Most of my classes are a lot of fun. Some are more fun than others, though usually there's something to recommend them. So far, I've never yet had an absolute disaster, though - until this one.
It was so bad that I resisted writing about it for a long time. Partly because I just couldn't face it, but also because I didn't want to draw attention to how horribly it could go wrong. But it's only fair to describe the poor ones as well as the good ones.
So... The owners of the Fiddler's Elbow - a location I've used numerous times in the past - sold up without bothering to tell anyone. Including me. Despite the fact that I've booked and paid for a room for a class of 21 people. The biggest class of the entire year.
I can't accurately convey the panic and rage I felt when I realised what had happened. Thankfully, I always try to set the classes up a couple of hours before they're due to start, so I had at least given myself time to respond. But I was facing a venue that was completely shut down and had a sign on the front door, saying "Closed for refurbishment". There was also a handwritten note with someone's 'phone number on it, though. So I called it and got the new owner.
Apparently I wasn't the only person that the previous owners had simply abandoned, so the new guy - Dean - had already had to deal with some irate clientele. But by the time I got through to him, I was already inside the building and checking out the rooms that I'd used in the past. The upper room was still being decorated, but the basement was reasonably clear. By this stage, I was being very polite, but very firm - I told Dean that I was taking the basement and not offering him the option to deny it to me.
I called up the girl who had booked me, explained the situation - as succinctly as possible - and assured her that I would still be able to provide a venue and a class, but also explained that I might be a little behind schedule. I was cringing by this point, because I also had to tell her that there would be no bar service, so they would have to bring their own drinks. And I had to tell her that she would need to enter a venue that was prominently advertising that it was "Closed for refurbishment". It was the most unprofessional, shoddy service I've ever had to offer anyone and I was hating every minute of it.
After I hung up, I still had to find 21 chairs - and the whole place had, apparently, been cleaned out of all furniture. So I started raiding the guest rooms, claiming chairs from them and carrying them down four flights of stairs, into the basement room. I found another dozen chairs in a cupboard and improvised the remainder out of a windowsill and a chest that I covered up with a fur blanket.
And finally - actually ahead of schedule - I was able to call the girl up and tell her that the room was ready (or as ready as it was ever going to get) for everybody to come round.
The girls arrived, I apologised for everything and invited them all into their room. And as compensation, I offered to disregard the usual time limit and run the class for as long as everyone was having fun. And then, in the midst of all this, one of the decorators casually strolled into the room, looking for a stepladder and disrupting everything. Since I'd spoken to him just twenty minutes earlier and already explained that the room was off limits, it was really starting to feel like nothing could possibly go right, by this point.
By then, I was on edge and starting to make stupid mistakes. This was even worse, because these couldn't be blamed on other people - they were entirely my fault. I botched the introduction to the class and entered the room while drinks were still being poured, so there was an awkward few moments before I was able to set up the first pose and subsequent drawing challenges. A couple of times, I was close to panic and the usual humour didn't flow as smoothly as it usually did. Some of the girls still appeared to be really enjoying themselves and there were the usual laughs at my jokes or my comments about the pictures, but there were others who were clearly not amused and the stony faces were starting to take a serious toll on my self-confidence as well.
Eventually the class wrapped up and some of the girls collected their things and left without hesitation. I handed some business cards to one of them who assured me that she'd give them to her friends when she caught up with everybody, but I found them on the bar a few minutes later.
A few days later, I got an email from the agency the girls had booked me through. They had written an absolutely scathing letter of complaint about the class - describing it as "cringe-worthy" and picking apart every single detail. Some of the elements that came under fire were elements that had worked - repeatedly - with previous classes, but in the context of this one they were apparently embarrassing and clumsy. Absolutely nothing escaped their scrutiny and I was left squirming all over again. I called the agency, described how things had gone, agreed that a huge chunk of the complaint was completely valid (but still argued that some of it was unfair) and finally agreed that the girls were entitled to a full refund.
In hindsight, I should have probably argued with that decision and offered to refund half the money. While I was on the 'phone and discussing the complaint, I was painfully aware of all the things that had gone wrong. But then, a week later, I did another class for a different agency and while it was going on, I remembered all the things that I had done right - and there were plenty of those. I also remembered all the girls who seemed to have been really enjoying themselves and who had been participating with complete enthusiasm.
And I remembered all the sketchpads that had been used up. All the pages that were taken away at the end of that class. 21 girls will use up a lot of paper - and even more was used with the extra time that I had given them in an attempt to make them happier about the shoddy beginning to the class. All in all, it was demoralising and heartbreaking. And it was booked through the very agency that gives me about 60% of all the business I get, so I had to worry about the potential for damaged relations with them as well.
So... undeniably a disastrous class.
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