Yesterday Messed Up recieved the following information from James and Juliet Mason via e-mail:
We write to express concern regarding a parking crime committed against us while attending the Schermerhorn concert on Saturday, January 23, 2010. As we attempted to park in front of the concert hall, we were told the lot was full and the attendant instructed to go further down 4th to a lot behind the hall for an opening. Upon arrival at the lot (Music City Coin), at 200 4th and Demonbreum, an attendant wearing a neck tag waved us in and charged us $10.00 to park. We then entered the concert hall passing by the Security Station and found our seats. At intermission, we decided to tour the building, since this was our first visit, and left about 9:00 PM. As we exited the building, we noticed that our car and the other ones in the lot in which we parked were all gone. We immediately went back into the Schermerhorn and spoke with the lady attendant at the Security Desk. We shared what had transpired with her and she immediately told us that she had seen a tow truck removing cars from the private lot across the street and that this was not the first time this crime had been committed supposedly by a homeless man pretending to be a parking lot attendant. We used her phone to report what we thought was a vehicle theft to the police department. When the police officer arrived, we explained the situation to him and he also stated that unfortunately we weren’t the only victims of this crime because it had happened many times before presumably by a homeless person. The nice and apologetic officer was kind enough to take us to the tow lot on Hermitage to retrieve our car and complete the incident report. Our primary concern is what corrective measures are being taken to prevent this scam from continuing, since it is a common occurrence known by Schermerhorn staff and the Police Department? Secondly, we are concerned that this is a scam that is larger than the suspected homeless man. It appears that the owner of the lot, the towing company and the so-called homeless person could all be working together. Certainly Mayor Dean would share our concern in wanting to correct this problem given his latest campaign to revitalize the downtown area.
For more than 2 years, the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General’s office have been investigating a tombstone business and its operator.
The allegation: The owner, Marcus Jones, took orders from grieving families and never delivered the products promised.
On February 12th, the Attorney General’s office took the aggressive measure of banning Marcus Donnell Jones of Jones Memorial and Half Off Stones from doing business in Tennessee.
In addition the state leveled fines, court costs, and restitution that total close to 300,000 dollars.
In July 2008, Messed Up cameras spent days tracking down Mr. Jones.
We got involved after a Nebraska TV reporter told us the story of baby Nate. The one year old died and was buried. His parents ordered a Headstone from Jones Memorials. The Nebraska family paid thousands of dollars, but never got the child’s headstone.
Here is what Mr. Jones tells us on the front lawn of his North Nashville house:
“My business is like anyone else’s business. If I had anything to say to each one of those families, it is this: I have given it everything I got. To pick up materials, to go five hours away to get materials. To cut costs. To bring them good prices. Unfortunately, the economy has taken a bite out of my finances like everyone else’s. I have material on site that is there and ready to be carved. A lot of lettering that needs to be done, but personally, physically, emotionally, and financially, I am beat.”
“What would you say to a family like this? What would you say to Nate of Nebraska?,” Andy asked.
“Well not only to Nate in Nebraska, I am not going to make this about an infant’s headstone. I have plenty of families. I got people deceased for forty years, and some for two months. The point is, no business wants to close. If I could stay open I would. But right now, I can’t afford to stay open. I will say, I am sorry to many families. If there was a magic wand I could wave to make sure the work was done over night, I would, but unfortunately, there isn’t.”
We wanted to get an updated response from Mr. Jones. We called a number we had for him. A man answered and told us that this was his new number and he didn’t know anyone named Marcus Jones.
As part of his February 12th 2010 press release, State Attorney General Bob Cooper said this:
“We hope these judgments will serve as a reminder to businesses to practice good ethics and to be honest with their customers. We also encourage consumers to do a little research on the reputation of the companies by checking with such organizations as the Division of Consumer Affairs and the BBB before they purchase from a company.”
The Federal Americans with Disabilities Act states that it is against the law to discriminate against a person based on disability. Under the same law, if that person uses a service animal, then a place of public accommodation - like a motel - cannot refuse service.
So when a Clarksville motel allegedly refused to allow a blind man to check in because of the man’s Seeing Eye dog, the man was upset.
His name is Michael Turner. He has been blind since a motorcycle accident in 1999.
The 37 year old now travels with his certified guide dog, Amberz.
“He guides me around and keeps me safe and secure,” Turner said.
According to a Clarksville police report, on August 10th, 2009, Turner stopped at the Microtel Inns-Suites in Clarksville with his wife and 3 year old son..
“I called in advance and said I am blind coming in with my Seeing Eye dog, and the woman says there are no dogs. I said I’m in the parking lot, I’ll be in in a moment to speak with you.”
Even though Amberz is obviously a service animal, Turner said motel management refused to rent him a room.
“I explained calmly and softly it is against the law to do this you are violating my civil rights. This is a Seeing Eye dog, I am blind.”
