InStyle Event Planning

"Customer service, our client’s experience throughout the wedding planning process, and helping clients have the wedding of their dreams are of the utmost importance to us. Our team loves working closely with our clients and especially brides and grooms. 
 
We helped [redacted] plan her wedding of her dreams in San Diego beginning September 2013. With our experience we knew that we could make her wedding dreams come true with this budget and her vision.  She and our team felt we were a great match for each other and would work well together. 
A few months into working with [redacted], a close family member who was hosting her wedding had a falling out with her. Her budget dropped dramatically to less than half of the original amount. We were really sorry that happened. She had a vision of a very lush grand wedding, with 50-75 friends and family,  farm style tables, chiavari chairs, string lighting, top notch photographers and a beautiful glamorous gown.  We could imagine the disappointment she had after months of working with us planning her wedding to this point.  A lot of resources had been spent planning her wedding. We were still committed to helping her have her dream wedding. [redacted] choose to go to Bora Bora with 10-12 friends and have a simple wedding on the beach. 
 
After planning her Bora Bora wedding for two months, [redacted] decided she wanted a Sonoma or Napa Valley wedding.  Shortly after this change [redacted] sent us a text saying “She no longer needed a coordinator for her wedding “.  We stopped working on her wedding that day. 
 
The next time we heard from [redacted] was nine months later on Monday November 24, 2014, now that she was married.  In her email, she wanted to discuss some sort of a refund. We emailed her back immediately in hopes to discuss her concerns after the Thanksgiving Holiday. We let her know that our office was closed for the holiday and we would address her concerns upon returning back to the office. Two days later on Wednesday November 26, 2014 we received a message from the Revdex.com and saw this review on line from [redacted]. We are a Revdex.com member with an A+ rating. This is the highest rating a business can receive. Customer service is always a top priority for our team. It was very surprising to us to see this after all the time and energy we spent on planning her three weddings and being only contracted for one. 
 
We are very passionate and love working with our clients to getting them the wedding of their dreams. We contract by the scope, size, time and energy we feel we will need to give our clients the wedding they desire. We required $2,200 to get started as a nonrefundable deposit. We began the wedding planning immediately after receiving payment and her signed contract. Even though [redacted]’s wedding planning had taken many twists and turns and gone beyond our initial evaluation we were committed to creating her a dream wedding. We did not ask for more funds or in the end ask for the final payment. We felt that it was best to let go and move forward. 
 
It is very upsetting to hear [redacted] say that we made a few phone calls and did a little research. We spent over 40 man hours with over 100 emails, phone calls, and text messages with [redacted] during the almost six month of the wedding planning process. This does not include all the time and energy between us and other wedding professionals on behalf of [redacted] in all the three different wedding locations.  It takes many hours for each conversation with each wedding professional.  It could be by email or phone and it takes time and resources. Each time we started on a new city, budget, scope and size we started planning from the beginning with a whole new set of parameters and professionals. We did this to make [redacted] happy and because we were committed to helping her get her dream wedding. We also had two of our coordinators spend 6 hours showing [redacted] and her fiancée properties in San Diego. They all met with the venue coordinators to discuss their packages and price structures.
Customer service is very important to us. Clients hire us for our expertise, experience, and time.  At no time did [redacted] express unhappiness or ask about a refund during the nearly 6 months of working closely together with our head coordinator.  We have reached out to [redacted] several times since receiving an email a week ago from her. The emails are becoming confusing, just like her wedding planning process. She clearly does not appreciate all the time and effort we put into her planning. Every time we were getting close to concrete plans, she took us in a whole different direction. This was after telling her how much time had been spent on the previous destination wedding planning. 
 
