- Report: #373098
Complaint Review: Ceremony Way - Ema Drouillard - Novato California
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Ceremony Way - Ema Drouillard
Novato, California, U.S.A.
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Ceremony Way - Ema Drouillard Bait and switch wedding service Novato California
We booked our ceremony with Ema at the Japanese friendship garden. She conveniently had written a 30 day no cancellation policy in her contract. Low and behold, after this time period came to pass, she informed us that she would not actually be able to perform the ceremony at the garden. Instead, she would be able to do it BEHIND the garden. We were not happy with this, and requested a refund, and she would only refund about 35% of our money due to "services rendered." That was not satisfactory, so she informed that she could probably still perform it inside the garden. Anyways, we wanted our money back due to the change in circumstance, but she would not acquiesce. So we actually sued her in small claims court, and she actually flew to Southern California to defend herself (which probably cost more than refunding our money). Due to a technicality, the case was never heard, and I was not about to fly to Northern California to re-sue Ema.
The whole operation seemed like a bait and switch scheme. It was a huge waste of our time, money, and generally made our wedding experience suck. Like Brett said, Ema has touched the lives of many in a similar fashion.
It was not a pleasant experience. I would not use her service. If she can't make it to the actual wedding without changing a bunch of circumstances in her "contract," I would not want her doing my wedding, as she seems to do what she wants.
______________________________________________
Since I posted this originally, I've had about 5 people that I have known talk about had truly bad Ema acts.
Perhaps, since Ema Yelps, she can get on and explain why she created a blog and posted using my name? I had to contact Blogger.com and file a report saying she was posting using my identity. You can see it here: under my name. Now, she changed it to a site about her photography, but that's my name and not my site: (((Redacted)))
I think that going through multiple rounds of her ceremony with our requests being ignored, or her asking us to edit the ceremony "in poem form" were about all I need to know of her "services".
Not only that, for someone who is a writer, her grasp of the English language is horrible. She's like a 5 year old trying to spell and she has the grammar of a high-school dropout. Is that how you want to impress your wedding guests?
here is my original review:
If I could do less than 1 star, I would. We hired this person to be our officiant for our wedding. After not showing up to the first meeting (we drove to novato and waited, while calling her cell phone) we, mistakenly booked her anyway. We sent a $300 deposit to, according to her website, "holds your date and time." After a disagreement about the ceremony, we asked for our deposit back and decided to part ways.
Of course what happened was... Nothing. No response, no email, nothing. So we asked for our money back again and then she responded saying that we might get it back, it someone re-books that date. Then we pressed her again, saying that the website says that it holds our date, never is it non-refundable. So her next email, she said she was taking over $200 out of our deposit for work she did and we might get the rest. Again, the website says nothing about her taking work costs out of the deposit.
In an otherwise happy wedding planning time, she was the worst person to deal with. She was rude, didn't communicate, didn't show up and then took our money...
More: http://www.yelp.com/biz/ema-drouillard-ceremony-way-san-francisco
Mackenzie
san jose, California
U.S.A.
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
The whole operation seemed like a bait and switch scheme. It was a huge waste of our time, money, and generally made our wedding experience suck. Like Brett said, Ema has touched the lives of many in a similar fashion.
It was not a pleasant experience. I would not use her service. If she can't make it to the actual wedding without changing a bunch of circumstances in her "contract," I would not want her doing my wedding, as she seems to do what she wants.
______________________________________________
Since I posted this originally, I've had about 5 people that I have known talk about had truly bad Ema acts.
Perhaps, since Ema Yelps, she can get on and explain why she created a blog and posted using my name? I had to contact Blogger.com and file a report saying she was posting using my identity. You can see it here: under my name. Now, she changed it to a site about her photography, but that's my name and not my site: (((Redacted)))
I think that going through multiple rounds of her ceremony with our requests being ignored, or her asking us to edit the ceremony "in poem form" were about all I need to know of her "services".
Not only that, for someone who is a writer, her grasp of the English language is horrible. She's like a 5 year old trying to spell and she has the grammar of a high-school dropout. Is that how you want to impress your wedding guests?
here is my original review:
If I could do less than 1 star, I would. We hired this person to be our officiant for our wedding. After not showing up to the first meeting (we drove to novato and waited, while calling her cell phone) we, mistakenly booked her anyway. We sent a $300 deposit to, according to her website, "holds your date and time." After a disagreement about the ceremony, we asked for our deposit back and decided to part ways.
