Reviewed by
younowho
on
June 9, 2009
Kerline Docteur has a reputation for being professional, so we didn’t think we would’ve had a problem with her. But, she was way too busy to return my calls when I needed her; although we paid close to $200 extra just for the convenience of contacting her. And she still had the nerve to remind us that we were not her only client when she finally did call back! To top it off she never really had an answer for my questions, she would just redirect me to the internet to find the answers (which I shouldn’t have had to pay someone $200 bucks just for that). The 2 hour consulting section, as listed in her contract, lasted one hour and 30 minutes, per my calculation. She had nothing prepared for our meeting, and the whole meeting was about her teaching me how to surf wedding websites to get ideas, (which again, I had already done a thousand times on my own) and she kept insisting that I need to opt for her more expensive planner packages. Nothing productive was accomplished, to say the least. At this point I had less than six months to go for my wedding and had no idea exactly what we hired this woman for. We also paid Miss Kerline close to $300 for a vendors list which she handwrote while we sat there at the meeting, (the list ended up being useless since we couldn’t fit any of those vendors into our budget, which she knew about. We were paying her while having to surf the net for affordable vendors. When we told her that we weren’t going to continue with her services or lack there of, she refused to give us back any of the moneys or installment payments we had made for months in.
Joie de Vie Weddings & Events, Inc. says:
We thank you for taking the time to post a review. Despite our legal right to enforce our contract, we've opted to not entertain your failed attempt slander our company and our brand. With over seventy satisfied brides, our professionalism and excellent service speaks for itself.
While we won’t go into grave detail about this incident, as a professional it is not fair to the client to divulge her 'issues'. Joie de Vie will say this:
1. The client agreement for "Day Of Services" which included a few a-la-carte options to get her off and running in planning her own wedding. The bride insisted that she was capable of doing so since she was not working and only attending a vocational course a few hours per week. When the agreement was FINALLY signed they had exactly 5 months to plan their wedding.
2. After the agreement was entered, the couple was immediately provided with a list of venues that met their criteria along with at timeline that detailed what they should be doing on their own for their wedding planning. Despite their thoughts of having a destination wedding in a different part of the state, we provided them with a listing of various locales and suggested one option in the central FL area that would provide them with the privacy they desired. They visited and booked the venue we suggested. Yet she claims that she did not utilize any of the vendors we recommended. Aside from that initial list which was provided within the 1st few days after their agreement, she also had A 2-hour planning session that would be use to get her headed in the right direction. She could ask questions, get advice, and discuss the best vendors for her event. You will also receive budgeting help and a wedding planning timeline. It took weeks for the bride to return calls made by our company to schedule the appointment, which she cancelled less than 24 hrs prior to that appointment. When she finally re-scheduled the appointment it was the week of Thanksgiving. The bride arrived 40 minutes late for her 2 hour consult. Despite her tardiness, we met with her and extended an additional complimentary consult for her to use within the 3 months left in planning her wedding.
3. Until 12/22/08 neither bride nor groom had ever expressed any dissatisfaction with our services. The dissatisfaction was expressed once they found a $300 full service coordinator and they wanted to stop paying on their agreement and I show up and work for free on their wedding day. The bride later also tried to justify not paying the remaining monies due on their agreement by saying their 'new coordinator' could be my assistant on the day of and shadow me since it was a new venture for her. “It would be hands on training for their coordinator.” We informed them as a professional business, we could not allow that and we realized the liability in permitting something like that. Our staff consists of professionally trained individuals not 'newbies' and hobbyists.
4. They were provided with two seperate vendor lists. The first one contained various locations for their wedding throughout Florida. The second contained lists of vendors withing various price points for the specific services they would need for their wedding.
5. They had not paid me for months (as the bride is insinuating) on their consulting agreement. A deposit/retainer was paid along with 2 subsequent payments in November (to cover the 10/08 and 11/08 installments). Those payments reflected a non refundable retainer as well as work completed in that time frame. The insinuation is that she was planning this wedding for months, unfortunately that was not true.
6. As for trying to push them into a specific package? Not true at all. The bride herself said that the would have preferred to have paid for full service, unfortunately the groom was being did not want to pay for full service. I continually reminded her that despite that fact that she did not have 'full service' she still had the option to call us and ask questions. That was a part of her agreementthat she should utilize. Every phone call was returned/answered to accommodate this young lady.
Sadly, this was a case of waiting until the last minute to plan major pieces of an important day. She became overwhelmed with the details because it was more difficult than she had thought. Our records are meticulous and show the phone logs, emails and meeting notes that support everything above.
I wish them nothing but the best and I know they will continually be blessed.
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