We hired a 3 hr day of coordinator for our reception. We told her what we were looking for and paid a $150 deposit, 50% of the total cost, via Paypal. (No invoice- she had me send the payment manually.) So all was a go and we had many packages shipped to them to keep for our wedding.
Unfortunately the reception venue we booked bailed on us 12 days before the wedding so we had to find a new venue and get everything switched over. We both e-mailed and called our other vendors (including DoC) to inform them of the change, but had problems getting a confirmation from the cake/limo vendors after our arrival in Vegas (where our wedding took place).
Our DoC was out of town at a wedding when we went to pick up/check our packages the day before and unpack them and left one of her assistants in charge of receiving us. We asked her relay the message that we would like these two vendors contacted to make sure that they did indeed note the venue change so it would not be a problem the day of. She says it's no problem and will relay the message. When we commented about 4 missing packages, the assistant tried to tell us that we had already opened one of them it/took it with us as she had seen it out with the others. This was not the case, but as our DoC wasn't there we couldn't really get any straight answers about what happened we hoped that things would work themselves out.
We told the DoC she was cleared to start set-up at the restaurant at 3:30 p.m. and on the day of our DoC says she was there from 3-6. However after we arrived at 5:15 nobody (inc. restaurant staff we talked to) can confirm seeing her. She just disappeared off somewhere and we never met her. She says she was there in the back of the restaurant making sure things were OK until 6- (and then left without telling anyone), but she didn't have any info on how long our reception was, what we ordered, etc. to do that. And besides, she never introduced herself to ask how things were going or if we liked the set-up, etc.. She didn't follow the guest seating list I had provided and she didn't find the packages so we had no stand for our cake. The cake was delivered to the wrong place and the limo also headed there because she didn't confirm with them as we had asked. Most importantly, because she left us hanging and then left she couldn't collect her final payment.
A few days after the wedding when everyone had already left Vegas, I get an e-mail that the 4 packages "arrived" and to have someone come pick them up from their office. This is not possible because we had delivery confirmation and it contradicts what her assistant said for at least one package. I wasn't sure how to respond to this and go about gathering info to disprove this/think on the situation. I go ahead and write my vendor reviews on The Knot. Said vendor apparently reads the review and replies that it is misleading and wants me to change it/take it down. (Then tells me what time she was there, what she was supposedly doing, etc.)
I explain all the problems and basically she apologizes that I "feel this way" and that the package problem could have been avoided if I had given her the tracking numbers like they had asked. This was my bad, I'll admit. At the same time, a tracking number will not help you locate package(s) you lose in your office after you receive them. She agrees to mail the packages to a relative and sends an e-mail that she willl send them out that day and send me a delivery confirmation number after she does.
We get an e-mail from her a week later with no delivery confirmation number asking us about if we made the final payment or not. I reply that indeed it has not been made since she took off before it could be made. I also ask for the delivery confirmation number. She replied that she cannot mail the packages until she gets the final payment or else they will "lose money".
This contradicts her e-mail that said she was e-mailing them out that day. We do not intend to pay her for the time she left MIA and if honestly, if anyone is losing money it's us for the packages she lost that we have no use for after the wedding. I offered to pay the $75 for the time she was there and I threatened to report her to the better business bureau if she keeps giving us the run-around.
It's been a week since I've received any response. I assume she is holding the packages hostage until she gets the final payment. It's not going to work- I don't care enough about them to pay for work she didn't do.
I want to know how long I should give her to respond before reporting her. Many brides on my local forum have used her company (albeit coordinated by her fellow workers and not by her) and received rave reviews. She is the owner so we can't really go above her to speak with a GM.
I would post on my local board, but considering she contacted me after I first wrote there I don't expect her to not try to go after me about it again.
Anyways, despite how this may sound we had a really lovely day and it didn't have too much of an impact on anything, which was fortunate!