I usually do not write reviews that are negative. But, I could not be at ease if I did not do my part in hopefully preventing someone from going through the same situation that I was placed in or worse. Of course, as always this is my own experience and others may have had completely different interactions with this vendor.
So here it goes...
I contracted Best Day Ever (BDE) as my Day of Coordinators through a Bridal Expo. I obtained the contract with a promotional pricing that alotted a discounted fee to the first 5-10 brides who contacted them. My client-vendor relationship began roughly in Oct 2011. As day of coordinators, our contact was minimal and inquires were responded within 5-7 business days.
Everything was peachy up until this past week, with less than 40 days until my wedding date. I received an email that read as follows:
[Also, I wanted to let you know that after going over the details of your wedding, we may need to bring on one extra helper to make sure we have enough hands to execute your dream wedding flawlessly. Because you have such a large wedding, we need an extra person to assist. With larger weddings 200+ we always bring on at least one extra person.. with 300 we usually bring on two, but with your wedding in particular I think we can do with one. There will be an extra charge for this which will be $225 (includes one additional professional planner on hand for 8hrs). Of course we go over all the details of your wedding with him/her ahead of time and they will have their own tasks to take care of.
I know this is an extra fee you weren't expecting, but in all honesty, most of, in fact, all of our couples have had to pay an extra "Large Wedding Fee" which is $250 (250-299 guests) and $400 (300-349 guests) plus an multiple venue fee which is usually between $100 & $300 depending on the locations of your ceremony and reception... which usually covers this expense + others involved with having a wedding at two venues instead of one, however, because we booked you so long ago and because you had that special, we never applied these fees to you, and you actually got a really great deal. Probably the best deal we've ever done! ]
As I sat there, completely overwhelmed with my ever increasing budget... I re-read the contract which does not in any way mention these fees. To be honest, I was very stressed out and upset that this was not mentioned earlier in the past 9 months or at any meeting that was held with BDE. It completely blind-sided me.
I response was to breakdown each possible fee and how it pertained to the contract (which was no relation at all!) And in my response I added the following:
[I understand that this is business agreement and expense for additional personnel will be incurred to successfully coordinate the event. However, while we did receive a good deal on the day of coordination, it is a promotion that the company provided. Moreover, I feel like it is under false pretense that we signed a contract for solely day of coordination and now we are incurring these fees with less than 2 months until the day of the event. I don't want to feel that because we were given the promotional/deal that we will incur and be charged excess fees to simply compensate the difference between the deal/promotion pricing with the regular/nonpromotional pricing.
I feel like BDE is putting me in a difficult position where should I disagree with these out of scope fees, BDE will find some reason to rescind the contract. We signed the contract despite our feelings towards the disclaimer of liability for BDE's cancellation of services because we believed that cancellation would not be set forth purposely.
I cannot stress how disconcerting it is that BDE would address these issues and fees with such a short window before our wedding date. There have been many opportunities to bring this to our attention and it should have been addressed prior to the signing of the contract. To be quite honest, it seems that these fees are premeditated on your behalf to compensate the difference in the amounts of BDE's promo and standard pricing.
I do apologize if this email is too direct but I am feeling like I'm being taken advantage of. And where BDE is to provide services that alleviate the stress and unnecessary burden upon the couple, you have done quite the opposite with these fees and disputes. What distresses me the most, no longer have peace of mind that BDE services will be provided under the standard care of the contract should we refuse to pay these unreasonable fees. ]
Rather than attempting to understand my state of mind and where I was coming from as a bride due to the short window before my wedding, BDE replied using snide remarks as follows:
I[we apologize for the misunderstanding. it was not our intention to stress you out or make you feel like we are taking advantage of you.
We are also sorry to hear that you no longer have the peace of mind that BDE will no longer be able to provide standard service should you refuse to pay these unreasonable fees. On the contrary to your belief, we go above and beyond what our "services" call for. It doesn't matter to us what service package you sign on for or whether or not you're getting a great deal or a promotional deal from us. Every wedding, big, small, month-of, full coordination, is TOP priority. Our services do not fall sub-par just because you're getting a great deal. Nor do we "compensate the difference in the amounts of BDE's promo and standard pricing" with these added fees. It is a big slap in the face, pardon my directness, for you to assume that these fees were "premeditated" on our behalf, as if we had devised a plan from the very beginning to extort money from you. We take great pride in our work and commitment to ALL of our couples and feel a bit distressed and hurt to know you feel this way. ]
I would say that a simple "We apologize for the misunderstanding, we did not review your contract prior to contacting you and please disregard the previous email" would have been suffice.
Rather than simply apologizing for simply not reading the contract given to me by themselves... BDE did the opposite with a "i'm sorry YOU feel that way..." of sorts. I gave them another chance by speaking with BDE on the phone. The conversation was basically an explanation on why I (the bride) should understand why they (the vendor) became upset with my response to the email. With no true attempt to genuinely accept fault, I cancelled my contract.
BDE contacted me to "clear the air" as they say after the fact, by sending an email and apologetic card. But, to me the intentions were not unclear. If they were remorseful wouldn't they have done more to clear the air prior to the cancellation of the contract? Why wait until I already cancelled and told them that unfortunately I am leaving on bad terms?
I believe their intention was to prevent me from writing this review on their services.
The purpose of my review isn't so much as to dissuade other brides from using their services but rather PLEASE READ YOUR CONTRACTS and do not pay fees simply because the vendor requests it.
The fact that BDE states that all their couples have paid these fees concern me. If any bride did sign a contract with them prior to Oct 2011 make sure your contract either addresses these fees or simply does not! Do not pay them without doing so. I hate the idea of people being taken advantage of, and just wanted to caution other brides using BDE.