Our team tried very hard to please her and give her what she wanted no matter how different it was every time from our original consultation. We have given hundreds of brides and grooms beautiful weddings and wonderful planning experiences. We wish [redacted] and her husband a lifetime of happiness."
[redacted]Owner / Principal Planner
InStyle Event Planning
[redacted]
750 B Street 
33rd Floor 
San Diego, CA 92101
www.InStyleEventPlanning.com
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
I'm filing another complaint, because I was not satisfied with the outcome of my first compalint. I still have not yet received any type of refund from this company. My husband and I retained their services for wedding planning in which $2200 that was required up front. As we went through the process, we met with the planner once, had a few phone calls and shared text messages of ideas, this is all that was done by Instyle. When we informed Instyle that we no longer needed her services, as we ultimately decided to have a low key event that we could plan ourselves, I asked about a refund at that time. I'm upset that the wedding planner, Shelly chose to share our personal family affairs when responding to our complaint. I find this terribly unprofessional. All I want is a bill outlining services and a partial refund for the deposit that we paid to her. I feel that she put in time for during our "planning process" but it was minimal amounts of time and I cannot accept that the time spent was worth $2200. I have asked her for some type of billing to justify the $2200 we gave to her for the services provided. I have still received nothing. I'm not expecting a full refund, but would like to see most of the deposit refunded to us. The Wedding industry in general is bloated and expensive, so I'm not surprised that she feels entitled in keeping this entire amount for the minimal services provided. The only thing she has provided is airing my family drama, which I'm sure most families have during the wedding process. Again, I find this disturbingly unprofessional. It has been since 2013 that we have paid her and I am still expecting some time of monetary refund from her and a copy of a bill. After I had posted a negative review on yelp, Shelly asked me to take it down in order to discuss any type of refund. The last time I checked, freedom of speech is part of our constitution and yelp is a legal business. I would like some type of refund and a proper billing statement outlining charges of the $2200 for any services.
Regards,
[redacted]

Customer service, our client’s experience throughout the
wedding planning process, and helping clients have the wedding of their dreams are
of the utmost importance to us. Our team loves working closely with our clients
and especially brides and grooms.  
class="MsoNormal">We helped [redacted] (now [redacted] ) plan her wedding of
her dreams in San Diego beginning  September
2013. We were excited to begin working with her while her future fiancé was
still having her custom made engagement ring designed for her.  She was not yet engaged.
We started planning her wedding after her initial phone
consultation based upon being able to help her with her budget and the vision
she wanted.  With our experience we knew that
we could make her wedding dreams come true with this budget and her vision.  She and our team felt we were a great match
for each other and would work well together.
A few months into working with [redacted], a close family member
who was hosting her wedding had a falling out with her. Her budget dropped dramatically
to less than half of the original amount. We were really sorry that happened.
She had a vision of a very lush grand wedding, with 50-75 friends and family,  farm style tables, chiavari chairs, string lighting,
top notch photographers and a beautiful glamorous gown.  We could imagine the disappointment she had after
months of working with us planning her wedding to this point.  A lot of resources had been spent planning her
dream wedding.
We were still committed to helping her have a dream wedding.
She and her fiancée understood they needed to scale back on their plans however
they could have a magical and memorable wedding experience. They choose to go
to Bora Bora with 10-12 friends and have a simple wedding on the beach.
After planning her Bora Bora wedding for two months, [redacted]
decided she wanted a Sonoma or Napa Valley wedding.   Shortly
after this change [redacted] sent us a text saying “She no longer needed a
coordinator for her wedding “. We stopped working on her wedding that day.
The next time we heard from [redacted] was nine months later on
Monday November 24, 2014, now that she was married.  In her email, she wanted to discuss some sort
of a refund. We emailed her back immediately in hopes to discuss her concerns
after the Thanksgiving Holiday. We let her know that our office was closed for
the holiday and we would address her concerns upon returning back to the
office. Two days later on Wednesday November 26, 2014 we received a complaint
from the Revdex.com and saw a negative review on line from [redacted]. Customer service is
always a top priority for our team. It was alarming to us to receive a
complaint and a negative review after all the time and energy we spent on
planning her three weddings and being only contracted for one. 
We are very passionate and love working with our clients to
getting them the wedding of their dreams. It is very upsetting and mind
boggling to hear [redacted] say to us and in her complaint that we made a few phone
calls, did a little research and showed her two venues.  In the very first conversation we had with
[redacted] she said that she had spent so much time researching venues and wedding
professionals for her wedding and now wanted to hire us because of all the time
it took.
We contract by the scope, size, time and energy we feel we
will need to give our clients the wedding of their dreams. We required $2,200
to get started as a nonrefundable deposit with [redacted]. We made an exception
with [redacted] to make two separate payments of $1,100 over a month a half of time.
We began the wedding planning process before the second payment was made
because she was excited to get started right away.  Even though [redacted]’s wedding planning had
taken many twists and turns and gone beyond our initial evaluation we were
committed to creating her a dream wedding. We did not ask for more funds or in
the end ask for the final payment. We felt that it was best to let go and move forward.
We spent over 40 man hours with over 100 emails, phone
calls, and text messages with [redacted] during the almost six month of the wedding
planning process. This does not include all the time and energy between us and other
wedding professionals on behalf of [redacted] in all the three completely different
wedding locations.  It takes many hours
for each conversation with each wedding professional.  It could be by email or phone and it takes
time and resources. Each time we started on a new city, budget, scope and size
we started planning from the beginning with a whole new set of parameters and professionals.
We did this to make [redacted] happy and because we were committed to helping her
get her dream wedding. We also had two of our coordinators spend 6 hours showing
[redacted] and her fiancée properties in San Diego. They all met with the venue coordinators
to discuss their packages and price structures.
Customer service is very important to us. Clients hire us
for our expertise, experience, and time.  At no time did [redacted] express unhappiness or
ask about a refund during the nearly 6 months of working closely together with
our head coordinator.  We have reached
out to [redacted] several times since receiving an email a week ago from her. The
emails are becoming confusing, just like her wedding planning process. She
clearly does not appreciate all the time and effort we put into her planning. Every
time we were getting close to concrete plans, she took us in a whole different
direction. This was after telling her how much time had been spent on the
previous destination wedding planning.
It is upsetting to us that we can’t make [redacted] happy. Our
team tried very hard to please her and give her what she wanted no matter how
different it was every time from our original consultation. We have given
hundreds of brides and grooms beautiful weddings and wonderful planning
experiences. We wish [redacted] the best and wish her and her husband a lifetime of
happiness.

