“Taste of Decatur” Not So Tasty
Decatur Metro | April 25, 2010 | 3:05 pmUPDATE: LivingSocial will issue automatic refunds to everyone who purchased “Taste of Decatur” tickets. Thank you DM commenter lumpintheroad for posting the refund notice in the comments below.
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Wendy gives us a full report of what went down at the “Taste of Decatur” non-event yesterday. Very similar to Dave’s report on InDecatur…
As I noted on Twitter, I’m not sure the problems stemmed from the rain causing problems or if somehow the event was a scam but certainly -something- went wrong! I mean, I can’t -prove- either way, although my gut tells me scam. Some careful questioning of other ticket buyers, participating businesses and LivingSocial might reveal the answer.
I heard about the event for the first time through LivingSocial on Thursday and bought a ticket, thinking, wow, $5 (half off the $10 full price) for a tasting event at a couple dozen restaurants! Printed out the voucher Friday and went into Decatur today around noon. The fact I hadn’t heard about this event in advance didn’t bug me because there’s a lot going on in Decatur and it’s festival time in town, so lots of things I could easily have missed on calendars and media and Twitter communications.
So I arrived in Decatur via MARTA train and went over to near the pavilion on the square, where the LivingSocial voucher said will-call would be. There was nothing there — no table, no official looking people, no sign, and not even a scrawled note saying “Due to rain, check-in moved to ___________.” So I started wandering around. I wandered past the county courthouse and near Eddie’s Attic. Here I noticed the restaurant Sammiches at least had a hand-made banner out welcoming people to Taste of Atlanta. I’d already checked to be sure I had the right date, so seeing the sign made me feel better.
After that I wandered up to Ponce, looking for signs of the event, and then I walked down Sycamore over to Church St. Finally, at a loss, I went into the shelter of the MARTA station entrance to keep dry and Tweet asking if anyone knew where will-call was. I wandered around 10 min. after that before getting a reply back from Carl Black, who said check-in was at Rockit.
Now here’s where things start to get a bit weird.
I went over to where I vaguely remembered Rockit being… but walked by because there wasn’t any big sign or banner. But then I squinted and saw a little flyer taped to the window. Inside there was some vaguely organizer-looking people standing around talking. I went in, still not knowing if I was in the right place, and stood there while this one guy, an organizer, helped a couple who’d come in before me and did some explaining about the event. Shortly afterward two other ticket holders came in. We were all soaked from wandering around 30+ minutes looking for will-call. But things would be all fixed soon, right?
Well… wrong. Because neither the organizer guy talking or two other guys there paid any attention to me, the guys in line after me, or ten other people who’d arrived! He just kept talking about the restaurants and giving the couple advice on where they might go eat. Oddly, he was talking about specials, not really tastings, and was also saying they’d be sending all participants a discount card which we could use through July for discount after today. But still, we were waiting there a good ten minutes before anyone helped us. I said to the guy behind me “I guess they don’t want to give anyone their tickets?”
The couple in front of me left finally and I stepped up. Right away I explained to the man (seemingly in charge) that I and others had had a really had time finding will-call. He said “LivingSocial?” and when I said yes, he put blame on them, saying they’d put out the wrong info (pick up at Pavilion). He also said LivingSocial had refused to divulge ticket buyers phone or email addresses so they couldn’t contact us about changes in plans due to rain. Everything was just a misunderstanding, he said. He pointed to a computer screen with a spreadsheet showing everyone who had signed up in advance via LivingSocial.
Anyway, he then turned me to one of two laptops set up on the store counter and told me to enter my info (name, address, email, phone, and voucher #) so that I could be mailed a Taste of Atlanta card. With this card, I’d be able to get some discounts in future, so even if I couldn’t go to all the restaurants today or they were canceled due to rain, I could still go visit the places later. Finally I was given a computer print-out of the restaurants and a stamp on the back of my hand.
