I had originally contracted with Purple Avacado catering for my rehearsal dinner in October of 2010. Occasions by Sandy purchased the Purple Avacado and told me they'd be taking over my event. Despite already having a signed contract, their sales rep re-did the contract, added over $1000 in fees (to a $1000 event), doubling the cost. He also changed all the quantities on the items, totally contrary to what I had asked for, saying that he knew better than me what I needed and what I could afford. It took about 5 revisions of the new contract after mistake by mistake was made (wrong address, wrong time, wrong phone numbers, etc). At this point I insisted on coming in for a new tasting and to meet face-to-face to try to sort this out. I also told them that if they couldn't do my event the way it was contracted at first, they could just give me my deposit back and we could go our seperate ways. The sales rep insisted that they wanted to cater my event. We met, and they seemed a little more with-it, but certainly more concerned with the details of the food (important!) than the details on the contract (also important). I paid in full a few days before the event (where mistakes were AGAIN made on my credit card). The day of the event, OBS was supposed to arrive at 5pm to begin set-up for a 5:30 event, per the contract. I called at 5:15, and was told they were about half an hour away (!) and they thought set up was to begin at 5:30. They also requested directions. They arrived at 5:45 to begin set up, and all of my family and friends had to pitch in to assist them set up the event. The food was finally ready around 6:15, almost one-third of the way through the event. When I hired them, I had not anticipated that my family and friends would miss part of the event to help them set up. If that had been my plan, I would have ordered pizza. When I contacted OBS after I returned from my honeymoon to complain, I recieved a brush-off from the president, who told me it was my fault that they didn't have enough time to set up. There would have been enough time to set up, had they showed up on time. The president also accused me of having contradictory stories with his staff, and did not return my call when I offered to show him my phone records to prove what time I called, or to get a second opinion from my mother in law who ended up carrying chafing trays in her nice dress. Now, the food was good, but I would not hire them again, nor would I recommend them to anyone else because of these obvious customer service problems, and desire to be accusatory and combative with customers, rather than address their grievances. I do not enjoy posting negative reviews of vendors, and try to give everyone a fair shake, but OBS has issues that need to be addressed and future customers should be warned!
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