Party planner in S’pore allegedly scammed by customer of S$700, netizens warn of previous incidents

Customer ghosts party planner and scams them of S$700

A party planner in Singapore claimed that a customer scammed him of S$700 for a child’s birthday party.

Norvin, who is the founder of balloon services company The Balloon Thing, posted a video on his Facebook page recounting the incident where the customer failed to provide payment despite the completion of the order.

Ordered balloon decorations for Orchard condo party

In the video posted on 6 Sept, Norvin shared that he had filed a police report and warned other event organisers to take note of three phone numbers.

He cautioned people to “never help them with your birthday party” or any other events.

According to Norvin, a person identified only as ‘W’ contacted him on 4 Sept to discuss plans for their 12-year-old daughter’s birthday party.

The party was to be held in a condominium at Orchard on 5 Sept.

In an exclusive with MS News, Norvin shared that W requested for helium balloon decorations and a balloon backdrop.

Norvin also added that the two had agreed with the price of the services, which was S$700.

The payment would be transferred to him via ‘Pay Now’ after the decorations were finished.

Decorations completed but no sign of customer

Norvin claimed that he worked on the balloon decorations on 5 Sept from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.

In the video, he added that W’s wife came down to observe the process, while they simultaneously discussed and shared updates in an internal group chat.

When the decorations were complete, Norvin went to collect the payment for his services.

Speaking to MS News, Norvin said that the birthday part was supposed to start at 5.30pm, although a few children only came at 7pm.

“At 5.30pm, I told the father I need to get payment before I leave,” Norvin said.

“And he told [me] he will reach at 6.30pm.”

Husband was uncontactable

Despite waiting until 7pm, Norvin still did not see any sign of W.

At this point, the party had started and Norvin asked W’s wife for the status of her husband.

She then said that her husband was in Tanglin Mall and “coming soon [in] about ten minutes”.

30 minutes later, when pushed for another answer, the wife alleged that her husband is “uncontactable”.

“I am a very patient person,” Norvin said in the video.

“I waited until 9.30pm. Everything is torn down, but she [still] told me her husband was uncontactable.”

Customer’s wife said she had no money to pay him

Norvin also shared with MS News that he asked whether W’s wife could be the proxy payer instead.

However, W’s wife claimed she had no money to pay and he would have to wait for W to return.

After the party, Norvin attempted to reach out to W for payment once more via WhatsApp, only to be ghosted.

“I kept calling, kept messaging him. [He] did not answer,” he said.

Customer responded, but did not send money

In a separate video posted on 7 Sept, Norvin provided an update where he sent another formal message to W the following day.

He informed him to transfer the money before 6pm.

At 1pm, W replied with a voice recording, saying that he “sincerely apologised” for the issue and he “didn’t know that [Norvin’s] company would be [on] low cash flow just after one day”.

In the recording, W claimed that he would make the payment in “four hours or less” and requests for an invoice to be sent to him.

However, Norvin said that even though it is already 12am on the next day, W has not sent the money.

In an exclusive with MS News, Norvin provided further responses from W and his wife.

According to the screenshots, W claimed that he had a “really hard day” and will be “settling with all relevant invoices” to Norvin.

On a later day, after Norvin uploaded the second video on his Facebook, W’s wife allegedly wrote back to him and “apologised” to Norvin.

Customers believed to be linked to other scams, according to netizens

Since posting the videos, some netizens have reached out to Norvin privately.

One netizen claimed that they recognised W, and that he had previously introduced himself as William.

Moreover, the netizen claimed that W, or William, seemed to be using several mobile numbers.

Another netizen also told Norvin that the couple allegedly owned a skincare brand, where they supposedly took money from customers but did not ship the products out.

Since the incident, Norvin shared with MS News that he had filed an official police report.

However, he said that he had not received any updates, claiming that action can only be taken if more than one person reports.

Also read: Couple allegedly loses S$3.2K after Bras Basah bridal studio closes, Carlton Hotel repossesses premises

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Featured image adapted from Q毛骏勇 on Facebook.