Punalu'u Productions D.J. Service
Subtitle
Bad Reviews (2)
Hello,
We have only had two past customers who felt compelled to write a bad review. We felt that neither one of these reviews were a true depiction of our work and somewhat rather comical. So, we decided it was best to just be realistic and post them. Everyone in the service industry will one day, by either no fault of their own or by totally and completely their fault, have a bad night. It happens. By creating this Bad Review page, we want to assure all of our potential customers that we are up front and honest about all of our business practices and that we have nothing to hide.
Quality of Service: Responsiveness: Professionalism:
Your holier than thou email does not reflect anything of what you represent either. I applaud your many years in law enforcement, but that does not make you pure of heart or free of wrong doing. We too had children there at our wedding and asked you specifically to play clean versions of songs which you failed to do on several occasions. The worst is your playing of the dirty version of the song for our first dance when we specifically told you prior that we wanted the radio (clean) version. You say you can only "imagine what my house party could potentially turn in to." I guess you will never know. However, what I will tell you is that I am a responsible military physician with 14 years of creditable service to the United States Air Force. I am a veteran of the Afghan war and have personally taken part in saving over 200 lives while deployed. I am a proud graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and live to the highest standards and morals. You know nothing about me. You pass judgment based on a small isolated incident. You remark that you are upset that your son was witness to the scuffle as he was taking pictures. Perhaps that is your fault for letting him wander and take pictures of my private event. That being said, he was taking pictures of a PRIVATE EVENT and thats the risk you run when you bring your 12 year old son to any wedding. You can not hold me responsible for anything your son hears or sees. If you wanted to shelter him from anything "upsetting", I suggest in the future you keep him close to your side. And for the record, I don't remember authorizing you or your son to take pictures at MY private event.
- Value:
- Flexibility:
I have to first say that the wedding entertainment provided by Ed was very good. We liked it so much we asked him to come dj my husbands backyard pool party this summer. The problem with Ed is he is judgmental and in many ways not professional. Because a couple of my groomsmen had a few beers and had a fight, he basically told us he would not dj our party because we were, in not so many words, classless and out of control. Yes, there was a fight at my wedding. Yes, that was terrible, the last thing in the world a bride wants. I'm still upset about it and it has strained the relationships within our friends and family. To have it thrown in our faces when we compliment him by offering him more work is unkind and unprofessional. Apparently he is most upset because someone "cracked someone over the head with a beer bottle" and his twelve year old son was shooting pictures near the scuffle and had to bear witness. Then don't bring your kid to my wedding! That was never discussed. He used his kid to relay messages to us throughout the night and take pictures of our private event, none of which was authorized by us and in my opinion, fairly unprofessional. He ruined our first dance by playing the explicit version instead of the clean radio version despite the fact we reminded him several times. We were actually willing to overlook these factors because he did put on such a good show for the price, but Ed Elizondo, the person, is unkind, unprofessional, and inconsiderate. How about just telling us no thank you, I'm booked? No he felt it necessary to make me relive the nights negative points again via email, not just any old night, my damn wedding night which every woman looks forward to and hopes to have wonderful lasting memories of forever. If this is the type of person you'd like to entrust with your special occasion by all means hire him. But beware.
Wedding: 09/29/2012
Services Used: DJ
RESPONSE
I will have to respond to this negative review through my website because this bride posted this bad review as a "guest" on Wedding Wire so I didn't have the option or ability to respond to her comment on the wedding site.
This couple are both professionals and commissioned officers in the military. Both medical doctors. The bride is a doctor in the United States Air Force and the groom is a doctor in the United States Army which makes this who ordeal even worse. But, in defense of this couple, you really can't control the actions of your guests, wedding party and/or immediate family especially when alcohol is involved. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that Riff Raff has a tendency to find it's way into some of the nicest venues.