Review: I paid over $2200 for wedding planning services. I decided not to use said services and asked if I could get a refund, or partial refund. Some services were provided, but not many and I feel that I grossly over paid. When I asked about a refund, I heard nothing. It's been about a year and I haven't received anything from this company.Desired Settlement: I would like a refund as we did not use $2200 worth of services. Mostly we traded emails, text messages and viewed 2 wedding venues in one day.

Business

Response:

Customer service, our client’s experience throughout the

wedding planning process, and helping clients have the wedding of their dreams are

of the utmost importance to us. Our team loves working closely with our clients

and especially brides and grooms.

We helped [redacted] (now [redacted] ) plan her wedding of

her dreams in San Diego beginning September

2013. We were excited to begin working with her while her future fiancé was

still having her custom made engagement ring designed for her. She was not yet engaged.

We started planning her wedding after her initial phone

consultation based upon being able to help her with her budget and the vision

she wanted. With our experience we knew that

we could make her wedding dreams come true with this budget and her vision. She and our team felt we were a great match

for each other and would work well together.

A few months into working with [redacted], a close family member

who was hosting her wedding had a falling out with her. Her budget dropped dramatically

to less than half of the original amount. We were really sorry that happened.

She had a vision of a very lush grand wedding, with 50-75 friends and family, farm style tables, chiavari chairs, string lighting,

top notch photographers and a beautiful glamorous gown. We could imagine the disappointment she had after

months of working with us planning her wedding to this point. A lot of resources had been spent planning her

dream wedding.

We were still committed to helping her have a dream wedding.

She and her fiancée understood they needed to scale back on their plans however

they could have a magical and memorable wedding experience. They choose to go

to Bora Bora with 10-12 friends and have a simple wedding on the beach.

After planning her Bora Bora wedding for two months, [redacted]

decided she wanted a Sonoma or Napa Valley wedding. Shortly

after this change [redacted] sent us a text saying “She no longer needed a

coordinator for her wedding “. We stopped working on her wedding that day.

