Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/29/2022

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  We hired Chef ****** to cater my daughter's wedding. We initially thought the wedding would be quite large, then notified her on 10/6 that we were planning on 225 guests. She adjusted the invoice, and also changed the due date for the invoice from 11/9/22 to before the wedding date. I'd already paid her the requested deposit and was not planning to pay the remaining balance until the day of the wedding. She was submitting invoice reminders to the gmail account my daughter set up, but did nothing else to reach us. She did not contact either myself or my daughter by telephone until 10/26, demanding payment in full. She arrived almost two hours late to the wedding venue. When I spoke to her on the phone, she was angry and disrespectful. I'd used her for my corporate events several times prior to this and was never treated this way. She ran out of some of the food items (specifically brisket) even though we had about 180 people attend the wedding. There definitely was not enough food left over to feed an additional 40 people. The food that she served was nowhere near the quality that had been presented at the tastings prior to the wedding. I reached out to her via email (see attached) and did not receive a response. I tried to dispute the charge with my bank, but they couldn't do anything since I'd authorized the charge. I'd like a partial refund of $2000 for the product that was not provided per her invoice.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/19/2022

  First and foremost, we never want any client to be unhappy with the
  services we provide. We are a small group of people who work very
  hard to execute each event.
  We were hired by Client A (****) after an initial introduction was
  made by her mother, Client B (*******) - a former client of ours. We
  had previously met at an event we worked for Client B in 2021
  where we briefly discussed appetizers for a large number of people
  for her wedding.
  Client B made contact in early January 2022 and mentioned
  appetizers and possible buffet style meal for her daughters wedding.
  Client A and I spoke on January 18th via phone. I did not speak
  with, or see, Client B again until the walk through on June 24th at
  the Wedding Venue. Client A was always my point of contact.
  Through tastings and discussions, Client A put together the final
  menu. We discussed the format of the payment structure being an
  20/80 format... 20% of total quote being the deposit with the
  remaining 80% due two weeks prior to the wedding. We have
  always structured our wedding packages this way.

  The first invoice created for this event was canceled on August 7th
  for failure to pay deposit. After reaching out to Client A five days
  later we established they still intended to retain our services. At this
  time we generated another invoice by duplicating the previous one.
  We also let Client A know the deposit would be required to move
  forward. There was never an instance where November 9th was a
  due date, or even a date on the invoice at all. We use Square Space
  Invoicing and are more than happy to share the Invoice Activity
  Log. The only modification made to the invoice was an adjustment
  to the head count and a $2 per person up charge for falling far under

  the volume Discount the invoice was originally configured with. We
  directed the remaining 10 reminders scheduled to the email address
  given by the client... after no replies to several inquires for
  payment... I reached out via text to Client A. She apologized for the
  situation and explained she was waiting on Client B. Client B then
  reached out via text explaining she thought the balance was due the
  day of the event. Client B paid the remaining balance after a phone
  conversation where I was almost ready to just refund the deposit and
  walk away. Client B was rude and abrasive on the phone.

  Day of Wedding:
  We arrived onsite with plenty of time to set up and execute. We
  were asked by Client A what time we would be arriving and took
  our time cues from the Day Of wedding timeline, to Provided by the
  client. After evaluating, we decided one larger trip would be the
  least intrusive for the guests as opposed to the two originally
  planned. The only time cut off/constraint we were provided with
  was when the vendor road area was closed off for the ceremony.
  All food items, with the exception of some appetizers, were served
  in chaffing dishes with two Sternos per chaffer. Items went from the
  oven to the hotbox to the chaffers on the buffet. Each chaffing dish
  was dressed with White Linen Chaffer Skirts, as discussed in the
  6/24/2022 walk through... making the Sternos not visible to the
  guests.

  Food:The Apple compote was present and available at the Mac Station.
  We served this item in this manner to accommodate the allergy list
  provided. We did serve the last pan of Chicken without the sauce,
  however, we did make the sauce available at the Mac Station as we
  had yet to locate the lactose intolerant guest we had accounted for.
  The agreed upon portions of each dish were provided... once it is
  opened to a Serve Yourself format, portion control does become
  difficult.
  We did have a mishap with the shredded cheese for the Mashed
  Potato Bar and are more than happy to refund some money to
  accommodate for it.
  We are more than happy to discuss the matter further

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/05/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Assumed Answered] 
  Complaint: ********
  I am rejecting this response because:   It does not address the issue that we ran out of food (beef and asparagus in particular) even though we had 45 +/- fewer at the wedding than for which we paid. She did not address the lack of cutlery that was needed to eat the meal. The alleged placement of the sauces that she mentions makes no sense. The macaroni and cheese station was at a different table from the main courses, and there was no direction to lead people to those sauces. I'm curious as to what Chef ****** thinks is a reasonable financial concession in light of this as well. She did not address the fact the the food was undercooked. 

  I also have photographs of the chafing dishes that show that they were in fact NOT skirted with white linens per the contract. I had multiple guests talk to me after the fact about how cold the food was. Several have food service backgrounds and remarked that they did not see sternos. I was one of the first people served, and my food was obviously cold, dry, and not palatable.

  She was paid in full for a service that was not provided in full. None of my other vendors were as dogmatic about deadlines as she was. I honestly thought we had a better relationship than this. I'd used her multiple times in the past for catering events for my business. She never required payment for any of these events up front. I always paid her in full in the past and tipped her generously on top of it because she was generous with portions. I gave her another chance after she completely stood me up for an event, leaving me hours to secure other catering. She assured me that she would do an excellent job and we wouldn't have any issues. Our experience with this was the polar opposite. I never imagined she would be as hostile as she was in this process. 

  Regards,
  ******* *****