Of course what happened was... Nothing. No response, no email, nothing. So we asked for our money back again and then she responded saying that we might get it back, it someone re-books that date. Then we pressed her again, saying that the website says that it holds our date, never is it non-refundable. So her next email, she said she was taking over $200 out of our deposit for work she did and we might get the rest. Again, the website says nothing about her taking work costs out of the deposit.
In an otherwise happy wedding planning time, she was the worst person to deal with. She was rude, didn't communicate, didn't show up and then took our money...
More: http://www.yelp.com/biz/ema-drouillard-ceremony-way-san-francisco
Mackenzie
san jose, California
U.S.A.
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Mackenzie
san jose,California,
U.S.A.
Complaint resolved
#2Author of original report
Thu, April 29, 2010
Ema has fully refunded our fees for the ceremony that never took place. We are satisfied that the matter has been resolved. We thank Ema for doing the right thing. This was a misunderstanding and would advise people to disregard this posting, which cannot be deleted.
Ed
Novato,California,
U.S.A.
Rebuttal - Ellerton Whitney - Bait and Switch
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, November 04, 2008
Ceremony Way has performed hundreds of weddings since 1976. The company's aim is to provide the best service to the Bride and Groom on their wedding day. All effort is made to make their day the most memorable day of their life. Out of all the weddings we have performed only two couples have posted complaints. The weddings were not performed, both complaints were contract disputes. Every business will receive complaints but the goal of this company is to resolve them. Ellerton Whitney with Earthbound Media Group entered into contract with Ceremony Way - for wedding services. Two clauses in the contract came into play when he canceled his wedding. The wedding was canceled because the site could not be guaranteed. A site can only be guaranteed when a site fee is paid. He was not paying a site fee. Cancellation policy: The deposit and final payment confirms the wedding date and time, as well as the wedding plans that have been arranged on behalf of the couple. While the dates and times are being held, other couples are being turned away. There has to be at least a 30-day written cancellation notice or no refund will be made. He canceled in less then 30 days of the wedding plans. Ellerton & Saphire were told that there wedding could take place inside the garden. There was no fee for the site and no guarantee could be made so they decided to cancel their wedding plans. At this time there was no refund due. However a refund was offered for the services not yet performed. Ellerton Whitney refused partial refund and took the case to Small Claims Court. The owner of the company flew to Southern California, Temecula Small Claims Court to resolve the issue. The Plaintiff Ellerton Whitney dismissed the entire action. Once the case was dismissed Ellerton posted a complaint on Yelp as Mike W. of Chino Hills and RipOff Report. He also posted a complaint for Brett & Elizabeth Van Ernst. Having booked officiant services for 7-7-07a very busy day in the wedding business they canceled the service without enough notice before the wedding. Ceremony Way has had independent references gathered from an outside source and has posted over seven pages of references on their website.
Ed
Novato,California,
U.S.A.
Rebuttal - Ellerton Whitney - Bait and Switch
#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, November 04, 2008
Ceremony Way has performed hundreds of weddings since 1976. The company's aim is to provide the best service to the Bride and Groom on their wedding day. All effort is made to make their day the most memorable day of their life. Out of all the weddings we have performed only two couples have posted complaints. The weddings were not performed, both complaints were contract disputes. Every business will receive complaints but the goal of this company is to resolve them. Ellerton Whitney with Earthbound Media Group entered into contract with Ceremony Way - for wedding services. Two clauses in the contract came into play when he canceled his wedding. The wedding was canceled because the site could not be guaranteed. A site can only be guaranteed when a site fee is paid. He was not paying a site fee. Cancellation policy: The deposit and final payment confirms the wedding date and time, as well as the wedding plans that have been arranged on behalf of the couple. While the dates and times are being held, other couples are being turned away. There has to be at least a 30-day written cancellation notice or no refund will be made. He canceled in less then 30 days of the wedding plans. Ellerton & Saphire were told that there wedding could take place inside the garden. There was no fee for the site and no guarantee could be made so they decided to cancel their wedding plans. At this time there was no refund due. However a refund was offered for the services not yet performed. Ellerton Whitney refused partial refund and took the case to Small Claims Court. The owner of the company flew to Southern California, Temecula Small Claims Court to resolve the issue. The Plaintiff Ellerton Whitney dismissed the entire action. Once the case was dismissed Ellerton posted a complaint on Yelp as Mike W. of Chino Hills and RipOff Report. He also posted a complaint for Brett & Elizabeth Van Ernst. Having booked officiant services for 7-7-07a very busy day in the wedding business they canceled the service without enough notice before the wedding. Ceremony Way has had independent references gathered from an outside source and has posted over seven pages of references on their website.
