[Dixielandjazz]was MORE ASCAP / now road war stories.

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

My final input on this worthless to us organization,

I treat them the same way as I would a letter from a collection agency, for a 
company like American Express who I have had an eight year dispute with and 
refuse to pay them for $4,000.00 worth of Train tickets that their Travel 
agency never delivered to me in Europe but rather showed up at my hotel at 5:00 
a.m. with a sealed envelope which was supposed to be my Round trip train tickets 
from Paris to Switzerland for a festival.

I boarded the train with 13 people in the band and got about thirty miles 
outside Paris when the conductor came by and asked for Les Billets,  ( Tickets)   
I handed him the sealed envelope, which he opened and went through finding 
the reservations for the group but not tickets.   I assured him that they must 
be in ther because I had paid for them and the travel agency had delivered them 
to me in that envelope.   "No, No Mizzureire (sic) zare ees no teekets, only 
rezervations.   You must pay again or get off the train with all your 
peoples."

OH crap, I could see thirteen guys walking back to Paris alongside the train 
tracks with equipment and 35 pieces of luggage with my butt being kicked all 
the way back, :))

Well, I quickly figured no problem, just give him the Old AMEX card and pay 
him and settle up with them when I get to Switzerland or back to Paris.  Wrong, 
Wrong, Wrong, "So sorry Mizzureire (Sic) but we do not accept zee credit 
cards, only cash on zee train in any currency or combinations of it zat you 
haves."  So I made all the fellers cough up all the money in their pockets and I 
took all that I had left in cash for road expenses for the trip and paid the guy 
enough to get us 1/2 way to our destination.  When we got there I got off the 
train and went to a ticket window and was able to recharge the rest of the 
fares to AMEX.  They assured me that their office in Paris would fix the problem 
and refund my money when I got back to Paris.

Well, after two days of fighting with them in Paris they still did not refund 
the money and swore that they had placed the tickets inside the envelope, 
even though they had no records anywhere showing that they had indeed ever even 
issued the tickets.

Since the bill for AMEX does not come for about four weeks later I had to 
wait till I got back to the States to deal with it because our tour continued on 
beyond Paris and I could not stay there and fight them forever.

I wrote a letter to AMEX in the USA and explained it all to them and told 
them I was not going to pay for the second set of tickets, they said they would 
cancel my AMEX Card, I told them I didn't care if they stuck it where the Sun 
did not shine I was not gong to pay for what I did not get.  They insisted that 
I would have to go back to Paris and settle it with zee French.  I said you 
own the damned agency, you deal with them I am not going to pay you twice.  
They canceled my card, even though I paid for all the legitimate charges I had 
made on it.  Then they called and harassed me for months trying to collect the 
outstanding balance and I just kept hanging up on them and writing "DECEASED" 
on all their mail and return to sender.

To this day I won't do business with them, and I must get five solicitations 
a month to take their stupid cards.

So my final recommendation for ASCAP is the same:

Just write "DECEASED" on anything you get form them and send it back return 
to sender, you can bet it will not be a royalty check for you anyway.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins