Tiki Gardens Memorial update: please read if you donated

I got the bad news yesterday from Chris. After Chris’s proposal to the County Commissioners, they sat on proposal for a while then denied the request for the statue.

A lot of people here and elsewhere helped out with support, either verbal or monetary. We all wanted to see this happen, even if we all didn’t donate. But I guess the city had other plans. I think it’s pretty freaking cool that Chris made the proposal and really gave it his all to get this pushed through – ideas like this are talked about all the time but rarely get past the “talking about it” stage. I think it’s great that the Fund got donations amounting to hundreds of dollars, too. Everyone who pitched in should be commended.

The current plan is to have the money that was donated be returned, and I’m going to help out Otto with this. If you donated via Paypal, the money will be Paypal’ed back to you. For people who donated by check: we never got a good tally of TikiCentral-names to real-names, so please send me an email to with your tiki central name, your real name, the amount you donated, and your address, as this will make it easier to sync up with Otto. Sorry, we’re still working out the logistics of this process.

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-04-26 04:21 ]

That stinks. Hukilau has been working with some South Florida tiki fanatics and the City Link magazine is devoting an issue to tiki for the event and the Tiki Gardens memorial was to be a part of it. We have managed to get a lot of people's attention. We were really hoping the memorial would get a huge push from this in Florida.

sounds like its time for a "guerilla memorial"

bump

Have the funds collected for this been paid back yet? I still haven't received my paypal payment yet.

-Mug

Good question.
I want to buy Wayne Coombs a drink or two for his fruitless efforts on this, (and a couple for me to drown my sorrows.)

yes I would also like to know whats up with the 100 clams I paypaled out into space...

As would I.

( I personally held back my pledge due to medical reasons )

If you sent monies to the fund, and haven't gotten your money back, this blows.

IF THE TIKI AIN'T GOIN UP, GET THE MONEY BACK TO THE PLEDGERS!

I am not a cosigner on the account that was set up, but I do think that it sucks if Cy has divorced himself from the TC pledgers, and hasn't seen to it that they got their money back.

Otto, any ideas of info? Not pinning anything on you, but if you've got any info, or a lack of info, let the good pledgers know.

TG
http://www.exotic-tiki-gardens.com

First edit was to correct inaccurate url
Second was to clarify my personal pledge status.
[ Edited by: TikiGardener on 2003-06-11 20:22 ]

[ Edited by: TikiGardener on 2003-06-11 20:25 ]

Over a week goes by and still no answer from anyone about what is happening with this money.

If the money is not going to be returned, and this has been some kind of scam on TC members, then someone involved needs to come out and explain the situation instead of running away from it and hoping it will go away, because it won't.

If this isn't settled in some way by next Wednesday, either by returning the money or a seriously detailed explanation of who, what, when, where, and why, then I am going to file fraud complaints with PAYPAL and look into how we can get our monies back via legal means.

I'm sorry it seems to have come to this, but every day that goes by without an explanation or answer just gets me more and more pissed off -- there are plenty of fine charities I could have donated that money to, and I'm sure others don't appreciate having their money held hostage in such a rude fashion.

-Mug

Perhaps you could email Otto at [email protected] and inquire about your refund.

Thanks, Jab. I was avoiding emailing him because as I understand it he was just collecting the funds via paypal for the guys in charge because he already had an account set up.

But I emailed him just now, so I will report back with his response.

It would be nice to hear from whoever was in charge, however. It's not so much the money that bothers me as it is the complete disregard for those who donated to the cause.

-Mug

Yeah, I echo Muggler's sentiments. I am real sorry that this memorial didn't take off, I was looking forward to it. But, there has been no info as to the status of returning the money... inquiring minds want to know!

Indeed, there's a fine line between biding one's time and wasting one's time,

Trader Woody

Heard back from the editor of Tiki News this morning regarding $$$ donated to the Raise A Tiki project...

"I was supposed to return all that money a couple weeks ago but I moved instead and just got back to having e-mail and computer a few days ago. Will give the explanation and cash this week."

Frankly, a couple of us urged this task on Otto because we felt most TCers would trust him to do the right thing, no matter what happened. Now that he mentions it, I remember he said he was moving east.

On 2003-06-19 07:20, Kailuageoff wrote:
Heard back from the editor of Tiki News this morning regarding $$$ donated to the Raise A Tiki project...

"I was supposed to return all that money a couple weeks ago but I moved instead and just got back to having e-mail and computer a few days ago. Will give the explanation and cash this week."

Frankly, a couple of us urged this task on Otto because we felt most TCers would trust him to do the right thing, no matter what happened. Now that he mentions it, I remember he said he was moving east.

Glad to hear that it's getting resolved. Otto's moving East - all the way from San Francisco to Oakland. Us Oaklanders welcome him with open bars!

Otto may be irregular in putting out Tiki News, but you can trust him with your money! If he is the one responsible for refunds, you will get them. He's a good guy.

On 2003-06-19 15:34, mrsmiley wrote:
Otto may be irregular in putting out Tiki News, but you can trust him with your money! If he is the one responsible for refunds, you will get them. He's a good guy.

It's been over a month since the above was posted and still no news. Has anyone heard anything?

I know we are all trying to be nice about this because everyone got involved with the best of intentions to do a good thing but is there any legitimate excuse for these delays without even the courtesy of a response?

I got my cash back. So sad for you Mug.

Otto (was has an infant son and recently moved) has been squeezing in time when he can to return money to the donors.
Because of the time passed, he can't just "refund" the money. He has to start from scratch and manually send each payment back to the donor. This slow process takes about 5 minutes per person.
He is only one person-and us donors were many. It will take longer for him to take care of all of us than it took for us individual folks to send each contribution to him(we sent one contribution to one person-he has to return 100(or so) to 100 (or so) people.
Some people I know have rec'd their money back-I and others have not. I will see if I can have him update us.--bruce

Thanks for the update, Bruce. I understand the situation and I'm totally cool with it. It's just with no updates those of us who haven't received it yet are simply left to wonder.

At least now we have some info. I'll be a good boy and wait some more.

"Thanks for the update, Bruce. I understand the situation and I'm
totally cool with it. It's just with no updates those of us who haven't
received it yet are simply left to wonder.

At least now we have some info. I'll be a good boy and wait some more"

cool--I got this info when I saw Otto at my Birthday party July8--I know a busy father has to party SOMETIME!

All refunds are in!

Sorry for the delay. I can only perfom this from my account which is set up at work and it is time consuming

thank you everyone for your patience and participation.

I know you know that cy of TikiGardens.com and myself put a lot of heartfelt work into this effort and we appreciate the support that all of you gave

sincerely
Otto

And I thank Otto for his efforts.
TG

so if i haven't recieved a refund yet should i be worried?

Inks,
I got mine in the mail yesterday. Hopefully, the NYC postal service delivers yours soon.
M C

THANKS FOR THE REFUND!! (I'm so very broke right now--this check REALLLY brightened my day.)

On 2003-08-21 23:52, inkylouise wrote:
so if i haven't recieved a refund yet should i be worried?

worried, no.
you should email me directly and let me know how and how much you donated so I can look into it
If via Paypal be sure to give me your email address or account name that you used

cheers