How did a vendor turn you off?

mocha beans

I talked to a photographer that was just getting going when we were first planning the local wedding.  Really liked his style, but after the meeting he never got around to emailing me a quote.  Followed up a few times, but kept getting the "i'll put it together tonight" line.  Good thing we never went with him because he way overextended himself and a bunch of women from the boards didn't get their pictures for months after the wedding.

pinkpinot

Coco, ugh what a BRAT I saw that episode.  I don't think I could work at a bridal salon, I wasn't blessed with patience.  I used to work for Chanel and I would travel a lot and do makeup for weddings.  OMG I literally bit my tongue in half one day trying to keep my mouth shut.  I do miss playing with makeup all day but I'm so happy I am no longer working with the general public.  I prefer to deal with my clients in the privacy of my cubicle. 

andyandhillary

The first photographer I met with sounded great over the phone but then she didn't come to the meeting.  At all.  We waited for an hour and a half.  We kept calling her and then when I finally got a hold of her, she denied ever having an appointment.  Really?  You think I'm lying?  So I gave her the axe.  Great prices or not, I don't want shoddy service.

The whole not getting back to me in a reasonable amount of time bugs me too.  Unfortunately my receptions coordinator is guilty of this.  Grrr....

Another reception place I looked at the girl was very nice and smart but not confident at all.  She didn't seem to really have a grasp of what she was doing so unfortunately that turned me off.

One florist tried to rip me off...that sucked.

I know this probably makes me sound picky but oh well.  Luckily I do a lot of research prior to scheduling any meetings so it's not a waste of time for anyone. 

SwedishChick2011

Pink - That sounds like it was a fun job other than having to work with people.  I think the majority of customers are great, but there are always those few that won't be happy no matter what. 

SwedishChick2011

To answer the OP, we didn't really have any bad vendors.  There were a couple that could have been a little more responsive, but I think one of them was just way overworked (caterer) and the other was just really inexperienced (DJ).  Everything came together fine, though.

pinkpinot

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_did-vendor-turn-off?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:543064e7-5203-4f9b-85fd-23fa9993c2f2Post:3eb1307a-3109-4844-a045-aa6e32daad48">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]Pink - That sounds like it was a fun job other than having to work with people.  I think the majority of customers are great, but there are always those few that won't be happy no matter what. 
Posted by cocoreo3[/QUOTE]

It was an AWESOME job.  I really, really loved it but the schedule was inconsistent it became hard to schedule my nighttime classes.  So a 9-5 job became the best thing for me and I ended up at a great company, got a promotion and they pay for my education.  I have 2 friends getting married in June and I demanded (not asked) that I do the makeup for the wedding b/c I miss it so much!

emilyinchile

One venue coordinator told us we didn't need chairs for everyone during our civil ceremony because "it's just a formality, it only takes 10 minutes." I understand that here a lot of people do civil instead of religious for that reason, but when I am asking you for 150 chairs, don't tell me that my wedding is no big deal and people will stand. We decided against the place for other reasons, but that comment didn't help.

The caterer for our US reception knows I live abroad and prefer e-mail, but he'll sometimes go weeks without responding. We're using him because a family member (who's offered her house for the party) recommended him, and when she e-mails him he magically remembers to e-mail me back, which is annoying since I'm the paying customer. He has great prices and seems as though he's just not used to doing business over e-mail, but if we didn't have that connection I would have looked for someone else.

buttaflai

I was turned off during vendor meetings if they tried to sell me on factory-type wedding (mainly venues), were unenthusiastic, late, or wearing a Christmas vest. One girl was also chomping on gum like a horse. Overall, any unprofessionalism.

pinkpinot

I am really shocked at the number of vendors who didn't show up to meetings or return phone calls/e-mails.  How do they make a living with such poor customer service? Especially in this economy, you would think they would step up their game and be thankful for the people who are inquiring about their services.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We met with a photographer (who gets great recs on my local) who was SUPER phony. Just... a big fake smile. You could tell she judged us on many levels. She had a super gorgeous house with huge enlargements of her photographs everywhere. *eyeroll* She was also the most expensive one we looked at BY FAR. Like, by $1,000. So she would have had to blow us away to get us to agree to that anyway. FI was adament about NOT working with her.

skippylouwho

A very famous bridal salon in Cincinnati tried to upsell my daughter by $2500. My DD had told them the top end of her budget and it was a mid-range budget.  I think the saleswoman took one look at DD engagement ring and thought she'd spend a lot more. My kid is good with money and knows you can get great gowns without spending a fortune.

DD also told the woman at the start of the appointment that she this was her first trip to look for a wedding gown and she would not be buying that day.  At the end of the appointment when my daughter did not purchase a gown the woman's attitude changed a lot. My DD didn't see it but the MOH and I did.  The look on her face, not answering a question I asked and she said something under her breath that I don't recall.  When DD came back in to the room she was back to being polite and nice.  I did not appreciate that at all. 

NOW, I was there this past Saturday with my DS's FI, she worked with a different woman who was outstanding.  Maybe we just hit the first woman on a bad day?  But the upselling was wrong.

skits_1

We had a very hard time picking a venue.

