Unresolved Vendor Dispute: Misrepresentation, Omission of Material Facts, and Severe Financial Harm…read moreAs a returning vendor, this entire experience has been genuinely horrible. We recently signed a 3-day lease to host a Bluey photo booth popup for families and patrons visiting the mall. We took on this lease during a period of immense financial struggle--a fact that management, specifically Ingryd Lynch, was fully aware of. We truly trusted management and thought she and the mall had our best interests at heart as struggling small business owners. Despite knowing our vulnerable position, Lynch explicitly boasted and assured us that we would be profitable if we booked our dates to align with their promoted kids' events. We explicitly relied on these promises, and the specific days we picked for our lease were centered solely around these scheduled kids' events to justify the premium $250 fee.
Unfortunately, we were set up to fail from the start. Lynch explicitly told us not to put a set arrival time on our paperwork because she claimed she did not know what time the kids' event would take place. Ironically, as a mall manager, she somehow failed to disclose that the event actually started first thing when the mall opened and only lasted for a single hour. Because she knows our equipment takes a minimum of two hours to set up, it was physically impossible for us to be ready for the crowd. By the time our setup was complete, the event was already over.
When we finally got set up, Lynch casually informed us that she "just learned" these kids' events had been completely discontinued. What makes this so unacceptable is that our entire booking was centered solely on these dates because of those events, yet we were told we could not change our dates even though the foundation of our booking was gone. What was truly insulting was her explicitly stating to us, "I didn't think you would show up." It became immediately clear she expected us to simply give up and forfeit our investment. Between the withheld start time, the impossible setup window, and the fact that we were placed in an absolute dead zone of the mall where no one walks--a stark contrast to our previous successful popups in the high-traffic food court--she knew this popup would be a complete loss.
To add insult to injury, the basic infrastructure provided to vendors is abysmal. The mall's WiFi, which we entirely rely on to run our photo booth and process payments, is practically non-existent. Every other small business we spoke to in the mall said the exact same thing about how terrible the connection is.
Furthermore, management intentionally withheld critical information regarding the severe decline of the property. The mall has gone downhill drastically due to ongoing issues with robberies and violence, leading management to implement a strict youth curfew. We were never informed of this policy prior to signing the lease. Selling a lease for a children's entertainment popup while actively restricting our primary demographic from the premises is highly deceptive. The environment has become so notoriously unsafe that several of our own close relatives and loyal supporters specifically informed us they did not feel comfortable or safe bringing their children to the property. Ultimately, we saw a total of seven children all day and did not receive a single purchase.
Now, with two days remaining on our lease, management is making it administratively impossible for us to even return to the floor. We spent over $600 securing a commercial insurance policy. Despite our provider (The Hartford) confirming that our Certificate of Insurance explicitly meets every stated contractual requirement in the lease, management (Barb) continues to arbitrarily reject our documentation to keep us from operating.
It is devastating to realize that the mall could not care less about the massive financial losses we now have to bear because of their false information. I am a full-time student at CCBC striving to make a better life for my family, and we were promised that we would make money if we invested in this popup. Instead, this experience has plunged our family into severe financial hardship. Because of this total loss, my wife is about to lose her car, and we cannot make our rent or pay our mounting debts.
Because management has failed to provide the bargained-for commercial environment, actively blocked our operation, and caused us immense personal distress, we are publicly requesting a full refund of our lease fee, an amicable cancellation of the remaining two days, and compensation for our extensive financial losses (including the wasted vendor fees, over $600 in insurance premiums, wages paid to staff to help transport equipment, and the cost of our popup supplies). If White Marsh Mall management truly cares about the small businesses they claim to support, they will make this right and resolve this matter professionally.
