Business ProfileforChef Jeni & Co

My son secured his wedding dinner with Chef Jeni & Co in on December 2, 2020. I allowed him to use my credit card, which was charge $532.13. We ordered pot pies that we would pick up on the afternoon of his wedding, which was Saturday, December 16. My son called Jeni on Friday, December 18, to ask what time we should be there is pick-up the pot pies on Saturday. Jeni tells my son that she booked a catering event for someone else because she did not hear back from him after signing the contract on 12/2. Today, I have not received on money back from Chef Jeni & Co, nor have I ever received the food that I paid for. I have tried working with Jeni to resolve this matter; however, she doesn't feel she needs to do anything for us. The bottom line, she has my money and never provided us with a service. How is this right? Buyer beware, do not do business, Chef Jeni.

This is an inaccurate account of events. After booking the order, signing the contract, and paying the deposit, the groom cancelled the order via email stating that they would be having the wedding, but would not be eating or drinking at the wedding. I responded quickly that as the contract he signed explicitly states, there is no cancellation at this point do to the late date. I emailed had already TURNED DOWN other events in order to complete his order and would still be happy to prepare the food as he could give the mini pot pies away as gift to the guests even though they did not want to eat them there. I received no response at all to this solution.

The groom then called the day before his wedding like he had never cancelled and wanted to know when to pick the pot pies up. I said that he had cancelled and I did not know he still wanted them. He said he was planning on giving them to charity. I said I am happy to prepare them as soon as possible and deliver them to charity or wherever he wanted. He said he is from out of town and would deal with this after the wedding. His mother called me shortly after, and very angrily demanded a complete refund to which I tried to explain the situation. I was unable to book any other catering events on such short notice after the groom's cancellation and had turned down some opportunities because of his booking. I am a small company and only take one or two events at most in a day. During this conversation I offered to write a check for partial refund or make the pot pies and the mother of the groom said that she was going to dispute the credit card charge and get all of her money back. She threatened that this would be "very bad for my company."

I provided all the copies of the signed contract, my emails for solutions after cancellation by email to the groom and groom's mother, and again, tried to reach a solution with this family.

The mother of the groom went on to dispute the charge with her credit card company, I complied with the dispute and sent in the signed contract, all of my supporting email evidence of cancellation and my offers to make the situation right and we waited to hear the decision. March 21st 2021 the credit card company ruled in my company's favor and I thought the matter was over since the dispute was her idea and she did not want any of my other solutions. I did not hear a thing for over 6 months from her until a couple days ago when the mother of the groom wrote an angry and threatening email to which I responded that the credit card dispute that she had initiated had ruled in my company's favor. She then emailed that she was going to "blast this all over social media and I am filing a complaint with the BBB." I said that is not necessary and asked her what she thought was fair at this point to resolve the situation. I also told her I was cooking in the kitchen at the present moment and could deal with this matter to come to resolution with her tomorrow. She said she didn't like my lack of urgency and then she proceeded to put her story up on social media with inaccuracies and some out and out lies and disparaging comments about me and my company. People are making rude and untrue comments and tearing me and my company down without knowing the full story.

She has since, by email, threatened to get her family member who works high up in a credit card company involved and to take me to small claims court. I have absolutely everything in writing (again this was all entered into evidence when she disputed the charge and lost) that I have tried to work with her and she is so angry that she is now making things up and saying personal things about me that are untrue. I have not engaged on social media because I want to be professional, but it is hard to watch some try and ruin your reputation with lies and anger. This could have been resolved many times with kindness, not anger. I think my over 20 years of a successful business and thousands of happy customers should stand for something.