Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh: public explanation

Here an explanation of the party organised for Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh . We will try to be as helpful, understanding and empathetic as we can and learning from it

First of all i would like to present myself, as i am the owner, founder and ceo of this children’s entertainers company with offices in Spain, Uk and supporting partners business in Argentina and Colombia with a lot of success for more than 15 years in the same field. You may notice that my english is far from perfect, so i apologize for it and i will try my best to make me well understood although sometimes i could be saying something different to want i want or with some cultural issues that make it more difficult to understand or even rude. i am sorry about that, i learn a lot of my english not in business environment or even english native speakers countries. And this is not my role in the company either but i think i have to do it myself better

As a children’s party organiser, our agency provides, through a local coordinator who belong to the London community and coordinates parties, entertainers and customers, services of children entertainment. We follow a system that has been proved to work well in different enviroments and circumstances as we also addapt it to the local culture. We get the booking from the customer and put into a planning and then organise each party with our team of entertainers depending on the type of activity, entertainer profile, London zone,… We carefully prepare parties for each customer. Always

As any other company in the world, as any other entertainer company, we have happy and unhappy customers. If any company says the opposite is probably a lie. After 15 years in the business and far more than 15.000 parties, therefor, more than 10.000 diferent customers, we, of course, have had a few unhappy customers. I was told that service companies usually have a 3% unhapy customers depending on which filed they work. Actually, if we consider all these years, our records, positive, negative opinions… we can count around a 1%. This is obviously difficult to prove but we can provide lots of authentic mails, verified online opinions, testimonials…. in a number of hundreds in just 5 min through external sites, most of them that cannt be falsified. That means, that we have a big number of happy customers, that we have had many successes in our work. And with more time i can get many more. Conclusion: we can prove that we know how to entertain parties, how to make children and families really happy, really fortunate.

And also sometimes we have done it not as good as expected and we have had claims or unhappy customers (this with Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh has been the biggest problem with muuuuuch difference ever, and of course the first thing to do is to apologize as we did and do again and again). We always work in every problem with care and respect and ALWAYS, TRYING TO LEARN AND GROW. We ALWAYS focus in that because that customer is important but we will have more in the future and that cannt happen again. WE ARE EXTREMELY RESPONSIBLE, EXTREMELY CONCIOUS OF WHAT MEANS WORKING WITH CHILDREN, WITH OUR FUTURE, WITH THE MOST SENSITIVE OF OUR SOCIETY, so we take it equal or more seriously than anyone in the field. Also because we live from social comments, likes, word of mouth (around 40% of our customers at least come from that) as it is obvious and we cannt deliver a not enough good service. So when there is an issue, we work on it, meeting the person responsible (entertainer or even our office staff) and talk, communicate, reflect, learn, grow, help, provide training.. to not do again the mistake. And it works. Also, if an entertainer has a negative review we are much more careful about sending him/her to parties usually sending more with other entertainers when we have proved that the negative review entertainer can do the job (we request customers and entertainers opinions every week). Nobody wants more than us, that the party goes well, we know how to do it and we work extremely hard for it

After this introduction i want to talk about Luci and her issues with us. Firs of all i want to say again in public sorry for her not having the dreamed party for her daughter. Sorry because she felt sad, angry and disappointed and for tha things that we did wrong. We said this to her in many occasions from her first communication about this issue:

The day of the party (saturday 17th) she called us and we apologized on the phone
Monday 19th at 9.14 we replied to her saying that we will shortly look into this (see further explanation about our former coordinator leaving that day). The former coordinator informed the entertainer that same day about each point and asked to give us and explanation
As until wednesday 21st there was not due to start the new coordinator (personal reasons) we asked her to please wait until that date. We explained by phone, mail a few times always preceeding by a sorry as i had to look after the new person legal issues and other stuff in order to assure he could start that role on the 21st and continue our services to all our customers in order to have everyone happy and looked after. Too much information to proceed at the beginning and that takes a little bit of time to dont leave anything unatended with this as our main priority. We informed Luci that we will be giving her an answer by wednesday 6pm. We called her and send email. Until then we communicated to her through mail many times about this to show her our implication on it. And saying sorry many times. See one of our multiple sorries to her

