I called to get a quote, and the woman who answered was very rude, right from the outset. When I asked to speak with Sergio (per another Yelp reviewer), she told me he was out, and would call me back.
I called the next day, after Sergio had not called, and the woman answered again. She put me through to Sergio this time, and he could not have been nicer, and it was obvious nobody had given him the message. We negotiated a price, and I promised to call back before the end of the afternoon, after I had checked on the number of my guests, to finalize and make deposit. Sergio was professional and courteous throughout.
I called back shortly thereafter, and the woman answered, telling me Sergio was on the other line. I said I'd be happy to hold, since he and I had already gone through the whole deal, and I was ready to pay. She said she could take care of the order. I politely reviewed the order with her, and then things went to hell:
Although Sergio had quoted me one price, she was not willing to honor this price now, even though he is the boss! Her claim was first that she could not verify the price I was advising her he had quoted, even though I told her (i.e.: she was suggesting I was lying to her, and either did not think, or did not care, to take the order, and then revise if it was inaccurate). I then politely informed her his price was a match of another vendor I had mentioned in my call with him. She then suddenly told me she had called that vendor, and that I was not telling the truth about the matching price! Extant the fact that we were now quibbling over cents, she was now suggesting that she had miraculously known what vendor I was referring to, and had already corresponded with them to see if I was telling the truth, again make the suggestion that I was a liar! I had spoken to that Vendor one day prior, and there was no reason for me to make up a difference of 25 cents (yes, 25 cents) per chair.
Someone sure skipped the chapter on "how to provide reasonable customer service"!
So, now that I had been accused of lying twice, over a few cents that could easily be verified with her boss who was sitting in the very same room as her, I felt less than eager to give them my business. I waited for her to somehow extract her foot from her mouth, and save the deal, but she was more interested in playing this aggressive game of hers, so I stopped her and told her that I did not think I wanted to do business with someone who accused me of lying, and did she perhaps want to revise her accusations. I said this very politely, but she still chose to hang up on me!
I never did get the chance to rent all my furniture and linens from Anderson Party Rentals (even though it was admittedly not an enormous order - 26 people), her boss will probably never be told that I called, so will assume I never called back, and the fact that three of my guests run catering businesses and are always on the lookout for suppliers won't have any chance of benefiting them!
The other vendor, Party On Rentals, got my business. read more
