Are all payments up front fraudulent?
Clearly there must be trust at some point in a relationship. When you give the donation before the service, you at least have a real person in a real place before you. But even then, the service may be terrible, or worse, you could be subjected to a Cash and Dash (This happened to me in Las Vegas! But to give cash up front with no person present is just obviously fraudulent! How gullible are we? LG.
[QUOTE=Zodrocket;1994808]First, welcome to the board.
Second, yes, it is completely unreasonable to expect half the payment before you even meet in person. They should reasonably expect someone to place a donation in sight once you arrive, but not before. As for "no shows," think of it like an airline. A lot of times they double or over book expecting that some will not show or that they can rush the service in a tight or that they'll even bump you to the next available flight time. They also have their own little "do not fly" list for those who piss them off and getting on and off of that list will vary some by carrier, but no showing is a pretty sure way, especially if its habitual. Short answer: no shows are a cost of doing business, an overhead factored in just like a room to host.
Finally, good catch though on the Google. Always check out their reviews just in case.[/QUOTE]