Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters Pacific Avalon Marine MISLEADING & UNPROFESSIONAL! RIP OFF! NOUR NIGHTMARE WEDDING PLANNERS!!! Newport Beach, California
Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters in Newport Beach. A Total Rip Off!!! Buyer Beware!!! My fiance and I should have done our research on this company before putting down a deposit of $2500.00. We were very mislead and after we gave them the other half of the deposit, we never heard from them again. Even when we called and ask questions, nobody knows the answers & won't call back to even attempt to help us or answer them. Poor Customer Service.
When we went to Pacific Avalon, we were taken away by how beautiful the yacht was (The Ambassador). We were quickly sold on their "Special Discount", but he had to act now, or the special wouldn't be available in a few days.
So, of course, we give them the deposit they were asking for, $2500.00. A small price to pay for an "ALL INCLUSIVE" wedding package. But was it really??
We were never once contacted by the "Wedding Planner" (Part of the all inclusive package). As a matter of fact, the only person who ever contacted us EVER was the DJ. Our wedding is 6 months away, and we have no idea whats going on with it, AT ALL! And neither do they!
When we signed up, we had a choice for the specials: choose a 2nd entree, free flowers, free photography, or full table service. This is the bait & switch. We originally thought "how great of a deal! Free photography! That would be at least a $1,000-$1500 value!" but when we got home and looked at their TWO different photographers, we realized how horrible the deal was.
The photographer was only to shoot on the boat for 4 hours, nothing more. This is not our idea of "Wedding Photos". Most photographers are willing to go to 3 locations for pictures...so we had to move onto the next "special".
We decided to go with the "Free Flowers" option. So, we called the Flower company they suggested. When we reached Island Petals, Fran told us that she would "go out of business if she gave Pacific Avalon this deal" She claimed that, yes, they DID have a special like this once upon a time, but that there was no way she was going to give us what we wanted.
After figuring out that this company is doing the Bare Minimum on EVERYTHING, from the food to the photography, we realized this is not the place for us, and definitely NOT the "Wedding of our Dreams". This wedding package (valued at over $10,000) didn't REALLY include everything we were told before signing their "Contract".
We paid for a full open bar, but now reading in the paperwork that its only select liquor, not OPEN BAR. The Flowers are only select arrangements, and we would end up paying for our own flowers anyways. And their Photographer is just another guy with a camera. So there goes our Special Discount. Pictures are all you have of your wedding to share your special day with your family and friends and generations to come. We are not going to let their horrible photographer ruin our great memories.
This is OUR Wedding! The most important day of our lives! And we are not going to pay $10k+ for this "Drive-Thru Wedding" or so we plan our wedding ourselves! This was suppose to be an all inclusive luxury package, but it turned out to be an all excluded shotgun wedding that nobody at Pacific Avalon wants to answer questions about or be involved with.
I am filing a claim this afternoon at the courthouse unless I am contacted by the owner, John Gueola, telling me i can come get my full refund, as no services were rendered and I will be taking my business elsewhere!
After reading Consumer Reports on the Internet, my Attorney thinks its a slam dunk!
Good luck in the future. Reports like these only take about 5 minutes of my time, and can tarnish a company's reputation dramatically. I am Willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get my HARD EARNED MONEY BACK. Even if this means spending all day on the internet filing complaints & writing reviews.
5 Updates & Rebuttals
Shame on them!
Oxnard,California,
U.S.A.
Pattern is the same
#6Consumer Comment
Sun, March 13, 2011
We experienced many of the same experiences as this couple with the exception of many more problems. Where was the "wedding Planner" we never saw one either. I would need several hours to explain to you what we went through. I feel that if the consumers bond together against Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters, they will be forced to provide professional, accurately advertised services to the consumers or refund the money spent on services not rendered.
Marcus2108
diamond bar,California,
United States of America
Backing you up 100%!!!!
#6Consumer Comment
Tue, August 03, 2010
Dear Author,
My best friend and his fiancee just got married on the Pacific Avalon in July and all that was promised was not granted because it was very convenient not to put all details on the contract. It was a total rip-off!!!!
Aaron
Irvine,California,
USA
The Truth Will Set You Free
#6Author of original report
Sun, March 21, 2010
First of all, This report was filed AFTER Numerous phone calls to Pacific Avalon regarding ALL of our issues!! Every single time we called, our "Point of Contact" was never available, out of the office, or the person answering the phone would always try and take the question (which they could never seem to answer) We were actually still awaiting a call from one of their top executives who promised both me and my fiance that he would call us right back, as he could tell we were very concerned. AFTER Several days of no calls or emails, we started to wonder who we were really dealing with. It was only then, that we started to question this company's integrity.
