Coffee and Tea Festival NYC

oh poo i replied about that before i noticed this comment

deleted reply

It doesn’t seem to have worked. This is still not coming up on a search result. I guess if I want this to come up on a search result I will have to hire someone to put it there. He obviously ran some sort of software that gets rid of negative results, no matter how true they are.

i’d call him a name on here, however, someone would report me

the rich can do anything.

If I was rich he would automatically get a lawsuit. But unless I can find a Lawyer that sees financial gain in this I would have to pay a lawyer out of pocket. While I am giving the idea some thought the question is it worth spending $5000 to get an apology. On the other hand if I can cost him some business I will do it. Someone is capable of doing what this man did to me is capable of doing similar to any other festival goer and they had better watch their backs or security will be on their tails for no reason at all.

well, what you do, that is up to you. i will back you up either way

So far here I am far from my goal. I would like to get fifty people to agree not to go to the festival. If the man thinks he is losing that sort of business he may choose to apologize. I have been asking some of the vendors I bought from to lodge complaints on my behalf and so far two of the three I have contacted have agreed to do so. The other one has not yet had a chance to respond. I am hoping that vendor complaints will have an effect on this man. For I was one of those customers that made it worth the vendors while to be there. I bought from maybe twelve booths.

Why is it inappropriate to call a thug a thug. That is what they were. They were very threatening in manner and demeaner beyond what they said.

If a 350lb man threatened you you might call him a thug too.

I contacted the people who run the festival. I am not sure how to contact the Expo Center but that is a good idea. That was I could find out for sure if security was hired by the event organizer like I believe or works for the venue. The people who own the venue might take exception to the actions of these security thugs.

I have now sent a message to the people who own the venue. I will see what comes of it.

Not sure what else they could do at this point. I suppose they could show up at my door in which case I would be justified in defending myself. If they did anything further then I might just find a lawyer to take my case.

Do they have access to credit card purchases? Your name? Part of your name is on here. Just wondering if it’s worth it to pursue the type of people who cannot do an easy apology in the name of customer service.

I am not frightened of them. I will continue to pursue this. Here and by asking more vendors to lodge complaints. So far three vendors have lodged or agreed to lodge complaints. One got a reply with a statement that the organizer of the fair would be reaching out with an apology. So far I have not got one. I am fairly certain he knows about this thread. The other day it was coming up on page two of a google search. Now it doesn’t come up at all unless you run a search with the word Boycott in it. I am fairly sure he used one of those services that removes negative content from the web. They most likely know my name because one of the first things I did was email them demanding an apology. I never heard back from them. My email does not have my whole name in it but if they searched their records enough they could come up with my name. But as I said I am not frightened of them. If I find them at my door I would quickly call the cops on them and then the shoe would be on the other foot.

good thing you don’t have weapons.

i highly doubt they’d track you down show up at your house. but if they do to harass/threaten you, do you have a stand your ground or defend the castle law? or is there no legal way to defend yourself. in canada if they come bearing a weappon and attack you you can defend yourself. but if they turn and run and you persue snd attack back its illegal. so if i had an intruder with a gun (im not sure on if someone had a knife) but they shoot you and you can defend yourself to the point and including death. but if they shoot you and run if you persue and kill them its murder.

weapon laws are extremely strict here in canada. especially concerning guns

im not trying to be rude or get my self in trouble, im just curious. you said you were frightened of them

Not really frightened because if they touched me I could have them arrested for assault. But there were five of them all huge. On average I would have to say each of them weighed in at 350lbs or so. Now if they had actually attacked me I would have already found a lawyer to take my case against them. Because then I would have a claim to real money. So far the lawyers haven’t thought there will be money in it for them so they won’t take my case. And to pay a lawyer out of pocket would cost me $5000 or $10000. I don’t know that it is worth that to simply get an apology. But I will continue to try to make this boycott happen.

i understand

As for the law in New York State you can defend yourself with deadly force only if you cannot run away. But I won’t say on here whether or not I have deadly force available as they may be reading my posts. I am fairly sure he knows of this thread. I am sure the reason it no longer comes up on a google search is he used a service that removes negative web content to keep it out of the search results.

if you ask me, the owner is a jerk

When you say the owner is a jerk you are being mean to jerks everywhere. They are insulted to be compared to this total asshole.

Online search results on Google compete with AdWords. The sites that are paying for search results placement will be shown first.

One thing you can do is start a blog using a Google product like Blogspot.

Asking for an apology is fine. But also trying to hurt their business or continue the insults, deserved or not, detracts from you as a victim. There is a fine line where they could position themselves as a victim of a crazy guy or a guy harassing them. The above remarks could be used to,prove that.

I will do my best to keep this thread alive until such time as I get an apology. Am I trying tho hurt their business? There is a point of view about that. I am trying to let as many people know the truth about them as possible. If the truth hurts their business so be it.

