Velvet Enterprise, Inc.

attended new years eve function dec 31 2014 [redacted] purchased 2 vip tickets cost 262.50 vip entailed open bar top shelf,finger food, champagne, 30-40 minute wait for drinks at 10:45 informed to get drinks from non vip bar no top shelf liquor, food was limited, no champagne at mid night , also charged to check my coat when I confronted [redacted] promoter he blamed [redacted] hotel for the problem bottom line I was one of many disappointed vip patrons many verbally complained I contacted[redacted] to dispute payment, posted my displeasure on [redacted], radio stations b [redacted] will also forward complaint to nc sec state as I attempted to research registered agent so I can serve civil suit papers to recover 262.50 no physical address attached to this businessProduct_Or_Service: 2 vip ticketsDesired Settlementpartial refund as I did attend half would be reasonable learned my lesson will never attend another velvet enterprise inc event Business Response In response to Case#[redacted]We held a New Year's Eve Event at the [redacted]. Some of the guests were unhappy about a 20 to 25 minute wait time in line for drinks during this very popular event that had over 1000 people. This was the basis for all complaints. Guests basically arrived at 9pm and went directly to the bar for drinks. So from about 9:45pm to 10:45pm, guests had to wait between 20 to 25 minutes for drinks. Even though we never promised a specific wait time in line, we quickly acknowledged the problem and worked with the [redacted] to correct the problem. The [redacted] had about 15 bartenders and quickly added in about 5 more bartenders to help. After about 10:45pm, the lines were normal. But by this time, 2 groups of self-proclaimed bloggers threatened to post messages on the internet, send emails, calls, and basically prove the power of numbers. This complaint stems from that. The [redacted] asks that we send over the anticipated number of guests and the amount of tickets that were sold, all the way up until the day of the event. We sent over the numbers and informed the [redacted] numerous times that we expected 1500 people. We trusted the [redacted] as we have done business with them in the past and we also did a similar New Year's Eve event with some of the same staff last year and there were no problems. The [redacted] chooses the amount of staff, the amount of alcohol to put on the bars, the types of cups to use, the nightly hotel rate, etc. The people that are complaining were basically expecting to wait in line less than 5 minutes, during a New Year's Eve Event. We never promised a specific wait time and the [redacted] did do a good job to add bartenders.Some of the other problems listed in this complaint:VIP Offered Top Shelf alcohol and finger food - We did offer Top Shelf Alcohol and more than finger food. For food we had Chicken and Beef Skewers, Bacon Wrapped Scallops, Coconut Shrimp, and a Cheese/Vegetable/Fruit Display with Crackers. More than just finger Foods. We promised Top Shelf Alcohol in a VIP room for the VIP guests and we did that and we also made all 15 bars available for the Open Bar Option for all of the VIP guests. This was going above and beyond for the VIP guests as we only advertised the Open Bar option in the VIP room.We advertised Limited food, see attached Flyer for the event, so there can be no complaint there.We did not advertise Champagne at Midnight as you will see on the flyer, but we did have Champagne for purchase at the bars. So there can be no complaint there.In Summary we understand that some people's expectations are much higher than others, when most would understand that this was a huge event during the most popular holiday social event of the year and see that the minor problem was quickly corrected. Due to the current day and age, it's not that hard to get a group of people together on a given cause and that's exactly what the groups told me that they would do. For my company we strive for events where 100% of the patrons leave happy. In this case, some people chose to express their frustrations and we have heard their complaints. We will never use this venue for our social events again in the future. This was a learning experience for our company also and we will learn and grow from this. Our history will show that we have been doing events for almost 25 years and we have never had any complaints in the past. The only thing that has changed has been the venues, so we are holding the [redacted] responsible for the Staffing issue, even though they fixed the problem that night.We apologized to each guests and promised to learn from this.