Got an e-mail this afternoon from the venue where we are hosting both the ceremony and reception with a notice that the rental company they have worked with (recommend to all clients), and who we have booked for linens, dinnerware, etc, are "going out of business" and gave us the information for the new rental company they recommend.
This was my face first:
So before I freaked out, I called my mom to contact the rental company (she was the one who put the deposit down) and after she called the company she called me back with a doozy of a story.
LONG story short, the owner of the rental company, Jane, hired Sally and Susie to run the day to day business as Jane owns 4 different businesses. I called in December and set up an appointment with Sally, we went over everything, and then a week later my mom went back to give Sally a deposit. She paid with a check since Sally explained the CC machine was out of order. No big, sometimes that happens (it happened at places I worked anyway!). Turns out that Sally & Susie were "booking" customers and pocketing the money and not recording any of the information. Instead of depositing checks they were cashing them, and Jane found out one day when she went to check on the store and the locks were changed. The OWNER was locked out of the store. They were meeting with people and making promises and then weddings happened that did not have any linens or china delivered. I don't feel bad for the owner because, seriously, how do you just have blind trust in people you don't know? Thankfully we are only out $225 (our deposit) but we will be pursing the matter legally . Now I need this: