Blackjack Wedding Discos

Reply from Blackjack Wedding Discos

Dear Shalon I’m very sorry to hear that you were not happy with our service. I'm also sorry to hear that you felt my reply was lengthy and rude. The length of my reply is based on the number of issues you have raised, and all my responses are based on fact, and my 30 years experience as a Wedding DJ. Therefore, I am sorry to hear that you believe my response to be deemed as rude We take any complaint seriously and I will always investigate issues professionally and thoroughly We've been in business for 17 years and performed at over 3,000 weddings without issue, so your complaint is a very rare occurance for our company I’ve now had the opportunity to speak to Liam & check his report sheet. I’ve also had the opportunity to look through the content on the MP3 player that was used for the background music and the log on the laptop that was used to play the disco music I can see that somewhere along the lines, your timings have slipped quite considerably that day, which impacted on things. I can see that our DJ arrived in good time, and was not delayed in traffic, but I can see that he couldn’t gain access until 5.50pm? I can also see that set up was promptly, with everything set and ready by 7.05pm (despite the late entry he was set early which is good) I believe there was a very large delay in the disco start time, moving back from the anticipated 8pm to 9.40pm, which is a shame, as this will have reduced the number of songs we could play during the disco from 65 to 31. Background Music We didnt 'sell' this service to you. You asked if if we could provide you with this service and we said yes, quoted you £45 (very reasonable) and you accepted. No 'selling' was involved. With regards to the background music. I am unable to explain why you believe the music was not Big Band / Jazz / Swing? (as the mix we played is a specially produced mix crammed full of Jazz, Big Band and swing tracks) The MP3 player that was used was actually purchased brand new, especially for your event, so we wouldn’t need to have the DJ in the room, which you agreed would be distracting. I loaded some Benny Goodman tracks on to the player (approx. 6 or 7 ) and a 1 hour 45 minute pre-mixed Jazz mix MP3 that we use from time to time as it contains some excellent tracks and has no gaps or stops. I have looked at the MP3 player, and there are actually 3 tracks that are pre-loaded onto the hard drive, by the manufacturer. It may be that at some point these 3 tracks were played, but apart from this, the only other content (over 2 hours worth) was all Big Band / Jazz / Swing I apologise if the MP3 player stopped at any point. If it did, it should not have needed 3 or 4 persons, or the groom and the bridesmaids to get involved. Ideally, all that was required was for one person to make our DJ aware of the small issue, either directly or via the events manager. I understand once the DJ was aware, the issue was rectified quickly, as he was on site (setting up in the next room) One of the interruptions to the music would have been because all tracks had been played. With the wedding breakfast over running, that meant the playlist had to be re-triggered, so that would account for at least one or even two pauses in music. The other issue is Liam started the music in the correct room, at the correct time, but no one at the venue made him aware that you were running very late, and hence he didn’t need to start at the agreed time, as technically that would have been too early, and would have resulted in the music finishing too early No equipment malfunctioned, the speaker (a QSC K10 - a professional industrial grade speaker) did not fail, become faulty or malfunction, and nor did the Apple MP3 player I have to disagree that you barely had any background music at all. I agree there may have been 1 or 2 very short interruptions, as explained above, but the Jazz Mix is 1hr 45 mins long, with no gaps, and so for a 2 hour meal, approx. 87.5% of the meal would have been covered by this mix alone. Liam wasn’t aware you were unhappy about the background music on the night. I appreciate the background music may have not been 100% perfect, but the player did not fail, and nor did the speaker and Liam was on site to rectify any issues promptly. Disco Playlist With regards to music during the disco. As stated above, the late start reduced the total number of tracks we could play from 65 to 31. You submitted 7 Must Play requests and 34 Please Plays Liam played 6 out of the 7 must plays (omitting Billy Joel, as it was too slow to fit the tempo at the time) and he played 11 of The Please Plays (he concentrated on your best selections). That’s a total of 17 tracks from your list which represents exactly half of the 34 tracks that time allowed him to play. On this basis, I also have to disagree that barely any music in your list was played The remaining 17 songs were made up of guest requests, of which some worked and some didn’t, and the remaining few tracks (less than 10 tracks) he choose, based on his 13 years as a DJ I believe Liam followed all my instructions and carried out his job accordingly. He had your playlist with him, used it as a guide, adjusted it and dealt with it accordingly, based on the time frame available. He arrived early, was set up early and finished on time, and vacated 15 minutes prior to the 1am curfew. It’s a shame several guests preferred not to dance (to tracks that both you chose and Liam chose) but we did include their requests, and as a company I feel we did everything we could to provide a good quality disco. I am sorry to see that the day did not run on time (something totally out of our control) and I am sorry that you were not completely happy with all aspects of our product, but I believe we did do everything we could, both as a company before the day, and also our DJ on the night, to allow people to enjoy themselves and dance if they wished to. I cannot address the reason for why the music stopped at 11.30pm as you did not raise this issue with me at the time you issued your complaint. I can however, confirm that we were contracted to stop at 11.30pm and so the DJ followed your instructions. The laptop shows that the last track was played until the very end, and was not cut off. However, if the venue cut the power to the DJ's mains socket, that may explain it So in summary, I have taken your complaint seriously, and I take on board your comments, in case something can be improved in the future Yours sincerely Steven Williamson Blackjack Wedding Discos Established 1999