La Hacienda Restaurant & Party Hall

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 Regards, [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.
Regards,
[redacted]

Ms. [redacted]:Regarding the letter sent to you on 07/12/16 by Mrs. [redacted], I would like to address her complaint, clarify some points, and ultimately display goodwill in resolving this matter. Mrs. [redacted] brings up what she feels was the heart of what went wrong the day of her...

daughter’s Quinceañera, however, the truth, as will be exposed in the following paragraphs, is Mrs. [redacted] rented a La Hacienda party hall with services, all of which she received, but she did not know how to coordinate and manage a reception of that magnitude and time consumption, nor did she take heed to our professional advice. As expected and forewarned nothing went smoothly for her. As one thing after another went wrong, she began to feel the “worst, unprofessional, stressful experience” she states in her complaint. The only issue is that it was not La Hacienda that caused her to feel this way it was her own doing.Mrs. [redacted] starts off by saying “The A/C was used very sparingly even after numerous complaints about the heat and humidity...”. She fails to mention the fact of her not allowing the room to cool down properly as we had agreed. It was explained on several occasions to Mrs. [redacted] that we needed a full hour prior to the event with no one in the hall as to ensure all the doors remain shut to cool down the hall properly. Her party started at 6:00pm we asked her to please not have anyone inside from 5:00pm to 6:00pm to cool down the hall. She ignored this and had guests and people helping her from 3:30pm onward coming in and out with the doors open therefore the hall took longer to cool down. It’s possible that Mrs. [redacted] was influenced in her “notice of a hot and humid” environment due to a group of maybe 4-5 guests that were both dancing and drinking which might have complained about feeling hot, the constant rate of physical activity plus alcohol would lead to them not feeling the cool temperature but that does not mean the entire hall was hot and humid. The A/C was turned on since about 2:00pm all the way until 1am when she finally left the hall, it was NOT used sparingly. The heat and humidity was due to her not allowing the hall to cool down properly form the start. Her next point is about paying for unlimited ice and not receiving it. This was just not true. The bar ice container was full the entire night, this can be confirmed by both the employees that filled it as well as her guests that were served drinks all night long containing ice. Mrs. [redacted] only bases her “ice complaint” on alleged “warm beer served”. As the bartender, I personally received no complaints about warm beer. In any case, Mrs. [redacted] must really understand her method of keeping her beer kegs “cool” was not correct. She brought 2 small buckets to place the kegs in, which when placed inside the buckets, the kegs stuck out about 2/3 of the way and the width was almost exactly that of the kegs themselves. The ice that was supposed to keep them cool had nowhere to sit, there was only a small diameter around the keg where the ice was placed but when it melted there was only so much to be done. I actually offered Mrs. [redacted] our Kegarator (an actual fridge specially made for kegs with a devise hooked up to pull the draft). I explained it would be better to put one keg there and once it was done we could bring out the other to switch out. She refused because she wanted “ both kegs out at the same time since it’s different beer”. There’s no way of helping someone that does not want to be helped.Next, there is the matter of supposed “incompetent workers” that she says were “slow and broke her vase”. Mrs. [redacted]’s contract did include 3 people working for a total of 7 hours, from 1:30pm to 8:30pm. These workers were there and preformed their appointed tasks just as agreed. The issue here really is Mrs. [redacted] forgets they were only supposed to serve food. It was Mrs. [redacted] that asked if they could come in earlier to help set up the chair covers and bows. First and foremost, the key word there is HELP. I told her I could have them come in earlier to help but also explained that they were not professional decorators or anything of the sort. Their job is serving in a buffet line. She said that was ok that she would just have them come in with extra time to make up for the lack of experience. The agreement was for people to help her but naturally needed her direction to fulfill her expectations. Come the day of the event, first off she doesn’t make it in time to start the decoration set-up. The helpers got there @1:30pm as agreed but she didn’t come in until 3:00pm. She didn’t bring in chair covers but instead brought in some sort of square cloth that had to be tied in a knot in order to vaguely resemble a chair cover. I told Mrs. [redacted], “ I don’t know about these covers, they’re not standard covers. It’s going to take longer to set these up because you have to tie a knot, where as the others you just slip on”. She expected all those to be already set up by the time she got there as well as the 36 tables with linens and overlays. This is why she says they were “slow”. The helpers weren’t “slow” they were doing their job just fine. They were helping, just as agreed on the contract and their title. Mrs. [redacted] complains about having to have set up the hall along with other family and friends. I do not understand this complaint. It was her choice to do the set-up and decorations like that. She didn’t want to pay for any professional to do it. She paid for helpers, and they did help. She was “stressed and scrambling” to finish before the guests arrived because she got there late and didn’t plan correctly. That is not La Hacienda’s fault. She also blames one of the helpers for breaking her vase and La Hacienda refusing to compensate her for that. First off, it was not one of the helpers, it was one of her daughter’s friends that was helping her. He moved one of the tables and the vase fell and broke. Why would La Hacienda need to compensate for something her guest broke? She wants to blame one of the workers in her anger at the vase breaking but that is dishonest.Finally Mrs. [redacted] is upset at the bartender service. This directly affects me as I was filling in as bartender that day. Mrs. [redacted] correctly states that the bartender I had hired was unable