The Grand Loft — Local services in Elizabeth

We were looking for a nice venues for my husband’s 30th birthday party and he decided he liked this venue. We originally booked with Ruth after viewing some pictures online. Most of our communication was though text and a few calls. We went to look at the venue about a week later. I saw that the venue was very light and bright. However, the entrance to the building was dirty with trash lining the outside entrance. The canvases in the venue were yellow and stained and when I asked Ruth, she said that they were just painted and will be cleaned soon. Overall, Ruth wasn’t very hospitable or friendly when we met her but we still really liked the venue otherwise. I did notice that Ruth had an attitude problem from the beginning and took days/weeks to answer the simplest of questions. Yet, she was quick to take a deposit. I had to wait almost three weeks for her just to confirm how many of each table there were so I can order the table cloths. Our event was checked for a Friday night at 7pm and she said we could come in one hour earlier to decorate. Seemed like a time crunch, but figured we would make it work. Fast forward to two weeks before the event, and we texted “Ruth” to see if we can come in at least around 5pm and got a text back stating that we can come in 3pm. On the day of the event, I arrived around 3:15PM to start decorating. I let someone at the front bar know that I was here to decorate for my event and she opened the door for me. I noticed that the front entrance foyer was filthy, with wrappers, plastic cups from the cafe, and a Wendy’s paper bag among other garbage. Definitely filthy looking, especially if we have guests that will be walking through there into the actual l venue. Anyhow, we went into the venue space and there were no tables or chairs set up. The manager, who was a young Hispanic looking girl with short dark hair and a Rutgers sweater told us that it was under the stairs. I didn’t get her name at the time. I proceeded to tell her that I was told by Ruth that all of the tables and chairs would be set up for us. Clearly they were not and she this manager just said she will go get the chairs. No apology or anything. So it was just me and my fifteen year old sister left to set the tables and chairs up ourselves. While setting up the tables, I noticed that there were only 9 round tables when my Ruth stated there were 10 and 4 rectangular tables. The same manager said that she didn’t know where the other table was and told me “it is what it is because that’s all we have,”. Whatever, so my sister and I finished setting up the tables and another guy came in and helped us put up some of the tables. For for some reason they kept falling down because the tables just weren’t the best quality. While setting up the tables, I noticed the floor was still dirty and sticky, even though the manager told us to be careful because they just mopped. Again, while setting up some tables towards the back wall, the same canvases were yellow and stained. Clearly they didn’t bother to clean or repaint them. Soon after, my husband and a few of our friends came to help us with setting up the chairs and decorating. My husband asked if Ruth would be coming in soon, as Ruth had told us over the phone that she would be with us during the night to help us coordinate or event. The same Hispanic girl was confused and said she wasn’t sure who Ruth was and no one with name name works here. My husband showed her the texts between him and Ruth, and the manager called her boss, Brenda. According to the Brenda, it turned out that Ruth had been fired well over...

Based on the reviews, I expected to receive top-tier professionalism and a wonderful experience. I was wrong!

If you're dealing with Jackson, I feel sorry for you because he offered the worst service imaginable. I called the number listed on Google to arrange a booking for the venue. Jackson told me he could hold my date until I submitted my full deposit, and although I said he didn’t need to do that, he insisted. I thought, okay, that's fine.

When I called him to arrange the deposit and set up a walkthrough, he never answered. Eventually, I managed to reach him, but that’s when I should have walked away. During our call, I explained that I had been trying to get in touch to set things up, and Jackson's response was entirely unacceptable. He started by saying, "You people think I work for you." Excuse me?!

Then he had someone send me a contract with an expiring link. I requested that it be sent again in a regular format, but my request was ignored. It wasn't until I asked for my $1,100 refund that he finally agreed to a phone conversation.

When I asked him about the refund, I received four different responses:

"Do we have a signed contract?" No, because the contract was never sent in a usable format. "We have to wait until someone else books the date before I can refund you." That's not true; as a business owner, he should have a process for situations like this. "It will take 21 days since the money was sent via Zelle." Another lie; Zelle is supposed to be an instant money transfer service. "I will refund your money by Monday (2/24) before the end of the business day." This was yet another lie, as I didn’t receive my money back until 11:59 PM.

This level of service is unacceptable! I encourage everyone to do their research on this venue and the owner, Jackson, before making a booking. I wanted to have the wonderful experience that so many others talked about, but instead, I encountered unprofessionalism and a sense of being scammed while he tried to withhold my money. Thankfully, I found a fantastic venue with excellent...

Wouldn’t recommend for quinceañeras. I wish i could give this place a higher review but the multitude of issues that we had with the people working here was just too much. This place is so used to doing sweet 16’s that quinceañeras must be a foreign concept to them. Communication was a constant problem. Decoration was beautiful but the DJ sucked. I gave him not one, but two, 5 hour playlists and he kept repeating the same songs over and over. He even played songs that WERENT on the playlists (and they were not even requests, he just played them) Jackson told me he knows how to get people riled up and get them dancing but maybe that’s only for non-hispanic people because for the most part everyone was bored until he left and someone else took control of the music. Not only were people bored, he messed up the court’s entrance so badly, he messed up my ceremonies and played songs he wasn’t supposed to even though i have him the list and checked with him beforehand. Music is what gets a party going, there is no party with a DJ that can’t get people onto the dance floor. Don’t even get me started on the photography and videography. Quinceañeras start at the house, you’re supposed to start taking pictures and videos even before the girl gets ready. But we had to pay almost $800 dollars extra just to get them to be at more than two places throughout the day. We couldn’t even get them to be at the house because it would cost too much money, and they were late to the service that we held. The photographers themselves weren’t bad people and didn’t take bad photos. That day felt like a clown show because of these factors and i wish id gone...