Then we explained to her the way our entertainer lived the party because therre was differences in their opinions. We always try to find understanding and approach versions, as we were not there. We know the entertainer, she has been performing for years, she has the experience and skills and b¡never this happened to her. So although we listen to both parts we also have the confidence in our team. As where different versions, we tried to find the truth with both and this is what we concluded and the reason for us to give a 50% refund:

(FOR US, WITH THE VOLUME OF PARTIES WE HAVE IN A YEAR, THIS AMOUNT IS NOT RELEVANT BUT THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, IT IS JUST THAT EVEN NOW THAT THERE IS MOVEMENT AROUND THIS AND COMMERCIALLY WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO PROCEED FULL REFUND, WE DONT FEEL WE HAVE TO. Despite any terms and conditions, if we feel we have to, we would have done. the point is that due to the next reasons we just dont agree to do it although this will bring much pain and commercial problems for us. But we will not volunteerly do because we dont feel we should. If we ever felt we had to, we would have done it already for sure, without any threads or disqualifications as we are receiving now from Luci McQuitty and other people.

What we understand are Luci McQuitty reasons for full refund + our point of view:

“The entertainer was late, and didn’t call us to let us know” – TRUE, she arrived late, 20min and party started late. Sorry about this. It was mainly our fault because we had a proffesional issue with the person that has to attend to this party (because of another party changes, distances and transportation), and needed to find an urgent solution. We decided to send a new person that doesnt work as regularly with our company because she works for us and other London entertainment companies and herself (word of mouth and happy customers) for many years. She has always been reliable and succesful. But we didnt plan well the journey between parties, and even taking a taxi to be on time, she couldnt make it. That is our coordinator responsability and therefor my responsability for not been able to train and supervise every party. i assume my fault and the delay, so sorry. And we had had to call, but she just tried to get sooner so was worried looking for adress, best way… and didnt realise. She was very stressed and couldnt think propperly. Sorry, it was our fault for not planning the journey well. Anyway london can be sometimes a tricky city when you plan as we did a trip in advance, as everybody knows, more in saturday. Any delay is unacceptable in this job and provokes doubts and stress, anyway 20min could have been corrected by staying more, thing that we did, as we acknowledge was our mistake

PICTURES: these are just the 2 worst pictures in the worst moments. They are bad, we agree, but we will also apreciate that Luci send us more pixeling the face of the entertainer to preserve her image. many people were taking many pictures so it will be easy. Sometimes pictures, we all know, can look worst than reality because of the moment too. Anyway we agree that she didnt have the time to prepare all well and it fell
FLAT SHOES: we usually think that we better wear shoes that allow us to jump, play, fall, run… with children than being the authentic ones. We offer entertainers doing games, balloons… frozen themed parties rather that the character as an actress. Our priority is being able to play with kids as our experience tells us that children focus more on playing than analysing that. More in this age of the party. We will still consider looking for something that can serve for both

WIG: it happened the same as in the dress, as she didnt know this outfit, because of the stress, tension… she couldnt manage to prepare it propperly. It is a difficult wig as the elsa’s hair has a difficult style than has to be dne with hair clips and at least another 10-15 min to look propperly as in this pictures from our parties with the same wig. Again this was the product of the delay, tension and feeling pressure from Luci to start. We can understand that but With 10more min preparation, everything would have been different. We assume the delay but we also think that once we arrived 20min late it was better decission to do all propperly than to start inmediately as it happened. To focus on quality and less on time as it had to be magical. The size is right, just that requires special setting. It is the same as this wig:

“The entertainer looked dreadful”: as the person who went to the party was not from our stable team and used to work with company’s materials she didnt know how to dress propperly. The dress is not and easy dress to wear until you know it and you always need someone to help with the back of it and zip, clip.. Also is true that was humid from been used before so that she decided to hear the black shirt (much more obvious because the dress unzipped during party, games, movements from entertainer… But anyway she couldnt find anyone who could help her in that, so she had to try to do it herself and she couldnt make it
“She looked dreadful, like she’d left a rave at 6am” the entertainer didnt leave any rave at 6. That was the product of what i said and this sounds really damaging and unrespectful for our entertainer and we request to make it erased

