Location: Texas.
Friends and family paid in a total of over $600 on stuff listed in the magazine for the Big Kahuna Fundraiser my daughter’s school is doing. Well, a couple months later and no word. So we reach out, and the school say “Oh, we already gave everything out.” We were like what? Where was our stuff then? Because we were never notified that a package had arrived at the school from Big Kahuna (the fundraiser third party vender). We never received an email saying it was sitting at the school for us. They had no answer for us. That is $600… we are furious. They likely split it amongst themselves.
We have proof from bank statements and from the Big Kahuna app digital receipts that we paid for these items. What legal action can we take? Thank you
What has the school said when you told them you didn’t receive your items? How were these items paid with as well? Check, credit card?
They said they didn’t know where it was and that we needed to speak to someone at the school who wasn’t there when we called. Everything was paid via credit card. If the other person tells us they don’t know where the package is and refuses to either reimburse us or provide the items, what options do we have?
Wait, so you've talked to exactly one person who was not in charge of the fundraiser about this? And the person who would know the answer has not been in the office yet? And you're "furious" and thinking you might need to take legal action?
I would chill out for now. It's entirely possible that the person who answered the phone is misinformed. Talk to the person in charge and give them some time to figure it out. Jumping to the school staff stealing your items and wanting to take legal action at this stage is...bizarre.
I agree, accusing them of splitting the items among themselves before OP has actually spoken with the coordinator is really crazy.
It's not crazy to the extent that every single school fundraiser I participated in told us the pick up day for items before we even ordered. If not, the students are responsible for relaying any changes in information, as well as the information was publicly posted in public information locations.
But more importantly, it was stressed everywhere that non-pickup resulted in no one holding the items for you. Regarding the legality of it, I would suppose whatever the student agreed to before participating. Find that out. But every fundraiser rundown before participating had that caveat mentioned - no pickup, no holds.
When a lawyer would cost more than $600!
That would be small claims they don't let you being a lawyer to those.
Depends on the jurisdiction. Most allow it, it's usually unnecessary.
Depends on the state
Is this true? I've never been to small claims court. Why are you not allowed legal representation during small claims court?
It depends on the state. Some states allow lawyers, some do not. The reasoning is that small claims is meant to be less formal, more quickly adjudicated and cheaper. Adding lawyers to the mix (usually) goes against all three of those goals.
That makes sense. Thanks for helping me understand 😊
People are so insanely quick to threaten legal action over the most ridiculous stuff. I can count the number of times I've heard this threat over delayed packages in the last 30 days on two hands, as if no one is aware this is the busiest time of the year and retailers don't control how busy mail carriers are. 99% of the time those customers packages were delivered the next day
AND it's a school! Our elementary school has over 600 kids. I run a major fundraiser, so i know who I need to talk to, but the women in the office certainly may not.
Yes, $600 is a lot of money, but it's the holidays and the people in the office (or the pto) do different things, so they probably need to just talk to the right person.
I don't know what big kahuna is, but I assume it's like every other school fundraiser. Overpriced books, overpriced popcorn, etc. I doubt the front office kept these things for themselves
People are insane. We go from one secretary not knowing the details of some PTA run fundraiser to being furious and considering legal action. Absolute insanity. Take a breath.
No kidding!! Legal advice after one call doesn’t get you the person with knowledge about this? And now it’s a conspiracy? I bet you’re fun.
I get calls like this every week. If you offer a free consultation, people will call.
I'd say a couple months without any word leaves room to be upset but he should speak to more people for sure.
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How long ago was this purchase via credit card? Usually if it’s within 120 days you could call your credit card company up and request a charge back and let them know you never received the items. Outside the 120 days, you could still try but you may not have as much luck that way.
The problem is the items for my daughter were purchased by multiple people, who won’t be receiving those items, they were just pitching in. So would they have grounds to request a charge back? Especially when Big Kahuna has no idea the school never provided us the items?
If they also used a credit card and it is within the 120 days, they can also do a charge back and state item not received since technically the item was not received.
Might be longer than 120 days, since goods were never received. Most card processors allow an extension in dispute time in this circumstance.
Exactly this. I can't remember the dispute code off-hand, but I think the rule is X days (maybe 120) from the agreed receipt date (i.e. you can place a custom order for a piece of furniture that will be delivered in 6 months, you have 6 months + X days to initiate the dispute). Obviously the devil is in the details, but I've recovered money from a chargeback on a vendor that went insolvent 7 months into an 8 month order.
Was this a situation where your daughter went around the neighborhood and people selected the items, paid your daughter, and then she (you) placed a single order with Big Kahuna?
If so, you would be responsible for refunding the neighbors after doing the charge back. Technically you're responsible for refunding even if you don't win a charge back.
Again it's still a little too early to jump to charge backs or legal action. Keep calling the school until you can talk to the person who was running the fundraiser.
I don't think they would win a chargeback anyways. The vendor likely has a shipping label showing the goods were mailed to the school
Even in the case of a middleman like this, the chargeback is designed to protect the payer. A high enough chargeback could end up meaning the cost falls to the school and/or they get blacklisted by Big Kahuna (and all the other related businesses under the umbrella).