Second place we saw was a restaurant. They had a great private room upstairs. Perfect size etc. The guy wanted 10K for 40 people on a sat night. No negotiations. OK. What about a Sunday of a long weekend. He can lower the price 1K and that's doing us a "favor" since he "overcharged" another guy he can make this special deal for us. Also, he took us to his wine cellar and showed us bottled os 20, 000$ wine saying how special it is. I'm sure it tastes good, don't waste my time, were not buying any for the wedding!

Oh and he snapped his fingers at the wait staff multiple times when we were there. Not cool.

And told my fiance he "picked well" and that not only was I pretty but I seemed smart too.

FI was sooooooo mad. Didn't pick that place!

britne28

We wanted an outside wedding and we were limited in our area.  We had what we thought were two great choices.  The first one was double the price but we looked because they had 5 sites on their property with views.  But when we sat down there were so many limitations of what we could do or not do.  She wouldn't set up, we had to do that and the clean up, only a short list of vendors were allowed.  It really turned me off.  The place we picked was half the price and they will do everything for us.  And the owner has been awesome in answering all my questions and offering suggestions without being overbearing.

beatlesgirl25

- One photographer we met with had total bitchface the whole time. His wife awkwardly tried to make light small talk with us, but he was basically like, "here are my packages. Pick one." We did not.

- A venue coordinator showed us the grand ballroom, garden paths and gazebo, and outdoor fountain that they offer for 175+ guest weddings (when she knew our guest count was less than half that), then opened the door to the tiny conference room across the hall with no windows and fugly carpet and said, "And this is what we offer for small weddings like yours." Did she really think we were going to find 100 more people to invite just so we could have access to their premium stuff?

- I met with a florist who was energetic and friendly, but when I went to view her shop and greenhouse, all her flowers for sale were brown and wilted.

ggmae

My venue double booked us and gave us the boot. She offered us the night before, but we turned her down. Why the fuuck would we still give her our business after she made such a stupid mistake? No thanks. We went elsewhere.

Sarah-Jean

When I was meeting with DJ's, one kept making it a point of how he's done a lot of weddings at our venue. Great, I thought. Then he started going on & on about how the accoustics there are strange & how any other DJ wouldn't know how to set everything up & will sound terrible. By the end, I almost felt like he was trying to scare me into using him, ie-Use me or your music will sound terrible!!!

Bubbalub

When we were picking our venue there was one place, an historic house on Lake Merritt, that I really wanted to at least go look at. The contact there and I emailed a couple times but he was really spotty about getting back to me. I kept trying to set up an appointment to see the site and would just be left hanging. I tried calling and left a couple messages as well. Nothing. Finally I gave up, we saw the other venue and loved it. Plus, the coordinator there is sweet, on top of everything, and seems easy to work with.

A few weeks later the contact for the historic house called me and said he had been out of town and that's why he wasn't getting back to me. Okay. So you go out of town for several weeks and NO ONE is able to cover for you with potential future clients? Unprofessional.

FI and I also weren't impressed with vendors that we sugary sweet when talking to us, like we were cute puppies they were happy to play with. Uh, yeah, we're both well into our 30's and don't like being talked down to. We'll pass.

button2011

The first venue I fell in love with sent me a lot of information about renting their venue and seemed perfect until I tried to book a meeting. Then they decided to tell me that their restaurant wasn't actually available for weddings on the day I wanted unless I bought it out for an extra $4000. They couldn't have told me this when I first asked their availability for my date three months earlier?

With the second venue, I spoke to the coordinator over the phone and was very careful to confirm the availability, the deposit amount, the rental cost, and the minimum spend for food. When we meet with her in person a week later she didn't remember anything about me or the space I was there to see (I was there to see the small building, not the large building). I let this slide but when we sat down to discuss the cost and contract she told me I must have written down the quotes wrong and that both the rental and the minimum spend were $500 more then she told me over the phone.

It all worked out though because the venue we picked is even more beautiful and $1000 less then either of the other locations were before they increased the prices on me.

kd.joseph

I've actually been lucky with my DW process being over the internet and phone, everyone has been great and very accommodating.
the only thing I had happen when I was looking for someone to do our cake (which will be small) one bakery was kind of rude in his e-mail response, basically saying I think I'll pass. Well la de da, actually I was thinking in this economy some people would be more customer service oriented. Guess I wasn't worth his valuable time.

acissej0786

I set up an appointment with a baker over email. I told her it was a May 1st wedding and she said that she had the date available. I called her the day before the meeting to confirm and she even said "I hope to be working with you in May" (which I thought was pretty weird to begin with. So FI and I went to the meeting and everything was going great and even talked about booking her when she says "Oh May I can't do May I'm on vacation. Your wedding is in March anyway." I said no it is May 1st and she proceded to argue with us that our wedding was in March. I finally said "I think I would know the date of my own wedding" and walked away.

mrsamyjones

We had one vendor turn us off as we were writing the check for the deposit. We had looked around their amazing venue and it was just beautiful. It was an Iris farm and had a gorgeous lawn area with a stone stairwell leading down to the lake where the ceremony site was. We had made 3 trips out there (90 minute drive away) and loved everything, however the owner had quoted us three different deposit prices, kept changing the time that we would have to be off of the property, and just being snarky and I had had enough. I couldn't imagine how it would be on the week of the wedding if he was this flakey now. I ended up tearing up the check in front of him and leaving. We booked an alternate location for less than 10% or the total cost of the previous venue within a week.

andyandhillary

Some other things I thought of:

1.  One venue we looked at they knew our budget and the number of people we were having and yet they still showed us things out of our budget and rooms that couldn't hold 100 people let alone 250.  Waste of time.

