How did a vendor turn you off?

NuggetBrain · February 2010

So we were supposed to meet with two wedding coordinators for DOC. The first one was 10 minutes late to the appointment and super nervous (which was probably because she has only done a few weddings so far). The other one didn't show up at all, because her web calendar got messed up and showed the appointment for Tuesday. Even though we just made it on Monday morning for that afternoon.

I'm meeting with the second one again, but I'm pretty sure that unless she blows my mind I'll not be going with either of them. What did a vendor do during your wedding planning to turn you off or cause you to go somewhere else?

Brie2010 · February 2010

We met with a photographer who behaved like a sullen teenager. She was an hour and a half late (it was really snowy/icy out, and she called, so we were willing to let that go), and then basically shoved her book at us and looked bored. She looked sloppy and completely too-cool-for-school and gave us short/lame answers to our questions. We passed.

And then a few months later it came out that she was Tweeting on her phone DURING weddings about how brides were being demanding and how weddings were annoying, blah blah blah. Glad we dodged that bullet.

vallyhoo · February 2010

Being late I could probably excuse, missing an entire appointment would put a very sour taste in my mouth.

I actually had one photographer tell me I had to 'friend' him on facebook in order to get a discount. That turned me off.

Another photographer wanted me to drive an hour to meet HER, not even meet in the middle. That also annoyed me.

For the most part I just found a lot of people not professional-enough (either over the phone or in email) so I was a major vendor shopper. I ended up with a bunch of people that I love though so I think it was worth it. I think that for a DOC being on time AND knowing the right day is crucial.

shellydiane820 · February 2010

I was never turned off by a vendor, but I did have a couple that convinced me pretty quickly. One of them was my planner, she was awesome and we hit it off right away. In fact, we still talk. Same went with the coordinator at our hotel. She was awesome and full of energy, who wouldn't want her in charge of the party?

pinkpinot · February 2010

The first woman we worked with to book a DW was odd. She spelled my name wrong in every e-mail, on formal quotes etc. I corrected her a few times not to mention my e-mail address is my first & last name so if she was unsure, she could have been a little resourceful and maybe double checked my e-mail address and e-mail signature? I just couldn't trust her planning a wedding a for me in another country when she couldn't spell my first name correctly.

lyndausvi · February 2010

When I was looking for DJs this one guy would call me over and over again after 9pm at night bugging me to use him. . Now we are an hour ahead of east coast time. So the first call I understood he didn't know. The fact that he kept calling me wanting me to commit and he was too dumb to remember I was in a different time zone turned me off. If he could not remember a time difference how could he remember anything else I would have requested?

SarahPLiz · February 2010

THey didn't answer my email.
Another one got all kinds of info from me for a proposal and told me they were almost finished with it, then I never heard from them again, after 3 weeks of discussing with them.

danieliza1127 · February 2010

For me, it was one particular venue my Mom and I went to look at. It had a ceremony site outside, then reception hall inside. I asked the lady showing us around, "what do you do if it rains? Just move inside?" and she said "Oh it won't rain". I was like, okay but what if it does, and she was adamant, it wouldn't rain. They have tons of weddings there it just doesn't rain. OKAY BUT WHAT IF IT DOES?! My Mom and I were mystified, the lady just swore that it doesn't rain over her venue when there's a wedding. Then there was no dance floor or room for one, and I asked if people usually dance or not. She said yeah, they just dance between the tables. Yeah right.

anna.oskar · February 2010

Florist: kept talking about her "vision" for the wedding day and not listening to me at all. Kept saying "you don't want roses, I'll do much better for you." I wanted red roses

Baker: discovered that she uses Betty Crocker cake mixes out of the box and her fillings are just jello pudding. No way in hell was I paying $350 for something my mom could make.

photographers: I had 2 show up late. More than 30 minutes. If I can't trust them to show up at the time they specified, how can I trust that they will be on time on our wedding day? I have 0 tolerance for lateness.

