Are We In a Bad Economy?

I decided to hire a caterer for my husband’s 50^th birthday.  I wanted to have a small cocktail party of a few close friends and have hors d’oeuvres.

I had just used one caterer to cater my office cocktail party so I was inclined to use them again.  I wasn’t 100% satisfied with some of their choices but overall I thought they did a nice job.

Last time we had an open house, we used a different caterer.  They did an amazing job and I’m not sure why we didn’t hire them again.  I guess my staff wanted to try someone else.

The caterer that we decided to use, sent me over a written estimate. I accepted it and gave them my credit card.

This past weekend, I was at home doing some chores around the house when suddenly my cell phone rang.  It was the caterer.  I answered and was asked to confirm my address for the party. I hesitated because I had given them my address several times and had never spoke to the woman on the other end of the line.  But I ended up giving her my address.

“Oh, you don’t live in Melville?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“Well then, there will be another charge for staff.  You will owe them another $50 and then $30 an hour for overtime.

I was floored.  I wasn’t upset about the $50. I was upset at the principle of the matter.  We agreed on a price and now she was coming back to me to tell me it was more and that the staff get paid cash?

I told her I was unhappy but I felt as if my hands were tied.  The party was the following weekend.

When my husband heard me speaking with the caterer, he asked if he could speak with her.  That’s when the owner got on the phone.  My husband explained to her that there was an agreement but she didn’t want to hear anything.  She just yelled at him.  Oh, he yelled back! She told him that she didn’t care if we used a different caterer and that there was nothing she was going to do about it.

Here I’m thinking there were a bunch of things she could have done:

1.     She could have offered to give us more food or throw something in

2.     She could have said that she would split the $50 with us

3.     She could have apologized for the inconvenience and explained to us why she needed to charge us more.

But she did none of that.  Obviously, she get’s plenty of business and didn’t need our business.

We decided to cancel the order (due to her saying we should cancel the order) and hired a local caterer.  Although the food isn’t the same, I’m sure it will be delicious.

It’s amazing to me that people can act this way in a poor economy.  Don’t they realize that you have to do more for less?

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DISCLOSURE: NO CONNECTION, UNPAID, MY OWN OPINIONS
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