Complaint Review: Green Event Company / Ian Kelly

I was contacted mid October 2009 to work the Phishfest 2009 on Halloween in Indio, California, as an airport greeter at LAX for all the people attending the big event, the compensation were free passes.  I said I would only work if I was paid actual money and they agreed.  I was also contacted a few days later to drive at the actual event for all the people attending the event as they had paid for a shuttle service through Valley Music travel and Green Event. Co, and I would be responsible for driving along with several others with a van that Green Event company would be renting. 

I have been a driver for years at different festivals and thought this would be no different.  I was in for a big shock.  Before I got there plans kept getting changed, like where we were going to stay exactly, we were also told that to keep things "Green" we should all carpool to a car rental place in Los Angeles for those of us that were in Los Angeles and we would be on our own if we drove to the venue on our own and not compensated.  I thought this was odd as this has never been practice with the other event companies I have worked with before.  Generally each driver gets their own van at these events but Green Event Co rented vans in Indio, aside from the one they rented in Los Angeles and each of us had to share a van with the day driver, again this was a strange situation as it made it difficult on us and it wasn't fair to the people who had paid a lot of a service and it wasn't available all the time like they promised. 

So as the day approached I drove on my own & I am very happy I did since our lodging was changed and we were far away from the venue, initially we were not but that changed immediately.  Plans changed again and we had to go to another place and "meet" which wasn't much other than we got to say hello to some of the other drivers and that is about it.  We were put to work immediately without getting any understanding of what we were doing, where we were going, no safety issues were really brought up etc.  In fact I had to bring it up in the meeting.  Again I have done this before and I am familiar with the area as I have worked other events in Indio but there were many who were not and they kept on getting people who again paid a lot for a service lost as no one gave us a day or even an hour to get acclimated to the place or what we were doing. 

We were dependent upon one person to pick us up and drop us off which made our 12 hour day even longer as we ended up waiting due to the distance to get to and from the venue.  We were also made to share Nextels as well and some of them did work so we ended up using our cell phones which we had to pay for and because of the location and its remoteness we didn't always have signals which can be a problem and even dangerous if we had a sick or injured passenger.  Fortunately we did not. 

Finally on Sunday Nov1 we were told our day was done at midnight, well that changed and we were told we had to stay on until the morning.  I didn't mind doing the night shift and took this job on because it was supposed to end at midnight.  So I stayed on and once we were done on Monday morning we left, exhausted, frustrated and glad it was all over.  The only thing we were given was per diem as we were night shift people and had to fend for ourselves on food because nothing is open late at night.  We were also given float for gas but the small amount they gave us wasn't much and we were told to share it with the day driver.  We ended up taking hundreds with no one asking, and at the end we didn't even have to organize receipts and put any kind of expense report together. 

I do recall some bus drivers in our area getting very upset about the hours they were working and there was almost a fight even.  I felt bad for the fans as they were nice and I was annoyed to know that they were paying what they were paying and not getting the service they paid for, I wondered if they knew. 

So after the festival is over we wait & wait and a month goes by & no check.  We tried to call Ian Kelly of Green Event Co.  He is now blaming it on Dan Berkowitz of Valley Music Travel, or at least he said so in a conference call he asked us to be in on, but it was rather convenient since most people have work so they couldn't be there.  He also wanted us to fill out invoices which makes me wonder where the initial papers I filled out went in the first place.  I also noticed that the rate I was promised was changed on the invoice I got from him, I corrected it sent it back with a note that he needed to pay me what I was promised.  We got some emails from Dan Berkowitz  of Valley Music saying that they could pay us half and  I kept hearing different things for awhile and now nothing.  Me and a lot of others got stiffed right before the Holidays and that is really rotten. 

I tried to email Phish the band and let them know that the companies that represent them are a fraud but I got nothing.  It seems that the whole hippie, love, peace hair full of grease this is just something they hide behind while roping people into intense volunteer work.  I talked with an attorney who said this would be difficult as people from all over worked this event.  So each of us would have to get an attorney in each state and because we are here in LA that makes it more challenging. 

We just want our money.  We worked hard and in all the years I have done this I have NEVER not been paid.  If Phish is the band they represent themselves to be they would do right by the people who helped them make it possible.  I started a blog for me and the others involved as well as anyone else who would like to give their opinion.  www.greeneventcompanyowesmemoney.com.  We hope that bringing this to the attention of someone might help us or keep others from getting ripped off. 

Thank you for your time,

Gina S

kookoo6