Hi all! I had a bad experience with my DJ company and I just wanted to get the word out to avoid Peak DK Entertainment from Vermont. Here is my story:
Choosing Peak DJ was the biggest, and only, mistake of our wedding. Our specific DJ was awful, but also because of the way Newton, the owner of the company, handled our complaints after the wedding was over.
We got married on October 4th, 2009 in Lake George, NY, and hired Peak DJ to do our reception. We spent almost 4 hours filling out a 35 page questionnaire, where we said exactly how we wanted our reception to run, an exact timeline of the evening, and every little detail that was important to customize our reception. Much of the questionnaire was their song list, where they ask you to mark which songs you absolutely have to have played (Must Plays), songs that you would like to hear (High and Low Priority), and songs you do not want to hear under any circumstances (Do Not Plays). We pored over this for a long time and made very careful selections, marking about 12 songs as Must Plays.
Caleb was our DJ, and from the very beginning, he was pretty terrible. We hired Peak DJ because they said they were not the typical cheesy wedding DJs. But Caleb was so low energy and personality-less that we would have been better off having one of our friends run the music with their iPod. Every time a major event was coming up in the evening, he would find me, the bride, and ask if it was okay to cut the cake, or have the parent dances, or whatever. Which made me feel like I was running my own reception, where that should have been the point that we got to cut loose and have fun. Plus, why did we fill out that precise timeline if he was just going to check with us every half hour? I would have vastly preferred that he checked with the people from the hotel who were running the catering.
The main complaint we had from the night was that he played exactly 2 of our 12 Must Play songs. 2!!! My husband is from Texas and wanted "Cottoneyed Joe" played, as it is a Texas wedding tradition, and he never got to hear it. Another reason we picked Peak DJ was that we they said we could customize as much of our music that we wanted, but they did NOT hold up their end of the bargain on this at all. They played all of the songs from the CD that I made him of songs that were not on their own playlist, but not 10 out of the 12 songs we were looking forward to hearing. I didn't realize what time it was until it was too late to play all of them. We did NOT tip Caleb, even though he hung around obviously waiting for a tip, because in my opinion, he didn't deserve one in any way.
Now comes the best part. When we got back from our honeymoon, I called Newton, the owner of the company, to make a formal complaint and to see if he could find out what happened, or talk to Caleb and tell him what my problems were. I had a really good attitude about it and told him that while I have no doubt that they have good DJs there, but I didn't want another unsuspecting bride to get Caleb and have the same experience as I did. Newton had always been so nice and professional, and he promised to talk to Caleb and that he would be getting back in touch with me. I waited a week and a half, and heard nothing, so I called back. Newton had still not spoken to Caleb, but promised he would be seeing him that weekend. I waited a week, heard nothing, and called back again. Newton had spoken to him, and his line of defense was this: 1) That Caleb was adhering to the old way they used to do things, where the Must Plays were merely suggestions, and didn't realize that we actually needed to hear those songs, 2) And why didn't I go up to Caleb and ask him to play those songs at the reception? I told him that we hadn't paid them $1800 for their "old way" of doing things, and besides, I didn't think it was my job as the bride who had already paid them $1800 to remind them of how and when to do their jobs, when I should be enjoying my wedding reception. Newton's demeanor had visibly changed and I got the feeling that he knew I was right, but didn't want to deal with it or give me a refund. I asked for some sort of refund, and the best he could do was to offer me $100, because the 10 songs equaled roughly one hour of music. This was not enough, but I thought I would take what I could get and be done with it. This conversation happened on November 4th. I am still waiting for my refund.
I have called Newton 4 times to remind him, and every time he answers the phone in his cheerful voice, and apologizes for not sending it, and promises to do it. The last time I spoke to him was before Christmas, and I have decided to give up on ever seeing the money and warn as many brides-to-be and potential clients of theirs against them. A company is only as professional as the way they deal with unhappy customers and issues, and Newton has proven to be incredible incompetent and insensitive in this area. From our point of view, he didn't deliver at all on what their website promises, which was a good DJ who would play the music we wanted to hear. So do NOT hire this company for any event you are planning.
Patti
10/4/09 wedding