Dear Ms. Rowley:
Your company contracted to cater my…read morehusband's 60th Surprise Birthday for September 18th, 2016. I fulfilled my monetary obligation according to the contract and you did not.
According to the contract (which I enclosed) my event started at 11:00am and food was to be served starting at 12:30pm, dropped off at 12. Food was not served until 1:45pm (1 hour and 15 mins late) and it was only served at that time because my sister and I had to help set up and put the food out. Not part of the contract. We had to help because the servers arrived late at 1:00pm with nothing ready and did not have the proper equipment.
The food they brought still needed to be prepared, warmed up, plated and put into chaffing dishes. (Per our discussion and follow up email, this was to be handled differently.)
I ordered appetizers and they were to be passed at 12:30pm. The servers did not have the appetizers ready to go nor did they have plates to put them on.
When the servers finally did arrive, they were preparing the appetizers. I had to stop them and tell them it is way past lunch time and they should be getting the buffet going since people were hungry.
They started to work on preparing the lunch buffet with my sister (who was my guest!) while I quickly put out my 3pm snacks that I had prepared, so the guest would have something to eat. Next I got my utensils and prepared the buffet. While in the kitchen; the servers were warming up food and putting it into the chaffing dishes. My sister assisted with the getting the salad out and I helped to get the food out once it was warmed up.
You were to provide a tablecloth but did not and there were not enough utensils.
The food was horrible, no one enjoyed it and they left the food on their plate. There was so much food left over! The food the servers brought was nothing like you described in the contract, the company's catering menu and website. The servers where actually embarrassed by the food and the terrible situation you put them into. You know this is true because they were texting the contact left and right about all the issues they were having.
Per the contract: I was to have BBQ chicken, not boiled chicken thighs with barbeque sauce thrown on top after the chicken was warmed up in the microwave. The chicken arrived in Ziploc bags and the servers had to warm it up, did not arrive in chaffing dishes as you stated in your email.
Enclosures:
Pictures with descriptions
Email chain of timeline and process
Contract Agreement
Grilled Lemon Salmon, was oven baked salmon in foil,- It arrived in individual pieces cooked in foil, the servers had to unwrap pieces of salmon, warm them up. They had no spices, herbs, or garnishes. It did not arrive in chaffing dishes you stated in your email.
Chili beans looked like they were from a can, not like what explained and what your show on your website.
Green Salad was from a bag and in a plastic bowl, not like what you have on your website.
Salad dressing- only 1 bottle for 100ppl, which was already opened and half way empty. A leftover opened salad dressing, not refrigerated is a violation of a health code.
One server had to leave to go to the store when they were already and hour late to get more salad dressing and paper plates because there were not enough paper plates to start serving lunch, this delayed the lunch further.
Watermelon- Not sliced, it was cube and soggy, tasted terrible, no one ate it.
Passed appetizers, not served at 12:30 as contracted, they were plated by 3:00pm on my plates and put on the buffet.
Deviled eggs, arrived not stuff, the egg whites were so flimsy your server threw half of them away, she told me she could not serve them, they were not acceptable.
Bruschetta did not have a spread, they needed to be warmed up because the bread was stale and there were no garnishes. - refer to pictures I included of how it should have looked per your website.
Quiche, there was not enough for 100ppl and it had to be warmed up.
According to your contract and your emails it is evident that you did not provided the service and product that was agreed upon. I included pictures from your website which you told me to look at to get an idea of the food I would receive for my husband's 60th surprise birthday.
The appetizers should have been plated and ready to be passed at 12:30pm and lunch was to be served at 1:00pm. That is what was discussed more than once verbally and communicated through email. The food should have been prepared properly so it would be tasty, look appealing and reflect the contract.
