It's been 2 1/2 months since my wedding and with each passing day I dislike Todd Bently more and more. (I know, I know I'm a 1 percenter... if that... but I'm sorry, I need to vent)
I posted a review after the wedding, I had the "hiccup" with Todd not showing up. Well, the weeks following the wedding, I asked for him to speak to my SIL regarding the situation (I was not calm enough to speak to him myself). She asked for a refund of my deposit and the difference of what I had to pay for the photographer I hired an hour before my ceremony. His only offer was $400 extra.
When a month passed since my wedding, I had to email him asking why I hadn't at least gotten my deposit back. I finally got it a few days later and then more email exchanges between us occured regarding the other money, where he gave me the following reasons for not paying me:
1. I had another qualified photographer ready and able within 60-90 minutes of realizing that my assistant had made a scheduling error. If I had received a confirmation even a day or 2 before the wedding, I would have driven back from California and covered it myself.
2. I never promised to pay for another (more expensive) photographer it I was unable to fulfill my duties. If you had cancelled the wedding would you have paid me any of the additional money owed? If Applebees accidentally cancels your reservation are they going to pay for you to go to Ruth Chris across the street? Unfortunately accidents sometimes happen.
After that I really got pissed. I sent a long winded angry email which included the Nevada statute that proved I was entitled to the money and even accused him of insulting me with irrelevant and asinine excuses. Then I gave the following to his reason:
1. I DID call and emailed the day before the wedding. Then the day of, we called, left messages and even texted for 3 1/2 hours with no response from you. The only reason we got a hold of you is because you FINALLY answered the phone at 11:30 (2 hours before the start of the ceremony).
1a. During that 8 minute conversation where you informed us you were in California, not once did you offer to rectify the error by finding us a replacement. We had to ask YOU if it was possible in which you replied you'd "see what you could do". It wasn't until 12:16 (12 minutes after I had hired a new photographer & 1 hour before I was heading to the ceremony) that your so-called ready and available photographer called me. I didn't have the luxury of time (as I did in April when I paid you) to wait around or shop for a more budget friendly photographer (who by the way, I hadn't done any research on and who had to reschedule an E-shoot to show up for me)
2. As a "professional" I would think you knew what the deposit was actually for - The non-refund is to protect the photographer from cancellations not the other way around. So the answer to your question would be NO, I would not pay you if I canceled my wedding, but I wouldn't be asking you to pay me back my deposit either.
2a. Since the courts recognize a wedding as a special occasion, if I were having my reception at Applebees for $30pp and they "accidentally canceled my reservation" an hour before, you can be damn sure I will have them pay the difference for my $120pp Ruth Chris dinner! I also told him I was willing to work with him, but I was also confident taking it to court and since then (late Sep) I haven't heard from him.
After waiting a bit for him to respond, I filled a complaint with the BBB and he has until tomorrow to resond to the claim (but from the looks of it, it's highly unlikely). Now I have an attorney going over everything and putting something together cause it doesn't look like I'll be hearing from him until I take some real action.
Ok, I'm done... I'm sorry if I broke any rules here (as you can tell I hardly ever post) but I just really needed to vent to people that actually know (or know of) who I'm talking about.
In no way am I trying to dissuade anyone from him, hell, he was my first "check" - he's got a stellar rep and budget friendly price, but this has been my personal experience with the infamous Todd
