Courtyard by Marriott Complaint - Courtyard by Marriott North Canton Ohio HORRIBLE SERVICE - Wedding

Posted by BEJ on 2009-10-21:

You called her and changed the reception time from 6:00 to 5:00. It stands to reason that she would call the DJ and change his time as well. I guess you were expecting all of them to stay late. You created the problem--not the hotel.

Posted by PepperElf on 2009-10-21:

For the DJ - you have to PICK A TIME. You cannot say "6 pm, but maybe 5"

You are not entitled to retain his services for an extra hour unless you are prepared to pay for it. That includes telling him to "be prepared to show up an hour early"

why? Because you're not the only client that DJ has. He may have other gigs that day. OR he may cancel other jobs to schedule in your event

so to expect him to keep everything clear just in case you MIGHT hold things earlier? No. You're only paying him for X amount of hours. That means you don't have the right to demand extra hours - even "maybe hours" unless you're prepared to pay for them.

If you disagree with that, review the contract. Cos if you force him to work an extra hour without paying him for it, you can be held accountable for it if he choses to take it to court.

Posted by yoke on 2009-10-21:

You changed the time from 6:00 to 5:00. The employees were expecting you at 5 and that is when the food was ready to be served. The reason the food was thrown away was it may have been out the alloted time and for health safety reasons may have had to be discarded. You were an hour late for your reception and then you wanted everyone to work an hour over to suit you.

Posted by Nohandle on 2009-10-21:

You and your guests showed up for the reception at 6:00 rather than 5:00 and were angry Susan had made arrangements to have everything ready as per your later request. Is this correct? I'm sorry to tell you receptions, along with a buffet, don't work that way no matter where you have them.

Had you shown up at 5:00 and there was no D.J. or any food ready would that have made you feel a bit better? It appears from what you stated this place made every accomodation they could. As far as the open bar went any place I've ever known of estimates the quantity of each beverage, informs the host beforehand and if any additional is needed the host pays an extra charge. It's not drink all you want of anything and we'll keep it coming. Food service works the same way.

It's a shame your wedding reception was spoiled but someone should have been in charge of communication with Susan throughout the evening. I will say there was no excuse for rudeness on the part of the employees.

Posted by Stew on 2009-10-21:

It sounds like to me Susan totally blew this one. Some people simply don't know how to deal with the public.

Lately Courtyard has really been pushing their meeting and event services. It seems like every week I get a Marriott ad pleading to let them handle my next event. Perhaps before they start hawking their services they should train their staff on how to actually handle an event. This type of service is inexcusable.

Good review OP. It's people like you sharing your experiences that saves people like me from the likes of people like Susan. (VH)

Posted by LadyScot on 2009-10-21:

I concur with the rest of them. YOU requested the change. YOU forgot to changer it back. You caused the problems.

Posted by JR in Orlando on 2009-10-21:

When you make arrangements, but then begin to change them verbally, you should always follow that up with a letter as to exactly what changes are being made, the cost of those changes, and what will be the results of those changes. Otherwise, not everyone will be on the same page.

Posted by zzrokk on 2009-10-21:

Ohio. Do the math.
Good luck on the marriage.

Posted by KristinJ1201 on 2009-10-22:

I think people misunderstanding what happened. I did not intend to "change the reception" to 5:00, but to have the room ready in case we had to get married in doors if it were raining outside. The time before this was to be 6-10, that's because open bar was 4 hours. The food wasn't to be served until 7 had everything went as planned before I changed the time. So, since we showed up at 6, the food should have just been being served or whatever. Susan told me, when I called to complain, that food only stays out for an hour, which had I known, I would have bought my own food somewhere else so there wasn't so much wasted. I don't have a lot of money and the almost 1500 that we spent on this reception took every penny we had. Just for reference, if you are limited on money, don't try to get a
"package deal" like this, it ends up being rather expensive and you don't get to pick from much. I didn't "forget" to change the time back, I just wanted a back-up ceremony place in case of rain. The wedding was always planned at 5. And the D.J., I did not expect anything for free, but if I wanted him to be there at 5, I would have told him so. Maybe is Susan would slow down and not rush everytime that I spoke with her, maybe I could have explained myself better and things would have went better. She was always in such a hurry that while speaking to her I felt like she never had enough time to just talk to me and explain things better. My family was with me on my day, so overall it was ok, but I would never work with this rude woman again. If you don't agree with me, go ahead, plan an event there with Susan and by the end of it, you will see. Once they have your money, they don't care what happens.

Posted by Nohandle on 2009-10-22:

Fair enough Kristen and thanks for coming back with additional information. A simple question. You wanted to have the room ready in the event the time of your ceremony was backed up due to the weather. If you and your guests had arrived to an empty reception area and then observed the personnel preparing everything with no food or drink available at that time would that have made you just a bit sore? Your guests just standing around....

You've given a good bit of insight to anyone else who hasn't planned a major function. Thank you for that.

Posted by LadyScot on 2009-10-22:

Kristin, I think that there was a misunderstanding between you and Susan. As you can see by how confused WE all were, it is reasonable to accept that somewhere what you said was not what she heard.

I am sorry you had a bad experience, but I feel you have to at least share some of the responsibility. And I am wondering: if you rented this paces for the reception, exactly HOW were they supposed to pull off a 'maybe" back up ceremony place?

I know when I planned our wedding and reception, everything had to be CONCRETE two weeks before. No changes, no maybes. I got married at Ramada Inn.

Posted by yoke on 2009-10-23:

You can't just say to them have the room ready at 5 just in case. Either the wedding started at 5 or 6. Can't have it both ways.

Posted by michelle81 on 2009-10-27:

When did you call and change your reception time back to 6pm? If you didn't want something set up at the hotel prior to 6pm why did you even call Susan at all? If it rained were you wanting to get married at the hotel itself? Rain or no rain the venue where you actually got married should take care of the accomodations, not the venue where you were scheduled to have your reception. My reception and wedding were held at two different places. It rained on our wedding day, so the chapel where we were married moved us indoors, got us hitched, and off we went to the reception hall...on time. I don't get why you had to back up the time at the hotel, instead of working out the rain contingency plans with your chapel. It sounds real insensitive I know, but hotels have a lot on their plates to begin with. An hour here or there to you may not seem like much, but to a hotel it's major. Who knows, they may have started sending staff home since you didn't show up or call to move the time to 6pm. I just wouldn't be so quick to blame the hotel...afterall they did give you a free hour.