Frustration!!

In March I traded my services (I'm a balloon entertainer) with a race organizer for race entries.  3 balloon artists for 3 hours each.  At my normal rate that total comes to $810 in services.  I was expecting to get 5 race entries in exchange and while it did represent a hefty discount, I liked the idea of trading because I like running and I like races.

We were already registered for the race they wanted me to work at and I can't be in two places at the same time, so they refunded one of my registrations and transferred one of the others since my daughter also has not mastered the art of being in two places at the same time.  She worked with me while we kept the other two registrations for my husband and son and they ran the race. I was happy that they were willing to work with me on the refund and transfer because I wanted to work with them,but am not willing to pay to work.  Since I wasn't being paid by the organizer in money I would have turned them down and just done the race if they hadn't been willing to work with me.

Race day came and it was cold cold cold, but a decent crowd showed up and we were pretty busy.  If it had been nice weather we would have been totally swamped.  A fun event and everyone seemed to like the balloons.  I had positive feedback from the organizer.

Time passed and I started to inquire about how we redeemed the race entries from our work.  After my first email the event organizer said she wasn't sure what I was talking about.  Had we agreed to work future events?  I sent her a copy of her email and for a week got no response.  Today I contacted her again and she said she did know what I was talking about now but the race entries had been APPLIED TO THE RACE WE WORKED AT.

Seriously?  How was that done?  I paid for everyone who did run.  I got no compensation at all as far as I can tell.  Why would I trade work for a race that I am unable to participate in?  The organizer wants to talk on the phone but I am leary.  Until I have an app that records phone calls I much prefer to do things in written form. I also want to see an accounting of how they view my "payment" as already applied.  I'm curious about how something never received was applied to anything.

The organizer said something about wanting to work with us on a year long basis, but this thought didn't come up until I questioned redeeming my race entries and I am more than a bit skeptical at the moment.

I hope we can resolved this without much more fuss, but it's looking like a headache in the making.