This wedding was held at a winery/vineyard. Granted that this venue wants to showcase their wines but practically everyone was handed a glass of wine upon their arrival. I observed more glasses of wine in their guests hands during the ceremony. More wine served during dinner and a lot more beer and wine for the duration of the reception. Additionally, wine bottles were also handed out to guests as parting gifts. This venue did not/do not have or possibly even offer Security or Commissioned Peace Officers on site at events held on their premises. In my opinion...not a good idea when alcohol WILL be consumed.
Everyone we conduct business with is told up front that I work in law enforcement and that I have been a supervisor for the police department for the last ten years now. That is no secret to any of our customers or potential customers. In the email from the groom below...he states that there were no laws broken. Well, how about 1.) Public Intoxication 2.) Disorderly Conduct-Fighting and/or 3.) Assault just to name a few.
In regards to my son taking pictures, this is a family business and he is my right hand man. That too is made known to all our customers or potential customers when we first meet. We always ask the permission of every couple to take photos and also ask permission to post them on our website IF we decide to do so. We make it known from the get-go that my son has taken every photo posted on our website. So, even though I am NOT a medical doctor with the knowledge and/or ability to diagnose...the bride and groom apparently have a bad case of Selective Memory.
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One thing about having your own family business is that ultimately, we have the luxury to decide who we want to do business with or refuse service to. This isn't the first time we have refused service to return customers due to the actions of the party or their guests. If we have had a bad experience with a past customer...I am not about take that chance and put my family or myself in harms way again. The majority of the venues we work feel confident that if and when trouble breaks out...they can count on me to shut it down.
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At this particular event...We were actually in the process of lining up the wedding party for the wedding march when trouble broke out. We hadn't even started the reception. Unfortunately, due to the altercation between the best man and one of the groomsmen...there was no wedding march, no couples first dance, no father/daughter dance and no mother son dance to kick off the party. Those songs/dances were actually done about 15 minutes prior to the end of the event. In regards to the couples first dance...We played the radio version of the song they selected. I felt that the song selection was totally inappropriate for a couples first dance especially when the couple has to tell me to be sure and NOT play the explicit version.
If this couple feels that I was unkind, unprofessional, and inconsiderate...especially well after the fact...that is perfectly fine with us and more than likely an attempt to re-direct blame since they posted the bad review a year later AFTER I had refused to do their house party. I'm totally okay with that too because there are many past and return customers who will tell you otherwise. I have posted ALL of the correspondence regarding my refusal to provide service below.
It has been three years since our last bad review so I feel that the odds are actually in our favor. But as the saying goes... IT IS WHAT IT IS.
Again, we want to assure all of our potential customers that we are up front and honest about all of our business practices. By also posting this bad review...we want to assure you that WE HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE.
On Apr 28, 2013, at 21:52, "Punalu'u Productions D.J. Service" <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello again Daun & Tristan,
My apologies for the delay in response. I have been extremely busy as of late and getting ready for the busier time to come with all the June brides and graduation parties.
In regards to your request for service...I regretfully will have to pass on your event. Yes, I did do your wedding and thank you for being happy with the service provided. I pride myself in running a class act. That being said, I was extremely taken aback by the conduct of your wedding party. As you and Tristan know, I have worked in law enforcement for the last 27 years. I have been a police supervisor for the last eight years. I cannot be witness to people cracking beer bottles over each others heads and/or fighting and acting disorderly. If this was how the guests or wedding party acted at your wedding...I can only imagine what your house party can potentially turn into. Additionally, I had my 12 year old son with me to assist with your wedding and take photographs. I was extremely upset at the fact that he too witnessed and because he WAS taking photographs he was in near proximity when Tristan's brother and one of the groomsmen began to scuffle.
Thank you once again for keeping me in mind but I wish you both the best of luck in your future,
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Ed Elizondo
Punalu'u Productions D.J. Service
(210) 473-1339
http://www.punaluuproductions.com
Hello again Daun & Tristan,
My apologies for the delay in response. I have been extremely busy as of late and getting ready for the busier time to come with all the June brides and graduation parties.
