Mods, I tried to post where I thought this would fit best. If you feel it belongs in a different area then please feel free to move this thread. Best, -Michele

Dear puppet planet customers,
As many of you are aware, I have had several personal challenges over the past couple years that have led to some difficulty in my business transactions. Divorce, Illness, home foreclosure, and moving out of state to name a few. All of which have contributed to a slow progression to financial stability for my family.

Things have gotten so rough that my daughters and I had to spend a few months recently in a one room homeless shelter. At this time, I have no means of transportation as my vehicle needs the transmission replaced. I no longer own a computer due to being forced to sell most of my valuables and furnishings when transfering my family to the shelter. I have, however, recently been provided a home on a ranch with the opportunity to work off the value of rent and utilities until I find regular employment. I do not have a telephone. I live in a very small rural town where there is no public transportation available. I know very few people here all of which help me with transportation when they can. The nearest library is about 15 miles away, where I am currently using the free computer for communication when I'm able to get here during open hours. I am telling you this to express the difficulty of being able to communicate via email in a reasonable manner. And to let you know of the limits to resources currently available to me at this time.

I have read some despariging remarks about myself and my business practices. I am very sorry that my personal life has interfered with my ability to run things in a professional manner. I suppose I have to live with those remarks and negative word of mouth about me. However, I have no intentions of changing my business name to hide behind some other persona. I am working to get my family back on stable ground and I will make no pretence of the fact that it will take some time. I will continue to do business under the name Puppet Planet for as long as the desire to build puppets remains within me. I will build my reputation back to respectable status via means of facing the issues at hand and taking responsibility for them. Over time, positive word of mouth will replace the bad things that people have chosen to say and spread about me. I feel that’s the right thing to do rather than filing bankruptsy or other methods that some people choose to "start fresh". I certainly hope that those who took the time to label me as a "fraud", "theif", etc. will also take the time to update the status of their remarks when I have worked to make things right between us.

In an effort to start with a clean plate and resolve problems, I would like to offer refunds to everyone that currently has open transactions with me. I must admit up front that the refund process will be slow, and done in small partial payments due to my current financial situation. But I intend to make this right and this is probably the best way to proceed. If you have an open transaction with me, please send details in writing with any available copies of payments you have made to the address provided below. In return, I will provide you with a signed letter in writing indicating my agreement that a refund is due and begin to send partial payments.

A refund probably wont please everyone, but since I currently have very few options available to communicate and very few resources available to complete custom orders…. this is the resolution that I feel would suit everyone involved. I do have some completed puppets/figures belonging to people but with no computer I have not had any means to obtain contact information. The owners may opt to receive the completed items or to receive the refund via payments as described above. I have no intention of forcing someone to choose one option over the other despite any completed orders that I have in my posession.

Due to my lack of supplies in stock and lack of resources to obtain special supplies, I will not be able to accept custom orders until things have improved financially enough to do so. When I can find a means, I will be attempting to use donated and remaining supplies to build and sell my work online. This will help me obtain funds to start making refund payments to everyone since I currently do not have any other means of income.

I am asking everyone reading this, and if they desire to help find other customers I may not reach here, to please copy this message in it's entirity and post it where you feel others might be able to find me. The computer use is limited here and I may not get to all of the forums that I would like within the time set for my computer access. I'm hoping to reach puppetsnstuff, worldvents on yahoo, christpups on yahoo, magic forums, and other places where similar people of puppet & vent interest may gather. If you don't see my post there, please feel free to duplicate for those who would benefit.

Regards,
Michele Acquin
Puppet Planet
PO Box 12
Creston, NC 28615

Its been so long since I have been on any of the yahoo forum boards that I can't remember my password and/or email address to get in. Can someone here, like Donald or John please post the above message to those forums for me?

Also, the library is closing in one minute and I have to log off the computer. I didn't get a chance to post the above information to the magic forum.... I think Donald & John visit that one as well. Please help me out. I don't know when I can get to the library during their limited open hours again. Small towns.... great for some things, and not so great for others.

All my hugs and best wishes for the new year to my dearly missed friends,
-Michele

PS: John... please hug Margaret for me & give her my mailing address. I miss her and all of you guys so much!

