What Happened to Funtana
Reviews are very important to business. A dishonest review can drastically skew public perception and even kill a business. That's what happened to Funtana. I trieed to treat the bad review for Funtana the same way I've used bad reviews for Mr. T's, to showcase our dedication to customer service and quality. Below are screenshots and supporting documents showing the whole saga, roughly in order.
That exchange (in which I offered services for about 50% off) prompted me to look at my booking records. I took over Funtana photo booth in September 2018. I booked 1 event in that year despite the late start. In 2019 I booked 6, despite having put almost nothing into promotion. 2020 I had one booking that didn't cancel. Stephanie cancelled hers for that year, of course. 2021 I didn't expect much. I booked 2. When 2022 started, the wedding industry was expecting a big boom of events, considering almost all the weddings for the past two years had been cancelled. I poured over $2000 into promotion over that year, putting listings on The Knot and WeddingWire. I booked 2 events, barely covering my promotion costs. The complete lack of recovery led me to examine conversion rates related to leads from those two listings. I booked less than 2% despite an expected conversion rate of closer to 30%. I lost more than $10k in 2022 alone, only counting leads I actually got and not leads I missed out on from people who decided not to contact me. I have documents for all of these approximations showing exact numbers that I have left out for security purposes.
I could not ignore the effect of this single bad review any longer. I filed a lawsuit. In short, the judge threw it out with a dismissal that specifically rules on the merits of the case, which is to say, "there is no possible way to provide evidence of the claim filed." I think that a transcript of a conversation held online should be as good as video evidence, but I was not given a chance to address any of the evidence I had. After the case wrapped up, I was forced to forego pursuing an appeal because I had been unable to hire a lawyer for the whole ordeal and needed to refocus on my new downtown location.