Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/11/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising 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.

  Rat *** Mobile DJs (RPMDJ) quoted ACORN Players of ********** **** (ACORN) $350 for microphone rental. The quote did not specify whether it covered a single usage of the equipment or was for the entire rental period of four performances. (see attachment quote)RPMDJ invoiced ACORN for an amount equaling the amount of the quote as a product of the number of uses ACORN would have of the equipment (four shows). (see attachment invoice)RPMDJ never informed ACORN of the equipment make and model that would be provided.RPMDJ provided to ACORN the following equipment for use in four performances: MUSYSIC MU-U8-LL. (see attachment delivered)The manufacturer of the provided equipment has set the purchase price of that equipment at $340. (see attachment vendor product)It is a reasonable expectation that the cost of rental may far exceed the cost of installment payments over a similar time. It is also a reasonable expectation that the quality of the equipment will be reflected in the rental cost (lease of a premium-grade vehicle is significantly higher than lease of an economy-grade vehicle). It is even a reasonable expectation that long-term rental (measured in months, not weeks) can result in total payments that would be enough to have purchased the equipment being leased. However, it is never a reasonable expectation that the cost of rental for a short-term lease, much less a single use, would ever exceed the cost of purchase.As a contrasting example, ACORN had earlier this summer leased from a different vendor a professional-grade 12 mic system (~$10,000 purchase cost) for the same number of shows as this rental, and the total rental was less than $1200 after deposit return. We were wanting to support a local business for this show. I guess we now know better.RPMDJ has returned $500 to ACORN, but only after extensive pressure. ACORN has still paid more than two and a half times the purchase price ($900) for short-term lease of an economy grade product.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/18/2023

  In response to this complaint. This customer has been harassing us for over a month now. To the point that we have been informed that he is no longer a member of the board of ACORN players due to how he treated us. I'm certain that he does not have the authority to speak on behalf of ACORN as we have spoken to their board and were informed that **************** has been informed to "leave Rat *** alone". But I will speak to his unfounded complaint. He attached a quote that lists $350 for a performance. Performance being singular, they used the microphones for 4 performances. $350 4 times, $1400 total, which is the amount that ACORN was invoiced for. I'm not sure if he received the invoice because **************** was not the person who contacted us or the person that we dealt with. Our 1st interaction with **************** came 2 weeks after the 4th and final performance. Anyway, the invoice was sent and we received payment which would imply that they found the price acceptable. **************** included an online listing that he found for the model of microphones we rented to them, along with a price of $340, that price is lower than what we paid but that's fine.  We as a business are allowed to set our pricing, a customer has the option to choose to accept or deny the price that we set. In fact, we list wireless microphone rental at $125 per microphone per day. We let them keep a total of 8 microphones for over a week (their 4 performances spanned 2 weekends) for $1400. **************** mentioned that the company had rented microphones earlier this year for less money. That indicates that he was aware of the market cost for microphone rental, and knew of a company that could have possibly given him a better price. Yet they chose to rent from our company at our price. And then 2 weeks after they used our microphones **************** came to us demanding his money back, bad mouthing our business to the community, threatening legal action and BBB complaints. He closed his complaint with a lie, he says that we returned $500 to ACORN after extensive pressure. We did no such thing. No refund was given, and none is forthcoming. We welcome the opportunity to work with ACORN again without this persons involvement.