Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/10) */
I am thankful to have received this complaint via Revdex.com so I might finally have a credible place to respond to this clientI will start by saying that in years of business, this was my first negative experience with a client, which ultimately
ended in her making the decision to terminate the contract weeks before her wedding
Our relationship started off very well and with a lot of excitement about working togetherIt took a very strange turn when my client came into town and we scheduled a meeting to make a sample centerpiece for herShe seemed to love the centerpiece, but requested a few changes to be made for her wedding day (a different vase, less pink and the removal of a green vine I had included)This was absolutely no problem and I expressed thatIt has always been important to me to ensure I understand our clients' vision and make sure they will love their flowers on their wedding dayI suggested doing a mock up of her centerpiece because she had changed her vision so often throughout the proposal process that I wanted to make sure I got it right and could make any adjustments to the centerpiece prior to her wedding dayI was pleased when she left the appointment because she said several times how beautiful she thought it was
A few days later I received a call from her mother (who had not been a part of the initial phone conversation or the aforementioned meeting)She was abrasive in expressing feeling disappointed in the size of the sample centerpiece (she had seen it in a photo taken on my client's phone) and the colorsShe accused me of using old flowers, because the roses looked "too open" in the photoAfter spending several minutes talking through each of her concerns, I expressed feeling a confused because when her daughter had left our meeting she seemed so happy with the centerpiece and the changes we were going to makeAt that point, it started feeling confusing as to who I was trying to make happyIn addition to working with their wedding planner, I was dealing with two conflicting opinions and I told her thisI tried very hard to be delicate about it, but it was a question I had to ask to do my job wellWas I trying to please my clients' mother or my client and what should I do if those two opinions were conflicting?
A few weeks later we had our final phone call before the wedding to go over delivery times and any last minute itemsDuring this conversation, my client began demanding difficult changes to make weeks before the weddingAt this point, we had already put in our order with our floral wholesaler and had ordered all her containersSome of these requests I could accommodate, but some were very difficult and frankly unreasonableFor example, she decided she wanted peonies for her bridal bouquetI politely explained to her that peonies are out of season (something we discussed during our first consultation, months prior) and would be very expensive to ship from the only place in the world that grows them in August (Alaska), especially in a small quantity (she only wanted stems for her bridal bouquet)She then accused me of "not being excited to do her wedding" and "being difficult." She became very emotional and defensiveI was alarmed, since I have never worked with a client so confusingI tried to explain that I wasn't trying to be difficult, but that even though I would do my best, I might not be able to make all these changes happen last minuteI even apologized several times for making her feel like I wasn't excited about her weddingWe left the conversation with me promising to look into all her desired requestsBy the end of the conversation, I thought we had worked out the negativity she felt toward me, and were back on track
I spent the next day researching, calling all over town, and getting answers on all her requestsSurprisingly, I was able to meet almost all of her requested changesI was happy about that and I emailed her to tell her the news and asked for a final response so I could move quickly since we were getting down to the wireA few days went by without hearing from her and I left a voicemail to try and get in touch againFinally her wedding planner called to say they wanted to "fire me" and wanted me to refund their deposit
Our contract very clearly states that the deposit is non-refundableThis is not to spite the client or take advantage of the situationInstead it protects us from loosing money on a weekend that we declare "booked"We are a small business with a small staff and we take a limited amount of weddings per weekend, so we often say no to other wedding inquiries once we are booked for the weekendIn fact, we refused other wedding inquires that weekend, because we were booked with her wedding
I think the hardest part about working with this client is that in every encounter with her (and her mother and her finance), I remained kind, accommodating, and professionalI will admit that I did have to ask a few hard questions to do my job, but I always did that carefully and with respectAnd in every interaction, things seemed to be worked out, and then they weren'tI bent over backwards in every way, trying to accommodate her many requests and reassuring her I was excited about her weddingStill my client, her mother, and her fiancé continually accuse me of being rude, disrespectful, and unprofessionalThey accuse me of being "abusive," which is a term I have often though of their treatment of meAfter her wedding planner informed me that they wanted to fire me and I responded by saying I would not return the deposit (for the aforementioned reasons), they began a slew of abusive attacks on me and my businessIn addition to having her fiancé threaten to sue us, they (the client, the mother, and the fiance) wrote over attacking reviews on various websites (Yelp, Wedding Wire, and The Wedding Channel) and even enlisted friends and family to write fake reviewsSeveral of the reviews have been taken down on these sites for not being creditable and violating the websites' guidelines for character defamationWhat they have done to me and my business has most definitely been abusiveThey have been be mean-spirited, spiteful, and have treated me exactly the way they have accused me of treating them
This business has been built by years of pouring my heart and soul into what I doI love designing flowers for weddings and one of my very favorite things about my job is working with my clientsI have lost sleep, cried tears, and sought legal advice over the way this client has unfairly treated me and have finally come to the conclusion that some people are just mean
I also stand on my reputation in my industry and take no blame for not refunding their depositI did not "force" my client to change floristsIt was a decision she madeMy contract is clear and so is my conscienceIf you would like to see our reputation, let me direct you to to see reviews from clients that we have worked with the past yearsYes, you will see my client's negative reviews mixed in, but I think it's pretty clear where our reputation standshttps://www.theknot.com/marketplace/cori-cook-floral-design-golden-co-
I will also direct you to see the sort of nasty, mean-spirited attacks they make on me on Yelp, reviews that are considered "not recommended" because of their inconsistencyhttp://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/cori-cook-floral-design...⇄