You are kind of getting ahead of yourself here. Why would you assume that multiple people stole your stuff or the person in charge is going to refuse to resolve the situation? I can think of dozens of other explanations. I'm guessing that your friends/family purchased stuff they wanted to use for Christmas gifts and school is out Friday and you are feeling panicked (which is fair,) but jumping to suing them isn't going to solve the problem faster.
Talk to the person that is in charge of the fundraiser. Email them, message them using the school communication app, call and leave a message if they don't answer, ask the office to make an appointment to talk to them - you need to communicate with that person directly. The person who answers the phones in the office isn't likely to be able to help you other than telling you who that person is.
Once you talk to that person, you need to give them some time to solve the problem. Unless your stuff is sitting in their office because you never read the directions about picking it up, they are going to need to do some work to figure this out. How long depends who they need to talk to and how quick they respond, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if it it took them a week or two. Unless they completely blow you off and aren't willing to help, they are going to be your best hope for getting this resolved quickly - so be nice.
Contact the fundraising company directly and see if they can verify that your items were shipped to the school or help in any other way.
If they aren't helpful, talk to the principal at the school. (There is a good chance that they are going to tell you that it is a PTA sponsored event, so they are not in charge of it - but they still are a good person to ask anyway.)
If it is a PTA event, talk to your PTA president. If that doesn't help, go to a PTA meeting and bring it up. If it is a school sponsored event, talk to higher ups at the district office.
Can you contact the parent council? Its possible they ran the fundraiser and the school just handed the purchases out.
Texas mom, we do Big Kahuna as well. Did you order through the magazine or the online website. The magazine should be cash/check only. If through the website (via card) majority of the items are “ship to home” the only items that should be “ship to school” are perishables such as cookie dough, candy, etc.
Our pick up day was included on all of the initial paperwork, and also sent home multiple times beyond that. Big kahuna even texted everybody to say their items would be arriving on that specific date or time. It was very clear when that would be and we had no items left behind.
Start with an informative demand letter to the Principal outlining the situation and facts and that you expect either a full refund or the items within 30 days, or whatever time period you would prefer. Send by certified mail so you have a record of them receiving it.
If you have already talked to the Principal or you do not get a positive response I would escalate to the District Treasurer and then to the School Board.
I recommend not threatening to sue or involve attorneys right away, otherwise they will have to shunt it directly to their legal team.
I have family that recently retired from public education (and all the CYA and BS the administrators did) and this poster is correct. Go to the school principal first via a traceable method of communication (email with read receipts or certified letter), then escalate to the district and school board. If you involve a lawyer, every admin at all levels will cease communication and go into full CYA mode (including getting their own legal support).
It is also possible that the PTA, or the fundraising group, is separate from the school. Ours raises money for the school, but isn't part of the school. The principal is still a good place to start. If word gets out, they are cooked for fundraising in the future.
Is it possible that a paper was sent home with your child with details on how to do pickup, and it was missed? Several of the fundraisers at our local school have a pickup window, and they say on the paper that they can't hold anything beyond the date-- everything will be donated if it's not picked up. Granted, one of those is a mum fundraiser, so they don't want to be responsible for keeping them alive beyond the pickup window.
You could ask specifically if there were leftover items that weren't collected, and what happened to them. Maybe the company didn't even send your items
My kids elementary school sent out 3 emails, 4 texts, and it was in the school newsletter every single week. I'm shocked I didn't get a damn phone call lol no way there was no word on where or when.
This should be at the top. Very hard to believe there weren't multiple flyers, emails, newsletter reminders when items were going to be at the school for a coordinated pick-up if the number of items were too big for the child to carry home safely. And if the student is older than k/1 they surely remembered all of their classmates taking stuff home or being reminded verbally from teacher that your fundraising items are in the office. (Often even stickers come home on their shirts with reminders.)
Plus almost guarantee that school staff did not 'split it amongst themselves.' OP even suggesting this tells me she doesn't have a ton of interaction with the school's office staff. (Not saying they're all perfect but vast majority of elementary school office staff are some of the nicest people on earth and incredible multi-taskers who usually know the answer to almost every school related question and keep track of 30+ staff members and 300+ kids usually-often more so than admin.
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My son’s teacher accidentally gave our items to another kid with a similar name. The teacher confessed after reviewing the class list.
I ended up politely going to the other kid’s home and humbling asking. Was able to retrieve the items. I felt bad for asking the other family for the return of items though.
They must know that stuff isn’t theirs though. They still wanted to keep it until you showed up at their door.
lol is it worth it to see your name in the news paper "X suing school over stolen Big Kahuna"
Yes it freaking is!
It's a little premature for lawyers.
Why don't you try posting to /r/AskTeachers or the like before you start calling the lawyers. There are almost certainly people there familiar with that fundraising system and they might be able to help you navigate it.
Contact the district superintendent.
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Just ask for a refund
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Legal advice??
$600????
Not saying that's necessarily the case with OP's situation, but sometimes the best legal advice is to do exactly what they're suggesting, that is, take no action and move on with your life.
OP, I found out who took the money.
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How does this help OP now though?
Did you even read the post?
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You can sue a public school for damages. However because of sovereign immunity you need to prove willful misconduct as opposed to negligence.
And if the PTA ran the fundraiser you can sue them for damages due to negligence