NuggetBrain · February 2010

Yeah, if the first one was late I'd probably let it go, but being late on top of being very nervous, inexperienced and kind of timid doesn't sound like the makings of a really good coordinator.

temerityjane · February 2010

I posted here a few months ago about the DJ who was just so self-absorbed that he ended up telling ME he didn't want to work with me after he realized he wouldn't be the center of attention at my wedding.

This past weekend, a florist made it very clear, under her breath, that she had no time to be dealing with us, but sat down to deal with us anyway (we would have been fine coming back another day...) and then, whenever she didn't like what I said, looked over my head at my MOTHER and wrote down what she thought anyway.

Talking to my mom/fiance or whoever you think is paying/making decisions when I'm standing right in front of you asking the questions and expressing preferences is the fastest way to get off my list. Funnily, my mom liked her.

Brie2010 · February 2010

Heh, FI also e-mailed a dueling piano company in January of 2009. The guy replied his e-mail in January of 2010. A YEAR LATER.

Yeah, not using them.

pinkpinot · February 2010

How seriously did you take vendor reviews found online? I'm going to look at wedding dresses and a bridal shop close to me has a lot of BAD reviews. It turned me off from going and looking but it's so close to me, it would be really convenient. I'm just afraid the poor customer service as indicated by a few girls may ruin the whole experience for me.

goheels05 · February 2010

I took a day off work to check out venues, and I was on a very tight schedule. We went to see one venue, and the coordinator was running late, so we waited around for her for about 15 minutes. Before this, I had emailed her, but she never responded, so Mr. Heels called and scheduled an appointment. About 2 months after we went to see the venue, she FINALLY responded to my email, but she had no idea who I was or that I had already met with her.

A cake lady wanted to charge us $35 for a tasting. I said, "uh, I'll call you back" and hung up.

We went to a local bridal show and there were several florists. We looked through their wedding photos, and they all looked like they hadn't done a wedding since 1985. Turns out all their photos were recent, they just hadn't changed their style in a couple of decades.

[Deleted User] · February 2010

I have had an overwhelming amount of vendors just not return emails. That is probably my number one turn off and is a huge sign that my business just isn't that important to them. It was a real quick way to get marked off my vendor list.

Recently, our venue changed coordinators and I'm not really happy with the new one. She is very pushy in a salesman type way. We've already put a deposit down for chairs and she told me to cancel that because she felt it was better for me to go with some company that she works with. I declined. She also tried to convince my FMIL to let her do all of the flower arrangements for the RD when we've already got our florist booked. I really miss the old coordinator. This new one just makes me feel like I'm being sold a car evert time I talk to her.

MyNameIsNot · February 2010

I had two that ticked me off. The first was the DJ. He was a friend of a friend, and he'd done a good job at her wedding, so we wanted to go with him. He was dirt cheap, too. At the beginning, he met with DH at the venue to check out what equipment he'd need, he didn't have a contract, and just wanted full payment on the day of. At about 2 months out we started trying to contact him to set up a meeting to go over whatever particulars he would need. He didn't return calls, ignored emails, etc. I promptly fired him and found a new DJ.

The other was a hotel that I wanted to block rooms at. I called the girl at set up the appointment. It was at her office, at the hotel, so she didn't have to go anywhere. I made it at like 5, so late in the day, but she said she worked until 6. When we got there, she was gone. Didn't leave a note or a message or anything. Just had already left for the day. The guy at the desk tried to call her cell, but no answer. We found another hotel.

AmoroAgain · February 2010

- Not emailing me back or having an accessible website. Sorry I'm not local, and if you want my business, you sure as hell shouldn't have to be contacted multiple times. There was a restaurant in Louisville that we were really interested in, but I sent 4 email requests and my SIL even called them once for me. They were just completely ambivalent so I gave up.