We type "Pacific Avalon" into Google just to see what came up. Right under their website, there's blogs and reviews just like this!! I have posted those other reports on this site as well to show that we're not the only ones who seem to have problems with this company. More research only yielded more horror stories. We couldn't believe what we were reading, and this was all on the first page of the Goggle search! Some of these issues we were having our selves like the Food Tasting that was Verbally Promised to us, but were later told that they don't do "Food Tastings".
They DID, however accommodate us in switching the date, but only after giving us a hard time and told us "We Usually don't do this unless somebody either DIES or is DEPLOYED"....But the TRUTH of the matter is, it had nothing to do with money at all! The FACT is, we were told what we wanted to hear, and then pressured into signing the contract and picking the date, as their "Monthly Special" was about to end. So, without talking to any of our family, most living in different states, we picked April 10th. But, After Talking with our family, we realized this Date wouldn't work for some of our most important guests (the Brides parents) We simply revolved April 10th around the kids' Spring Break, and thought that date would be fine with all of our guests. So, for the record, there was no financial issues, it was merely to change the date so we can make sure ALL of our family could be there. So we were GIVEN October 3rd. We accepted, and never heard from them again. I'd also like to add that we talked to them plenty of times before giving them our deposit, and after, we couldn't even get them to call us back to help plan the wedding they were suppose to plan for us or even answer the simplest questions.
We were FLAT OUT LIED To about the OPEN BAR! An open bar is an open bar....not selected liquor that nobody drinks. I'm not paying $10,000 for a wedding to have our guests buy their own drinks. This is ridiculous. The Receipt i have says FULL OPEN BAR!! Not "whatever bottom shelf liquor we want to serve you".
This is no way Blackmail. Blackmailing is to extort money that is not yours through threats. This is in no way a threat, and neither are anyone else's Horror Stories. This is me telling my side of the story in an attempt to get MY MONEY back from the people who were TRYING to SCAM US. We didn't want to wait until they Ruined our Wedding, like they have so many others. We actually have given them 7 months to re-Book this wedding date/time. Bottom line is, We accept responsibility for not doing our research on this company BEFORE we gave them the money, and now we're in a legal battle over our own hard earned money that they haven't even thought about rendering services for. Seems to us like they throw "Shotgun Weddings" wanting to only plan 3-4 weeks prior. Who plans a Wedding like that??
At the end of day, this is our wedding. The ONE and ONLY time we hope to be doing this. I think it shows how ethical a company is when they come on here to defend themselves, but only produce more lies.
The Truth Will Set You Free
God Bless
Pacific Avalon
Newport Beach,California,
United States of America
The fact
#6UPDATE Employee
Sat, March 20, 2010
The individual that posted this statement on March 18th, 2010 sent a copy of his complaint via fascimile to our company that unless we do not refund his deposit of $2500.00 and stated in his letter that "reports like theses only take about 5 minutes of my time, and can tarnish a company's reputation dramatically.I am willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get my HARD EARNED MONEY BACK. Even if this means spending all day on the internet filing complaints & writing reviews. This was a first time that Pacific Avalon became aware of this individuals complaints.On August 22, 2009 Pacific Avalon contracted with charteter for a wedding & reception to be held aboard one of its boats on Saturday April 10, 2010. The initinal deposit to hold the date was $2500.00. Charterer requested to break the deposit into two payments to make it easier for them, this was accepted. As a promotion for month of August we offered the following upgrade at no charge:Choice of second entree, a photography package 120 to 140 shots with a CD or a flower package consisting of a fresh floral centerpiece of each guest table of (8). and choice of two floral sprays or a wedding arch. The vendors used for this package have been with our company for more than 10 years.On November 11, 2009 we were contacted by the charterer saying that due to a financial problem they cannot commit to the April 10th wedding date, although in our contract that the charteter signed, it states that deposit is non refundable we sympathized with the charterer and as per their request postponed the wedding to October 3, 2010. The charterer was aware of our package and now he is dissatisfied why a photographer will not go outside the 4 hours charter time to a second or third location or simply the flowers are not enough.The Charterer received a copy of the alcohol brand included in our open bar. At no time did the charterer contact our comapny with any of thier concerns. We have never changed any part on our contract with the charterer. At no point did we tell the charterer that they could have the photographer beyond the scoope of the charter time.We beleive the charterer is using this site for the sole purpose of blackmailing our Company. One interesting fact is that this event has not taken place yet and the charterer has not even contacted us with regard to any of these complaints.
Pacific Avalon Yacht Charters
AaronBurrows
Irvine,California,
United States of America
Going to Court!! Wish us Luck!!
