tardy, don't you think?
12.Today's letter without any mention of the other classes I requested or a
confirmation form.
I think that this is going to make me live up to the nickname which Dawn Lewis
gave me at SOCS last year: the stitcher from hell.
Auguste <----very furious stitcher from hell