louise81

I made contact with this company to hire chair covers and napkins for my country wedding. I paid a deposit with final balance to be paid 2 weeks out from the wedding when numbers were confirmed. I told them it was a country wedding and asked if we could return the chair covers the following Thursday - I was told that was fine and that they often do this for country weddings, and instead of picking up/dropping off from Narre Warren they suggested we could pick them up from Balwyn, closer to our home - all fantastic so far. I paid the deposit.

Three weeks out from the wedding I was unable to contact the person I had previous contact with and was dealing with a new person (using the same email and phone numbers). I asked for a quote for 110 white chair covers, silver sashes and napkins. It took several phone calls and emails to get a correct quote. The first quote came through as 75 black chair covers, silver sashes and no napkins. It took 5 days before the wedding to finally get the correct quote.

I left several messages and emails to ask if it was still ok for my partner to pick everything up on the Thursday before the wedding (last thing as he was driving to the country that same day). I never got a response from my various attempts but figured due to the number of messages I left trying to confirm this that it must have been fine. Only to be sent a very offensive email on the Wednesday night saying how the company has gone over and above for me letting us pick them up from Balwyn (their suggestion), only offering one option of a pick up time (I had been trying to confirm it for about 3 weeks), and how inconvenient it is for me to keep the linen until the following Thursday (something that I asked in my original phone call and I would not have used this company if I knew this was putting them out). I conveyed this all back to the company and referred to the emails where they had all agreed to this. I said we can't pick the linen up later than midday. I was called at 11.45pm by the company apologising, saying she had too many clients and was confused, sorry for causing stress so close to my wedding and saying that we can pick up the chair covers at 10am but the napkins were not going to be ready until the afternoon. She said she would text me the details for the pick up address for the next day. 9.30am Thursday we still had no pick up address. Tried texting, calling and she text back at about 10am. My partner went and picked up the chair covers and sashes. 30 minutes later I received calls and texts from her as she thought she packed her mobile phone into a bag with the linen. So my partner had to go through all the bags searching for a phone - turned out it wasn't in there.

We had to arrange for someone else to go pick up the napkins later in the day (4 hour round trip drive) because she did not pay attention to my previous emails. He called/text as were the instructions. No answer. Rang the doorbell, he could hear people inside, and after about 5 minutes the door was answered.

The company were supposed to show us how to tie the sashes - they didn't. The night before the wedding when setting up the chair covers, approximately 30 percent had stains and marks on them. We were unable to use several of them and had to use some chairs without covers.

We paid a bond and it took over 2 weeks to get the bond back.

At the end of the day these are just chair covers, and that's what I kept telling myself, in hindsight I wish we went totally without them as it was not worth the stress of dealing with this company.

I was told when I called that someone could come out and fix my washing machine the following day for $55 which includes half an hour labour and that it will be additional for parts. I was told in the rare instances they have to take it away but if so it will be returned within a week.

When the technician arrived he didn't look into the problem, he just loaded it into his van and charged me $88 saying that was the charge for my suburb.

After a week I hadn't heard anything, when I called them I was told they were waiting on a part to quote me for repairs and they will call me back with a quote. I also questioned why I was told it would cost $55 but it cost $88 - she said that it was $55 to pick up from my suburb plus $33 for half an hour of labour on the spot - I said he didn't do any labour except for 3 minutes to load it into his van. I was told that that was their terms and conditions.

A week, I still hadn't heard so I called them again and they told me they were still waiting on parts to quote. 3 days later they called me quoting $380.00, I told them not to bother and just to return it to me. I was told that would be another $88 to return it. I asked why $88 when it was supposedly $55 to pick it up when no labour would be involved - again I was told it was in their terms and conditions. I was told it would be returned the following Monday.

I stayed home from work on the Monday so it could be returned, then I get a text message late in the day saying that they are unable to return the washing machine until Wednesday.

Don't use or trust this company! None of the information they give you on the phone is the full information. It will cost you more than you think - just go and replace your whitegood, it will be around the same price and much less painful!