Hello Kossacks, I am so, so sorry and embarrassed to have to ask for help again but here I am. My rent is $1,500 (plus a $50 late fee) and I only have $200.00 of it. My building manager just gave me a 3 day notice (an hour ago) saying she couldn’t wait any longer without getting into trouble herself. I will get my Social Security check on Wednesday, March 18th. The eviction notice I got today requires me to vacate the premises by Monday, March 16th at 5:00 p.m.. I asked the manager if I could post-date a check for the 18th, but that was a no go.
I used to make a supplemental income from Etsy of at least $1,800 to $2,500 a month but after my husband died I went into a spiral of depression and had to temporarily close my shop, causing sales to come to an end. I re-opened my shop this January and had to start from scratch. When I closed the shop I had a 5 star rating, when I went back almost a year later — I had a two star rating. Disasterous! Because even though I did repay customers who had open, unfinished orders back in February & March of last year — several left me nasty comments & one star ratings anyway, and others were mad that I hadn’t responded back to them. Having a low rating means you don’t get seen and if people can’t see your products, they can’t buy them. So I went from having up to 400 — 500 or more views a day down to 8 or 10 views a day. Yesterday I had 24 views!! Oh boy, was I excited — progress!!! Most of those views were generated by my Pinterest account where I’ve been daily posting pictures of my products that prompt potential customers to visit my Etsy shop. Next promotional stop — Instagram!
All that being said — progress is verrrry slow — I only made 3 sales over the past 60 days and two of those were from friends (who thankfully left me great reviews). Those two nice reviews took me from 2 stars up to 2-½ stars and now my products are finally beginning to show up in Etsy searches again, Hallelujah! I’m only 2-½ stars away from getting my 5 star rating back. All that being said, my current Etsy sales aren’t helping me right now either.
So I am asking for your help. I need $1,300 by Monday, March 16th at 5:00 p.m. so I can keep my apartment. Otherwise, I am homeless — I truly have nowhere else to go. And being a senior citizen with Covid 19 percolating out there and escalating daily, I am terrified of ending up in a crowded shelter or worse, being on the street.
Please, please help if you possibly can, no matter how small the amount — every little bit will help. You can send money via PayPal at cheryl@cheryldanielsart.com. The account is in my late husband’s name, Sean Devoreaux. If you like to shop (or even just look at pretty things), please visit my Etsy store for yourself and refer to friends too if you will, that would be AWESOME. Here’s the link to my shop: Glam Pretty Weddings. Thanks again!
Even if you are not in the market to shop or purchase anything, if you could just click the Glam Pretty Weddings link above and visit my store (and “favorite” it and a product too if you’re so inclined) it would really help me because it counts on Etsy’s tally sheet as a “visit.” All those clicks add up.
My Glam Petty shop started out as a wedding shop but soon people started requesting anniversary, graduation, baby shower invites, birthday invitations, wine labels and candy bar wrappers too so now I pretty much do it all. If you don’t see something there you like or need, just ask and I’ll send you a link or a sample to whatever you like. I do custom artwork too.
I have other stores too — Zazzle, Society6 — where I carry everything from prints, posters & calendars, bath towels, notepads, journals, duvet covers, throw pillows, baby blankets, shower curtains, coffee mugs, paper plates and more — all with my original artwork. I’m a one-stop shop, lol! So if you’re ever in the market for any of those kinds of things, or need a gift for someone else, please consider me. I’d love to assist you in finding what you need.
I’m going to take DixieCollie’s advice and list the links to my art shops below.
The link to my Etsy shop is HERE: Glam Pretty Weddings.
The link to my Society6 store is HERE: Cheryl Daniels Art
The link to my Zazzle home decor store is HERE: Art Studio Home
The link to my Zazzle throw pillows store is HERE: Art Studio Pillows
The link to my Zazzle business cards store is HERE: Stylish Business Cards
The link to my Zazzle vintage store is HERE: Vintage Vintage
The link to my Zazzle invitations, cards, cocktail napkins, etc. is HERE: Glam Pretty Wedding (Zazzle)
I make just about everything — including business related materials: business cards, custom 3-fold and 4-fold brochures, stationery, direct mailers, expo banners, billboards and book covers — if it’s art-related, I do it. If you’re a new business or simply want to refresh or rebrand your former look, I also design logos and signage. Interested? Kosmail me with your email address and I’ll contact you.
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UPDATE: So I got pretty sick on Friday — horrible pain. My cousin wanted to take me to Emergency at the hospital but I was so terrified of going to there because of the virus because you have to wait for hours, sitting around lots of sick people in the emergency room that I refused to go and gutted it out in bed all day taking pain meds.
I was in bed most of the day on Friday and pretty much all day Saturday and didn’t get a chance to do as much legal research as I planned. But I was able to find out one thing about my rights regarding a 3-day notice. First my landlord did serve me the paper legally even tho it wasn’t a court document. However, if the landlord does not wait until the notice period runs out to file the eviction case in court, I can ask the court to dismiss the case. To count the days in the notice period:
- The first day is the day after the notice is served. That would be Friday, March 13th.
