Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/20/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The facts:
  Rental fee of the venue from 11AM on May 12, 2023- May 14, 2023 at 11AM
  Nonrefundable deposit to secure the venue: $4,500 (30% of total fee)
  Remaining fees paid before April 13, 2023 as required: $10,500
  Total rental fee: $15,000
  separate check for security deposit: $1,000 (has been received back)
  
  - After arriving to check in at 11AM, the Rushing family who owns the business informed us of no running water or electricity once we arrived indefinitely, no prior notice was given
  -They claimed that this is an act of God and out of their hands according to the contract
  -The facility claimed they were notified at 11AM of the power outage, only to later find out that they were notified at 8AM and took no action or measure to create an environment suitable for us and our guests
  -The bride and groom suites were uninhabitable, we could not use the toilets, refrigerate $400 worth of cocktail hour food, our flowers could also not be refrigerated
  - Aside from myself and groom, guests arriving out of town and planned to stay at the venue were unable to shower, use the restroom or get ready for the rehearsal dinner
  -We had to rent a hotel room for $189 in order to prepare for dinner. Hotel check-in wasn't until 3pm and our rehearsal at the venue started at 3:45pm.
  While the power did eventually turn on by the time we returned from dinner at 8pm, the lack of professionalism, compassion or willingness to help from the owners of this establishment prompts this complaint. On top of rearranging an entire day at my own expense, on the day of the wedding there were cold showers in the groom suite due to negligence from the owners. The most prominent health code violation was that the Beer Tap lines had not been flushed from the previous event therefore exposing my guests to mold and other harmful bacteria. We asked for our $4,500 deposit back and they declined. No apology was offered or alternatives. A simple generator was never provided due to not being in the contract.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/22/2023

  Please see response below that we have already sent to the client.

   