Now once I was out of there, I found somewhere dry to stand and looked at the list. I was expecting to see restaurants with a note about what we’d be tasting. Chocolate at Chocolate Bar? Guacamole at Raging Burrito? Sushi? But instead of that there was this list, which didn’t look anything near as slick as the event web site, and instead of tasting info, it was showing discounts, a lot of them rather marginal, for various restaurants. I didn’t see any tastings or “free” stuff listed except for at Sammiches, where I’d seen the banner hanging earlier. All the rest of the “deals” required purchase, i.e. get 50% off any appetizer if you buy an entree, buy one cookie get a second free, get a three-course meal for $25. So you had to pay to get food even though on would think the point of paying for the event was to get a chance to try various foods for no extra cost. So this was more like being sold a coupon book that was filled with coupons that required spending for any type of reward.
Anyway, I scanned the list and it seemed like to get any food, I’d have to pick one restaurant and go eat there — at my cost, minus a couple bucks discount.That being the case, I went over to Sammiches, where I’d at least seen a sign. Walking in I spotted a nice table with all kinds of food samples. The two owners were there, super friendly, and the food was good, so I decided to order. It was then that I noticed a lot of other bewildered people were there with me or were coming in after me. Overhearing their conversations and then questioning them, I learned they were all as confused as I was. Standard comment: “It seems like you have to pay to get any food.. Just some discounts. I thought we were going to get to sample food all afternoon like at East Atlanta Strut or something. But at least we found this place and got some food samples and learned a new place to eat.” Everybody was wet and disappointed looking. Several had gone to other places looking for tastings but there weren’t any so they went to this Sammiches, which at least had some stuff.
I went through the restaurant list again while I ate my chicken salad sandwich and fries, which were both good. I determined that there wasn’t much point in going to the other places. I’d seen a note on Iberian Pig saying they’d be open for tastings 4-6 p.m., but it was still only like 2 p.m., so what would I do meantime? Everywhere else, according to the sheet, was honoring discounts but you had to order to get them. I had just had lunch, so…? I talked to a couple women sitting near me and they said they were going home after just one place, because they’d reached the same conclusion, so afterward, yeah, I went back to MARTA and went home.
Does this sound suspicious? It seems like the event was sold via LivingSocial and made out, via web site and promo, to be something it wasn’t. The organization was very poor, signage was just about non-existent, and it just stunk. If this had been a “real” event and happened to get caught in the rain, organizers would have put out sign or people would have been on the square looking to assist people. There might have been balloons or a banner. It would have been easy to know where to sign in. There would have been fat signs or sandwich boards outside participating restaurants. There would have been a promo flyer at the MARTA station, as there is for any other festival or event. But there wasn’t. Which leads me to think this event was staged primarily to collect some cash and addresses. The restaurant deals probably are real but the businesses were taken in just like ticket-buyers. Good thing they didn’t give away much!
Wow, this certainly does nothing to help the city’s reputation. Sorry you had such a bad experience. Hopefully the rain and lack of advertising prevented many out-of-towners from being scammed this way.
Yeah, I live intown (Five Points) and love Decatur so it’s not like one thing will turn me off but I feel for folks who did drive in from afar and were truly confounded.
Please note that Mr. Stanley’s event was not the same as the very successful 14-year running event called the “Garden of Eatin: A Taste of Decatur” which is presented every year by the Decatur Cooperative Ministry (a local non-profit serving the needs of the homeless). I hope Mr. Stanley has not left a bad taste in our community for the real Taste of Decatur event which will be presented on September 25th. See http://www.decaturcooperativeministry.org/tasteofdecatur/home.htm
The person/entity that perpetrated the “Taste of Decatur” on our community last weekend has now changed the name of that website to “Tour of Decatur”. Be warned…the URL is still the same (www.tasteofdecatur.com) so it’s the same person/entity who is planning another questionable event. Also, this Total Access Guide (aka TAG/MAG aka The TAG Firm) and its front man Stanley Ellis doesn’t seem to have any physical address. Go ahead…try to find one. As the saying goes: fool me once shame on you…fool me twice…I’m an idiot.
In case you missed it, there was a considerable amount of (well-founded, as it turns out) skepticism about this even before it took place: http://www.decaturmetro.com/2010/04/22/taste-decatur-this-saturday.
Incidentally, I just received an e-mail from Living Social stating the following:
Dear LivingSocial member,
It has come to our attention that yesterday’s Taste of Decatur
festival may not have lived up to the high standard that LivingSocial
members have come to expect from our Daily Deals. We want to take
responsibility for sending you to what turned out to be less than a
top-notch experience.