Turner says the clerk called police. He waited and explained his position to law officers.
“Were you obnoxious?” Andy asked.
“No sir.”
“What happened when the cops came?”
“I wanted an incident report. I felt my rights were violated. Not only my federal rights, but also my rights as a Tennessee citizen,” Turner said.“I felt like Betsy Smith, in the 1950’s trying to sit in the front seat of a bus, and told to go in the back!!”
“So you told the clerk the law?” Andy asked.
“Yes. I explained, calmly and softly, it is against the law for you to do this. You are violating my civil rights. This is a Seeing Eye dog. I am blind, I let her know I am blind and I need this animal to travel with, and it is against the law for you to refuse me, entry into the hotel. She became facetious and obnoxious. She said the owner said, no matter what kind of dog it was, no dogs are not allowed. I repeated the law again.”
Turner says the police filled out a police incident report, and he went to the court and swore out a warrant against the motel clerk the next day.
“Did this bother you?” Andy asked.
“Yes, very much. I never felt the impact of my blindness for ten years. I am persevering and going to college, and now I question my blindness: am I not equal to everyone else?”
That’s Messed Up went to the motel and asked to speak with the owner. While waiting at the front desk, Andy saw a sign that clearly indicates no pets are allowed.
Nick Patel, the General Manager, is listed in the Clarksville Police report.
Andy explained Turner’s story to him, “A man I interviewed, Michael Turner, is blind. He claims he was refused service here, and you wouldn’t let him stay here with his seeing eye dog, which is a service animal. Now there is a court case, so he asked me to get your side of the story. He feels you did him wrong.”
“You have to talk to the owner,” Patel said.
“Well go get him,” Andy responded.
After a few minutes, Nick Patel returned and stated that the owner has no comment.
A day later That’s Messed Up called the motel and again asked the owner to respond to the story. We did not get a call back.
“This is not right. This is America. No matter your disability, your creed, your ethnic race you cannot discriminate and this needs to stop,” Turner told us.
According to the Montgomery County D.A.’s office, the case from this past summer is still in the court system and is scheduled to be presented to the Grand Jury in March.
The charge is “guide dogs to be admitted.” If found guilty, it’s a class C misdemeanor.
Mr. Turner tells Messed Up he just filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
When notified of the law suit, Kenton Dickerson with the Independent Living Center of Middle Tennessee responded,
“The Americans with Disabilities Act recognizes that service animals such as Seeing Eye dogs are not pets. They are highly trained animals that enable their owners to be independent. Because of this, the law says that public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, etc. cannot ban them.”
Going to Juvenile Court is often a stressful experience.
Parking at the Juvenile Courthouse should not add to that stress, but lately it has been doing just that.
According to Central Parking officials, on January 8th, 2 older parking terminals were removed from lot E and replaced with a single, more modern unit.
According to citizens coming to the court, the new solar powered unit has never worked well, and because of that, lines are long and people are frequently late to court.
Messed Up goes to parking lot E on Wednesday 1/20/10 around 12:30 pm, ½ an hour before the afternoon court docket is scheduled to begin.
There are approximately a dozen people in line, all of whom saythe machine is malfunctioning.
Though it says it will accept cash, the machine is not accepting dollar bills. The red light is on and it indicates it will only take credit cards, which is a longer authorization process.
Several people in line don’t have credit cards, so people with cash end up cutting deals with people with credit cards to pay for their tickets.
As one nice woman with a credit card tells Messed Up, “I shouldn’t have to take money from someone to pay for their parking.”
Another man tells me his concern is that the new terminal requires you to know your license tag number. If you don’t know your license number, he says you have to stop your transaction, get out of line, go to your car and get back in line and wait all over again.
One woman with a small child tells us that court is stressful enough and the headache of worrying about paying for a parking space and being late to court is unnecessary.
Sources inside the court house tell messed up lawyers have been complaining for weeks, even calling from the parking lot to tell the court they were running 30 minutes late.
I go to the Central Parking office on Church Street where VP and General Manager Richard Wagner addresses the issue.
To his credit, Wagner says he immediately dispatched a crew to the machine, which he says was malfunctioning.
“When we did the installation, we replaced two older machines, called Lexus; they were failing, so we put in digital equipment in its place. To be candid the credit card receiver was not working properly, when we first installed it on January 8th. We were quickly trying to install it since the other machines were failing. Unfortunately that machine was not totally ready to go out.”
He tells me that the credit card mode was not set properly to begin with which is why authorization times were taking so long.
Thanks to our call, he says that was corrected.
As for the money not being accepted, Wagner says the company believes it is a humidity issue.
“The bill accepters are susceptible to humidity and we had failures. We corrected it and now we are working on how to reduce the humidity problem. W are going to try “stay dry” internally with the equipment and we’ll put up a shelter to shield the equipment from rainfall. We want a smooth transaction that takes a few seconds, for people to do their business.”
