Unhelpful/unwilling/suppliers that turn down your business?

Unfortunately there is a flip side to this, as I have just experienced first hand!

I open my shop on a Sunday, by appointment only, as I know a great many brides work full time and want at least one day of their weekend with their partner. Two weeks ago I was contacted by a young lady requesting an appointment today only as mum was visiting and she wanted to look at some dresses with her. Although it is fathers day I arranged for her to come in, took a telephone number and a wedding date.

Today I come in, tidy the shop from yesterday, stick the hoover round, tidy dresses, put the coffee machine on and await my appointment. 11am came and went and at 11.30 I rang the number, asked for the lady in question and when I spoke to her was told that she didnt have a clue what I was talking about, it wasnt her that had rang, she wasnt getting married etc etc. I apologised for ringing, said we had obviously both been the target of a hoax and hung up.

I updated my facebook business page to say that I will now be taking deposits for Sunday appointments as I have had 3 no shows in a year, all on Sunday mornings. Ten minutes later I receive an email simply saying "How dare you". Strangely enough the young lady who sent it had the same christian name as the person I had rang. However my facebook comment made no mention of a name, a telephone number or who I was expecting. It is obviously the same young lady who denied having made an appointment on the telephone but exposed herself to me good and proper by sending the email.

There are hundreds of genuine customers out there, just as there are hundreds of genuine business, but every now and again, for whatever reason the two dont come together, and that is a shame for everyone. I suppose we all learn lessons every day x

I used to do meetings on Sundays.

I always tried to accommodate clients, potential or otherwise even though Sunday was the only day I could regularly spend time at home with MrsCGP2b (and that's important).

Every single time I booked someone in to meet on a Sunday they cancelled to rebook. Always last minute, one case 30 minutes beforehand which is annoying when you structure your day around them.

So after the third time I no longer offered if asked.

I've come across this a few times when asking to meet suppliers on a Sunday " We used to do Sundays but......". Working in retail I'm allowed to book very few Sundays as annual leave so it was incredibly frustrating.

I've been going through a shocking lack of follow through/response from our caterer. It has been six weeks since he said he would send out information 'within 48 hours', and a very polite follow up email from me a couple of weeks ago was replied to with a one-liner saying the info had already been sent but he would send it again. Received nothing...so yesterday I googled elsewhere and found a fantastic caterer that does exactly what we are after with fab reviews. I sent them an email, they replied with suggestions, I went back with more info, they called and we went through what I wanted; they got it immediately, made some brilliant suggestions and even tweaked my ideas a tiny bit to bring the price down without cutting out the stuff that's important to us. So I've booked them! We're meeting up in a fortnight to go through the nitty gritty and give them a deposit...I'm really really pleased !!!

...I'll let the original caterer know if he ever bothers getting back to me.

It certainly does suck that people cancel like that, there are very annoying people out there! It is a shame that it backfires on nice brides who do turn up and work late during the week, I have had to pull the odd sickie to go to daytime midweek appointments!!! ;-)

I tried on a really nice veil this morning at another shop in the same area - still a 'book an appointment' shop, and they phoned me back about 10 mins later to answer some of the questions I had asked whilst in the shop (you know - like can i have it in Ivory, can I have this one as a single tier) - much better!!!! I think i will probably go for it with that one. And much nicer people to deal witth who were not rude about my poor dress.

I will indeed tell rainbow about it. I was going to spend £250 on a bespoke veil but the oneI saw this morning that I love is only £90!

P.s - the shop was busy - they have like a central waiting area and then four very large curtained rooms off the central bit - the rooms all have big catwalk mirrors, and there was a bride in every one, so obviously they were doing some good business this sunday morning! ;-0

xxx

I'm glad to hear it's worked out for you now.