Overall: Unprofessional, unreliable
Our employee event was ruined due to mismanagement, lack of support and unprofessional behavior not only from the roaming hunger staff, but food trucks as well. We had several issues from the food truck menus being changed the day prior, then placing that charge of the change back on me to pay when the mistake was on roaming hungers side, our first coordinated took unplanned vacation during our planning period without communication or back-up to assist; then the day prior to our event she quit, and introduced me to a new coordinator representative. This changed was very impactful, not seamless as they had promised.
Our employee appreciation event, was a multi-campus site event serving a total of 1200+, at our Santa Clara, San Jose and Redwood City company locations. During the planning call my Redwood City site disclosed that roaming hunger had helped with her last event, where the food trucks were over an hour late and the representative was absolutely no help at all. Our roaming hunger rep, Josh had said that we would have full support and an assigned coordinator that would manage and resolve any issue or hiccups that would arise. I trusted Josh and proceeded, removing our Redwood City site from the plan.
Santa Clara site 600-750 employees, we arranged 3 food trucks, 2 dessert & 2 specialty drink trucks. On my own, I arranged to provide unlimited soda and waters to ensure employees didn't rely on trucks to provide drinks. I also ordered 200 meals from Chick-fil-a to ensure we didn't have lines. Josh put together a proposal for our event very quickly and was helpful until the contract was signed/paid. During our planning conversation, he advised to go with multiple trucks, so we didn't have lines, each would be able to serve 150 meals per hour, and an additional 100 overages if needed. I'm so happy i arranged chicken-fil-a since 2 of the 3 food trucks never arrived. During our planning portion, Josh also helped add an additional arrangement for our San Jose location- 130 people, one taco & one churro truck. During that call, I had let him know I still wasn't able to have my first call with the coordinator because she was on vacation with no back up. He assured me that somebody would call me on Monday which would be two days prior to my event.
I did hear from the coordinator Monday afternoon, she was leaving the company and introducing me to a new coordinator, Jessena. I never heard from Josh or any other management. The change and delays from roaming hungers end, did have a major impact. I was told the day prior to my event that our tea truck was not planing to serve tea but a Mango dessert, which was not discussed during contract signing with Josh. The whole reason the truck was selected was to served tea as we had advertised and print on meal tickets. I was told the change would cost 400$. I didn't feel this was fair as the miscommunication was not mine or the food trucks fault but an issue on roaming hunger. I agreed to move forward and pay the difference. During the planning and day of the event, josh was absolutely no help. When I called in a panic, 15 min prior to employee serving explaining Jessena (the new coordinator) had just informed me, Butters Burger from Napa canceled two hours before the event and the Mexican food was missing; he told me, I only deal with the contracts after that I'm not really involved, so I won't be much help to you. He said he would attempt to contain Jessena as well. At this point Jessena was not answering my phone calls, she would only text.
Rather resolving the no-shows and having a plan B, Jessena texted asking if she should find replacements? I'm standing in front of 750 hungry employees expecting and outdoor lunch where more than half of the food was missing, she is asking me if we need replacements?!?!
She should have had a solution rather than a question for me. Especially, knowing butters burgers canceled two hours prior to serving, when I was alerted 15min before. I was forced to quickly shift gears, alerting all of my employees of the circumstances, ordering 100 pizzas to make up for the missing food and communicate existing food trucks of the problem.
A huge thank you to Fresh Catch Poke for handling as a many overages as they could. El Guero churros saved the day; finding a last minute taco truck that arrived within 60 minutes to help serve. Within this 1.5 hour period of intense stress and frustration, Jessena was working on securing another food truck, canasta kitchen didn't communicate they were broken down until 12:45pm or that is what I was told. Overall, lack of support and accountability is disappointing and disturbing. I'm still waiting for a call from Josh or Jessena, no one ever called to check-in, provide explanation, refund or some type of compensation. read more