Massive Moving Baby/Toddler/Child Things For Sale

[Nanny Penny]

Very annoying as I postponed a weekend at my sisters to

attened looks more and more like a scam if it Was it worked as

So many people turned up looking for her disappointed

To draw us to jags she's messaged me back before the event

But not even opened or replayed to messages since

[snowboarder]

The prices on the other post do sound too good to be true!

Just to say I had a stall at the sale and I really don't get the impression that this is anything to do with the organisers who quite openly publicise the event properly. I actually did a similar thing and posted in the classified that I would be there with various things - totally in good faith - so maybe don't discount the sale itself just because of this one weird thing.

Understand it's disappointing though.

[Strawbs]

For me she had reserved two of the blue scooters and a jojo suit for 2-3 years. I had also asked what stages the car seats were but after a few responses my communication with her dried up. My latest message to her is still unread yet I can see she logged on roughly 4 hours after I sent it. Highly doubt all of her items are now gone given she wouldn't entertain the notion of selling outside of the stall she had reserved yet doesn't turn up to sell and miraculously all the items are now sold?

I won't be attending another one of their sales as now I won't know if what people are advertising to sell is actually genuine and I definitely won't be dragging my 2y old out in the cold again.

As always the minority ruins it for the majority. If the organisers did know about it I think they have shot themselves in the foot on this one.

[Kathryn]

I really hope if anyone is ill that they are getting better.

It makes sense that any one going to this sale has young kids or are expecting them so time is extremely precious and budgets tight

This sale was good to go to and there were great people there selling some fantastic stuff and in fact i thought its something i might do in the future as my little one out grows all of the stuff that surrounds them.

This thread ( in three different sections )and stall seemed to offer especially great bargins

It seems a lot of us went specifically because of this post and made specific efforts and re arrangements to get there

However it is strange then that it says its all gone?

Melissa I really hope if you or any member of your family is ill that it is not serious and you or they are on the mend

I had reserved the Brio, a scooter, a trunki, a buggy board, a buggy foot muff, some clothes, the kitchen, the ergo baby, the dinosaurs and one of the jumperoos. All with my name against them.

Car emptied and early arrival to get a car space to be able to take the larger items home.

I did pick up some lovely things from some great stalls but still felt very disappointed.

[Bonfire2010]

I nearly cancelled a course I was going to yesterday in order to attend the sale specifically to go to this stall. Very glad I didn't now.

If someone is ill, fair enough. But how have all of her items 'GONE' if she didn't turn up, and was very obviously anti selling them on here prior to the sale? If it was me, and was as desperate to get rid of everything as she seemed, I would have been on here today trying to sell like crazy!

I do hope she is ok, but something just doesn't seem right.

[midivydale]

Kathryn,

I had reserved the brio too.....

[Yak]

Well that's at least 4 scooters that had been reserved (I had "reserved" the pink one) whereas only 3 scooters advertised in the original post. Hmm.

[missyelliott]

Seems a lot of people had reserved the same scooters!! Mmmm

[chopsypops]

Hello all,

I am the organiser of Peekaboo Nearly new (Cathy) and can absolutely and catergoricaly say that this thread was not a marketing ploy by myself to get you to the event yesterday! This was my fourth event in Dulwich, they sell out weeks in advance and we regularly have over 200 people buying. I have no need to set up the 'scam' people believe is happening.

The person who was booked onto that stall has sold at my event 3 times previously and until Saturday as far as I was aware was attending it. On Saturday I received an email to say that she and her whole family were ill with the norovirus sickness and would not be able to make it however her friend (who was sharing the stall) would still be there. I then received an email on Sunday morning (30 mins before we opened) to say that the friend could no longer make it as her boys were sick. This is obviously commonplace with events like this but there's not much I can do about it as once people reserve and pay for their space it's theirs. To me it sounds as if they are genuinely ill. Yesterday we had two sellers not turn up, one table (Melissa's) was removed and we made the buggy park bigger (end of the hall), the other (another sellers) was still there and some items from a seller with excess items on sale were added to it.

