LAJ's first drama thread...FRAUD!!! Whether you went to the show or not step inside!
 

Well, after over seven years here on this board you know it had to happen sooner or later. And frankly while I hate drama, I feel this is the best way to handle this where the industry is concerned.

First off, I do NOT want to kill the positive buzz of Internext. The show was awesome, the hotel was awesome and I had a great time and will easily close enough biz deals to pay for YNOT and Eric Bernsteins trips many times over. I'll also add that what I'm about to say has nothing to do with the show itself at all. I place no blame on any company, organization or entity other than the one person directly involved.

Someone tried stealing money from me at the Diplomat last week.

The money this person tried to steal from me was small. If this was done as a practical joke I would have moved on and then figured a way to get even LOL. But as far as I can determine, this is not the case here.

This situation is all about principal to me and the fact that someone in this biz is stupid enough to try and steal from me in the manner that they attempted.

Please read on...

It appears someone who went to Internext has balls big enough to charge their meals to my room posing as me. How you were able to do this without a copy of my room key and the fact that you knew what room I was in is shows you aren't a total idiot... nice work.

And I gotta hand it to you, you also did a great job of forging my signature. I'm trying to think where you got a copy of it. Because when I saw your restaurant tab that was presented to me about 2 hours after you ate, I had to do a double take.

But you fucked up. Your printing of my name and how I write numbers wasn't even close.

OH, and one more thing...
There happens to be a surveillance camera just outside the cafe at the Westin Diplomat. You didn't think about that, did you?

So, your mug is caught on video, your table number and time sitting down to eat was on your restaurant bill. Security is going thru the footage with the waiter who waited on you and narrowing down the time to the few people who went into the restaurant. I will be e-mailed screen shots for identification purposes probably later this week.

I ended up wasting 90 minutes of my time yesterday dealing with the hotel manager and hotel security getting to the bottom of this, reversing the charges off my bill. There were other charges that shouldn't have been on their either. I hope you enjoyed everything. So while I'm very happy the hotel made this right for me (and threw some nice perks my way I might add, for my time and aggravation - Thank you Westin Diplomat)... I sure would have rather spent my last day at the show chilling by the pool.

SO... HERE'S the news... I feel reasonably confident I'm going to find out who you are. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this week, but probably soon enough.

This means you essentially have one of two choices here:

1. You either hit me up at jay at ynot dot com or ICQ 92418228 or phone 512-388-1728 explaining yourself, apologizing profusely and then dealing with the consequences. This way you avoid public humiliation. If anyone knows who is responsible for this, you would be best advised to tell your friend to step into this thread if they don't post here and contact me ASAP.

OR

2. You do nothing and when I find out who you are, your name and picture go up in this thread for all to see. Then you'll have the consequences to deal with, AND the humiliation, AND god knows what else. I would assume finding a job in this biz would be pretty tough with public knowledge of this petty activity?

And all for chump change. But again... this is ALL about principal for me.

A few questions...

Did you think you were going to get away with this?

Do you think that I don't actually LOOK at my bills?

Is your livelihood really worth something as ridiculous as this?

I think the decision is pretty easy to make here.

Ball is in your court... for now.

That's fucked... glad you we're able to clear it up with the hotel.

damn... this is absurd... jokes are jokes but this seems malicious! come out come out where ever you are

Damn. Good luck on finding the culprit(s)

that is really ballsy to do.....

That shit happens all the time every venue should ask for ID no matter what when charging to the room

Seriously fucked up.

I hope they get named and shamed on here soon enough... :321GFY

Ouch... that really sucks.

Damn it LAJ Im sorry you spent your day Dealing with some stupid shit like this

Im really worried about some of this shit that goes on now adays in the biz..
And this is a classic example...

SAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow Jay, just WOW. Sorry to hear of this :(

Man that's a really shady thing to do. Sorry to hear you had to deal with shit like that on the last day of the show when you should have been relaxing.

Very fucked up Jay - I'm hoping for option #2 so we see who this tool is.
My bet it was Dennis Rodman cuz that guy is wacko to begin with.

How much was the charge for the meal?

I know that isnt the point, cause its the principle that matters, but I guess Im just being nosey?

If you dont wanna divulge that, sorry for asking... As I said, just being nosey...

That is seriously fucked up. Good luck finding the fucker.

Totally wrong on so many levels. Along with the fact that it is likely someone you talked biz with and certainly not someone you'd want to do business with if this is their mindset.

I'm certain you will find out who it is.

Just will always make you think twice again in the future and I hate when that happens to me. Makes you lose faith in people.

PK

I'm not going to talk numbers here but I will say that the person was not alone. There was at least another one or two people at the table with them. There was also bar charges but tracking that down would be very difficult.

And at least they were nice enough to leave a 20% tip so the waiter didn't get screwed. But then again that's how I roll and I'm wondering if they knew that?

Either way, and I honestly mean this... I'd rather NOT shame this person publically. This incident is too small and too stupid for that IMO. Henceforth why I gave them option #1. I'd rather they have the stones to call me so I can rip em to shreds in private and hopefully they'll learn their lesson the easy way and not do something like this again to anyone else.

damn, that is a ballzy move, hopefully they were old buddies and this was a well intended but badly planned practical joke. Good luck finding the purps

What if..... what if..... it was really yourself? bumbumbummmmmmmmm....