- Not listening to me or not being flexible. I get that you have to support yourself, but I also have a budget. The best vendor I met was one I couldn't use because she was sooo far out of my budget. I'd emailed her to ask if she would be willing to work on her packages, etc, and she kindly emailed back and said that she was booked that day, but here were names of some other photographers that she had trained and were within my budget. I mean, how awesome is that?!

temerityjane · February 2010

Oh, and it's kind of snotty, but the people who act like I'm going to work with them just because I requested an appointment to talk with them. I called a cake shop while I was home and politely asked if they needed an appointment to discuss wedding cakes, and they said they did prefer it, but they weren't busy right then, so to come on down.

They sat me at a table with a few books of cake pictures**, left me alone, then came up to "take my order" 10 minutes later. Yeah... no.

** One book was pictures of cakes they actually made - the other was Wilton cakes and other photographs of pro cakes that they "could" make if that's what I wanted. That bugs me - I want to see actual photos of their actual work, not what you'll "attempt" on my behalf.

Wow, I'm a jerk.

louisvillebride21 · February 2010

I initially thought I'd like to use a travel agent for the HM. We went in and she acted like we couldn't afford anything and kept trying to show us the absolute bottom basement things, even after we told her to show us some mid level things. On top of that, she didn't know the answer to a single question I asked her. She had to look every single thing up. Makes sense if she was young and just starting out in the business. Her name plate said she had been there for 14 years.

anna.oskar · February 2010

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:11e159bd-8576-41f4-95b6-85abc40fe526">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]How seriously did you take vendor reviews found online? I'm going to look at wedding dresses and a bridal shop close to me has a lot of BAD reviews. It turned me off from going and looking but it's so close to me, it would be really convenient. I'm just afraid the poor customer service as indicated by a few girls may ruin the whole experience for me.
Posted by pinkpinot[/QUOTE]

There is a shop in my town that I absolutely love. They are very classy, have all the newest designs and treat clients like gold. (they serve drinks and apps as you shop) I was looking up their phone number online one day and came across some hideous reviews. I refuse to believe them. The things they claim cannot be true of a small-town business that has been in business long enough that my mother bought her dress there back in the 70's. I say check it out yourself. Don't rely just on reviews.

NuggetBrain · February 2010

Also, this photographer turned Noodle off due to his asskissing and I should have listened to him because we went ahead and booked him anyways due to his amazing package price, and ended up going with a new photog anyways because he kind of blew chunks.

Brie2010 · February 2010

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:11e159bd-8576-41f4-95b6-85abc40fe526">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]How seriously did you take vendor reviews found online? I'm going to look at wedding dresses and a bridal shop close to me has a lot of BAD reviews. It turned me off from going and looking but it's so close to me, it would be really convenient. I'm just afraid the poor customer service as indicated by a few girls may ruin the whole experience for me.
Posted by pinkpinot[/QUOTE]

If there's A LOT of bad reviews, and they all say something similar, I'd be worried.

My dress shop has some bad reviews, but if you read them they're all like "OMG they wouldn't alter my dress I bought elsewhere on a week's notice!!! JERKS!!!"

tobeDrReed · February 2010

After explaining to the baker that I'm not creative or artistic she provided no suggestions for decorating the cake. She kept saying "I'll do whatever you want." but wouldn't understand that I don't know what I want, that's why I'm paying you!

One of the bridal salons sucked. They wouldn't lace up the corset gowns I was tryign on. Then on a later visit I overheard a woman come in looking for a crinoline she had ordered 5 months prior. They were arguing about whether or not she even placed the order since they couldn't find it in their books. I walked out and haven't looked back.

lyndausvi · February 2010

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:11e159bd-8576-41f4-95b6-85abc40fe526">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]How seriously did you take vendor reviews found online? I'm going to look at wedding dresses and a bridal shop close to me has a lot of BAD reviews. It turned me off from going and looking but it's so close to me, it would be really convenient. I'm just afraid the poor customer service as indicated by a few girls may ruin the whole experience for me.
Posted by pinkpinot[/QUOTE]