The next time we heard from [redacted] was nine months later on

Monday November 24, 2014, now that she was married. In her email, she wanted to discuss some sort

of a refund. We emailed her back immediately in hopes to discuss her concerns

after the Thanksgiving Holiday. We let her know that our office was closed for

the holiday and we would address her concerns upon returning back to the

office. Two days later on Wednesday November 26, 2014 we received a complaint

from the Revdex.com and saw a negative review on line from [redacted]. Customer service is

always a top priority for our team. It was alarming to us to receive a

complaint and a negative review after all the time and energy we spent on

planning her three weddings and being only contracted for one.

We are very passionate and love working with our clients to

getting them the wedding of their dreams. It is very upsetting and mind

boggling to hear [redacted] say to us and in her complaint that we made a few phone

calls, did a little research and showed her two venues. In the very first conversation we had with

[redacted] she said that she had spent so much time researching venues and wedding

professionals for her wedding and now wanted to hire us because of all the time

it took.

We contract by the scope, size, time and energy we feel we

will need to give our clients the wedding of their dreams. We required $2,200

to get started as a nonrefundable deposit with [redacted]. We made an exception

with [redacted] to make two separate payments of $1,100 over a month a half of time.

We began the wedding planning process before the second payment was made

because she was excited to get started right away. Even though [redacted]’s wedding planning had

taken many twists and turns and gone beyond our initial evaluation we were

committed to creating her a dream wedding. We did not ask for more funds or in

the end ask for the final payment. We felt that it was best to let go and move forward.

We spent over 40 man hours with over 100 emails, phone

calls, and text messages with [redacted] during the almost six month of the wedding

planning process. This does not include all the time and energy between us and other

wedding professionals on behalf of [redacted] in all the three completely different

wedding locations. It takes many hours

for each conversation with each wedding professional. It could be by email or phone and it takes

time and resources. Each time we started on a new city, budget, scope and size

we started planning from the beginning with a whole new set of parameters and professionals.

We did this to make [redacted] happy and because we were committed to helping her

get her dream wedding. We also had two of our coordinators spend 6 hours showing

[redacted] and her fiancée properties in San Diego. They all met with the venue coordinators

to discuss their packages and price structures.

Customer service is very important to us. Clients hire us

for our expertise, experience, and time. At no time did [redacted] express unhappiness or

ask about a refund during the nearly 6 months of working closely together with

our head coordinator. We have reached

out to [redacted] several times since receiving an email a week ago from her. The

emails are becoming confusing, just like her wedding planning process. She

clearly does not appreciate all the time and effort we put into her planning. Every

time we were getting close to concrete plans, she took us in a whole different

direction. This was after telling her how much time had been spent on the

previous destination wedding planning.

It is upsetting to us that we can’t make [redacted] happy. Our

team tried very hard to please her and give her what she wanted no matter how

different it was every time from our original consultation. We have given

hundreds of brides and grooms beautiful weddings and wonderful planning

experiences. We wish [redacted] the best and wish her and her husband a lifetime of

happiness.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I'm filing another complaint, because I was not satisfied with the outcome of my first compalint. I still have not yet received any type of refund from this company. My husband and I retained their services for wedding planning in which $2200 that was required up front. As we went through the process, we met with the planner once, had a few phone calls and shared text messages of ideas, this is all that was done by Instyle. When we informed Instyle that we no longer needed her services, as we ultimately decided to have a low key event that we could plan ourselves, I asked about a refund at that time. I'm upset that the wedding planner, Shelly chose to share our personal family affairs when responding to our complaint. I find this terribly unprofessional. All I want is a bill outlining services and a partial refund for the deposit that we paid to her. I feel that she put in time for during our "planning process" but it was minimal amounts of time and I cannot accept that the time spent was worth $2200. I have asked her for some type of billing to justify the $2200 we gave to her for the services provided. I have still received nothing. I'm not expecting a full refund, but would like to see most of the deposit refunded to us. The Wedding industry in general is bloated and expensive, so I'm not surprised that she feels entitled in keeping this entire amount for the minimal services provided. The only thing she has provided is airing my family drama, which I'm sure most families have during the wedding process. Again, I find this disturbingly unprofessional. It has been since 2013 that we have paid her and I am still expecting some time of monetary refund from her and a copy of a bill. After I had posted a negative review on yelp, Shelly asked me to take it down in order to discuss any type of refund. The last time I checked, freedom of speech is part of our constitution and yelp is a legal business. I would like some type of refund and a proper billing statement outlining charges of the $2200 for any services.

