As I stated, my friend and I had attended the 35th anniversary convention in September of 2001 and were so impressed that we immediately resolved ourselves to attend their next big convention slated for September of 2002. Dave Scott himself promised that Vegas 2002 would be even bigger and better because, as he announced from the stage, Slanted Fedora "are now in bed with Paramount". He then went on to state numerous reasons why this newly cemented association would be so beneficial. What I did not know when I purchased my tickets to the 2002 convention was that Paramount does not even promote Slanted Fedora on their official Star Trek site. In fact, they do not even list SF conventions on their Star Trek conventions web page.
The Slanted Fedora website listed an impressive line-up of Star Trek stars for this upcoming convention. And, as before, the 'Gold' tickets included an autograph with each of them, preferred seating and this time, also included a variety of other 'bonuses' such as cd's, books, etc all autographed in person by the stars representing these products. Amazing! I bought two Gold tickets immediately. I continued to check the Vegas 02 website for updates and, if nothing else, just to stoke my already brimming excitement for this upcoming event.
Here is where my little story takes a turn for the worst. My friend and I waited until a time very close to the actual convention date to book our travel package (we were flying down from Canada). This was on a Thursday. By Monday, the Vegas 02 page on the Slanted Fedora site had been removed. With some searching I managed to find a letter from Dave Scott indicating that, for a variety of reasons (none of which seemed credible to me), the convention was 'rescheduled' and in its place there would be a "Star Trek party". In my opinion, this announcement came so close to the date of the actual event that there could be no way that EVERYONE just simply cancelled at that time. Rather, it is my suspicion that Slanted Fedora continued sell tickets to this convention for as long as they could before finally announcing its 'postponement'. Regardless, my friend and I now had a difficult decision. We could either lose the money we just spent on non-refundable flight and hotel packages so that we could afford to go to the actual convention for which we had already paid OR use the flight tickets we just purchased to go to Vegas for the 'party' and then not be able to afford the time or cost of another trip in a few months. We decided to wait for the 'real deal' promised for February and to subsequently lose that money we had just spent days earlier.
February came and Slanted Fedora were still selling tickets to that amazing, even better convention they were advertising. In fact, as I have recently learned from the site administrator at WilliamShatner.com, after this convention was first 'postponed', William Shatner decided to 'bow out' of the planned February date. However, Slanted Fedora continued to advertise him as attending. But as we would all soon learn, again, in what seemed almost 'last minute', this convention was CANCELLED. Not postponed but actually cancelled. As before, this first was conveyed in a statement by Dave Scott on the SF website and then through snail mail. Accompanying the letter was a request form for a refund for the purchased tickets. It echoed the website's excuses for the failed event that were listed there. It also gave refund options. They were a Slanted Fedora credit, a delayed repayment or an immediate repayment. Because of having already lost so much money, I made my request for an immediate repayment. The most insulting thing (at least up to this stage of the story) was that the choice of an 'immediate refund' was accompanied by a statement that was directing the blame of the failure of this company on ME, the person who just wanted my money back after this ordeal.
Well, as is obvious by this web page, I have still not received a refund for the two, Gold tickets I purchased in February 2002. I submitted my request as indicated and included a letter explaining my situation and my losses that resulted from this cancellation. After waiting some time I followed this letter with phone messages (most of the time the answering system was already full), faxes, emails, emails and more emails as well as a registered letter (that would eventually just be returned without pickup) -- All to no reply and to no avail.
So that brings us to the present. Nobody seems to know how, when or even if Slanted Fedora intends to repay these debts. It is my feeling that if they do not file for bankruptcy first, they will wait and see how many of these refunds they can avoid repaying. As indicated on the 'Updates' page of this site, Dave Scott did finally email me (through this site) and requested my personal information because he supposedly wanted to relate to me his side of the story. Fair enough. I gave him the benefit of the doubt (again) and sent this information to him. At the very least I was hoping he would reveal to me some of this 'plan' or even attempt to give some reassurance that the issue of my refund would be addressed. To date I have not heard from him at all.
All I can say is that I hope Dave Scott proves me wrong. On his website he states the following (Note: this is a direct copy and paste, not retyped): "Six months to catch my breath, repay debts and settle accounts will get us healthy again..... I need six months to get financially on firm ground again.... I made a miscalculation that will take 6 months to completely clear up. Bottom line, cash flow prevents me from honoring completely paying all my obligations in an immediate fashion. It is inappropriate for me to host a large cash draining event when I have outstanding obligations. These will be settled by September." I guess we will just wait and see.
Live long and prosper.