One of the coolest parts of being a parent is throwing your kid the perfect birthday party.
Imagine throwing a party around your child's favorite cartoon character and that character doesn't show up.
Two North Texas moms said it happened to them.
Brittany Baxster's son, Maddox, is a big fan of Dora the Explorer -- and her pals Boots and Diego.
She wanted to make sure all three were at her son's third birthday party, so she hired a party planner to make it happen.
But come party time, the characters didn't show.
"No text messages -- not only am I calling her, my family members are calling her, my friends are calling her, no answer," Baxster said.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
The same thing happened to Vicki Ramirez, who ordered Tinkerbell for her daughter's party.
"She hadn't reached out to me all day. Finally about 6:30 p.m.-6:45 p.m. she reached out to me and said she was overbooked," Vicki said.
Brittany paid $274 and Vicki paid $157 after they hired "Royalty Adventures," a business promoted on Facebook under the name "A Royalty Prince and Princess."
The women said not only did the characters not show, but they ruined the parties, and didn't return the money.
"She said it's going to take 30 days to get me a refund on the Cash App. I said, 'No ma'am, it's going to take 30 seconds.' It took 30 seconds for me to pay you in full so you need make it a priority to get the bank and pay me my money back ASAP," Baxster said.
Baxster filed a claim with her credit card company and got her money back.
NBC 5 Responds spoke to a woman who identified herself as the company's owner.
She apologized for missing the party, and said her employees had heat exhaustion from a previous party and were hospitalized.
She said since Baxster got a refund from her bank, she considered the case closed.
As for Vicki, the owner said she didn't have any information on her party and what may have gone wrong that day.
She also said she didn't immediately return the money because she didn't have it.
She said she spent the money on her business and didn't have the funds in her account to provide a refund.
The call disconnected and the owner didn't respond to any further calls or messages.
"She broke my son's heart," Baxster said.
Baxster did have a contract, but it was not signed. It was really more like a receipt listing what she paid for, and it didn't spell out the consequences of what happened if the company didn't show.
That's something you should look for when hiring such a company.
NBC 5 Responds has tried repeatedly to reach out to the owner to help Vicki get her money back, but our calls were not returned.