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/10) */
I am thankful to have received this complaint via Revdex.com so I might finally have a credible place to respond to this clientI will start by saying that in years of business, this was my first negative experience with a client, which ultimately
ended in her making the decision to terminate the contract weeks before her wedding
Our relationship started off very well and with a lot of excitement about working togetherIt took a very strange turn when my client came into town and we scheduled a meeting to make a sample centerpiece for herShe seemed to love the centerpiece, but requested a few changes to be made for her wedding day (a different vase, less pink and the removal of a green vine I had included)This was absolutely no problem and I expressed thatIt has always been important to me to ensure I understand our clients' vision and make sure they will love their flowers on their wedding dayI suggested doing a mock up of her centerpiece because she had changed her vision so often throughout the proposal process that I wanted to make sure I got it right and could make any adjustments to the centerpiece prior to her wedding dayI was pleased when she left the appointment because she said several times how beautiful she thought it was
A few days later I received a call from her mother (who had not been a part of the initial phone conversation or the aforementioned meeting)She was abrasive in expressing feeling disappointed in the size of the sample centerpiece (she had seen it in a photo taken on my client's phone) and the colorsShe accused me of using old flowers, because the roses looked "too open" in the photoAfter spending several minutes talking through each of her concerns, I expressed feeling a confused because when her daughter had left our meeting she seemed so happy with the centerpiece and the changes we were going to makeAt that point, it started feeling confusing as to who I was trying to make happyIn addition to working with their wedding planner, I was dealing with two conflicting opinions and I told her thisI tried very hard to be delicate about it, but it was a question I had to ask to do my job wellWas I trying to please my clients' mother or my client and what should I do if those two opinions were conflicting?
A few weeks later we had our final phone call before the wedding to go over delivery times and any last minute itemsDuring this conversation, my client began demanding difficult changes to make weeks before the weddingAt this point, we had already put in our order with our floral wholesaler and had ordered all her containersSome of these requests I could accommodate, but some were very difficult and frankly unreasonableFor example, she decided she wanted peonies for her bridal bouquetI politely explained to her that peonies are out of season (something we discussed during our first consultation, months prior) and would be very expensive to ship from the only place in the world that grows them in August (Alaska), especially in a small quantity (she only wanted stems for her bridal bouquet)She then accused me of "not being excited to do her wedding" and "being difficult." She became very emotional and defensiveI was alarmed, since I have never worked with a client so confusingI tried to explain that I wasn't trying to be difficult, but that even though I would do my best, I might not be able to make all these changes happen last minuteI even apologized several times for making her feel like I wasn't excited about her weddingWe left the conversation with me promising to look into all her desired requestsBy the end of the conversation, I thought we had worked out the negativity she felt toward me, and were back on track
I spent the next day researching, calling all over town, and getting answers on all her requestsSurprisingly, I was able to meet almost all of her requested changesI was happy about that and I emailed her to tell her the news and asked for a final response so I could move quickly since we were getting down to the wireA few days went by without hearing from her and I left a voicemail to try and get in touch againFinally her wedding planner called to say they wanted to "fire me" and wanted me to refund their deposit
Our contract very clearly states that the deposit is non-refundableThis is not to spite the client or take advantage of the situationInstead it protects us from loosing money on a weekend that we declare "booked"We are a small business with a small staff and we take a limited amount of weddings per weekend, so we often say no to other wedding inquiries once we are booked for the weekendIn fact, we refused other wedding inquires that weekend, because we were booked with her wedding
I think the hardest part about working with this client is that in every encounter with her (and her mother and her finance), I remained kind, accommodating, and professionalI will admit that I did have to ask a few hard questions to do my job, but I always did that carefully and with respectAnd in every interaction, things seemed to be worked out, and then they weren'tI bent over backwards in every way, trying to accommodate her many requests and reassuring her I was excited about her weddingStill my client, her mother, and her fiancé continually accuse me of being rude, disrespectful, and unprofessionalThey accuse me of being "abusive," which is a term I have often though of their treatment of meAfter her wedding planner informed me that they wanted to fire me and I responded by saying I would not return the deposit (for the aforementioned reasons), they began a slew of abusive attacks on me and my businessIn addition to having her fiancé threaten to sue us, they (the client, the mother, and the fiance) wrote over attacking reviews on various websites (Yelp, Wedding Wire, and The Wedding Channel) and even enlisted friends and family to write fake reviewsSeveral of the reviews have been taken down on these sites for not being creditable and violating the websites' guidelines for character defamationWhat they have done to me and my business has most definitely been abusiveThey have been be mean-spirited, spiteful, and have treated me exactly the way they have accused me of treating them
This business has been built by years of pouring my heart and soul into what I doI love designing flowers for weddings and one of my very favorite things about my job is working with my clientsI have lost sleep, cried tears, and sought legal advice over the way this client has unfairly treated me and have finally come to the conclusion that some people are just mean
I also stand on my reputation in my industry and take no blame for not refunding their depositI did not "force" my client to change floristsIt was a decision she madeMy contract is clear and so is my conscienceIf you would like to see our reputation, let me direct you to to see reviews from clients that we have worked with the past yearsYes, you will see my client's negative reviews mixed in, but I think it's pretty clear where our reputation standshttps://www.theknot.com/marketplace/cori-cook-floral-design-golden-co-
I will also direct you to see the sort of nasty, mean-spirited attacks they make on me on Yelp, reviews that are considered "not recommended" because of their inconsistencyhttp://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/cori-cook-floral-design...⇄