Peerless was contracted to provide a tent with heating and lighting for our ceremony on Dec 8th…read more Our coordinator had worked with them before and recommended them due to the last-minute booking (the weather wasn't looking good for our outdoor ceremony, so we pulled the trigger the Tuesday before our Saturday wedding.
Jennifer, the main sales person, was easy to work with and sent a team out to our venue (The Filter Building) during the week to make sure that the tent would work. She confirmed that everything looked good and that there was plenty of power to support the heaters/lighting.
Fast forward to the day of the wedding. First, the set-up crew didn't know what time to set up, despite it being in the notes. When they got there, they didn't know where the tent was supposed to be - again, despite it being in the notes we reviewed with Jennifer. Once the tent was set up, they realized the heater was broken. We didn't get another one until 3pm (wedding was at 4pm and the Peerless team told us that the heaters had to be on for at least 2 hours for the tent to be heated at all). They were told by maintenance to use the various plugs on the back wall (i.e. not to plug everything into one outlet). However, that's exactly what they did, and when the heater was plugged in, it popped the breaker. Then, the Peerless set-up team left, saying it wasn't their issue.
Due to timing, we had to move forward with the ceremony. The tent was cold and the lights kept going off (one of the coordinator's team members was upstairs with the breaker to flip it every time it kicked off). After we finished and went upstairs for our private moment, we both looked at each other and said, "What a shit show."
The tent was also supposed to be used for the cocktail hour, which didn't happen because it was cold and dark. Once the ceremony was done, my coordinator and the maintenance man started to look into the set-up and realized that the Peerless team had plugged all the heaters and lighting into one extension cord that went to one outlet. I'm no electrician, but I do know that when you overload a circuit, you will pop the breaker.
Once they saw this and replugged stuff in using the other available outlets on the back patio, the heather and lighting worked great and the breaker didn't pop. Unfortunately, this was 2 hours into the evening, so no one used the tent anyway.
When we were having issues, we couldn't get a hold of Peerless, despite them having an emergency line. When they finally called back, they offered to bring out a generator (that we would be charged for) but couldn't get it out there until 7 or so (again, ceremony was at 4).
Then, when we tried to contact the company after the fact to discus what happened and get a refund, it took weeks to get a call back. We finally got connected with the owner, Matt Cosby, who essentially said that they weren't responsible for the set-up. I'm sure if the tent had blown away due to faulty set-up, they wouldn't have been responsible for that either.
We requested half of our $4K back. He accused us of trying to take advantage of him - an interesting approach to customer service. After much haggling, we finally agreed to a refund of $1.3K, which was given begrudgingly.
Our coordinator told them that they have lost her business, and I have advised my friends who are getting married to steer clear. If you are lucky enough to have everything go right, I'm sure you will have a great experience. But know that they have inexperienced team members who don't know how to do a proper set-up, and if that goes awry, they will take no responsibility. For your wedding or any other event, it's worth it to go somewhere else.