Wagner agrees with citizens complaining about the lack of signage on the lot regarding license plate info, and he says that will be addressed immediately.
Lisa Forward signed a contract with Glad Rags Consignment shop to sell a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise including shoes and a hat.
Under terms of the contract, signed by both Forward and store owner Patty Scott, the store and forward would split the proceeds 50-50.
Mrs. Forward tells me since signing this document, she has called and visited the store multiple times.
“I called several times over 3 months to see if there was a check, I never heard back I left several messages. I went by several times and it was always shut even though it said open it was never open during business hours.”
I go to the store and find the lights off and the door locked. I call the phone number on the door and the service has been disconnected.
I call the property managers who also attempt to locate the business owner for me.
After a week, I get Patty Scott’s number and we speak.
Scott tells me:
She is closing the consignment shop for financial reasons. She says it was not making money and she needed a job that offered medical benefits for her family.
Scott tells me the phone numbers for the store were disconnected for a short time, but the number on the door, a new number, is now accurate.
Scott tells me that she has approximately 50 customers. She says that Lisa Forward is one of only 7 customers who she had been unable to contact, until today. Both women inform me that they are making arrangements to settle up.
Patty Scott tells me that she apologizes for the inconvenience and she has every intention of settling all accounts with all customers. She said she had no intentions of stringing people along, and she tells me that she can understand why some of her customers were unhappy.
Scott says the Bellevue shop will be open this Saturday from 10:30 am till 4pm for all customers to come in and buy merchandise or settle accounts.
Scott says if you need to contact her about a Consignment issue you can call her at: 925 2963
What if you felt you were being ripped off? Would you complain? Would you call the company? Would you demand the wrong be righted? What if the company told you that you didn’t have a leg to stand on? Would you make a sign and begin peacefully demonstrating on the public sidewalk in front of the company?
I dare say not many people would take their issue to the degree that Steven Qualls has.
Since Mid November, the 27 year old, his girlfriend, Amber and a bevy of friends, have walked the sidewalk in front of the AAMCO Transmission shop on Nolensville road in South Nashville.
The protesters are carrying heavy signs that read: AAMCO WON’T BACK THEIR WARRANTY
The story starts when Qualls had transmission work done on his truck. The shop offers a one year, 12,000 mile warranty.
About 6 months into the warranty, Qualls says his truck freezes up.
Qualls says he brings the vehicle back to Bernie Gray who owns the shop and did the work.
Gray pops the hood and finds a new carburetor in the truck. Gray says the installation by another mechanic was done improperly, and led to the new transmission problem.
Gray says the improper mechanical work violates the terms of Mr. Qualls’ Warranty.
Gray tells Messed Up he values his customers and he stands behind his work. Gray seems to be a man of his word and the AAMCO award posted prominently in his lobby for Superlative Customer Relations in 2008 would seem to back that up.
Gray says he can’t give away free mechanical work. The business owner says if he in any way caused the problem, he would fix it for free. But Gray tells me, that is not the case. Gray says he has had limited interactions with Mr. Qualls since the protest began, but Gray does tell Messed Up, he would do the 2nd transmission job for ½ price.
When Messed Up informs Mr. Qualls of this, Mr. Qualls says that a warranty is a warranty.
Qualls argues that the mechanic he hired, replaced the old carburetor with exactly the same brand. Qualls admits he has very limited mechanical knowledge, but Qualls tells Messed up the other mechanics he talks to tell him there was nothing irregular or wrong with the carburetor job.
Bernie Gray says the carburetor cable is the problem, and was incorrectly installed. Gray says it is the direct cause of the transmission freezing up.
So that is where this story stands.
Mr. Gray wonders how long the protest outside his shop will last. How many more days will Mr. Qualls and his friends be willing to walk the sidewalk outside the AAMCO shop?
I ask Mr. Qualls how long he plans this protest. Qualls tells me that he and Amber will be moving to Texas to attend college. He says he quit his job and has a lot of vacation days saved up. I ask why not go to Vegas or Tunica instead of burning vacation days pacing up and down Nolensville Road?
Qualls says it is a matter of principle.
It’s a matter of contractual fairness for Bernie Gray.
You remember our story about the 1000’s of rockers who pack River Front Park for Buzz Fest 2009? Part of the show was cancelled due to rain.
We have an update: Alice in Chains is coming back to Nashville to do teh fans right.
Buzzfest Fan Appreciation Show with Alice In Chains - March 1st, 2010 @ Municipal Auditorium
Tickets go on sale 11/20 @ 10am at all Ticketmaster locations or the Municipal Auditorium Box office.
All Buzzfest 09 ticket holders have a 30 day window to exchange their Buzzfest ticket stub for a free ticket to the show. The window is from November 20, 2009 - December 20, 2009 to do their exchange.