- Then count every day on the calendar. Do not count Saturdays, Sundays, or court holidays.
Since my landlord physically gave me the notice on Thursday evening (4:45 pm) the first day that starts the 3-day countdown is Friday. Saturdays and Sundays don’t count. Therefore, Friday, Monday and Tuesday are counted as the three days — NOT 5pm on Monday as the Landlord told me would be the time I would need to pay up or leave the premises. So there’s that. I now have a little more time to make more calls on Monday to find out what else I can do about my situation.
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UPDATE: Also on Friday, I discovered that Lyft had billed me for damages to my driver’s car when I rode with him last month (my car was in the shop). $100 got snatched out of my bank account without notice, causing 2 of my bill checks to bounce, which cost me $34.00 each. That’s $68.00. Actually, that’s $168.00 in total, which almost wiped out the initial $200 I had set to the side towards my rent.
When I was getting out of the car with the Lyft driver, I put my elbow on the armrest and his armrest shifted. He said I broke it. I said "what?!!! how did I break it - I barely touched it." He lifted it up and showed me. The armrest was all taped up with duct tape. I didn't break it - it was already broken. I probably just loosened the duct tape he had holding it together. I even told him - I didn't do that - you already had it all taped up. I took a photo of it, it's on my cell phone. You can see all the silver duct tape. If wasn't already broken in the first place, why was it all taped up? This charge is bogus. The driver said I broke it and he was going to have to bill me for it — unless I could give him $20.00 cash right there on the spot. What???!! I told him I didn’t break it, plus I was a senior citizen on a fixed income and that I didn’t have any extra money to give him. I thought that was the end of it, especially since he saw me take a photo of the duct taped armrest. I forgot about it.
When I found out last Friday I immediately called Chase to dispute the charges and get them reversed. The bank said there was nothing they could do — even after I told them I had a photo I could send them. They said I needed to take it up with Lyft and if Lyft decided to withdraw the charge, the bank would reverse the two $34.00 bounce fees.
So I contacted Lyft and told them that it was a bad faith claim and sent them the photograph, sure that I would prevail because I had proof. Lyft said no. In fact their exact words to me were: “We require our drivers to follow strict guidelines when submitting claims. This was reported within the hour of your ride ending, and the driver met all the requirements listed in our Help Center, including not taking any other passengers before submitting the claim. Due to the overwhelming proof that the damage was caused during your ride, we will not be able to reverse this charge.”
I could not believe this. So what can I do now — any suggestions? What should be my next move? Can I sue them? I have a photograph which clearly shows a ton of silver duct tape all around the inside of the driver’s arm rest. I wish I had recorded him asking me for $20.00 to drop it!
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UPDATE: So far I have received $420.00 $490.00 $520.00 $570.00 — new balance needed is $730.00. Updated balance now includes $168.00 from bogus Lyft charges — so total needed is now $898.00. I’m sorry — I am so frustrated by this!
UPDATE: I just received a generous donation of $400.00 — new balance needed is $498.00.
LATEST UPDATE: I just received a $25.00 donation — new balance needed is $473.00. Thank you to everyone who sent a donation.
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UPDATE — 4/9/20: I’ve been pretty sick so I haven’t been around — lots of pain. In normal times I would have gone to the hospital weeks ago but with the current situation, that’s not a smart option for me so I’m dealing with it the best I can until this Virus lets up and frees us a bit.
To update — I never reached my fundraising goal from last month. My balance needed is still $473.00. I DID pay my rent — I borrowed the rest of the money from someone and am now paying them back so without the $473.00 I am really in a pinch (as we all are) and cannot buy food right now or get my prescriptions filled.
On a brighter note — I FINALLY got the 5 star rating back in my Etsy store, so Yaay! I’m very, VERY happy about that!! Since my store predominately sells party and wedding invitations I haven’t been making any sales because no one can throw parties right now.
To the 2 Kossacks who purchased notepads from me — thank you again so very much for your purchases and kind reviews! It all makes a difference. I can see from my Etsy stats that visitors from dailykos are still coming my way, so I do appreciate all of you who visit my store. When you visit — if you could “like/fave” the store, and “like/fave” at least one or two of my products as well, that would help me get ranked higher/found faster within the Etsy search engines. Every thing you do makes a difference and I truly appreciate all of it, so thank you from the bottom of my heart! The link to my Etsy shop is HERE: Glam Pretty Weddings.
Also, I opened a new Etsy store a couple weeks ago. Since I’ve been under the weather, there’s not much in it but I plan to add more products soon. Here’s the link: Exhortations Art.
If you can possibly donate even the smallest amount toward my $473.00 balance — that will really help me. If you cannot, I understand because these are terribly tough times for everyone. If you do wish to donate, please send money via PayPal at cheryl@cheryldanielsart.com.
THANK YOU very much.
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UPDATE — 4/12/20: A wonderful Kossack donated the final balance I needed. THANK YOU so, so very much.