I read them with a grain of salt. People will write a bad review faster then a good one. So I look at what the issues are and then decide if they are important enough for me not to use them. We work both work in the hospitality industry, so we interrupt reviews differently than others might. Something that might seem like a deal breaker to some, might not see overly bad to us.

goheels05 · February 2010

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:11e159bd-8576-41f4-95b6-85abc40fe526">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]How seriously did you take vendor reviews found online? I'm going to look at wedding dresses and a bridal shop close to me has a lot of BAD reviews. It turned me off from going and looking but it's so close to me, it would be really convenient. I'm just afraid the poor customer service as indicated by a few girls may ruin the whole experience for me.
Posted by pinkpinot[/QUOTE]

It depends on what they are saying. If they are saying that dresses weren't coming in until the last minute or that they had to call the designer themself to check on the order, that's a bad bad bad sign. We had 2 shops in Charlotte doing that and they both shut their doors and skipped town and left brides without their dresses.

If it's something stupid, like "it took my dress 5 months to arrive" (well noshit, that's how long it takes to make and send a wedding dress) or "they only have one size for trying on" (yeah, a lot of shops only carry their samples on one size) then I ignored them.

pinkpinot · February 2010

Thanks Anna, I was thinking the same thing - they've been in business for SO long they can't be that bad. I know when people have a bad experience they tend to tell more people, get online & rant. I guess there is no harm in checking it out, it's not like I HAVE to buy a dress from them if they turn out to be the suck.

NuggetBrain · February 2010

It depends on the issues they brought up in the review. Some people are just never satisfied and some people have unrealistic expectations of vendors. I know the bridal salon I went to (which was great) had some bad reviews too, and one of them was this girl bitching about how they wouldn't squeeze her into their schedule when she showed up an hour and a half late, on a Saturday afternoon, without contacting them before hand. Moron.

pinkpinot · February 2010

No complaints about this shop with dresses arriving late or not at all but the general consensus seems to be they bounce you around to different sales people during your appointment and they aren't communicating with each other on what the bride is looking for so it's very repetitive.

Catwoman708 · February 2010

There was this one small boutique I like to check out on occasion. They rent formal wear and accessories for formal occasions, like wedding gowns, BM dresses, and cocktail dresses, sell them used, or can order new dresses from a catalog.

The woman would just not shut up! She would follow me around yapping, and kept showing me stuff I had absolutely no interest in. Thank God she had to go answer the phone.

SwedishChick2011 · February 2010

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:0a81d8d9-ea80-4663-9467-ec31dc597c2a">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]It depends on the issues they brought up in the review. Some people are just never satisfied and some people have unrealistic expectations of vendors. I know the bridal salon I went to (which was great) had some bad reviews too, and one of them was this girl bitching about how they wouldn't squeeze her into their schedule when she showed up an hour and a half late, on a Saturday afternoon, without contacting them before hand. Moron.
Posted by NuggetBrain[/QUOTE]
That reminds me of a Say Yes to the Dress episode. The bride was upset because the staff didn't want to stay any longer as the store had already closed over an hour before. Naturally, they were pushing her to make a decision on her dress, and she didn't like that they didn't want to stay indefinitely until she made up her mind. I think she had literally flown with her dad in his private jet to get there, so she was a little entitled.

NuggetBrain · February 2010

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:a35ea5c5-43f4-4eed-a140-7c5ec6c3acae">Re: How did a vendor turn you off?</a>:
[QUOTE]No complaints about this shop with dresses arriving late or not at all but the general consensus seems to be they bounce you around to different sales people during your appointment and they aren't communicating with each other on what the bride is looking for so it's very repetitive.
Posted by pinkpinot[/QUOTE]

Yeah that sounds like a pretty legitimate gripe to me. When I went in to look for dresses I got one sales lady and that was the person who helped me the entire time.

How did a vendor turn you off?

Re: How did a vendor turn you off?

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