Garth Brooks coming out of retirement is big news. The country music superstar is going to play a number of weekend shows at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Ever since Jessica Willett was a little girl she has loved Garth Brooks. Willett has Spina Bifida and her mother tells me that seeing her hero, Garth Brooks, is the perfect Christmas gift for her daughter.
So when tickets went on sale, Penny Eller began dialing. Armed with two phones, the Rutherford County woman says she spent four hours on the phone trying to get through to the Wynn box office.
When she finally did, she says she ordered four tickets.
That’s when things start to go wrong.
“I was devastated,” Eller says.
Eller says the Wynn Box office accidentally charged her for 16 tickets instead of four. Instead of $572 dollars the hotel charged her $2288. This mistake temporarily froze her account. By the time the Wynn and the bank straightened the matter out, the show was sold out.
“The sales rep at the Wynn box office made a costly mistake,” Eller tells me. “She over charged my account $1500 dollars. Once they realized the mistake, they reimbursed my money, but, they said sorry we don’t have any Garth Brooks tickets for you.”
“So they charged you for 16 tickets and you got zero?” I ask.
“Yes sir,” Eller says with a shake of her head.
Darnette Leavell is Jessica’s long time care giver. With tears streaming down her cheeks she tells me how much seeing Garth Brooks would have meant to Jessica.
“I think it’s horrible, Jessica doesn’t ask for much. She was so hurt, when she learned she won’t get to go. I am heartbroken. It hurts me she is a really happy young lady. The one thing she wanted the most. I am very hurt for her. Yes it is a mistake but if she doesn’t see her hero it is more than a mistake.”
After interviewing the family, I get on the phone with the Wynn public relations department.
They immediately sense the gravity of the mistake and begin working to correct it. After a few days they call me back and tell me that they have come up with four tickets for the family in the orchestra pit.
When I speak with Penny Eller, she is elated. She tells me that has purchased her airline tickets and the family plans to stay at the Wynn Hotel.
Wynn officials tell me that the demand has been overwhelming. A spokeswoman says the box office took 140,000 calls and the web site saw close to 5 million hits in just a few hours.
The hotel says they are correcting the glitch and more shows for Garth Brooks are planned for the future.
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Friday September 11th: 1000’s of rockers pack River Front Park for Buzz Fest 2009.
The first few bands play, but then a major storm rips through Nashville and the show is canceled.
The problem is the crowd hangs around in the driving rain for hours and concert promoters never inform fans what is going on.
Is the show on? Is it delayed? Is it being postponed? What about these tickets that say: RAIN OR SHINE?
The problem is communication. The crowd never gets told anything and many leave angry and wanting answers.
DJ Adkins is a Belmont Student who stayed for hours in terrible conditions. He says an announcement by concert promoters would have eased a lot of the tensions.
“What was the crowd reaction?” I ask.
“They were too angry,” the guitar major says. “People in the crowd started throwing stuff on stage. They acted too violent. The stage was littered with bottles and stuff.”
“Did your ticket say rain or shine?”
“It did. My only solace was I knew it would dangerous to play. That much rain, cause there is a risk of electrocution. I don’t have problem with the musicians. I have a problem with the people who put it on. Without one person to say “OK,” here is what is going on. I mean three hours we are out there like what is going on here?”
The concert featuring Mudvayne and Alice In Chains was put on by radio station 102.9 the Buzz.
Troy Hanson is operations manager and program director.
“Everything started great. Nobody saw anything on the radar. Then Mother Nature took over and was more violent than we were prepared for.”
Hanson tells me that they put concerts on in the rain all the time, but in this storm, buckets of water poured into equipment, frying 2 sound boards. That made playing a concert impossible. It also made it impossible to use the P.A. system to tell the crowd what was going on.
“The most frustrating thing, not being able to communicate with the audience. We couldn’t tell them what was going on, we didn’t have the ability to. Believe me, I felt the frustration. We all did. I was on stage.”
Hanson says the radio station is in discussions with headliner Alice in Chains about a make up show:
“So what are we are doing, we are working with Alice in Chains. I don’t have an announcement right now, but we are working on something, so everyone will be well pleased. I am negotiating. It takes 6 ½ months to put Buzz Fest together. We can’t recreate it in 2 ½ weeks and we will have an announcement shortly, so what we are telling people is: hold on to your tickets! We will take care of you. For those of you saying I was there, and my ticket was drenched. Hold on. We have a plan for you too. We will take care of our listeners.”
Hanson says if he has learned anything, it is to bring a bull horn with him, just in case.
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Darnette Leavell is Jessica’s long time care giver. With tears streaming down her cheeks she tells me how much seeing Garth Brooks would have meant to Jessica.
Troy Hanson is operations manager and program director.