In regards to your request for service...I regretfully will have to pass on your event. Yes, I did do your wedding and thank you for being happy with the service provided. I pride myself in running a class act. That being said, I was extremely taken aback by the conduct of your wedding party. As you and Tristan know, I have worked in law enforcement for the last 27 years. I have been a police supervisor for the last eight years. I cannot be witness to people cracking beer bottles over each others heads and/or fighting and acting disorderly. If this was how the guests or wedding party acted at your wedding...I can only imagine what your house party can potentially turn into. Additionally, I had my 12 year old son with me to assist with your wedding and take photographs. I was extremely upset at the fact that he too witnessed and because he WAS taking photographs he was in near proximity when Tristan's brother and one of the groomsmen began to scuffle.
Thank you once again for keeping me in mind but I wish you both the best of luck in your future,
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Ed Elizondo
Punalu'u Productions D.J. Service
(210) 473-1339
http://www.punaluuproductions.com
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| From: | Dr. Tristan Lai ([email protected]) |
| Sent: | Sun 4/28/13 11:43 PM |
| To: | Punalu'u Productions D.J. Service ([email protected]) |
| Cc: | [email protected] |
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Mr. Elizondo,
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I thank you for your response. I just want to set the record straight. First, there was no one "cracked over the head with a beer bottle." Yes, there was a scuffle. I admit that and regret that it happened. However, I don't appreciate you passing judgment on my family or me. You know nothing of Us. Many of our guests are professionals, military officers, veterans of the Afghan and Iraq war, etc. including those involved. The reality is altercations can happen anywhere and anytime. Whether its a high school dance or the Hooters pageant. It has nothing to do with the "type" of people we are.
Your holier than thou email does not reflect anything of what you represent either. I applaud your many years in law enforcement, but that does not make you pure of heart or free of wrong doing. We too had children there at our wedding and asked you specifically to play clean versions of songs which you failed to do on several occasions. The worst is your playing of the dirty version of the song for our first dance when we specifically told you prior that we wanted the radio (clean) version. You say you can only "imagine what my house party could potentially turn in to." I guess you will never know. However, what I will tell you is that I am a responsible military physician with 14 years of creditable service to the United States Air Force. I am a veteran of the Afghan war and have personally taken part in saving over 200 lives while deployed. I am a proud graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and live to the highest standards and morals. You know nothing about me. You pass judgment based on a small isolated incident. You remark that you are upset that your son was witness to the scuffle as he was taking pictures. Perhaps that is your fault for letting him wander and take pictures of my private event. That being said, he was taking pictures of a PRIVATE EVENT and thats the risk you run when you bring your 12 year old son to any wedding. You can not hold me responsible for anything your son hears or sees. If you wanted to shelter him from anything "upsetting", I suggest in the future you keep him close to your side. And for the record, I don't remember authorizing you or your son to take pictures at MY private event.
Finally, a simple "no thank you " would have been sufficient. Yet, you felt it was better to bring up the negative aspects of my wedding and drag my wife through that horrific part again to include all the emotions attached with it just as we have finally come to terms. Weddings are very stressful in general as you may know. However, did you know that her hair dresser showed up with only 1 hour to fix my wife's and 5 bridesmaids' hair? Did you know her make up artist never even showed and all the girls had to do their own makeup at the last minute? How about the fact that my grooms cake was destroyed in the morning during delivery and that a last minute cake had to be made? Did you know Daun's father suffered a heart attack months before the wedding and thus couldn't walk his only daughter down the aisle. I bet you didn't know any of this and you probably don't care either. My wife was a trooper to be able to get through all that adversity and still maintain her composure during a beautiful ceremony.
In conclusion, shame on you for passing judgment on me and my family to include my wife based on a small altercation where 1) no laws were broken and 2) no permanent physical damage was done. Keep on thinking you are better than us if that makes you sleep better at night. Good luck with your business and I will assure you that you will NEVER get my recommendation or endorsement to perform for any of my friends, family or anyone.
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Thank you very much for exposing your true colors, Mr. Elizondo.
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Sincerely,
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Tristan Lai, M.D., DABA
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Reviewed On: 10/25/2010
Reviewed By: Mona Gorman - Mother of the Bride
Services Used: DJ
Wow! Do I have enough room to respond and where do I start. Well, let?s just start chronologically.