That really sucks balls that someone would do that, hell that takes some serious balls for someone to do that.

I bet it was the Anal Hobbit! ;)


Sorry to hear about this Jay.. totally sucks!!

that really sucks, this is definitely the right way to handle this, instead of calling out names and looking for the facts later like people have done in the past with hotel room bills.

Hope you find the Idiot Jay, this happened to me once in Toronto... I never made a big deal about it as it was a small amount but it still pissed me off that someone who probably know me did this.

Rule #69: Hide your wallet, keys, cards, money, ect before hookers and gangbangs start.

Just make sure that this was done on purpose. The Hotel there has done some fucked up shit on there own.

Wow. That's fucking crazy.

I thought the jackass who kept putting in the 'wake up calls" for me at 5 a.m. was an asshat.

Bravo for the camera. Sweet justice to be served up soon.

This thread is useless without surveillance photos and names.

That is where you are wrong, If the person has done this to you how many other friends/people will he do it to. You should name the person to teach him a lesson. A softly softly aproach to people like this is no good they will just do it again because they know they got off lightly :2 cents:

I heard 12clicks did it

A couple of years ago at Florida we had an incident in where a couple of guys were ordering bottles of Crystal at the pool and charging them to Mike Price. I got wind of it and went with Thurbs up to the room where these guys were supposedly staying. I was ready to throw someone out the window, but it turns out that the person in the room was innocent, he had in fact also been ripped off by the 2 guys.

People like that should be publicly humiliated, we don't need that kind of scum in the industry.

Good tidings to you for the outcome of this. What crap.

While I might have handled this differently (stomping and yelling) I commend your classy moves here.

Was a pleasure wining and dining btw ;) seeya in Montreal.

:D

It never ceases to amaze me that there always seems to be an idiot at each show and to steal from the same people you do business with is suicide.

I hope you find out who it is and get this resolved, but the truth is, is that this person is a thief, no matter how much money it is....... stealing is stealing!

Totally Agree, Name names, then maybe, just maybe, some other loser will think twice before trying to fuck someone over:2 cents:

What is wrong with some people, I remember a few years ago someone tried charging a bottle of cristal to LA Mike's room and now this. Wow. I guess you gotta safeguard room numbers these days. Hope you catch the guy Jay. Post the surveillance shots from the hotel security footage either way ;)
WG

You've never been on the receiving end of an abusive phone call from me ;)

Plus I know people in this industry.

They won't be getting off easy. Trust me on that dude.

I prefer calling this the "professional professional" approach.

Heh... I know you guys are all out for blood.

I'll think about it.

It's a bluff, he isn't going to catch anyone. Fishing for a confession. Watched one too many cop shows!

Wow... you know me well :thumbsup

I guess we'll see. Be let's be realistic here, _YOU_ aren't going to do shit. Yeah, there'll be some digital posturing, and the you better confess bit was a nice attempt.

I expect 10 pages of Drama and 0 pages of results. It's just a GFY law.

The funny part is, someone did it to you knowing who you are, and that didn't stop them. I.e. whoever it is is not afraid of you.

You didn't pay it, the hotel took care of it. Stop wasting your time with it already, Columbo.

How else can I afford to buy dinners for people? I confess. Hitting you up now.

When I went to shows people would wonder why I didn't stay at the show hotel. Things like this were one reason.

Maybe it was War Child? LOL! Wow such negativity him/her/it! :321GFY

That sucks all the way around. Couldnt have happened to a cooler guy imho. Sorry i missed you at the show too J! :Oh crap

Karma is a fuckin bitch and that's all I have to say about that. :pimp

I had something similar happen to me as well.

I took a group of 20 or so to dinner in LA a couple of years ago, and there was another group of 20 other webmasters were having their own dinner at a table next to us. They left before us and when we were finished I got my check and their check as well. They told them that we were all together and put the bill on me.

That's just a stupid thing to say. Congrats.

what a shitty situation.. good job on getting it off your name ;)

The really funny thing is that I bet he/she (wait, it can't be a she since they were impersonating you...oops!) brags about how much bank he has, and then when push comes to shove, he pulls something like this...The people that brag most about what they have are ALWAYS the stingiest, and apparently lacking morals as well. :2 cents:

But, some good times were had!!!

http://webmaster-lifestyle.klixxx.co..._meet_0048.jpg

Funny I didn't even see Lisa Sparxxx at the show...




that was a joke people














Reminds me of the Venetian years ago... good times, good times.

I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you. Aside from the money, it took time out of your day having to deal with it...time you could have been making deals. So when you say the amount of money was small...it's not when you consider the time invovled.

I hope this gets resolved quickly for you.

Before he ever posted in this thread, I had already heard from a reliable source that it was him, Sly, and BradM. Probably explains some of the unnecessary hostility in this thread.

If needs to be outted even if it confesses.

Principle. Hope you get your money back. :thumbsup

Oy vey! :(