I appreciate your creative endeavor in trying to frame me as someone who is trying to skimp on paying hardworking servers and s... Read More
I appreciate your creative endeavor in trying to frame me as someone who is trying to skimp on paying hardworking servers and small business people. That's not the case, but if we want to get into details, I will do that. I wanted to spare folks this level of minutia but seeing you write inaccurate claims, I will include a few of those details. It's true that Aliki corresponded mostly with my planner. I was not CC'd or forwarded every single correspondence. But I do not see why you should be lauded or I should be thankful for this. I consider it a part of the business to exchange correspondence with your customer. I do not see why you make it sound like I should be grateful that such exchanges were made 67 times. Not all of those 67 times were to make requests of you. Some of those requests are because there was an error on your part. Some of those requests were because we needed to change the menu options. All part of what I consider a normal process of arriving at a final PO. If our planner asked for certain line items to be waived, then she did that as an advocate for her clients who were working with a limited budget. She was simply doing her job to get the best price out there. You did not waive any linen items as far as I could see. We paid for linens as part of the final PO. The shadiest part of all of my interactions was the way you list the prices in your POs. Between the first and second POs, we noticed a slight increase in pricing. We brought this to your attention and you said your engineer fixed the way your system subtracted sales tax from each line item (so the list price on the first invoice is the price of goods without sales tax). You said after the fix, the sales tax should be incorporated into each line item. Yet between the second and third invoice, prices STILL went up and this increase was not able to be explained by Aliki. This was what I wrote to Aliki before I was ready to pay the invoice: "I am a little concerned though with the prices of the linen table cloths and the chafers. The prices seem to have gone up incrementally compared to the first and second invoice. In the first invoice, the linen tablecloths were $11. 98 each. The second one was $13. This time around, the linen tablecloths are $14. 10. Chafers were quoted for $80 for 4 invoices in your second invoice. Now it is $86. 80 for 4. "The difference in pricing occurred between the second and third invoice which were both AFTER the "fix" your engineer made to your system. I also wanted to verify the amount we pay the servers. Aliki and I agreed to pay the servers in cash so that no sales tax would be added to our total and this payment would go directly to the servers and not on our PO. According to the first invoice, which lists the price without sales tax, 2 servers for 5 hours should have costed us: $322. 55. According to Aliki, the first invoice listed prices that were without sales tax. If we were paying servers without sales tax, then why didn't you honor that price? Instead, Kitchenina suggested we pay about $30 more plus a a recommended 23% tip. When I mentioned this all to her, she got flustered and said she doesn't remember all the invoices because "So Many" emails were exchanged. This was discussed over phone around 4 pm the day before the wedding. This conversation took place on this day because we received the final invoice from you the day before. I was not trying to resist paying up until the very last minute. In fact, I was trying to pay you promptly before the event. During this conversation, I told her I would be happy to send over the invoices in a consolidated email and she said please and thank you. I was not able to send over those invoices until 10:20 pm because of wedding prep and festivities. Aliki called me 20 or so min later with her shouting. I was on the phone with her for about an hour. She still couldn't explain the price differences and instead went on a rant about how I shouldn't accuse her of being shady, how stressed she felt, and how (again) So Many emails were exchanged and how I should be grateful to her. In the end, I cut my losses and paid the workers the new base rate and tipped them based on the service we experienced. To withhold giving both proteins to the parents of the bride when they first went through the buffet line? That is not good service. So no, we did not pay your supposed "recommended" amount of 23% but it wasn't as low as 10% either. I do not see how you can argue your way out of this point since you were not there to see what kind of service they provided. I still stand by my original opinion that if you are someone who has a flexible budget, then feel free to book this company. However, if you are someone who notices details and questions things when something seems off, then stay away. They will treat you like you are a cheapskate instead of a detail oriented customer and act holier than thou. (text here edited for brevity. Read Less