I know Michelle might not ever see this, but I never once thought bad of her and missed her good advice on this forum. Does anyone know if she would accept donated supplies at this addrees? I don't have a lot but I doo have some eyes I could send and possibly a few other things. I probably haven't expressed this idea very well, but I think when one is hurting we should respond. Meanhile, I will keep you in my prayers, michelle.- Steve

I too Steve, would like to know. I have a lot of stuff I was going to sell off, but now after reading this, I'd like to donate what I can to Michelle. I have furs, fleece, foam, all sorts of scrap materials.

... Michelle, if you come back, please let us know if we can send you anything! And I sincerely hope that things get better for you and your family.

I know Michelle might not ever see this, but I never once thought bad of her and missed her good advice on this forum. Does anyone know if she would accept donated supplies at this addrees? I don't have a lot but I doo have some eyes I could send and possibly a few other things. I probably haven't expressed this idea very well, but I think when one is hurting we should respond. Meanhile, I will keep you in my prayers, michelle.- Steve

I'm sure she would except all the help she can get as she said in her first post. I would try to get in touch with her by snail mail and go from there.

Michelle said: Due to my lack of supplies in stock and lack of resources to obtain special supplies, I will not be able to accept custom orders until things have improved financially enough to do so. When I can find a means, I will be attempting to use donated and remaining supplies to build and sell my work online. This will help me obtain funds to start making refund payments to everyone since I currently do not have any other means of income.

Billy D.

Since Michele did leave us her mailing address I am planning to send her a note that way so I know she will get it. Perhaps everyone who has a message for her or would like to help in some way could do the same thing.  I think that would be a wonderful way to show her that we care about her and are truly sorry for troubles. Then she can look forward to getting the mail each day instead of fearing what it may hold. Let's give her LOTS of puppet hugs!

I just worry that if I send a snail mail it will take too long to get there - it takes on average 3 weeks for mail to get from Aus to USA. And then if I wait for a reply... could someone from here pass on my message? It would be quicker, and then I could send her stuff quicker too...

Yeah. Its a great idea to help people we know and we learned from them!
I'm here for that too!

In a perfect world, we would have a donation booth where all puppet makers from around the world would donate supplies and funds for people who struggle in their work like Michele. But unfortunately, we do not live in such a world. If I can finish my current puppet quickly and am able to make enough money, maybe I will be able to send her a few items. Right now, I barely have enough for myself, but who knows maybe someday I will be able to help her just like she has helped me a few years ago when I first needed help.

Note to Michele (just in case she can see this):
Michele, you were one of the first one to help me when I first started my journey in puppetry and I hope and pray that all will be ok for you this year and that 2010 will be the best year of your life (both personnal and profesionnal wise). I do hope that you will find tons of donated items and tons of ideas. I may not be able to offer you materials and/or money, but I can offer my prayers and if you need me, a good shoulder to cry on when need be. If you want, email me and I will respond as quickly as possible. I will even give you my snail mail addy if you need a good penpal to vent to. Until then, take care sweety. You will be in my prayers everyday.
Puppet hug.

  Aww, thank you guys. I came here expecting angry comments from customers who finally found a way to reach me and I was pleasantly surprised to find love instead. I would gladly accept any donated supplies to help me get things up and running again, but please don't put yourselves out financially. I know that things will be a slow progression for me from here, but it's a step in a positive direction and I'm anxious to be back on top of my personal and business life again no matter how long it takes.

In the mean time, the BEST way that everyone can help is to do what you can to spread the word by either copying my message and posting to other similar forums & groups or including a link here. I want to reach everyone I have open transactions with so that I can get them all resolved and move forward from here. I'm sure there are people who think I've just taken off with their money and I hate them to have that kind of impression of me or the puppet community in general.

I still can not access my yahoo account to reach the WorldVents group, Chrispup group, FLvents group, and some others. Also, I can't seem to remember how to access pupcrit online to post a message there. Any help that you guys could offer in spreading the word on these groups and other similar groups would be appreciated not only by me, but the customers who are trying to find a way to contact me too!

Thank you so much everyone!
-Michele