Regards,

[redacted]

Business

Response:

"Customer service, our client’s experience throughout the wedding planning process, and helping clients have the wedding of their dreams are of the utmost importance to us. Our team loves working closely with our clients and especially brides and grooms. We helped [redacted] plan her wedding of her dreams in San Diego beginning September 2013. With our experience we knew that we could make her wedding dreams come true with this budget and her vision. She and our team felt we were a great match for each other and would work well together. A few months into working with [redacted], a close family member who was hosting her wedding had a falling out with her. Her budget dropped dramatically to less than half of the original amount. We were really sorry that happened. She had a vision of a very lush grand wedding, with 50-75 friends and family, farm style tables, chiavari chairs, string lighting, top notch photographers and a beautiful glamorous gown. We could imagine the disappointment she had after months of working with us planning her wedding to this point. A lot of resources had been spent planning her wedding. We were still committed to helping her have her dream wedding. [redacted] choose to go to Bora Bora with 10-12 friends and have a simple wedding on the beach. After planning her Bora Bora wedding for two months, [redacted] decided she wanted a Sonoma or Napa Valley wedding. Shortly after this change [redacted] sent us a text saying “She no longer needed a coordinator for her wedding “. We stopped working on her wedding that day. The next time we heard from [redacted] was nine months later on Monday November 24, 2014, now that she was married. In her email, she wanted to discuss some sort of a refund. We emailed her back immediately in hopes to discuss her concerns after the Thanksgiving Holiday. We let her know that our office was closed for the holiday and we would address her concerns upon returning back to the office. Two days later on Wednesday November 26, 2014 we received a message from the Revdex.com and saw this review on line from [redacted]. We are a Revdex.com member with an A+ rating. This is the highest rating a business can receive. Customer service is always a top priority for our team. It was very surprising to us to see this after all the time and energy we spent on planning her three weddings and being only contracted for one. We are very passionate and love working with our clients to getting them the wedding of their dreams. We contract by the scope, size, time and energy we feel we will need to give our clients the wedding they desire. We required $2,200 to get started as a nonrefundable deposit. We began the wedding planning immediately after receiving payment and her signed contract. Even though [redacted]’s wedding planning had taken many twists and turns and gone beyond our initial evaluation we were committed to creating her a dream wedding. We did not ask for more funds or in the end ask for the final payment. We felt that it was best to let go and move forward. It is very upsetting to hear [redacted] say that we made a few phone calls and did a little research. We spent over 40 man hours with over 100 emails, phone calls, and text messages with [redacted] during the almost six month of the wedding planning process. This does not include all the time and energy between us and other wedding professionals on behalf of [redacted] in all the three different wedding locations. It takes many hours for each conversation with each wedding professional. It could be by email or phone and it takes time and resources. Each time we started on a new city, budget, scope and size we started planning from the beginning with a whole new set of parameters and professionals. We did this to make [redacted] happy and because we were committed to helping her get her dream wedding. We also had two of our coordinators spend 6 hours showing [redacted] and her fiancée properties in San Diego. They all met with the venue coordinators to discuss their packages and price structures.Customer service is very important to us. Clients hire us for our expertise, experience, and time. At no time did [redacted] express unhappiness or ask about a refund during the nearly 6 months of working closely together with our head coordinator. We have reached out to [redacted] several times since receiving an email a week ago from her. The emails are becoming confusing, just like her wedding planning process. She clearly does not appreciate all the time and effort we put into her planning. Every time we were getting close to concrete plans, she took us in a whole different direction. This was after telling her how much time had been spent on the previous destination wedding planning. Our team tried very hard to please her and give her what she wanted no matter how different it was every time from our original consultation. We have given hundreds of brides and grooms beautiful weddings and wonderful planning experiences. We wish [redacted] and her husband a lifetime of happiness."[redacted]Owner / Principal PlannerInStyle Event Planning