As such, we’re going to immediately refund everyone who purchased
tickets to Taste of Decatur. We’re also going to issue $5 in Deal
Bucks credit to your LivingSocial account, which will be applied to
your next purchase. The refunds back on your credit or debit card
will take 2-7 business days depending on your bank’s processing time.
At LivingSocial we care about one thing: delivering Atlantans the best
deals in town. We’re sorry if the event didn’t deliver what you
expected, but look forward to continuing to help you save money on fun
things to do in Atlanta in the future.
– The LivingSocial Team
Good on them, but frankly, I’d definitely think twice before every participating in an another event endorsed by them.
Wow. The Taste of Decatur was awesome. Considering the rain, the organizer simply moved indoors so it could be enjoyable. And, what does one expect for $5. Most event are so much more and don’t offer residual discounts for AN ENTIRE YEAR. I would take a discount card and continue to go to Decatur, because I love the City so much.
When I hear the hear the word awesome, i generally tie that to seriously cool or even amazing. That sort of flies in the face of most of the descriptions of people’s experiences with this event.
Just out of curiosity, what about your experience was so awesome?
Hello- city of Decatur officials, restaurants, etc ?
Nothing to say??
The individual restaurants may have a voice in this, but it has nothing to do with the City. It was a private event requiring no City permits or oversight.
Wow, this certainly does nothing to help the city’s reputation. Sorry you had such a bad experience. Hopefully the rain and lack of advertising prevented many out-of-towners from being scammed this way.
I’d like to make a comment here, my wife and I attended Taste of Decatur on Saturday, and I must say, that we knew what we were getting before we went down there. To us, the web site was clear that this was not going to be a typical “Taste of……” event, but rather you were going to have to walk around to different stores and restaurants, and maybe even purchase something in order to get a discount. We knew that there were not going to be tents set up with free food samples. We were not sure exactly what it was going to be like, but we figured, for $5, what the heck, let’s give it a shot. I’d like to ask everyone else out there, what exactly were you expecting for $5?? Not to mention, according to the promotors, a % of the proceeds were going to charity. Other “Taste of…..” events cost significantly more, and you usually have to purchase more tickets if you’d like to do more tasting. To all the complainers out there, I’d suggest you do a little more research beforehand next time and know what you are getting into before you buy tickets to an event like this.
Not to be confused with Blue Sky Scott…
my apologies, didn’t know someone else used that handle…I will go by scott metz from here on out
I did research it, thank you. I went to their page before I even knew about Living Social’s deal. The website stated that there would be tastings, 50% off food, or buy one get one deals on food. In actuality 2 places had tastings, 2 had some variation of buy one, get one, and the rest had discounts that weren’t even close to 50% off.
I was aware it wasn’t going to be like Taste of Atlanta, and it still wasn’t even like what you were led to expect from the site.
I don’t care how much it costs, for $5 I expect something somewhat organized. I had to find out through other people that RockIt was where the will call ended up being. After that it was just sort of like here’s your stamp, bye!
Wow, sorry you had such a bad experience Wendy. It seems like this is completely different from Taste of Atlanta. Taste of Atlanta is a food festival in October in midtown near Georgia Tech. You buy a ticket and get coupons to taste a lot of food from a bunch of different restaurants. I have been going since they were at Atlantic Station and always have a blast – and eat way too much.
[…] cancellation of the event, but ticket holders (and participating businesses) weren’t alerted. Decatur Metro has the whole blow by blow, as well as news that LivingSocial (the event organizer) is offering refunds to anyone who […]
[…] this weekend’s Taste of Decatur event was a giant ball of confusion. Decatur Metro has one attendee’s version of events. Dave Kell at inDECATUR has a post on the initial confusion and some info about the […]
Now they are twittering about a Tour of Decatur:
http://twitter.com/tasteofdecatur/status/12889752821
Because you know, naming it with another main event in Decatur (TourDecatur Run) won’t cause more confusion.
Out all of this, I learned that there is a worthy & legit event to look forward to in Sept.
. . . the name is now to close to ‘Decatur Tour of Homes.’
DNO has a good rundown of the situation:
http://www.decaturnewsonline.com/news/article_5934fb94-5187-11df-87af-001cc4c03286.html