Slow response from our Drexelbrook Venue? Is that normal?

tdmaus

Good morning everyone, I’m just wondering if anyone has experienced this with a venue:We signed a contract with Drexelbrook for our reception back in March - our wedding is not til next year. We payed the first payment and according to the contract, we have to pay the 2^nd payment (which is a huge junk of money too) after 90 days of the first payment. So after our calculations, it should be around this time. We didn’t get a notice for the 2^nd payment in the mail or email reminder from them either though. I figured, before we send any checks, I should check with the sales rep from Drexelbrook first. I emailed her beginning of last week – didn’t hear back from her… so I figured, maybe I follow up with a phone call end of last week… only received her voicemail, so I left a voice message… still no word yet. Is this normal for venues? I always thought, they would be on your butts, if payments are due… we are ready to send out the check, but wanted to check with the sales rep first. I’m just wondering if others have experienced this slow response from venues/ vendors too? she responded very quickly before we signed the contract though (within a day).  Should we wait for her response before we mail out the 2^nd payment? I just don’t want to be slapped with a late fee or anything like that… I’m not sure, how these venues work… Thanks ladies!!

spanglerwedding2012

I'm not sure how they work either. I recieved a form and e-mail reminder when our payment was due but I'm at a different venue.

What I would do is try to e-mail and call again. DOCUMENT your attempts to contact. (Print out e-mails, write down exact time and date you've called, whom you spoke with.) So that if an issue arises with a late fee, you can prove that you did, in fact, attempt to call them with questions and no one returned your call. Maybe even state in your voicemail or e-mail message that you are aware that your payment is coming up but you wanted to speak with a sales rep prior to sending. Just cover your trails so there's no way they can try to make it seem like you just neglected to pay.

lalarochelle

No that's not normal.  I am getting married at Drexelbrook in Aug and have had nothing but a great experience and fast replies-phone and email (longest I had to wait to hear back was 24 hours)

I don't know who your consultant is, but I suggest calling around 10AM.  But I also didn't want to send my payments via mail, so I made arrangements to go there and drop off payment (which really isn't convient from where I live) but worth the peace of mind to make sure things are in order.

tdmaus

I tried to call her again (her name is Jean) and finally reached her. And she confirmed that our payment was due. I'm still a bit worried about this whole experience... I didnt ask any questions regarding our reception or info, but only wanted to confirm the due date for our 2nd payment. I figured, they would respond fast, when it comes to payment, no?

Hopefully they do a better job, when my actual reception comes around next year...

lalarochelle

If you don't like who you're dealing with, I'd suggest asking for Christina(she's my sales person) she has been absoultely wonderful.  There's really not much communication until it's time for your reception showcase night (where you see all the vendors they use and do your food tasting).  Then about 3 months prior you'll sit down and do your detailed plan, select menu, linens, etc...

shoshanagleit

I don't know how normally it is but we are getting married at Loews and we had a really similar experience. Apparently they don't send out any notice when the additional bills are due either. They seemed extremely unconcerned about it and took a few days to reply. We ended up paying about two weeks late by the time they replied. They didn't charge anything extra for being late though. I think once you sign a contract they just think of it as money in the bank already and don't worry about some of the details as much anymore. We had a few other experiences of our venue being slow at replying to e-mails. They also have been at least 15 minutes late for every appointment  and one time the guy forgot we were supposed to meet him and just left early. They also tried to get us to switch part of our wedding to a worse room so they could accommodate another event that night. We sent a detailed e-mail with our complaints and they offered us a free upgrade and have been slightly better since then. Mainly we had extra issue because the coordinator went on maternity leave and the did a poor job covering for her. Really I'm not that worried as long as they do ok the day of. I'd just follow the other poster advice and keep good records of everything you send them. Good luck.