Hi All, let me post here to share how i am excited for my baby's first birthday, how I got dissatisfied by a catering service and most of it what are the lessons learned from it.
Well it started that we attended a kid's fair hosted by skycable at Rockwell Tent last August 14, 2014 hoping to catch up for a good suppliers. what made me went there was all the suppliers there are screened properly with high credentials of course.
As we go around things looks fine, we've tasted some foods there and the aura of excitement are getting high for my baby's party. Until we reached the corner of MAGIC PRINCE Catering and look on the package and really me and my husband find it very attractive and doesn't feel any doubts as first it was included in the fair (means legit) second she (JEM Manipol) had bragged her achievements catering the voice had attended cooking shows in GMA etc, etc.
We find her package the answer to what we exactly looking for.
A all in package to which we will not be working much and a stress free planning.
so the package cost: 50,000 pesos
package inclusions below.
100 adults, 50 kids with hosting games, professional magician,
balloon twist (50 balloons twisting), dressed-up tables and chairs for adults with balloon centerpiece, cake table, face painter, basic sound system, 2 pillars on stage., buffet table, hanging balloons to make the place colorful, party favors with theme, cake arch, kiddie tables and chairs party, games with game prizes, 50 party bags, 1 cake with 50 cupcakes, 1 food cart of your choice, 1 pabitin, 1 piñata, (Fresh cotton candy, popcorn, snow cone, scramble), stage backdraft (styro), photo and video services
since we booked on time we really had a lot of freebies: We had the package discounted to 47, 500 and free Photo Booth, Free Candy Station, Free Photo coverage! so how was that! free candy station if you'll gonna get in separate it will cost you thousands! and wait there's more! We have 2 free foodcarts (fries and cotton candy).
So we pay her half of the 47k and agreed for the themes and the date will be Dec, 6, 2014. she have 4 months to work and prepare and she agreed to have a plenty of time and will absolutely provide the service no hassle. To make the party parky we also decided to add Sorbetes for 2,500 and she allow us to pay it when we decided to pay it. She mention we can pay it on the party via credit card!! Cool right?
okay then - we went home very happy!
After a month I am expecting of a planning report from her or somewhat ask some questions from me. but really there's no text nor call for any questions about the details of the party.
So i initiated the questions from small details,
1. Will she provide an English speaking EMCEE
2. will she will be providing Table numbers?
3. etc etc
then she replied: YES. " a very not convincing yes"
what I expected is that she will be that aggresive in the preparation after the payment but its really not.
around October I received a text message from her when will I settle the full payment for the party. I felt "wow"
no plans? no text? no anything that I can picture out for the party then full payment. I started to get doubt and nervous so I google the name of the catering
Magic Prince and no definite reviews results, tried prince magic and same thing, then I found a this site
http://www.princepartyperks.com/partypackages same with gerfel catering on the other site but not existing anymore.
I'm so paranoid to the point that i thought I am being fooled by a scam.
I also thought is she just changing names from gerfel to princeparty but half of it i'm convincing myself to calm down " No it cant be as I saw her catering
advertise on TV."
so we decided to reply to her and set on the date Nov 15, and she said there's an additional discount if we place the fullpayment already
but we still decided to settle it on NOV 15. we have her word we can pay even on the day of the event!
as the end of October coming close! I don't have a standard design of the whole theme setup! nor approach from her for the picture to use for the
photobooth. and here you it is that we reached NOv 15 to settle the payment, timingly my mother in law visited us on the same day so imagine the pressure! it came to be twice on the planning.
so I prepared questions like:
what are those lessons learned to be noted for a party. and she stummer like hmmmm.. ahhh.
i did cut it and say " can we prepare additional chairs for adults as sometimes children opted to sit beside their companion right"
then additional chaairs for children as sometimes adults tend to feed their kids infront to get along with the other kids.
such things as those which she cannot think about before hand, all she know is the money im holding. $$
then followed by, how about the host? and the one performing the magic will they do it in english.
she assured yes! and the host is different from the magician, so they are two person to drive the party.
i really can't afford to hold back during that time as I'm browsing her site last minute and saw catering services for celebrities so i gave her a chance and assumed she is not good in sales talk.
so then we ended up in full payment and counting the days before the bigday.
after receiving the full payment she never reach out on us again!! and weeks before the party no plan and invite for food tasting though i select my menus i still need a food tasting session.
lucky her, i really got stucked busy at work and let the food tasting passed but the worst thing is we really didn't received any coordination activities, my God she would have questions for sure unless
she is really that 100 perfect in coordination. I texted her a day before! hows the preparation and she replied
"yes, ready na po lahat". still im sure anyone of you to received that will get nervous. we've been all a service provider at our work or line of business, whatever the line of work that we have we
know it doesn't convince the customer or it is not enough for a customer to be relief that he/she will have the service/product on the agreed deadline.
after an hour she ask if she can deliver the materials early because her other truck has been working malfunctionaly..so I tried to work it out on the venue and huddle the guards for that.
i said yes. she requested at 12pm pero dumating sya ng 10am which really did not work with the guards, then she texted me she will let the truck stay here and will be pulling her truck working in another party "raw" and hooking me for an additional 1500
whatt!?? is really the truck got malfunctioned or just for the sake of saving cost from her side! so to cut it short out of desperation for the party to work out perfectly I agree to pay for it.