This situation is unfortunate and I can see by this thread has very much disappointed some people. I will be in touch with the seller today to ensure she puts a note on here to explain that she was unable to make it. I can't really offer much more in terms of an explanation as I too was surprised by some of the prices / list of items that she had posted so can understand some people's disappointment. Anyone who spoke to me yesterday would hopefully realise that I was in much in the dark about this as anyone else. Until yesterday evening I hadn't even seen the post on the forum by Mel so had little idea what anyone was referring to.

I do hope that those who attended the sale enjoyed it / found other bargains. If anyone solely attended the event in order to collect things they had pre-reserved with Mel and didn't want to come to the event itself then I would happily refund your ?2 entry fee. Please email me at [email protected]. I set these events up in Dulwich because it enables people to buy good second hand stuff from local families and allows local businesses to promote themselves (Mother's Inc, Bubbly Bees) and I am proud to have built up a loyal following and happy sellers. It's a shame that this situation has occurred and but I am sure we will receive a response from Mel soon as all my dealings with her so far have been very positive.

Many thanks,

Cathy

[jt2]

Marketing for a sale that only gets a really large queau at 9.30 and then almost empty. I was selling there a while ago and no way I'll waste my time/money again.

I wasn't internding to go, only went just in case I was wrong thinking this person was taking a p***. I won't be there in future wasting my time, but surely they will find another marketing tactic to get people go to their great business.

[chopsypops]

I am very sorry if you were disappointed jtJ, this was our fourth event at JAGS this year as they have been so popular. We have had no complaints to date and as I have said previously this was absolutely not a marketing ploy and I am horrified that people believe it is connected to Peekaboo Nearly New. Sadly I have no control over sellers turning up on the day or what they can post on the forum.

[Medusa]

I had the same stuff reserved as two other people. I appreciate that the organisers can't be held responsible for the actions of individuals and really appreciate the goodwill shown in offering to refund the entrance fee. I don't want it, but do suggest that you have a conversation amongst regular sellers, agreeing a code of practice of sorts, so that people aren't misled in this way again.

[sianabanana]

I also had a load of things 'put back in my name', sounds like a scam to me...thought it was too good to be true!

[PD]

Same here - she promised me many of the items that turn out to have been promised to other people in earlier threads.

[chopsypops]

Thanks Medusa. I am now in touch with the Administrator of the forum to see if I can find out who posted the messages as 'melissasmith'. The stall booking I had reserved was under a 'Melissa' but with a different surname, also a mummy to twins and so when people asked about her stall I just assumed it was her they were looking for. I am now beginning to think that this is in fact a scam set up by someone to damage the Peekaboo name. Fingers crossed this will be resolved shortly and that is not the case, but I can honestly say I am shocked and upset that this is even being associated with us.

[midivydale]

Hi Cathy,

Great to read a response with some reassurance from the organisers. It was also a lovely gesture to see that you offered to refund the entrance fee. I am sorry that we jumped to the wrong conclusion but your reply has completely put my mind at rest. It is just annoying/frustrating/disapointing when you spend time attending something in good faith which then turns out to be something else entirely.

Not your fault, and on the whole it was a lovely day which was well organised and well run. The highlight for me was running into the lovely lady at Mothersinc. She looks amazingly beautiful(best advert for a facial ever) and is so lovely you think nothing of telling her your lifestory after a 2min conversation....

[rougepamplemousse]

Same here, I went just for some items that this person was going to sell. Very very dissapointing and I will never go again.

[Strawbs]

midivydale Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi Cathy,

> Great to read a response with some reassurance

> from the organisers. It was also a lovely gesture

> to see that you offered to refund the entrance

> fee. I am sorry that we jumped to the wrong

> conclusion but your reply has completely put my

> mind at rest. It is just

> annoying/frustrating/disapointing when you spend

> time attending something in good faith which then

> turns out to be something else entirely.

