I personally have not had difficulty communicating with a business (that I can remember); however, I am going to use an example of something that that my friend recently experienced.
She had set to get married in May 2014 and had hired a
florist who she gave a deposit to of $3,500 in January. About 90 days before the wedding and plenty
of time for the florist to find new business for that date, she had to postpone
the date until 2015.
At this time there were no flowers that have been ordered or
any services that have been rendered. Now,
6 months later from postponing, she has not set the new wedding date yet;
however, she has been asked to throw a baby shower for her friend this weekend that
she will need to order flowers for. I
had suggested asking the florist to utilize some of the deposit given for her
wedding towards the new order and after 8 days of sending an email there was
still no response. She decided to give
her a call and the florist told her she was not able to use the money toward
the new event; however, she would give her 20% of what she paid toward her
wedding date if she was available that date.
I read the contract and it says “Should you cancel your
event in entirety, or for any other reason you discharge Adorations, you are
responsible for the full amount of contracted services, unless the time can be
rebooked”.
This just seems to be bad business to me. She is not cancelling her event…she is trying
to rebook her time. She is also trying
to give her additional business for the baby shower. Plus, ‘if’ she is available on her new
wedding date she still is losing out on $2,800.
Not to mention, if the florist is not available on her wedding date, she
loses out on the full $3,500; even though, she is not cancelling her…the
florist would be cancelling her because she would not be available.
I use this example because this just happened this week and
since I am taking this class it is the most opportune time to see what social
media can do. I feel that if I begin to
blog, yelp or facebook about her business practices she would offer to use more
of her deposit toward her new date. On
the other hand, it just may piss her off, resulting in not getting the 20%
return. Possibly we will soon see the result
and find out if making people aware of the situation makes her realize that her decision was a bad call and it should be rectified to please her customer.
That is messed up! What is the name of that floral shop? I bet their Yelp reviews are already in the tank! :/ You would think $3,500 for a wedding and/or an additional event would inspire them to get some work done. What a disappointment! People are crazy.
ReplyDeleteFor $3,500 you think that the company would cut them some slack. But apparently not. I'm with Brian on this one that with that money they should get some work done. It seems some people who run their own business feel that they can treat people however they want because they have no one to answer to, when in reality it can drive down their business. A little bit of leeway can go a long way especially if they know you will be a return customer.
ReplyDeleteWow, it is a very scary ordeal when you are dealing with large amounts of cash like this, I too experience something with an almost similar amount. If the contract reads otherwise, she should be eligible for small claims court or something like that but I certainly hope it does not get that far. Perhaps a bad review will help, that or a quick overlook over the contract she drafted.
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