The Photo Booth Lounge

We paid Tim Gemelli (Founder of The Photo Booth Lounge) $ 6K for a 2-​day photo booth activation in the lobby at NY Fashion Week for our client. Due to his lack of communication we missed integral deadlines and were unable to use his services on Feb 6 and 7, 2014. And here is the kicker — HE KEPT OUR MONEY! We are boutique PR agency and Tim took our $ 6,000 and will not give it back. We are currently meeting with our lawyer to
take next steps.
Here is the skinny: our client was supposed to host a photo booth as part of their lounge offerings at Fashion Week. There were many details that needed to be confirmed and approved prior to such a large-​scale event (which is a $ 100K+ investment for our client) so that they could build out the area to proper specifications. Since we were unable to get in touch with him or receive responses in a timely manner, we were directed by both the event venue and the client to cancel his services. We were thusly forced to create an entire new event in a short time at a significant cost to our agency. Tim asked us to pay in full as we secured his services for a date less than 30 days out, so we signed a contract and paid in full and then he became unresponsive.