#6Author of original report
Thu, March 18, 2010
Well, After talking with the "owner" we couldn't come to a diplomatic solution. When the owner gets on the phone, he quickly asks how old I am, discriminating me immediately! He seems to think he can get this removed off this site, but he is sorely mistaken! I will update and blog about this until the day i get my money! Stay Tuned! Heres some more satisfied customers of Pacific Avalon's, enjoy:
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3710102365
Horrible company to work with. I had several issues with my wedding. I went to arbitration with this company to get a small refund of 20% for all the issues I had and won. When I called the owner to pay me, He said it was blood money and he was not going to pay me so I then had to take them to civil court and I won a judgement and now I have to go after the money myself....go to orange county courts and look this Co. up, they have been taken to court many times...very scary....buyer beware
http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/pacific-avalon-yacht-charters
Please, please, please do not use Pacific Avalon for your special day!!
I recently just canceled my wedding with them...3 months before my wedding day!! They have horrible customer service! I'm so lucky I found another location, otherwise I would have been stuck with them.
There were a lot of things that made me upset...but the worst was when my father called to cancel the wedding and the OWNER would NOT get on the phone with my dad!!! He knew he was there too, the receptionist told him! He pretty much fought with my mom too.
My photographer (who is not with Pacific Avalon) even said she was photographing a wedding there a little bit ago and she overheard the family saying how hard they were to work with, and how bad their customer service is.
If you really have your heart set on a Newport Yacht wedding, please visit other Yacht charters and really do your research so you won't have to be out $2500 dollars like I am!
I'm glad that I checked back on this site to see if any other bad reviews were written about this company.
Everything I said is true, and for them to say it isn't is completely ridiculous. In fact, I still have the e-mail where I asked about the chairs. As you can see by other reviews on this website though, I am not the only one who was unhappy with their services.How unprofessional is it of this company that they posted my first and last name and my fiance's first and last name on the INTERNET! You can truly see what kind of a company it is just from that.
This is the last response I will be writing to this, and I'm going to clarify everything that was written in response by PAYC to my review.
First off...a food tasting was PROMISED to us when we first booked with this company. It was not in the written contract (how convenient!) but we were told on the day that we booked that we would have a food tasting. So, I do not think that it is unusual that I e-mailed them about a food tasting that I was told I would have. They acted as though it was a luxury, and that I was insane that I would want to taste their food! Wow...what bride wouldn't want to taste the food that she is paying money for on her wedding day????!!?? I was told that I could POSSIBLY go and taste the food on a day when they were doing someone else's event, but I wouldn't get to taste all the choices there were (basically I would get to taste whatever that group had picked for food.) I wasn't thrilled about that.
Secondly, I NEVER asked to remove all the furniture from the yacht. I simply asked if we could upgrade the chairs to the chivari chairs! (I had seen them on the smaller boat and wondered if there was anyway that I could have them on the boat for my day) Obviously that is not a request to remove all furniture from the boat, and it was a simple question that I had and when I was told it couldn't be done that was that!
Lastly, they did not do everything they could do to make me happy. A company with good customer service would have said, "We aren't doing food tastings anymore at this time due to costs, but since we told you you would have one at the time you booked your event, we will do one for you", instead of telling me that most brides don't care if they taste their food (which is still unbelievable if you ask me) and that I could POSSIBLY come down there and taste SOME food.
Like I said, this will be my last post about this. I am happy that I will now be having a beautiful wedding at a classy venue with wonderful customer service. Also, we will be contacting PAYC about putting our personal information on the internet. I do believe "Stoker" when she says that this company has been brought to court many times!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/pacific-avalon-yacht-charters-newport-beach
If you're looking for something different than just church and banquet wedding reception, this would be a great idea. I just got married on it not too long ago and it was fun for all our out of town guests. The view is amazing and no one could tell that that the yacht was even moving.
The downside, food was just ok. We had beef and fish. Fish wasn't fresh and beef was tough. It was a buffet after all. The DJ was changed at the last minute on me so there was a lot of hiccups as far as what songs I wanted for processional and recessional. There was a lot of dead air during the 4 hrs so I recommend having someone staying on top of the DJ.
The Captain was nice. During the ceremony he seemed to have lost his place reading off the vows several times. I couldn't tell if it was because he was losing his mind or because he was listening to where the yacht was going or what it was hitting.
The plus is that staff was all friendly. They get back to you right away with any questions I had leading up to the actual date.
Overall, it was an A-OK experience. Watch out for the additional fees that add up. Cloth napkin, table/chair linens, additional flowers, 2nd entree (you can't split up the entree, you have to order a 2nd one for EVERYONE). Same thing for alcohol.