Complaintsfor3 Girls Catering

• Initial Complaint

  08/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I booked 3 Girls Catering to provide catering services for my wedding reception in **************** on May 28, 2022. Our guest count was finalized with them at 75 people. They did not bring the amount of food we paid for. Even though we ended up with about 65 guests (which means we should have had at least ten servings of leftovers after everyone was fed) there were about a dozen guests that did not get dinner because they ran out of food so early. This is a breach of contract, as we paid for 75 meals and received far less. I have reached out to 3 Girls on multiple occasions over the past two months but no one has responded. I am trying to find out how this happened (as it was the worst thing that can happen at a wedding) and receive a partial refund for the food we paid for for our guests and did not receive. Although their management did reach out to our wedding coordinator to verify this, they still have not responded to my emails/messages. I would like to try to resolve this with their management with the help of BBB before having to file a lawsuit.

  Business response

  08/05/2022

  3Gs has been in business for nearly 20 years & we've catered hundreds of weddings for happy brides & ******.  In all those years, thankfully, we've never encountered a bride quite like ****.  Even though we accommodated ****** last minute additions without adding charging anything extra, she appeared unhappy the moment our crew arrived.  We understand that weddings can be stressful so we make every effort to offer amazing service to make sure the day is special.  Our team interacted with & served each wedding guest, bussed every table then returned all rented dishes & cutlery to rental racks & even loaded the mother-of-the-groom's truck full of rentals & other equipment so she could make returns the following day.  Our team stayed approx 40 minutes late in the pouring rain to cut & serve the wedding cake for the bride & groom, even after most guests had headed home.  It's all in a day's work as a caterer!

   

  Upon meeting with our 3 team members post event we learned that 2 guests did not receive the proteins for their meal, although several other guests had come through the buffet line for seconds, & we fed all the wedding vendors: photographers, dj, event planners, bartenders...the venue owner even packed up leftovers to take home for later - she thanked us for our professionalism & attention to clean up at the venue.

   

  The 2 guests who did not receive meat with their meal apologized for being at the bar after arriving late, coming through the buffet approx 25 minutes after dinner service while our crew was cleaning up.

   

  Most brides are enjoying time with their groom immediately after their celebration, so it is customary for us to reach out via email & offer our post event survey to obtain feedback about the event.  It wasn't until about a week later that we heard back from ***** after she had posted negative comments on every social media platform she could think of. It's heartbreaking she would choose to put us on blast without at least speaking to us first.  Since the first post she has been nasty & derogatory & she well into a smear campaign to ruin our business.

   

  As stated, we have catered hundreds of weddings & we've won many awards in the Treasure Valley for our food & service (including Best of ***** several times).  We take our business very seriously...we don't just "wing it" as ****** posts imply, we have a formula for calculating portions for events ranging anywhere from 20 to 500 guests!  We weigh all menu items to make sure there is enough for everyone, & as event planner mentioned this has never happened.  If we weren't outstanding at what we do, we would not be such a successful business!

   

  Even though we know it wasn't 10 guests but TWO that didn't receive meat with dinner, we are willing to refund 10 full meals to the bride & groom, in hopes that **** will agree to stop trying to ruin the excellent reputation we've worked so hard to build.

   

  10 @ $22 / $220

  25% Delivery & Set Up Fee / $55

  6% *********** Sales Tax / $13.20

  Total Refund sent via Square $288.20

  Customer response

  08/10/2022

  Better Business Bureau:

   

  I would like to address the following misinformation included in the business' response:

  - I was completely unaware that 3 Girls ran out of food until the following days after hearing about it from friends and family. Many of whom stopped at a drive-thru on the way home because they were hungry from not being served much for dinner.

  - Your staff was not in the pouring rain because the reception was indoors! 

  - I did not interact with your staff whatsoever prior to dinner service. I was in the bridal suite located in a completely separate area of the property (making it impossible to 'appear unhappy' when they arrived). My only interaction came from asking for water after dinner service

  - As ***** stated in the attached text, she told you that she knew of "at least one TABLE that didn't get any meat". The table she mentions is IN ADDITION to the two guests who also did not, whom you refer to as late-comers.

  - Yes, some of our vendors did eat the food provided - vegetables ONLY along with the dozen other guests who received no meat. I can provide their names and numbers if you'd like to verify, although you clearly already have Capital Occasions contact info. Feel free to contact them again.

  - Prior to writing the very well-earned negative online reviews, I filled out and sent in the survey we received upon returning from our honeymoon which included the food-shortage information, in the hopes that, as professionals, 3 Girls Catering would immediately reach out to explain and rectify the situation

  -I again sent an email to 3 Girls Catering on June 11, again on June 15 and, yet again, on June 18th, asking to speak to someone in management about what had happened - all of which went ignored. 

  -We paid for 75 meals. And as out wedding planners verified with you that there were far less than ************ attendance. Yet, there were about a dozen guests who received vegetables only for their dinner.  The remainder of our guests were severely underserved, receiving one or two very small slices of meat.

  - If our wedding was truly is the first time this has happened, it is clear that an entire tray of meat was either forgotten, dropped and unusable, or accidently sent to another event that day. Whatever the reason, you or your employees should simply should have been honest about it and done the right thing. Yet you arrogantly refuse and attempt to turn your giant mistake into my fault. No one here has a reason to lie or exaggerate about what happened! It was absolutely humiliating to learn about after the fact and truly the worst thing that could happen at a wedding. Your lack of concern was apparent by all our requests for communication being ignored. An immediate response and desire to understand what happened to us as paying customers and sincere apology would have gone a long way. 

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  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

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