Keep the focus on you, the victim, what happened, and the apology you are seeking. Calling them names, whether you think are true or not, is slander and is just adding to the pile and detracting from your case.

now that i think of it; cwyn is correct

You are I guess saying that I shouldn’t call his security guards thugs? But that was how they acted towards me. Should I be nice and call them something polite. Regardless of what I call them my description of their actions stands for what they are. When you act in a certain way towards others it shows the type of person you are. Those who act with consideration towards others don’t get called these things. They harassed and threatened me for no reason at all but just because they had the power to do so. What do you suggest I call them. I am not likely to be persuaded to say nice things about his security staff because of how they treated me. He upheld their right to mistreat me so I don’t think much of him at the moment. I would think a lot more of him if he were man enough to apologize and if he apologized this thread would die a lot quicker. And preferably the apology should be public as my mistreatment was public.

maybe we should be professional :)

Their actions describe what they are, to call them polite things is just not appropriate. They were rude, harassing, and threatening. And they did this for no reason at all but just because they had the power to do so. I did nothing to deserve the treatment I got at the hands of his security guards. What do you call someone who harasses and threatens you? Should I call them something nice that will not happen. Their actions describe what they are Their actions were the actions of thugs with the power over others. In part their power was due to the fact that it was five against one. If there had been only one security guard there is some possibility I could have stood up for myself and I believe in the situation that happened I would have had the right to defend myself because I felt justifiably physically threatened. In this case there were five of them threatening me. What should I call someone who acts in this fashion. What should I call the person who gives these people their orders and tells them to threaten me. It does seem that he has no stomach for an apology. The harassment was public so I have demanded a public apology. If he apologizes here this thread will soon die out. But this man clearly won’t apologize. For God’s sake all I had done was use the bathroom for five minutes and this gives him the right to set five very big men on me? When I say they were big I mean each of them was noticeably bigger than me and I weigh 250lbs. To be threatened by five such men is not a pleasant experience. Again though if he wants this thread to die all he has to do is post an apology here.

Their actions describe what they are. They were rude harassing and threatening. I had done nothing to deserve the treatment I got. I am also not going to say nice things to the man giving them orders. I did nothing to deserve the treatment I got. I have called upon the event organizer of the festival to apologize if he wants this thread to go away. My harassment was public I would like a public apology. I am quite sure he has seen this thread but I guess he is not man enough to apologize.

I’m talking about the “asshole” insult.

My point is, I want you to get what you want. Is what you want an apology? Or revenge?

I’m talking about human nature and what to expect from them. Most people will apologize when they see someone genuinely hurt. But when called an asshole, people will give nothing nice in return, deserved or not.

While I see your point that is how the man acted. I don’t see how I can use polite words to describe his actions though.

And I understand how upset you are.

I am not fazed when people are upset or angry. But actually most other people are afraid or irritated by anger and being called an asshole. Instead of responding positively, most people just block the person or walk away from the situation. I am concerned that you might not get the apology you want by calling people names, it’s just human nature, they will turn you off. I hope you get the apology.

both allank and cwyn have valid points

If the man had acted politely none of this would have happened. But he did not. If he had yelled at his security for threatening me I would be thanking him. But he did not do that.

im sure “We” or at least i understand you :) however i have a lack of people skills so im not sure if id act politely in such a situation either :(

Yeah, and I don’t think that guy would have dared hassle a woman in the bathroom. Doing that to anyone is wrong, but definitely men get hassled just as much as women do.

When I asked if it was his policy to harass people for using the bathroom he said yes. That statement says it all. He was confused as to the difference between festival owner and God. Meaning he always believes he is in the right no matter what he is doing.

I don’t think there can be any logical explanation. It is the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life.

You received the refund without any further explanation?

Yes no explanation.

While this is a positive step. I will not be completely satisfied until I get an apology and the assurance that this will not happen again to anyone. The man needs to be in better control of his security force. I suspect they acted on their own and then he foolishly backed them up but that is only a guess. He should have apologized on the spot for the actions of his security force and this thread would never have happened.

Whether or not he agrees, he arranged reparations.

That is true

I think you need to take the reparations and call it a day. Unfair events, mistaken profiling etc. by cops and security happen to people everyday and most don’t get any reparations or apologies.

At this point I would probably let this thread die. However, if he wants to keep a customer I would need the apology and the assurance that this won’t happen again. A refund is not enough to win me back as a customer. I think I spent at least $500 on tea in each of the last three years. At least $700 this year. So if he has decided he wants to retain a customer more is needed. I would definitely need the assurance that security would not do the same thing again.

Well you were successful in the letters and social media. You showed that people can use these and get some action. In this case, a refund.

I can understand not wanting to return to the event again. I’m not sure the organizer gets much of a kickback, if anything, from the sales. Usually the vendors pay a fee up front for the opportunity to be there and make sales. It’s the vendors who would be the main people to appreciate your business.

I am still waiting for a reply from the expo center. Hopefully they will reply today. It is possible that they pay for the security for all I know.

I have no idea who the security contractor was. Nor would the security people give out their names so I could complain about them. I think the event organizer hired local untrained security, just hiring the biggest men he could find. I did contact the event page directly but have not had any response from them. I contacted the venue on Saturday and perhaps they will respond tomorrow.

If they had been professional security I think they would have had name tags and some sort of uniform. These guys just wore black clothing. No name tags. And nothing to indicate they actually worked for a security company.

The Expo center got back to me. Said they just rented the space. They did say they would email the event organizer for me. It does confirm that he hired his own security. They apologized for what happened but said they had nothing actually to do with the event.

Did the Expo center get back to you?

The Expo Center did get back to me but said they had nothing to do with the show that was run completely by another company. The owner of that company never had the courage to step up, admit he and his security thugs were wrong, and apologize. They did give me a refund for my tickets. I had originally bought a 12pm ticket then realized I needed to leave by 12 noon so I bought a VIP ticket. They refunded both tickets so obviously felt they were in the wrong but did not apologize. I have been meaning to send them another email demanding an apology.

bummer