Karina ..
Yelp
I apologize for the long review but I can't explain it any other way:
My partner and I booked this venue for our wedding celebration last year. Having grown up in Richmond, finding a venue here meant a lot to me.
We were so excited! We picked our date, signed the contract and paid the deposit. As we were preparing for it, we decided to pay the rest of the venue fee so we didn't have a huge bill at the end.
Sadly, life happened and we had to cancel to deal with urgent personal matters. That was devastating enough. We knew we were gonna lose half of our deposit and had accepted that loss. What we weren't expecting was what came after.
Before canceling, if I reached out with any questions I would hear back within a day. Two at most. After canceling, I wouldn't hear back for weeks at a time. I had to keep reaching out. Making sure they got our cancellation notice. Asking to start the refund process. How long it would take. If there was anything else we needed to do on our end. Every few weeks I had to reach out. When I finally heard back it was always an apology and explanation why it was taking so long. I get it, things happen.
When we finally started talking about the refund, we were told we would only get back 50% of the overall payment because we "decided to pay the rest of the venue fee." At this point it really felt like they were trynna get over on us cuz I could've sworn the contract said half of the initial deposit. So my partner and I kept going over it and we just didn't see it. We asked for some clarity and Barbara, one of the owners, insisted that that was their policy. My partner told me that we must've missed something and was ready to deal with that bigger loss. But it just didn't sit right with me. Why would they keep half of everything when they didn't know that we would decide to pay for the whole venue in advance? The rest of that payment wasn't due until after the wedding. Anyways, I ended up asking one of the staff attorneys at my job and they agreed. According to their cancellation policy, if we cancel 60 days before our event, they would keep half of the initial deposit. It didn't mention anything about any additional payments.
When we got back to them with this, they agreed and said we were right. By this time I'm even more uncomfortable with this dynamic. I began to question their professionalism and their intentions. If we had just gone with what they told us, would they have just taken our money? Also, has this situation never come up for them before that they honestly didn't know their own cancellation policy or how to deal with it? Now, I'm spiraling and super stressed. I just wanna get our refund and be done with this situation. But that was not the case.
Again, I have to chase them down for updates. No response for weeks at a time. The refund was finally sent. My partner and I were grateful that we are finally gonna be done with this. We open the check and it's half of what the refund is supposed to be. WTH?!?!? I reach out, again. They've split the payment in two and didn't mention that. Okay, I guess?!? I deposit the check. It was declined for insufficient funds
Reach out again. . . .got more apologies, reasons, excuses and justifications. We are all going through things and times are hard for everyone. ALSO, clear communication is FREE. That is the main thing we were asking for from the beginning.
We finally get the first half of the refund. We were told that the second half would come a week later. And then another week goes by and nothing. No communication, no heads up, nothing. We had to send a demand letter to get that last payment.
This experience was very unpleasant and stressful. Never again. Unless you are 1000% sure that you won't have a reason to cancel, it's not worth it.
0/10 don't recommend.