I used SoundHouse also known as DJParentals for a rental for my wedding recently. We rented two speakers, a subwoofer, 2 wireless mikes, and some lighting equipment. Despite calling these guys 10 times to make sure that everything would be OK on the day of the wedding, they brought the equipment without a mixer. I am a lay person when it comes to DJ equipment, and although our friend offered to DJ at our wedding, I was making all of the arrangements with SoundHouse myself. During the last conversation I had with them, I asked if all of the "wires" would come with the equipment and if our DJ would have any trouble hooking it up. They reassured me that it would be no problem, a piece of cake.
Fast forward to the day of the wedding. The equipment is delivered. My DJ has his laptop out. He starts discussing setup with the guy from SoundHouse. My DJ has brought his own wires and is looking at how to hook his laptop up to the speakers and the subwoofer. SoundHouse guy says, don't you have a mixer? The mixer is mentioned for the first time even though I had been on the phone with them all week. I'm not sure why they automatically assumed that we had a mixer or why they didn't mention that we would need one. I'm renting equipment that costs 600 dollars, how am I supposed to use it if one of the integral parts without which it does not function is missing?
No apology is offered. The guy from SoundHouse mentions something halfheartedly about going back to get a mixer for us but that we can probably get one faster ourselves. My friend has to run to Radio Shack last minute to buy a mixer, even though the ceremony is to begin shortly. In addition, the mixer was an extra 200 dollars on top of the 600 dollars we were already paying SoundHouse to rent the equipment. Unacceptable.
I wouldn't rent from these guys again.
Also, beware of their contract. Read it carefully. You're signing a legal document that says you are contractually obligated to pay for any damage to the equipment (which in our case wouldve come out to $6,500) at any time during the night. Even though SoundHouse was delivering and picking up our equipment, they refused to do a soundcheck before or after the wedding to make sure everything was functioning properly. In effect, this made us responsible for any damage sustained to the equipment between time of pickup by SoundHouse and time of arrival at their location. It also gave them the ability to say, well your equipment may have been working at the wedding but it's not working now at our offices, you'd better pay for it. Thank god they didn't do this to us but their contract is written to account for that eventuality, to the detriment of the client. My DJ also thought their refusal to do soundchecks on delivery and on pick up was super shady.
Their excuse was that they had a lot of deliveries to make. OK, but I'm the client and I'm going to have to fork over $6,500 to you if you tell me something is wrong with the equipment when it arrives at your warehouse. And no one has any way of knowing when that something went wrong if you don't do soundchecks.
Basically, I rented the equipment because I really needed it for my wedding but the whole time, because of the way their contract is worded and because of their refusal to check the equipment before and after they carted it away, I was worried that I would get a phone call from them on Monday saying that there was something wrong with the equipment and that I was somehow liable for that. Also, their neglecting to mention or include a mixer was unacceptable. It left us in a bind, last minute, and on the day of our wedding. That is no way to do business. Thank god my friend was resourceful and was able to get down to Radio Shack and back in time. If he hadn't, it would've been a disaster. read more