2.  When I went to a very upscale bridal salon in my area with my mom they didn't give us the time of day even though we had an appt.  I ended up buying my dress there but only because I got a bunch of deals.  The girls who brought in an entire posse and were AWs were helped endlessly with getting into the dresses, finding dresses, etc.  My mom and I did everything ourselves and they rarely even checked on us.  If i didn't seriously love my dress I would not recommend going there.  I do not like being treated poorly. 

Sarah-Jean

OH just thought of another one....
While trying on dresses, the sales woman helping me repeatedly grabbed at my stomach fat (there's not that much, but i'm not a twig) and saying things like "ohhh we'll have to get rid of this before the wedding". ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I didn't know if I should cry or slap her across the face!

buttaflai

[QUOTE]OH just thought of another one.... While trying on dresses, the sales woman helping me repeatedly grabbed at my stomach fat (there's not that much, but i'm not a twig) and saying things like "ohhh we'll have to get rid of this before the wedding". ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I didn't know if I should cry or slap her across the face!
Posted by Sarah-Jean[/QUOTE]

Excuse me? I would have walked out.

mushE

I had a photographer not show up to our first meeting...her cell phone was turned off when I called her.  She called back several days later and said that her friend's house had burned down, so she was 'really preoccupied' with that, and that's why she didn't show up. 

So I set up another meeting, which went very well.  She was going to email me her portfolio when she got home that night.  (Backstory: She shot the wedding of a girl I know, and I saw those pictures before setting up the initial meeting.) 

She didn't email for about 2 months, when she told me that she'd decided to "retire" from wedding photography -- after about 5 weddings. 

Good riddance!

SwedishChick2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_did-vendor-turn-off?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:543064e7-5203-4f9b-85fd-23fa9993c2f2Post:165c34b5-4d84-422e-ba8b-d8ea4cf1c019">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]OH just thought of another one.... While trying on dresses, the sales woman helping me repeatedly grabbed at my stomach fat (there's not that much, but i'm not a twig) and saying things like "ohhh we'll have to get rid of this before the wedding". ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I didn't know if I should cry or slap her across the face!
Posted by Sarah-Jean[/QUOTE]
I don't understand how people like this can be in customer oriented jobs.  I hope you reported her to her manager. 

FutureMrsTR

We made an appointment to look at a venue and the coordinator said she would have so-and-so meet us there and copied that woman on the e-mail.  Well, no one was there when we showed up and when we went to another office on the property I found out both of these women were on vacation.  We didn't bother making another appointment.

I went to David's Bridal to try on dresses for the first time and I had an appointment at another salon the next day (my mom was in town for the weekend).  At the end of the DB appointment the saleswoman actually said, "What can I do to get you to buy this dress today?" umm....how about not talk like a car salesman?  I bought a dress at the second salon the next day.

JHS16

The first photographer we met with joked about how he was late to his own wedding.  Wow, if you can't even get to your own wedding on time, you certainly won't be hired for mine. 

pooh8402

I was meeting with a florist to determine if I wanted to work with her, get a bid, so on and so forth. I brought in ideas for what I wanted to, pictures of bouquets and corsages and boutennieres. I also brought in a picture of me in my as of yet unaltered dress. it looked horrible on me because it didn't fit yet. however, I brought it in so she had an idea of what my dress looked like.

we were going through my pictures, and I showed her the dress. she pursed her lips, then said, "oh dear, that dress just does NOT look good on you. you should go with something else." it took all I had to not go all bridezilla on her. instead, I just said that it wasn't alterned yet and was currently too big. her face didn't change.

I don't care what the bride looks like in her dress. if you are a vendor and a bride brings in a picture of her in her dress, and she's happy with it, KEEP YOUR FVCKING MOUTH SHUT. that is HER dress, not yours. that one comment alone kept me from wanting to give her my business, but other comments were sprinkled throughout that also pissed me off.

Sarah-Jean

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_did-vendor-turn-off?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:543064e7-5203-4f9b-85fd-23fa9993c2f2Post:d47f586c-7272-4e64-86d4-21d5cd78a494">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: How did a vendor turn you off? : I don't understand how people like this can be in customer oriented jobs.  I hope you reported her to her manager. 
Posted by cocoreo3[/QUOTE]

 
I hauled ass out of there ASAP & then I wrote a letter to the manager explaining how terrible my shopping experience there was because of this woman.