“Elsa couldn’t come to the party” True, she said that due to the stress, tension and lack of confidence after all the setting, communication… It was our mistake although she did to make the children not focus on her not propper elsa looking and focus on the party. We are sorry for it but in that situation, not having been able to prepare the outfit, maybe was the best option not to make children reluctant. Again it goes to the 20min delay and difficulties to feel that appearance was the priority even if it took 10min longer

“The entertainer’s PA system wasn’t very powerful” It is right for the amount of children and an inclosed space. Also we dont sell that we carry a proffesional Sound System. This one is safe for children, easy to transport as we go to venues, flexible as it has battery in case we cannt plug it… See http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-12423-ion-road-rocker-bluetooth-portable-speaker-system.aspx?VariantHid=25691&gclid=CjwKEAiA_4emBRCxi8_f2cWWjFcSJAB-v1qy1vJwlo5wV9120Wx8kwRmRkyO-p1sVM2jmxuFM76SWxoCFy_w_wcB

“the totally inappropriate-for -the-character heavy Spanish accent, and the fact her singing was awful, had all the parents’ jaws dropping to the floor in disbelief” We are really concerned about discrimination in this country of multicultural life in peace and respect. She has mentioned many times in mails and posts, social media… and we really feel that this is not what it should be. Anyone speaking a foreign language cannt usually distinguish accents, even when you are native it is very difficult to pretend to have that accent and as i said, we are not selling an actor who pretends to be a character everybody knows, but an entertainers dressed as elsa andd follow a frozen theme in games, face painting… Anyway she is an actress and managed very well the artistic part of all having children really engaged by her stories. WE REALLY FEEL DISCRIMINATED BY THESE COMMENTS IN THE PROBABLY THE MOST HISTORICALLY OPEN, RESPECTFUL AND INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY OF THE WORLD.

Other comments Luci says “Add to this that the lady had a heavy Spanish accent and you begin to get a picture of the level of care put into providing us with an Elsa Entertainer” She is speaking a quite good english but she will never speak as a native, for sure. She also takes leassons to even improve but she never had problems to be understood with her high english skills

OTHER UNRESPECFUL COMMENTS FROM LUCI that makes us feel really unrespected from the beginning added to the ones before: “to which she started punching the air and looking like a complete loon”. We are children’s entertainers so we must be fun, sometimes silly, kind, flashy.. to make them laugh. Anyway, that comment is so unrespecful and talks about the way the entertainer was treated when she arrived
Our terms and conditions are linked from our main pages, as contact

We offer entertainers doing games, balloons… frozen themed parties rather that the character as an actress. Costume is of course importantbut we never sell being a double of Elsa or so. We disguise as her and need to be ready for playing

So in CONCLUSION because this gets too long:

I will try to be as much careful as i can that when the entertainer arrived, probably because of the stress caused by the 20min delay, the atmosphere was not very friendly and tense. Too much; as we think nothing justifies to lose the respect and to lose the goal of having the best party for luci’s daughter, we understand that the delay is our fault but once there, the situation created by Luci’s attitude and other relatives made everything tense, difficult, hard, made the entertainer lose confidence as she felt judged from the beginning, felt an urgency, a rush to appear.. We, entertainers, are humans, and as any other person, feel pressure and go down when we feel nothing we do is ok. The entertainer suffered a lot of judgement and it made it much more difficult

So we assume the responsability of the delay, the wet costume and therefore not having the right amount of time to prepare, but i think that if the party was so important as we also think it should be, Luci should have go to the entertainer and give the time she needed to look great, the help she needed, and the trust we all need to perform amazingly.The entertainer is a proffesional, more than ready and prepared to make great parties. So our responsability on delay and the atmosphere she felt made her lose confidence, feeling stressed and make a party we are not proud of. Anyway, as Luci Mcquitty says “My little girl and her friends enjoyed the party in spite of the entertainment, rather than because of it” So i assume we have some responsability on that and MAKE ME REALISE THAN WHEN SHE SAYS THAT THE PARTY WAS A NIGHTMARE FOR HER DAUGHTER AND SO SHE IS JUST EXAGERATING. The reason i will explain later

