Reservations requiring prepayment - BEWARE OF SCAMS!!!!

Joiner BEWARE. I now had 2 different groups require pre paid RSVP and could not attend. There was never a notation that an emergency would prevent a refund, or at the very least, a credit towards another event. Heard with the economy, Organizers are just people abusing the great system MeetUp started and tying to scam money under the MeetUp group agendas.
This is such a sad statement to make. I thought I found a nice way to network and meet great new people in Los Angeles.
I wrote MeetUP staff and they refuse to take any responsibility, nor will they assist in facilitating a resolution with either Organizer.
Now I'm wary of of the new MeetUp groups. Very unreasonable attitude with Kather @ L7, who takes the RSVP info for Westside Wine Group. Nor any response from the French Cooking Organizer from Paris, who offers lessons from her family recipes as authentic French cuisine in West Hollywood.
That's a total loss of $105. So much for trust!