  Hi N******, 
  I would like to begin by saying that I think your wedding day turned out beautifully and I'm glad that everything came together. 
  In terms of reimbursement, I'd like you to reference your contract, specifically the force majeure segment contained in section 3c. It refers to circumstances beyond our control, which certainly explains the issue with PG&E and their disruption of our power sources. When PG&E determines they need to work on a line, they do it and take as long as necessary to fix their problems. As soon as we realized the issue at hand, we reached out to the local linemen and were told it should be resolved shortly. It continued till you were on site when you were immediately told by Sally what the situation was. No attempt at obfuscation was at play. If anything, Sally went above and beyond by raising the not guaranteed possibility of leveraging even their personal equipment in hopes of alleviating the situation. More on that below. For relating this information to you, our team and helpful family were subjected to near constant attempts to harass, intimidate, and coerce us into finding a solution where the solution was clearly out of our hands. The solution was time, and you were told this, repeatedly. 
  At no point were you avoided, as we kept open lines of communication throughout the day, and you were certainly never lied to at any point on Friday, May 12th. You always had my cell phone number and email as well although no one ever reached out via either of those forms of communication. We were consistently on the phone with pG&E and constantly asked the associated linemen for updates, which were few and far between. We were dealing with information coming in from a third party and relayed it to your party as soon as it came through to us. In fact, you were aware of where we were through the day enough to have a member of your party to aggressively knock onto Joe and Sally’s front door and continue the uncalled for attacks, yelling at them to give you immediate answers to a situation that did not have an immediate resolution. 
  With respect to being told that a generator would be provided solely for the cooler, this is not mentioned anywhere in the contract. Instead, this was merely a suggestion provided by Sally in hopes of alleviating any further stress and she stated as much, but it was not guaranteed and certainly not to be expected due to the unfortunate timing of the situation. This was something she was in the process of trying to resolve, but the consistent beratement and harassment by your group clearly did not allow her the ability to orchestrate a complex resolution in time. Again, this was her attempt to help, but was not a pre-established expectation. 
  With regards to the bridal suite smelling like urine, this was due to someone using the toilet when the power was clearing out and stated as such. Although it is unfortunate that the toilets did not work at that time, the condition of the toilet when check-in was clean, sanitized, and clear of urine. A member of your party used it and delivered the urine to it. It was flushed at 5pm as soon as the power was turned on. 
  With the power outage, it is understandable that a water heater may fail to restart. A simple and calm phone call to any number of our staff members could have remedied this situation. At no time was this brought up to any staff member, so we had no ability to remedy it for you. Failing to alert us of an issue related to the water heater in due time cannot place blame upon us. You had a way to communicate with us, as you constantly did through the day, but failed to let us know about this issue. I called Logan at 5pm to let him know that the power was back on and he asked me to flush the toilets in the cottages. I personally went through and flushed & checked everything, and at that point all was completely functional. To reiterate, I was never informed of the water heater being off or any issue with that until now. 
  Tap lines were not, as you say, “disgusting.” They were left in a state of common practice, which is to allow them to be cleared by the incoming bar staff using a small amount of product to push through the previous usage. In no picture do we see anything resembling improper sanitation. Professionally, I maintain open lines of communication well past the point of normal hours of operation, which is why I supply my cell phone number in the event of a natural disaster or if an issue that requires immediate rectification were to occur. This did not stop Logan from calling my line at 11:30pm asking about taps. It was somewhat difficult to understand him because of his obvious intoxication, but  I told him that the vendors flush them before each event and that your bar crew can flush them when they connect them. With issue like this, I would have hoped Logan would go through the proper channels and attempt to contact your wedding planner, which is what I told him when I asked him to please have the planner reach out if they need anything else as it was 11:30 in the middle of the night, and not an emergency. I then told him I'd like to end the conversation there. The following day the kegs were connected to the couplers and the bar team had no difficulty as far as I know with anything. If any issues arose, I was not told of them. 
  As per the “no shots” comment given to one of the groomsmen, we were not in charge of your bar staff. La Arboleda at no time is responsible for the bar service. This was an outside company that was hired by you, and as such we have no control over what their standards, rules, or judgments are for your events. They may have a policy of not serving over-indulging individuals. I would refer to your contract with them and get in touch with the manager of the bar service to determine what issue they may have had. If you did not communicate what the “shot” policy for the evening would be, perhaps a planner can help advise you for your next event.  
  On a professional and personal level, we have been consistently maintaining well-received and orchestrated events at La Arboleda for almost a decade. I have never in all of the years of events ever come across a group as hostile and aggressive as your group on Friday May 12th, 2023. In my personal opinion, it was entirely uncalled for and toxic to have not just Logan, but so many other members of your group yelling directly at me while I was standing with your planner trying to go over options and discuss everything in a professional manner. Instead of alleviating the tension of the situation and working together to try to find a solution, your party instead decided to escalate and worsen an already disagreeable day by attacking the people trying to help them. Having not just Logan but a huge crowd of people yelling and twisting the conversation out of control was not just offensive, but it led to a full fledged verbal assault directed at a person simply trying to be helpful. In no way was that constructive or necessary,  in fact, it was so horrendous that your father actually apologized to me the following day for the behavior of the group. Not only did that happen to me, but I came to find out that your group also berated my father while he was dropping equipment off in our pump house. This, in addition to the act of marching over to my parent’s house next door to yell at Sally in her front door, illustrates how your group was less interested in finding a solution to the day and more about venting your frustration in non-constructive ways. Harassment is something we take very seriously. This was way beyond a normal scope of concern and incredibly troubling as we were being attacked in our own homes at this point by a group of volatile angry and unpredictable guests, with no real regard for boundaries or proper conflict resolution protocols. 
  I spoke to Sarabeth just after it happened and she apologized as well and agreed that it was completely uncalled for. Their attacks were so intensely delivered that I would be remiss if I did not raise the issue of how your group acted. In my professional opinion it was entirely uncalled for, unprofessional, and deeply aggressive to the point where I feared for the safety of not only myself but for my staff and nearby family members, but also for the vendor staff you employed for the day. I shudder to think what would have happened to them if they unfortunately had an issue on the actual wedding day. I even voiced this concern to Sarabeth the morning of the wedding after receiving a call in the middle of the night from Logan, who seemed to still be on a warpath. It was my hope that the wedding day would take a turn for the better and your group would be on better behavior. I’m glad I spoke with Sarabeth as it did seem to calm down and turned out to be a gorgeous day. I’d advise you to speak to Sarabeth about this if you’d like to hear her feedback on how everything unfolded. She was lovely to work with and I’m glad you had her as someone to rely on for the weekend. 
  Moving forward I wish you both the best of luck. I'm glad you had a beautiful wedding day.
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/23/2023

  
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Your mom informed us she was handling the issue. Why would I also reach out to you? You’re part of the same company. We also had no service to call or email anyone due to the Wi-Fi not working, as a result of no electricity. I did call your mom and yourself and received no response. The call wouldn’t go through. 
  
  Tap lines should be left empty. Not with liquid in them even if you claim that it is line cleaner. 
  

  PG&E schedules outages. It was scheduled and no preventative measures to assist us were taken. We were told you knew at 8 AM that morning that it would be out, but also told by your mom that it would be out at 11AM, Contradicting each other.

   

  To simplify our complaint, the venue was not available at 11AM to check in with electricity and running water. Our contract clearly states check in is at 11 AM, therefore all facilities should be available as expected. We want to be compensated for this headache and stress.

   

  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  N****** ******