So this is why we decided to give 50% refund:

The entertainer did all contents as in booking form, all the timing (although starting 20min late) and children had fun
Despite of that the delay was our fault and we should have had prepared better the explanation of the outfit
Anyway with more help from Luci and relatives and a positive attitude everything could have been much better
And as we know children well, we suspect that the children had a good time, and didnt give that much importance to most of these details for sure, so the main goal which is to make children enjoy was done. We need to improve in timing planning and the explanation of the dress but anyway children focused in other things more as they usually do

So luci said her main issue was that she didnt want to do that to anyone again “my main motivation is to make sure no-one else ends up dealing with a situation like this.” Now we say in public that this will never happen again and we commit to publish a picture from every frozen party we do in our facebook to show our great appearance. I think our promise and this proof should be enough and this will show if Luci’s intentions are just that or she will try to destroy our reputation, thousands of happy children and customers, the way of living of many humble and working families and me… Or even get advantage from the media publicity that she gets been the owner of a new blog for mums and placing a commercial link towards it in her personal critics of a personal party

So we are really open and happy to negotiate a solution for the community, but not a full refund to a customer that in our opinion is threatening us, descriminating, creating difamation… Instead we propose a donation to a children organisation or one that works against discrimination issues and multicultural aims in London for 5 times the amount that luci is claiming in order to show that money is not an issue but the way we have been treated by a customer making us feel we are clowns you can just treat as you want

After this i would also like to express my disconfort about Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh attitude and way of handling this issue:

Our attitude was always open and communicative as it is now but in my first talk to her she threatened us by saying, before we even talked to the entertainer, that if she didnt get a full refund inmediately she will create a huge campaign to discredit us using her contacts in mums and children world. She enfasized her power…
She avoided commenting some important issues or manipulate some others to look more grievous, embarrasing and make people comment, share, join her..
In this idea, she used just 2 selected pictures
Her language to us always has been offensive as you can also see in her posts
When she saw the social impact of her post she suddenly changed the template of her old fashioned blog and place 2 links to her website: “Author: I’m Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh, co-editor of parenting blog www.mumsmakelists.com. Mums Make Lists is the number one parenting blog offering simple tips for busy mums, tried and tested by busy mums. London based, loved in the UK and USA.” And another at the beginning that she removed for being too obvious of what she was trying. It is a blog with almost no traffic and she want to take advantage of this
We published a comment on her blog and waited to have other posts over it before approving so that nobody could see my opinion. And also she edited it!!!
Once we said sorry and comitted to learn and no repeat the mistakes she is still commenting, adding more bad comments about us although she said she just wanted us to dont do that again. I FEEL THAT SHE IS HARASSING US AND THE ENTERTAINER TO MAKE US STOP OUR ACTIVITY THAT WE DO WITH SUCCESS AND FEEL UNABLE TO ENTERTAIN, TO EXPRESS, TO MANAGE THINGS, TO MAKE US FEEL WE ARE “LOONS” AS SHE SAID… We are having a high level of stress, more even the entertainer because we are getting, due to her way of presenting and exagerating or focissing in some details, lots of harassment in our site, social networks, phone… from people that reads and trust just her point of view. AND THIS IS HER RESPONSABILITY FOR SHAKING THIS TOO MUCH AND LOOKING FOR REASONS, EXPLANATIONS TO MAKE US APPEAR AS CRUEL, NOT CARING, SELFISH, INTERESTED IN MONEY… WHICH IS NOT TRUE. SOME EXAMPLES OF THIS:

SO WE ASK FOR A SORRY FROM HER ABOUT THESE UNCONTROLLED COMMENTS AND CURRENT SHE CREATED, THAT SHE STOPS CRITICISING US AND SHAKING PEOPLE AND SOCIETY BECAUSE WE GAVE HER WHAT SHE WANTED: WE COMMIT TO NEVER GIVE AN EXPERIENCE AS HERS TO ANYONE (we will prove in facebook and anyway that is logical and people ask for)

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