Karaoke Forums

I DID NOT MAKE ANY ACCUSATIONS. I ASKED A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS.......that haven't been answered. Hmmmmm!

Her husband does a gig with one system and the second system is being used by this employee that is stealing from her.

Diafel: I agree with everyone else. Kick him to the curb. I doubt it was even charity. If he was willing to give you $50, that shows guilt. Bruce, my system is legal like Diafel's. Been buying CDGS since 96. There are always going to be pirates out there, just a fact of life. I tell my elementary students when they are tattling to worry about themselves. Is there a deeper issue? Have you been burned yourself? Or just trying to educate us--if so, point taken- we are all professional and legal here.

I finally got my 2nd rig up and running. My host was scheduled to do a gig tonight at one of my regular venues (in the next town) with it, with an arrangement for the next 2 weeks on Saturdays and then see where it goes from there. He picked up the gear this morning at around 11:15 am. At 11:45, I see posted on his Facebook status that he's doing an afternoon gig at one of the hotels from 1 - 4 pm and is inviting everyone to show up.
He mentioned nothing of this to me when he picked up the gear, nor did attempt to call me about it at any time, even though he knew I was home all day and has my phone number. Needless to say, I was rather miffed about it. I posted "?????" as a comment to his status.
I called my hubby to get his thoughts and after much back and forth, we decided to send an employee of his, that the host knows works for hubby, to do a walk-through and make sure the host at least sees him. We also decided that I would approach him about it in the morning when he drops off the gear.
He still also owes me for a gig he did 2 weeks ago with my gear. It was to be a flat rental fee of $100.00. Well, when I went to pick up the gear after that gig, he told me that he never used it and only had it as a backup because they guy putting on the party already had gear. I was a little miffed about that as well, but he offered me $50 so I decided not to make too big a deal of hit. HOWEVER, you don't go and rent a carpet cleaner, bring it back the next day and say you don't want to pay because you never used it....
Anyway, back to the current story.
He messages me through Facebook at 6:00 pm and tells me it was a last minute thing and that someone he knew asked if he minded setting up because it was a charity for kids with cancer. He said he thought it would be a good "dry run" (his words, not mine) to test setting up the gear. He said he hoped I didn't mind.
I think this is his way of setting me up to tell me he made no money from it and so won't want to pay for using the gear.
Well, I DO mind, very much!
While I think charity events are a good thing, I would, at the very least, like to be ASKED before hand.
As it stands, I think it's a very worthy cause, but I personally choose to donate to other organizations and would not have done this gig. Even if I had, I would have probably offered a reduced rate and not done it for free because I feel quite strongly about doing gigs for free. My personal opinion, but it's not really pertinent to the problem at hand, so please don't give me opinions on charity events.
Now what I plan to do is tell him in the morning that I mind very much and in no uncertain terms is he to use my gear unauthorized again.
I will also try to explain to him that there is wear and tear on every piece of gear every time it's used, and that I really can't afford to start replacing gear before I've got my investment out of it. I will try to explain to him that I have thousands invested in it and I need to recover that. I will also let him know that while this may be a fun pocket money side job for him, it is how I put food on the table for my family and while I enjoy every minute of it, it's not a game to me.
As for his next 2 Saturday gigs, I will have to make the half hour trip to the next town myself each night and drop the gear off a half hour before his gig and I will return again at 1:00 am to pick it up. The original plan would have had him picking it up from me on Thursday night after my gig at the same venue and then returning the gear on Sunday morning.
But he can't be trusted at this point and I do not want to risk him undercutting me with my own rig!
I must also say that were he not one of my regular singers originally and if he didn't have a lot of friends who karaoke I would have gone a got the rig from him earlier today and kibosh-ed the whole thing. But I can't risk alienating that many singers.
I have another guy (new in town) who's interested in hosting and apparently has experience. He's coming out to my gig tomorrow and I will see what he knows. He looks promising and if that's the case and he works out, I will replace my current host.
Any other advice you can give me?
What would you have done?

Bruce you are in luck.. Right now I have a flat on my van which I need to get fixed. Tomorrow after I get back from the food bank I will go down and talk to my attorney.