> Not your fault, and on the whole it was a lovely

> day which was well organised and well run. The

> highlight for me was running into the lovely lady

> at Mothersinc. She looks amazingly beautiful(best

> advert for a facial ever) and is so lovely you

> think nothing of telling her your lifestory after

> a 2min conversation....

surely your highlight was running in to me young lady!!?? hehe.. x

[midivydale]

Yes two highlights:)

[chopsypops]

Hi all,

I just wanted to update you on this. I have now heard from my seller who was unable to attend. Mel is indeed sick and turns out her full name is Melanie and not Melissa anyway. So it seems that whoever 'Melissasmith' is she/he is likely to be a complete hoax and is trying to damage the Peekaboo Nearly new name.

To those of you who turned up to see this lady then I am sorry that whoever she/he is conned you into believing they had a stall with us. In future I will be a lot more stringent in checking any posts on the forum that refer to Peekaboo in any way. I am rather sad that this is the case to be honest and I am not quite sure why anyone would go to these lengths.

As I said if anyone was unhappy with the event on the day then I will happily offer you a refund despite this having nothing to do with me / Peekaboo organisers.

To those who enjoyed and support our events then I hope to see you again as people behaving in this way only spur me on to generate bigger and better sales for the rest of us!

PS Yes Midivydale...echo your points about Ehi at Mother's Inc. She is a delight and I can personally recommend her facials!

[chopsypops]

PPS missyelliot I'm sorry I missed your post earlier. The soft play area was upstairs, we had a great set up up there thanks to Bubbly Bees which about 40 children used during the sale.

Thanks

[Kathryn]

Thank you so much for clearing it up?

It is very odd that someone seems to have done this and gone to such lengths at posting, listing and replying I had a number of exchanges up until the day of the sale!?!

If it is as it seems a hoax and we have all been duped no wonder there are so many issues with anonymity of the Internet. But that I guess is a whole other issue.

I did think the sale was very good despite the disappointment and I would go again and recommended it as there were some bargins I sorted a few Christmas presents so thank you

[chloe11]

Thanks so much for your attention and explanation to this Cathy, I too was duped into queuing in the freezing cold to collect my reserved items, I feel rather stupid now! Whoever this person is, they went to soooo much effort writing down all of those items and responding to all those people separately, they must have a lot of time on their hands! It's very sad really. You can see why we all thought it was a marketing ploy - a very successful one at that. Either someone was having a laugh or it was written by another seller trying to increase people through the door, all very confusing but I do hope it doesn't affect any future Peekaboo sales. I'm sure it won't.

[chopsypops]

Thanks Chloe11 and Kathryn. I can totally see why people would think it a marketing ploy. It is quite simply very weird and odd behaviour by someone to waste all of our time like this. I have racked my brain all day as to why someone would go to these lengths as it seems completely pointless. I can only think that they wanted to drive people away from the events in future because clearly it was only ever going to lead to a lot of disgruntled customers on the day! If it were a marketing ploy it would be a very badly thought out one. I am pretty sure none of the sellers would post it because it would only make their items look as if they were overpriced in comparison to what 'melissasmith' was 'offering' and I ask sellers to send me photos which are always uploaded to our Facebook site.

Anyway I am going to try and forget about it now unless the Admin can shed any light??

[mybaby178]

Hi I don't post very often and although I can see that Cathy has clarified the situation I just wanted to say that I was one of the sellers on Sunday I have sold at all the sales so far and have always done well. I would just like to say that Cathy would never to anything as sly as this to get people into the sale. She is a genuinely lovely lady who works hard to promote the event. We all get sent posters and flyers to hand out at play groups and libraries etc and try hard to promote the event through word of mouth as well. I do hope people will not be put off coming again I don't understand why anybody would want to damage the name of the business but worse than this clearly get a kick out of promising stuff to lovely forum members when these don't exist.