For anyone who doesn’t know, my husband Chris and I won a photo contest that Renaissance Magazine sponsored in 2008. We won first place! Our prize was a $1500 credit to Debbie’s Creative Costumes (owned by Debbie La Franchi). It has been one year since we won the contest, and we still don’t have our prize.

The story goes something like this:

Once we won, Debbie contacted us to say congrats and after a couple of months we finally decided on what we wanted. We placed an order of a doublet for Chris and one long coat for me with faux fur trim for those cold faires. She said we could have at least one of the items within a month but that passed soon because she said she was busy with her daughter’s prom. I asked then for a deadline of October, that date also passed. I asked for a third deadline in time for Kearney Faire, the last faire of the season, which was to be November 6th.

I contacted Renaissance Magazine just before receiving my coat to say I wasn’t pleased about the delays, and Lady Janet (in not so many words) said it wasn’t her problem because there weren’t any rules defining when the seamstress had to ante up nor were there any standards for her work.

My coat arrived while I was at faire. Chris’ doublet was not included. At first glance the coat was nice, and then I realized it didn’t fit. Despite the fact that I had given many measurements (as this was to be custom to me) the bust was too small, the hem over a foot too long, the hood too small (and I asked for a collar!), the sleeves too wide and too long. I asked if I could return it for alterations and Debbie said she could take care of it. I also asked about Chris’ doublet, and she said she’d get to it after her Christmas rush. I asked that we have them by the end of January at the latest-her 4th deadline now.

I emailed Debbie three times in Jan/Feb with no response. Renaissance Magazine only said that they’d “try to move things along” by contacting her; Debbie’s excuse to them was that she was ill.
In late March I requested my items within 45 days (5th deadline now), or monetary equivalent within 30 days. Debbie called me a bully and said I was taking advantage of her kindness because the coat was worth $1500 (the prize value) but “She lowered the cost for me”. This had never been stated until now and it seemed like she was trying to say that this one item, half of our order, should be enough for us. She said she was still sick, hadn’t altered my coat and hadn’t even started on Chris’ doublet and won’t do so. So she’ll be sending our items “as is” back to us and will consider her end of the bargain fulfilled.

Since Renaissance Magazine was again no help, I took this info to their parent/owner company, Queue, and they attempted to look at the matter. After two weeks of looking it over, they offered me the unaltered coat and $250 for alterations. I refused. They countered with $350 saying that was their final offer because their office was moving and they didn’t have time for this matter. So I accepted.

Today is one day past the deadline for the coat to arrive that Queue and I agreed on. They supposedly got Debbie to also agree to it too.

So here we are. A year past what was a really happy and freaking awesome time in our lives to be nationally recognized for having a cool wedding…and we’ve been dragged around by a bunch of companies who think they don’t have to own up to their end of a bargain if they don’t feel like it.
BUYER BEWARE! I personally will never patronize Renaissance Magazine again, if you decide to do the same I won’t blame you but I shouldn’t ask anyone to do that for me. Also beware of Debbie La Franchi because of her shoddy work, lack of communication (she also changed her website during this time and didn’t tell me) and over-inflated prices (that aren’t listed on her site). Share this info with other faire friends and make sure they don’t get screwed over like we did.

-Ariel Kottke