As correspondent to Salsaweb and Editor to the Writers Forum, I'm use to receiving emails from readers all the time. Very recently I received several emails from some friends on both coasts directing me to read a particular message on the Salsaweb Chat-board. What I found was something that might have belonged in an old Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone Episode. So sit back and read about a fellow salsero's nightmare which happened a couple a months ago in what I can only call the "SALSA-ZONE". -MS

Email Message- from the East Coast
By the way, A friend of mine had a really crummy experience at
"A Certain NY Club" and is looking to send a letter of complaint to the management.
You have any idea who to write to? They did something really awful -
this guy's wife won a birthday party there and they offered free
everything, then it turned out that the night of the party they had Tony
Vega and Gran Combo there, so when the guests arrived they charged them
for everything and disregarded all the promises on the invitations.
Check out his posting in SALSAWEB  "Chat Board". It's really awful when
a club is so dishonorable like that.
Well dear, hope all is well. Hope to see you soon.

Email Message- from the West Coast
I was cruising the chatboard and I saw a post from a guy who was
celebrating his wife's birthday at "Certain New York Club" and he was not happy at
all with how things were handled.  I don't know if you saw it, but just in
case you didn't, I will put the text below.
I can't believe his group received such bad treatment at the club!  I hope
that it is not a trend among other clubs out there.  Anyway, I thought I
would pass this on to you for your information. 

The Nightmare
On Saturday Nov 28, my wife had won a birthday party at "this club",
they had giving us about 150 tickets to give out. Everyone was to get
in for FREE before 09:30pm, no waiting in line if guests had tickets, after
that they were to pay half price.
To our surprise when we got there by 09:00PM we had some of our guest
waiting on a big line that went around the corner from the club.
I approached one of the ushers and asked him if we could get in since the
tickets said no waiting on line, his response was that everyone that was on
line had VIP tickets and that there were 14 birthday parties going on at the
same time.
Yet there were guest that had arrived by 08:00pm and were not allowed to get
in the club till 09:30PM
The next question that I asked was if we got there before 09:30PM was the
club going to validate the tickets and let my guest and I free as per our
tickets invitation. The answer was 'he did not know and to talk to some on
in charged'.
As we got to the door to my surprise my guest and I had to pay half price,
even my wife the birthday person, this infuriated me and I asked to speak to
some one in charged, no one showed up.
This was very embarrassing since we had invited plenty of people to join the
party.
To make matter worst they escorted my wife to a small place in the side of
the entrance, and told her that she could only sit four guests, and that was
supposed to be the VIP room.
I could not believe the treatment this club was giving us, so I decided once
again to speak to some one and see if we could get some tables together and
had my guest sit with us.
That was a joke to them, they told me that in order for me to sit my guest
together, I would have to order a bottle per table.
It was frustration through out the night, but I decided that we had invited
so many friends the least thing I could do was to get 3 tables and get a
bottle for each table on me. (Service was $83 dollar per table).
This was robbery because they did not had or wanted to serve wine bottles
that were $55 per table.
On top of that, there was this one usher that did not want people to sit on
the outside of the table and asked this one man 'to move out because he was
too FAT' I could not believe what this usher said to the person. The man got
offended and told the usher that what he said was not polite and he asked
for an apology.
The usher made up a story and said that what he told him was ' that he
needed for him to move because he had a wide back and the waiters could not
get between the tables'. (Could you believe that)?
This same usher was annoying to us since my guest kept on coming to my
table, to wish my wife a Happy Birthday, he came up to me and asked me to
move my party someplace else because we had to many people hanging around.
This got me so angry and I told him that I paid for each of those tables and
if he wanted me out he would have to get me someplace were my guest and I
could sit. (That quiets him down for a while)
The club is a disgrace the way they give out false advertisement on the
tickets, they do not honor what they print and make you paid regardless of
any complaint, in top of that the personnel that works for them are rude and
impolite.
I want to apologize to any person that was there as my guest and hopefully
writing this letter will make some one else aware of the problem this club
has with the clients.
End of Chat-board Message.

As you can see I've included two of the original emails directing me to the Chat-board, along with the chat-board message itself. I've kept the name of the club in question a secret, to avoid any more mud-throwing than necessary. What I wanted to highlight was not the club's name, but the fact that a club could do this to a dancer. Its common knowledge, that clubs don't usually like dancers. To them we pay our admission fee, we dance, we drink soda & water (since most of us are not drinkers by nature) and we leave. They don't feel like they can make money off of us (unless we spend more money at the bar). I think we (as dancers) do our share. We usually pay (in NY) $3 for a small bottle of water and $2 to $3 dollars for a "small" glass of soda. We as a rule are not trouble makers and people enjoy watching good dancers have a blast on the dance floor.

Now I consider myself a businessman and I understand the principles behind good business, so I think that it is suicide for a club to bite the hand that feeds it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the dancer is the most neglected element in the Salsa world. We don't get the respect that we deserve. But we are what keeps the industry alive. Without us who is going to buy new CD's, listen to radio stations, keep Salsa bands on top of the charts and go to clubs? We are the life-line to the industry. When the dance crowd stops going to a club, it dies. In other words, it goes out of business.

Sure I understand why clubs have to be so strict with rules, but its been my experience that there are few trouble makers that go to Salsa clubs. We have a very sophisticated and mature crowd. If clubs want to prosper they have to take care of the people who go to them. I hope that clubs owners heed my warning. Word of mouth is the most powerful weapon that a dancer has. If word gets out that a particular club treats dancers badly, then that club is signing its own death warrant. I know if I hear that a club treats people badly, I won't go to it and I'll tell others to stay away from it too.

So are their others out there with similar Salsa-zone stories? Write to me and let me know at manny@salsaweb.com