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Current mood:  calm Category: Life
As you may or may not know, I am in the process of planning a big wedding reception party. This has been an interesting learning experience, and has given me a rare taste of being the big-money client in a customer-service situation. I have invested a lot of time in researching and planning the most minute details of the event, and I have had enlightening experiences along the way. Here is one of the most curious:
I emailed a place, let's call them BJ's Smokeshack, for a catering estimate. Instead of an email reply, I get a random phone call at 7:30 Sunday night, just as I am getting settled in to watch The Simpsons. Strike 1. Don't call me during Prime Time, and don't call me on Sunday. What were you doing all week?
Anyway, it's this lady from BJ's who is REALLY excited about my event. This is fine, but rather than giving me the estimate as I had asked, she opens by bragging about the fact that she was featured in NY magazine and mentions that she gets all the credit for these events even though she doesn't really do anything. She says that they are already getting booked up for June, July and August and I should hurry and reserve my date with them. Then she starts telling me about the troubles the company is having, what with the owners getting a divorce and being short-staffed and having financial problems. Strike 2. This event is 5 months away; I need to know my caterer will still exist at that time!
Then she starts asking me questions about the event and the decorations and basically everything BUT the food. She tells me that she can take care of the decorations, but I demur, saying that I am "kind of a control freak" and she bleats, "Oh, me TOO; I am totally OCD." Strike 3. You know I'm no Bridezilla, but I don't need some kooky catering lady throwing grass skirts over everything.
She continues to blather on about a luau she did a couple of months ago and tells me not to buy any Tiki torches, because she has some, and when I mention that I also have some she presses me again to let her take care of the decorations and says that Party City has some great stuff, and she can get leis... at this point I interrupt and let her know I have some really nice leis on the way from Hawaii, and she interrupts me, "Oh, not like the crappy ones we get around here, right?" - the very ones you were just going to buy me 30 seconds ago?!?! Arrrgh. And it gets worse!
I mention that I plan to make 2 kinds of deviled eggs (my crowd REALLY loves my deviled eggs) and she says, "Oh, no, we have the BEST deviled eggs and you should let us do that." And soon after, my cheese tray was cast aside, as she could certainly make a cheese tray, as well as the fruit and veggie trays. Nevermind that part of my plan was to have those trays there early for us to munch on while we wait for the hog, which is why I plan to do them myself. By this time I was dying inside as I was so done talking to this lady. But it goes on.
Let's not get into her critique of the sides I had chosen and her attempt to foist coleslaw (WHO eats coleslaw?!) and broccoli casserole (at a luau? REALLY?) onto my carefully crafted menu. She has an answer for everything: I need a bartender, she has a daughter who tends bar. I need a cake, she has a son who just graduated pastry school. A little overeager. A LOT overeager. When I describe the setting and set-up of the event, including the game stations, she says, "OK, part of our contract will have to be that we can party with you." Ha. ha. "We're fun!" she says, in all seriousness! OMG. By this point, I am so ready to get off the phone that I thank her and tell her I will look forward to seeing the estimate and get back with her. I'll let you imagine her super-pushy too-fake-intimate close. Good grief!
In summary, she talked to me for 23 minutes and lost $2300. And that is how you lose $100 a minute.
10:23 PM
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