Long story ahead. Spare me some time if you're planning to read ahead and tell me what's your opinion on it if you've ever had experience with Chinese wedding banquet there.
I'll split it to 3 parts. Before, during and post-event.
PART 1:
We signed up with their banquet package at the wedding fair and our person in charge was Sandy.
Regarding the ballroom (review at first sight): It has the capacity to fit 50 tables (so they claimed) - We fit 32 and it seemed quite pack. There are 2 mirrored pillars at the center of the hall. There is upper deck to fit another 5 tables, but we didn't use it. A huge stage in front with 2 sides back room for backstage preparation. Kitchen is at the back of the ballroom (opposite the stage). Audio room is placed is situated at the upper deck. Podium is next to the stage. Not sure if it matters, but the communication with the audio manager would be a little tricky.
All was fine and I'm very very satisfied with Sandy's service. She keep us informed and update us on details and was very punctual and patient. Our negotiation of wedding preparation and all that we need to know from the hotel side, (obviously it's our first time to have a wedding banquet) we were filled with information. Sandy find out and update us very promptly. We had a few meeting and during the meeting there was some awkward pause for us couple to think of questions to ask about, Sandy would keep smiling and told us to take our time. Plus, she's always by her email and whatsapp.
Unfortunately but good news for her, she's getting married too and her date falls a week or two after ours. So therefore, she no longer able to be in charge of our event since she will be on long leave to prepare for her own.We were passed on to a colleague of hers.
Having the impression that Sandy was such an excellent staff to deal with, we have the same expectation on her colleague. I'll not name this colleague but let's call her "staff A".
The first time I met with staff A was when I'm collecting my wedding card during my lunch time. Minor cookie point minus, staff A seems to be in rush when I was collecting my cards. Obviously, I'll need to double check the cards and quantity when I receive them. Staff A looks uninterested and keep asking if I still have anything needed from her. I told her, "Not at the moment, but I'll need to double check the cards". Yes, there are 100 over pieces of cards. I did not count/check all anyway, I just took some randomly to check the spelling and design. Well, at least a good gesture was that staff A asked if I had my lunch (not sure if she was going to invite me for lunch, though) but I told her I need to head back to work. Staff A asked again if I needed anything from her. Eventually I told her no and she left. Staff A left before the customer. Okay, maybe no biggy but as a customer sales representative, I would expect her to place customer first.
We had a few questions to the management or rather regarding to the event later on where we usually communicate via staff A's corporate email. It took longer time to get back to us and sometimes it doesn't even answer all of our questions. For example, we emailed in the morning at 10am, staff A only gets back to us at 5pm. By the time we responded to the email at 5:30pm, the next reply would be the next day. Which we assume it's because it's already office hours.
Then we have more inquiries to staff A/banquet related.
We could have communicated via Whatsapp too, but we since our questions were quite many, we thought it was easier to have it via email and also for reference later. There was no email reply one week later. When we message staff A via whatsapp, we were only then informed that staff A was on leave and there was no other staff to be in charge meantime. When staff A was back on the next day, staff A claimed that there was no email from us. Well, clearly for us that the email has went through. I checked my sent email. Not sure where the mistake has gone.
Side note, there's no discount rate for room just because you're doing your wedding there. The rates that were given by staff A is similar to what I can find exactly from their hotel webpage. Disappointed.
Few days before our wedding, we have a walkthrough to make sure everything is in place. So we've meet up with staff A again.We've clearly mentioned earlier in one of our discussion that we wanted cream colored chair cover due to probable of old people's superstition that white/black is bad color.
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| screenshot from our email conversation |
On the day of rehearsal, the ballroom was filled with white covered chair. Okay... We can't change from that since there are no more stock for cream covers and we weren't informed earlier? The placement of the tables are also far off from the hall plan that they have provided. 2 of the tables were too close to the kitchen entrance and it perhaps would block the servers' access . Shouldn't they have thought that through?
Plan that was sent to us:
What was the actual plan:
Honestly, how can this ballroom fit 50 tables? :x
While we were rehearsing, staff A left before us again. Of course, given the benefit of doubt, staff A let us have our time to do rehearsal as long as we want. (But what if we still have things we want to clarify? That day being a Friday and staff A is off duty on Saturday. Sunday is our reception day already) Regarding the parking, staff A told us that we could verify our tickets over the concierge and we only have to mention staff A's name for reference.
We left at about 8pm plus and head over to concierge as told to verify our tickets.
To our surprise, the staff over the counter rejected our validation. She told us they weren't informed about it and we couldn't do so. I mentioned staff A's name and that we could refer her. Concierge staff called their supervisor/manager then and explained the situation. To our disgust, the manager sounds upset and said "Just give them lah". The tone that he said it was as if we were desperate beggars asking for money and they were forced to validate so that we would stop pestering them.
What? This is our right as customers and we were even told that we could do so.
Bad customer service of a front counter. I wonder how could they place them as the hotel's front person.
Part 2: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown PJ
Part 3: Review on Wedding Banquet @ Crystal Crown PJ
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