Venting Frustration over Fundraising Challenges

Help! I know there is not much that could be done, but I really need to vent.
I had done my first fundraiser in June for our local baseball team with 500 families. I had put so much time and money into this to make sure everything was perfect. We had a kickoff and tried to have 1 team mom per team in charge of handing out the mini catalogs, orderforms and flyer. I had given specific instructions on how to do this. Anyone who was interested could use my website for ordering or call me directly, this was I had direct contact with everyone and not have to go through a bunch of moms. Everything had worked out well, even though the sales were alot less than I had thought they would be. I closed around $2,700 in comission, but only had about 5% of people ordering. I had this one team mom who called me and said she did it a different way and took 18 orders and put it under her name with an order of $575.00. I explained to her that it would be difficult if anyone ever had a problem with there order, she had the reciept under her name. She said she didn't care. She had already taken everyones $ and gave me her credit card.
By this time there was nothing I could do but take the order. I wanted to close it but was still waiting on last minute payments.
In the mean time I got very sick, I thought I had the flu or even the swine flu.
I had gone to the hospital and they said it wasn't. After a week on the coach with a 103 fever I went back to the doctors. A week later, still sick, she called me and told me to come in right away. My blood work showed I had 3 different kinds of tick diseases, on of which in new to the area and very severe. I had to go on anti-malaria medicine and a bunch of other stuff.
Not to be mean but pampered chef was the furthest from my mind. I was never so sick in my life. I had called the director and let her know I was very sick and the order was going to be delayed because of it. I had also called the woman who gave me the big order because she left a pissed off message for me. She acted like she really didn't care. Meanwhile I truly was very sick. Didn't watch tv, use the phone or check my emails. I finished getting the $ and closed it out. Unfortunately, there were some problems with credit cards that put the show on hold, which I did not know.
Then I get a call from HO saying this woman is calling and wants her order shipped directly to her, gave them wrong information and had them terribly confused. I told the HO to put the balance on my credit card and I would get it from the customers so this woman would get her stuff for this weekend. The order was shipped and is coming today.
I had tried to contact this woman and left a message with her nasty husband telling him I will have everything on Friday and would drop it off to her, or if she gives my the 18 names and # of the people who gave her the orders, I would contact them and deliver it to them. She has not called back, I had even emailed her a nice letter apologizing for the delay and explained the situation. Even after she new that the order was shipped she is still calling the HO complaining she wanted it shipped to her. She lives 10 minutes from me. For someone who had to had the order asap, now she won't call me back to get it. At this point I don't know what to do. I tried so hard to make this a great fundraiser and pride myself on customer service. Now I feel like a failure. I had also contacted everyone else and they were very nice and understanding.
While I take some responsibility, what else could I have done. Thank God I didn't die, she would be at my funeral throwing stones at me. Even the woman at the HO said she is dificult. She asked me when I deliver her order, not to go alone.
I would really appreciate you honest opinion.

"She asked me when I deliver her order, not to go alone."Wow! I never would have thought of that, but that's actually some good advice right there.
Glad to hear you're OK.

I would call the fundraiser director, explain to her the ENTIRE situation, and get her involved. And then cover everything with a letter to both parties to get all the facts straight. Then find a voodoo doll that looks like this person and some pins....LOL. No, really I am sorry you are going through this. This is a business situation. If Target has an unhappy customer, they do what they can to rectify the situation and move on. They don't chase the customer down and lay down in front of a train for them. Treat this as a business situation, nothing more and nothing less. But definitely get the fundraiser chairperson involved in this for liablity reasons (and tell her that--"I need to get you involved in this for liability reaons on both your organization's part and mine").

good suggestion, Nancy. Lisa, good luck you are in my prayers and let us know how things turn out.

Dear frustrated consultant,I am so sorry to hear about the challenges you faced with your recent fundraiser. It sounds like you put a lot of effort and care into organizing everything, and it's understandable that you would feel disappointed and frustrated with the outcome.First of all, I want to commend you for taking responsibility for your part in the situation. It can be difficult to admit when we could have done things differently, but it shows a lot of integrity and professionalism on your part. That being said, it seems like there were some factors that were out of your control, such as the team mom who took it upon herself to handle orders in a different way and the unexpected illness that you had to deal with.In terms of the difficult customer, it sounds like you have done your best to communicate with her and accommodate her requests. However, it's important to remember that some customers will always be more challenging to work with, and it's not a reflection of your abilities as a consultant. As you mentioned, even the HO has acknowledged that she can be difficult. It's unfortunate that she is not responding to your attempts to resolve the situation, but at this point, I think you have done all that you can.I would suggest reaching out to your director or another experienced consultant for advice on how to handle this type of difficult customer in the future. They may have some helpful tips or strategies for managing these situations.Please don't feel like a failure. You did your best and sometimes things just don't go as planned. Keep focusing on providing excellent customer service to your other clients and continue to learn and grow from this experience. I wish you all the best in your future fundraisers and events.Take care,