to come in on that day. However, I have been working part-time as a bartender for the past 8 years, so I saw not problem in covering for her. Mrs. [redacted]’s contract has her paying for a bartender and she had a bartender. She says she was paying for a licensed bartender and that she did not get that. First of all, the contract never states a “licensed bartender” but in any case we do employ licensed bartenders and I don’t know why she thinks I’m not qualified to bartend. She said I did “a horrible job” and that is her opinion, which she is entitled to express. As for her guests, I had only good compliments and tips to express their gratitude and approval. I don’t say I was perfect as no one can be, but in the circumstance of having to serve 300 guests (all 300 because the sodas and water was also served at the bar) I don’t see how it could have been done any better except for having had Mrs. [redacted] pay for another bartender so the workload would be divided. Then again, due to her frugal nature, I could not see her agreeing to that. Finally she alleges that I served alcohol to minors. This is a serious thing to say and as I explained to her when she came in and yelled to me about it, I don’t take it lightly. We card when serving alcohol at the bar, as well as have the security guards walk around the guest tables and double check ID’s. That is our policy, not to mention the law on which our alcohol license it based. Mrs. [redacted] knows this is our way of working since she signed her contract and agreed to the rules and regulations of La Hacienda. She knows we do not allow minors to have alcoholic beverages so I am surprised to hear she thinks we didn’t card those drinking beer. I however, do admit there was some minors caught drinking by our security guards. The security guards took the beer from them and were told they would be asked to leave the party if they were caught drinking again. Sadly, as any venue that serves beer with minors in the same room, underage kids there sometimes get alcohol through the adults. That is the real challenge and what we are up against. Now I asked Mrs. [redacted] why she didn’t tell us there were minors drinking if she was aware of the occurrence during the event. She only came to me days after, appalled that this happened. She said she caught it on video, I wonder if she also caught on video the fake IDs we got from her guests, the drinks we took from the minors at the tables given to them by her adult guests, as well as the liquor bottles her guests tried to sneak in. Those were all against the rules of La Hacienda, rules she signed she agreed to abide by and yet her guests broke anyway. She refuses to acknowledge her responsibility and fault in the matter. If there were minors drinking at her party it was not because La Hacienda allowed it or worse, as she says, deliberately provided the alcohol to minors. I am truly upset Mrs. [redacted] not only does not recognize all the help and above-and- beyond services she received from La Hacienda to try and make her daughter’s celebration a great experience, but that she actually feels she was cheated and taken advantage of. It is important to note an extremely important issue that Mrs. [redacted] does not bring up and purposely would like to ignore. She is not a professional event coordinator and she undertook a colossal task she couldn’t manage. She displayed complete lack of time management and direction and chose to not take our professional advice. In doing so, when things started going wrong and falling behind, stress and anger started to accumulate and she had no one to blame but herself with her trying to get things cheaper and doing everything herself. The unfortunate thing is she did not, and will not admit this and wants to lash out at anyone and everyone that she can. She did not like looking bad in front of her guests and so the easy target to blame is the hall. She leaves out all the extra services and conveniences she received from La Hacienda Party Hall. Mrs. [redacted] wanted to save money on choreographer, so she choreographed her daughter’s dances herself so she needed more time to practice. We usually only allow one, two hour practice one week before the party but we allowed her TWO practice days and not for two hours but for THREE hours. The day of the event, she forgot to charge the phone where the music for the “vals” was on and her husband was desperately looking for a charger. I lent them my own charger from my phone so the dance could start. We also usually only allow 2-3 hours for set-up and decoration on the day of the event. We allowed her 4 1/2 hours to set-up and decorate. I, myself saw her distress and felt bad for her so I actually went out of my way to help her set up tables, chairs and linens. All the way to the end of the night, her party was supposed to be over at midnight, in the contract this is further explained by stating the music stops 1/2 hour prior to midnight so that her guests can have 1/2 hour to exit and allow us to close the doors at exactly midnight. She took so long with her break-down and taking all her linens and decorations down that she went over about an hour and 1/2 we had to pay our employees 2 extra hours because they couldn’t start the clean up, as well as the security guards that can’t leave until all the guests from the party leave the premises. When she was left alone at 1am with only her kids, waiting for her husband to pick her up, we didn’t just leave her there; there was a security guard that stayed with her until she got picked up. She completely ignores all this extra help and support. Finally, after her party was over I spoke with I understand her disappointment at how the reception went, I understand her frustration and even her anger but I will not allow her mistakes to unfairly land on our business. We are professionals, we have been doing business for over a decade and it is not only unfair but downright malicious that she tries to blame her bad coordination and lack of experience on us.I am attaching a copy of her contract and the rules and regulations La Hacienda Party Hall has that she agreed to as well. There you will see what services she paid for and the rules she agreed to. I would like to thank the Revdex.com for taking time to analyze the complaint and hear out both sides. I hope this matter can be resolved through the Revdex.com and we can put this all behind us.Best regards,[redacted] La Hacienda Restaurant & Party Hall 300 Douglas Drive Oceanside, CA 92058 (760) 722-1703