There are people who are "very organized" and there are people who are compulsory in how they handle every task they take on.
There are people who are "very organized" and there are people who are compulsory in how they handle every task they take on.
We meet with every ?couple? twice. We say couple because we feel that if you are old enough to get married, then you're an adult and should be allowed to conduct your own business. We meet the first time to discuss my service packages, fees, terms and to sign a contract if you decide to use my services. We meet a second time the week prior to the event to finalize the timeline and playlist.
This wedding was for a young couple still in college. So, for this wedding, we met with the mother of the bride. Oh yea! Also in attendance was the soon to be bride and groom and let?s not forget the father of the bride. The soon to be bride and groom sat at a smaller table off to the side. The father of the bride sat in the living room. Both meetings were strictly orchestrated and cleverly manipulated by the mother of the bride. I usually like to meet at a neutral location like a restaurant. Both of our meetings were held at HER home in her kitchen/dining room. So she made absolutely sure I was on HER turf. During both meetings, the bride and groom had little to no input. The father of the bride may have collectively said as much as ten words total. Coincidentally and to no surprise, this review I am responding to was not written by the the bride. It was written by the mother of the bride. So realistically, this was HER wedding.
Let?s talk about the playlist I was given by the mother of the bride. We were handed a five page playlist. After adding up all of the musical selections and we'll just say that each song was only three minutes long which we all know is not true, I had an eight hour play list for a three hour reception. The play list for the dinner ?HOUR? consisted of approximately three hours of musical selections. Every song that had an asterisk beside it on the list was a "MUST PLAY". Let me just say that it was a lot easier to count the songs that did not have an asterisk beside it.
Let?s talk about this Grand March. This fiasco was apparently not rehearsed. Our job was simple. Just play the song till they said stop. But, we were apparently answering to three wedding planners. The Mom, the cousin who came up onto the stage to explain to me how this Grand March was to happen and the young lady actually hired as the wedding planner. They had everyone in attendance participate in this thing and it looked like a herd of cattle being corralled. The bride and groom were so embarrassed that the groom finally gave us the hand to throat cut off signal. But wait, the Cousin (wedding planner #3) still wanted me to start the song all over again and continue this extremely unorganized fiasco. At what point do you say enough is enough?
Finally we get past the march and we get to the actual dancing and back to the eight hour playlist. Let?s just say that the list mainly consisted of great country classics. About a dozen George Jones songs on the list and all had an asterisk beside it. Keep in mind that the bride and groom not to mention the entire wedding party are college kids. Finally, we start getting requests from bridesmaids and groomsmen. One of the groomsmen asked us ?when are you going to play newer more modern music?? No sooner do we start playing the songs requested, get people dancing out on the dance floor and here comes wedding planner #2. She?s the hired one. ?Are those the songs on the playlist?? ?No, it was a request and wedding planner #1 (the mother of the bride) said we could honor requests as long as they were in good taste.? ?Well, you need to stick to the playlist.? ?Okay?.
Let?s talk about the playlist I was given by the mother of the bride. We were handed a five page playlist. After adding up all of the musical selections and we'll just say that each song was only three minutes long which we all know is not true, I had an eight hour play list for a three hour reception. The play list for the dinner ?HOUR? consisted of approximately three hours of musical selections. Every song that had an asterisk beside it on the list was a "MUST PLAY". Let me just say that it was a lot easier to count the songs that did not have an asterisk beside it.
Let?s talk about this Grand March. This fiasco was apparently not rehearsed. Our job was simple. Just play the song till they said stop. But, we were apparently answering to three wedding planners. The Mom, the cousin who came up onto the stage to explain to me how this Grand March was to happen and the young lady actually hired as the wedding planner. They had everyone in attendance participate in this thing and it looked like a herd of cattle being corralled. The bride and groom were so embarrassed that the groom finally gave us the hand to throat cut off signal. But wait, the Cousin (wedding planner #3) still wanted me to start the song all over again and continue this extremely unorganized fiasco. At what point do you say enough is enough?