DURING THE EVENT!!!!
12pm - they started to bring the tables and chairs to the venue. there are 7 guys and 1 girl that I've saw. so I thought of they are all for catering staff.
1pm - i recignized that those came we're the one to decorate the venue and the assigned waiters. they looks so unpleasant!! my goodness.
2pm - i found out that the 6 guys are devided into this.
1 - for fries
1 - cotton candy
2 - food
1 - main chef daw
1 - face painting!!
only girl - food
how could these numbers can assist a 150 pax!
3pm - i am looking for the host, but then only the magician showed up and telling me he is not fluent in english (contrary to what we agreed)
- no separate host!, so it will be the magician do drive the party alone (contrary again to what Jem had said) what can i do Jem didn't show up either. Almost done with the set-up and I've asked the person incharged where are the table numbers?
and he smiled looks like i know what it is. I told jem about it months and months before as I've communicated to the guest their seat numbers.
so then we are guests are comin and I superstressed assisting each one of them manually as there are no table numbers, and worst of all carts are not functional yet to entertain the guest while waiting atleast 60% of the guests. Waiters are not dress up yet!
lucky them I'm soo busy entertaining the guests and another stressful thing came up, they told me the sorbetes will not show-up! jem texted me that she will no longer get the 1500 for the truck and just deposit to my account the remaining which is 1000.
stressed things are coming into my nerves, 4 months have been waisted it really breaks my heart.
as the magicial started for games, it turned out to be so boring. he just made some silly games like
1."look for a sticker under your chair" - when really there's none
2. bring me - 15minutes bring me
3. "question and answer portion"
4. meron o wala
what we agreed is to have a games participating by adults and kids!
Also what we agreed is the most entertaining part balloon twisting - that's the major thing that i like about the package but there's none!!
Only the games and majic! it turned out to be so boring.
And the prizes it was horrible. the prizes that she provided aint gonna take more than 500 pesos it was so useless even the kids are rejecting it.
for the photobooth/candy station/photographer - rate it 1 to 10, it will be 1(lowest).
free photobooth - horrible, it was an sLr connected to a laptop with a typical printer. over a minute before the picture came out. bad bad bad quality.
free photographer - naah she just provided an dsLr with the lowest specs. good thing I hired my own.
free candy station - so funny, stick-o, waffer, mallows and unclassy chocolates "not gonna make up 500 pesos worth" good thing i bought my own!
until then 1 hr before the end of the program all the carts are non functional! completely amazing.
face painting booth- they didn't provided at all
package down again!
so we go for pinata - and there you have it a 1 pack of fruitos and talking about pabitin there are pack in a plastic (imagine how hard for the kids to pull it) - and wonder what it contains?
1 moby which you can buy for 1peso with 3 assorted candies.
we haven't gone to the food yet, of course the visitors won't personally complain but I noticed the kids are not happy with the spaghetty. would you believe on that? "even the spaghetty didn't came out perfect"
after the party I saw my mother in law really angry to my husband infront of some people (imagine how embarrassed my husband is) - "where did you get that caterer" the food really taste bad!!
it breaks my heart!
we just wanted to be perfect but it came as soo fail.
I realized the next day, i should not owe anything from jem for any additional 1500 for the failed truck etc! she owe's me more!
Super Major things that she really owes me "NO EMCEE! NO SORBETES! NO Balloon twisting! Not functional carts"
AND TO NOTE: UNTIL NOW SHE DOESN"T CONTACT ME TO DEPOSIT THE REFUND FOR THE SORBETES "as she mentioned" she will give it back to me.
what's with this post ladies and gentlemen.
1. have to think about getting this caterer if you aim for a classy and perfect event
2. have it in mind its better to pay high for a worth it service
3. don't get a caterer if you don't see any reviews. before im searching majic prince there are no results, after the party my friend told me i should have searched JEM MANIPOL and you'll find a lot. but of course it really to late for me
she have the worst review in sulit and 2 from this site.
4. make a habit if getting a all-in package. dig in per details for example.
* it includes photographer - ask for the name of the photographer ask for samples
* candy station - what are the candies to be place
* pinata - what brand of candies to be put inside
* pabitin - what are the combination of the pabitins sort like those.
I hope this post will help every mom's who are searchinf for reviews.
