Monday, January 20, 2014

What's Your Integrity Worth?

To start with, this article isn't intended to defame nor disgrace a co-supplier. Neither do I wish to put anybody out of business. My only purpose for writing this is to express my disappointment over a fellow supplier whom we recently worked with for the first time.

My team, The Wedding Village, had been tasked to do a full  wedding coordination by our recent client. And since they wanted to stay within their allotted budget, they decided to go for this Tagaytay-based florist whom we found out was also offering other events  services on the side. Needless to say, our transactions with them seemed  well and on the very day we accompanied our clients to formalize the contract, their requests for the arrangement (& even the color) were very clearly stipulated on the documents they signed. It seemed too good to be true as they confirmed that the color hue would be followed and bountiful flower balls will be hung on alternate ends of each pew.. Personally, it was our first time to work with them but since the bride wanted to try them out, all we could do was hope  they'd deliver...

Wedding Day....
After finishing up the last details at the bridal preps, half of my team scurried to the church to check the ceremony set up, an hour before the event. There was a wedding taking place so we thought the set up was intended for them. Little did we know that the florist whom our bride hired was also the one taking charge of this wedding, and so we found out that the floral arrangements she used for their couple would be the very same set up for our client. Yes, there were hanging flower balls, but not on alternate ends of each bench, instead, they hung at least 6 flower balls on stands and all were but  white malaysian mums.. I saw no daisies, gerberas, roses nor any other kind of fillers stipulated on the document. There was no color whatsoever and yet, what was agreed upon was they would spray hues of blue and use the closest colored flowers to brighten up the set up...

When my partner approached the florist, she was defensive to say that we allegedly sent her an email telling them that we strictly asked for an all-white arrangement... We had to make her sorry for that hell of a lie... My ever-dependent partner took out her Mac and politely showed her the contract from which their signatures were affixed, and all she could say was, "Naku, I must have mixed emails or something.. Ang dami kase naming clients eh.. Yung kasal ngayon, sa amin lahat yan pati venue"... Now that's the lamest excuse she could think of... Hindi ka dapat tumatanggap ng client kung alam mong hindi mo kayang ihandle.

Obviously, she didn't have enough personnel to help her "fill in" the violet flowers she later  sent to the church and even had the guts to ask us if we could do it for them... Hell no???! If that's the case, she should have just opted to refund our client for what it's worth... Imagine, two weddings and only one set up??? Talk about tubong lugaw." I approached her before the ceremony telling her we can't help her do her job. At the back of my mind, the client did their part and paid them in full, it's but only fair for them to do their end of the bargain.. Sad to say, she  left the venue, and the plain white flower balls were never filled in...

Thankfully enough, the wedding still went on beautifully...

But being the ones in-charge of the event, my team and I couldn't help but be bothered as to why there are people  in this business who still manage to put a face despite knowing something's wrong with their service. I was even expecting she'd try to make amends or at least even explain why the  mishap took place, but no, we never heard from her anymore.  I feel bad for those couples who trusted them with their hard-earned money and didn't get their pay's worth... It is but  synonymous to being robbed of what was duly yours...

Never again will they be hearing from us... And if I could save one couple from making their biggest mistake so far, then I will be willing to do what needs to be done...

I was brought up believing that in anything I do, I should always maintain my integrity. No matter where it gets me, I can never accept anything that I didn't  duly earn.

 "Kung magtatrabaho ka, gawin mo ng maayos ang trabaho mo! "

A wish for this florist from me and my team... I hope you learn your lesson real soon...

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