I thought that the Renwick Mansion would be an amazing location for a bridal shower. Unfortunately, the number of things that went WRONG with the service and location outnumbered those that went right.
For starters, we arrived at the mansion hoping to set up the kitchen and prepare it for the caterer. We were met by a large delivery box on the prep area in the kitchen. There was also a roasting pan in only kitchen sink full of stagnant water. The kitchen fridge was full of old food, some of which had visible mold. We were told the fridge would be clear and have enough room for the caterer. This proved to be tricky. Also, when we opened the freezer, ice fell out on to the kitchen floor. There was an automatic ice maker with a small catch bucket below it. The freezer was filled with loose ice cubes which fell out on to the floor any time we needed in the freezer. The garbage in the kitchen had not been removed either. We started the day with a can half-full of trash. Not a typical kitchen sized trash can, but a large exterior size can.
The most uncomfortable part of the whole day was the fact that the air conditioning was not turned on. We reserved the mansion for a day in the summer. The highs for the week were in the 90s. When we started the day at Renwick around 9:30, it was already 80 Degrees. We had to hunt down the thermostat and turned on the air conditioning. Our event was scheduled until 4pm and the temperature only dropped two degrees by the time we left. It was miserable to say the least, and the caterer was suffering in the kitchen even more than the guests.
The mother of the bride had met with Angie (who was the point of contact for Renwick that we worked with) the week of the event. She discussed how she would like the rooms arranged and asked that the piano be removed from the areas we would be using. She was insured that this would not be a problem. However, the piano was in the middle of the room where the lunch tables would be set up. Also, the large tables that we had asked to be removed were still in the way. There we were; four of us in our Sunday dresses and getting ready for a bridal shower and we were stuck moving around a piano and huge tables. So much for looking our best; we were sweaty and dirty by the time we were finished.
To add insult to injury, we were told by Angie that she would be available if we needed "anything". We called relentlessly from the time we got to the mansion and even left voice mails on her cell phone. She arrived hours later, after the party had begun thinking she and a gentleman that was with her would be able to move the piano. She was aware of the fact that the shower began at 1, and expected to move the piano when we already had rooms full of guests. We had to send them away so as not to interrupt the event.
Toward the end of the event, we called Angie as we were instructed to do so to give her time to come walk through and retrieve the final payment for the rental. She said she would not be there for over an hour. We were not willing or able to wait that long. We tried to discuss how we could negotiate the final payment due to the number of issues and problems we had to deal with, but she was not willing to even discuss the possibility of working with us.
I cannot even express how disappointed I was with the poor service we received from the Renwick Mansion and Angie. This was supposed to be a special day for a bridal shower but resulted in stress and anger with the number of items we were told would be taken care of before the shower that were never addressed. In business, customer service should be the number one focus. How can a business provide such poor customer service and not follow-through with their promises yet stay afloat? I just hope no others have to go through the problems we went through. Most space rentals are for special occasions and I would hate to see another one marred by such poor customer service. read more
