Kiki S.
Yelp
We cannot begin to express our disappointment with our experience at the SCC. Early in 2012, we contracted with SCC for a wedding reception, excited to give SCC our business as members. We met with the facilities manager, who was friendly, helpful, personable, and explained very well all that was expected of us, and the ways the SCC could be of service. It was a very pleasant and optimistic meeting, and we felt our event would be positive and fun.
When he left the SCC, there was absolutely no notice to us, the clients/members with whom he had been working. It took three emails, getting very close to our event date, to finally get an answer that he had left. In these cases, it is good practice to inform current contract holders that a new facilities manager would be helping them, not leave them to discover it for themselves. A good practice is also to ask if there is anything that the new manager can do, and to ask questions about the understanding of the upcoming event. It is terrible business practice to attempt to deny what the agreements had been prior to the management change, or to add charges to a verbal agreement that was communicated during discussion. If agreements such as these are not to your liking, then future contracts should reflect that, not current ones.
When the former manager was replaced we had very little and very terse communication. All the grey areas that we were assured would be no problem, were suddenly a problem. We felt that the SCC was now interested only in charging us more, and for every little detail that could be found. For example, we'd been told that if we engaged caterers who actually cooked their food in the kitchen, they said we would be charged the kitchen fee, but if they just laid the food out, no charge. When we explained that we had purposely searched for caterers to serve only room temp finger food, eliminating the need to prep in a kitchen, we were still asked to pay an extra $100 for the kitchen counter space they needed.
Our main infuriating experience is with the bar. The bartenders, who were retained to serve the beverages WE provided, did not display, promote, or clarify to our guests the three kinds of wine, sparkling water, punch, coffee, and tea that we brought in for our event. Rather, they SOLD their liquor and soft drinks to our guests. This was NOT the agreement or understanding when we contracted servers. The goal was not to enrich the SCC, but to engage servers to serve OUR beverages to OUR guests.
We took home nearly all the wine and sparkling water we brought. I witnessed my guests ask for water, be served from a Pellegrino bottle that we provided, and be vaguely told, "no charge," when they should have been told, "this is from your hosts" at the very least. This is not how a professional organization operates. We may as well have had college students stand behind a table and hand out drinks; that would have been of higher caliber.
The bartenders were not polite to our guests or our caterers. I had multiple reports of rudeness. There was much miscommunication, and our caterers, who were there only to serve the food they provided, were angrily and publicly coerced by the bartenders to clean the bar tables.
We cleaned the rooms ourselves, leaving them almost exactly as we found them. We, including the bride in her wedding gown, and the groom in his wedding suit, worked to clear tables, discard food, collect boxes, stack chairs. A nice SCC employee took our garbage bags and our cardboard recycling at the end, but we did everything else except break down tables. Other facilities we have given business to in the past have provided tables, linens, wait staff, candles, and clean up, included in the rental fee. Often there is a minimum food charge included in the rental fee and no kitchen charges. Basically, we paid $2000 for an empty room. No linens, no services, no ability to access kitchen closest to us, no service, no wait staff, nothing came with this. I do NOT recommend for an event.
