Business was scammed out of 1200
Donation protected
Yesterday was a horrible day for my struggling business in Wichita, KS. We fell for a scam that came from Westar Energys 1 800 number. It wasn't Westar that did this. But this is one reason why we fell for the scam. The other reason we fell for the scam was because we had just had another business related blow happen as the call came in.
I was talking with fire inspection officers about getting an entertainment license so I could have small gatherings of local music to bring people into the store again. We used to be located in the Delano area and we moved for cheaper rent, but a larger space. I was counting on that license. I was informed of all the things I would have to do such as: have a bigger parking lot, fire alarm system, sprinkler system and more. I had started crying, I didn't want to charge money, I just wanted to attract people to the store with "art with the music" and we can't even do that. The call from Westars number came in as the officers were informing me of violations we have 30 days to fix. We need fire extinguishers on every floor, etc.
The call is threatening to shut your electricity right then, and someone is on their way. We argued quite a while, and we have three meters in this building. We were told that we had not been paying the bill correctly, and that they had sent letters stating we needed to pay all three meters correctly.
It's a long story of what happened, but we were told we would have a refund in 3 days from the overpaid account, but they got us to put money on a money pak. We had no idea this is non refundable and it's very difficult to contact the company. The money was gone immediately.
This may shut us down. This was our rent money for June.
I was talking with fire inspection officers about getting an entertainment license so I could have small gatherings of local music to bring people into the store again. We used to be located in the Delano area and we moved for cheaper rent, but a larger space. I was counting on that license. I was informed of all the things I would have to do such as: have a bigger parking lot, fire alarm system, sprinkler system and more. I had started crying, I didn't want to charge money, I just wanted to attract people to the store with "art with the music" and we can't even do that. The call from Westars number came in as the officers were informing me of violations we have 30 days to fix. We need fire extinguishers on every floor, etc.
The call is threatening to shut your electricity right then, and someone is on their way. We argued quite a while, and we have three meters in this building. We were told that we had not been paying the bill correctly, and that they had sent letters stating we needed to pay all three meters correctly.
It's a long story of what happened, but we were told we would have a refund in 3 days from the overpaid account, but they got us to put money on a money pak. We had no idea this is non refundable and it's very difficult to contact the company. The money was gone immediately.
This may shut us down. This was our rent money for June.
Organizer
Jessica McCleary Dunne-Olson
Organizer
Wichita, KS
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