Finally we get past the march and we get to the actual dancing and back to the eight hour playlist. Let?s just say that the list mainly consisted of great country classics. About a dozen George Jones songs on the list and all had an asterisk beside it. Keep in mind that the bride and groom not to mention the entire wedding party are college kids. Finally, we start getting requests from bridesmaids and groomsmen. One of the groomsmen asked us ?when are you going to play newer more modern music?? No sooner do we start playing the songs requested, get people dancing out on the dance floor and here comes wedding planner #2. She?s the hired one. ?Are those the songs on the playlist?? ?No, it was a request and wedding planner #1 (the mother of the bride) said we could honor requests as long as they were in good taste.? ?Well, you need to stick to the playlist.? ?Okay?.
The Bride WAS in tears...but not due to MY performance. I worked another wedding a month later at this very same venue. Come to find out that the mother of the bride also wrote bad reviews for the venue, venue staff, day of coordinator and the caterers. So I guess it's safe to say that NO ONE was going to please this lady or that she was looking for a way to recoup some of her money in the form of a refund.
This event was on a weekend where we had mistakenly double booked. Sadly, I think we actually refunded the wrong deposit. We would have been better off doing the Sweet 16 instead of this wedding. We have been in the musical entertainment business since the summer of 1984 (29 years) and we have seen it all. We've seen the bride who threw the all night temper tantrum to the all out hurry up and call the cops brawl. Heck, I've even been threatened by six guys who came up onto the stage because I refused to let a Brides cousin sing them another song after I had already let him sing two.
A little advice for any wedding planners out there?please keep in mind that wedding vendors work with you but do not work for you. Once we get to the actual day of the event, the planning part of the event is over. You are merely the timekeeper to let us vendors know what's next. You don?t tell the Chef how to cook the steak so don?t tell the band or Dee Jay how to conduct their performance.
We honestly regret having done this one but it is what it is and it cost us a blemish on our spotless work history. For this one bad review I'm proud to say we have dozens more great reviews.
Our advice to every couple or parties planning special events is this, please be considerate of ALL your guests and also cater to their styles of music as well so that everyone attending your special event can walk away saying that they too had a great time.
Due to this FIRST EVER bad review, we decided to create a "Bad Review" page on our website. We decided it was best to just be realistic. Everyone in the service industry will one day, by either no fault of their own or by totally and completely their fault, have a bad night. It happens. By creating this Bad Review page, we want to assure all of our potential customers that we are up front and honest about all of our business practices and that we have nothing to hide.
This event was on a weekend where we had mistakenly double booked. Sadly, I think we actually refunded the wrong deposit. We would have been better off doing the Sweet 16 instead of this wedding. We have been in the musical entertainment business since the summer of 1984 (29 years) and we have seen it all. We've seen the bride who threw the all night temper tantrum to the all out hurry up and call the cops brawl. Heck, I've even been threatened by six guys who came up onto the stage because I refused to let a Brides cousin sing them another song after I had already let him sing two.
A little advice for any wedding planners out there?please keep in mind that wedding vendors work with you but do not work for you. Once we get to the actual day of the event, the planning part of the event is over. You are merely the timekeeper to let us vendors know what's next. You don?t tell the Chef how to cook the steak so don?t tell the band or Dee Jay how to conduct their performance.
We honestly regret having done this one but it is what it is and it cost us a blemish on our spotless work history. For this one bad review I'm proud to say we have dozens more great reviews.
Our advice to every couple or parties planning special events is this, please be considerate of ALL your guests and also cater to their styles of music as well so that everyone attending your special event can walk away saying that they too had a great time.
Due to this FIRST EVER bad review, we decided to create a "Bad Review" page on our website. We decided it was best to just be realistic. Everyone in the service industry will one day, by either no fault of their own or by totally and completely their fault, have a bad night. It happens. By creating this Bad Review page, we want to assure all of our potential customers that we are up front and honest about all of our business practices and that we have nothing to hide.