Famous Stages — Local services in Houston

BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL WHEN RENTING FROM THESE PEOPLE…

Without any warning, and arbitrarily, they canceled a rental order that I had placed over 2 MONTHS AGO and told me that they “didn’t want to continue doing business with me” THREE DAYS PRIOR TO MY EVENT.

I am a customer-oriented event professional and I know the importance of building good customer relations, but apparently they don’t. I have been singing and DJ'ing at private events such as weddings, birthday parties, and corporate events for more than 10 years. Occasionally, I rent from third party vendors specific equipment that my customers want and that I don’t have. In this case I rented from Famous Stages some moving heads and uplight equipment that I needed to complete a big wedding event, only to discover, the week of the event, that they would not be able to provide me with the rental items I had reserved over two months ago.

I placed an online order on August and received a call from a representative (Veronica) letting me know that the quantity of items I had reserved exceeded their inventory (btw, the website will let you select any quantity of rental items and charge you for them when in reality their inventory is very, very limited). So after some adjustments I ended up with the final order. I called them two months later, on Monday, September 18th to corroborate that they would have all the items ready for me to pick up on Friday for my event on Saturday, Sept 23rd. After about 7 to 10 minutes on the phone with a representative named Adrian, he said he couldn’t find my order in the system and that it was probably due to the fact that it was placed over 2 months ago. I got really upset and was told that a supervisor would contact me later that day.

The next day, the supervisor (Veronica) calls me and tells me that they had found the order but that out of the six moving heads I had rented they would only be able to provide me with two, and that also some other items I ordered were damaged on a previous rental and wouldn’t be available neither. All of this, with a very unapologetic and nasty attitude over the phone. I asked Veronica how they could do this to me only days away from my event but this questioning apparently infuriated her. Their solution: refund me my deposit of $244 and notify me via email that they would charge me 50% of the total value of the items ($1,95.59) if I wanted to continue with the order. A very nasty move! I immediately called them and asked to speak with a manager, so I talked to Ernesto. These were his brief words over the phone: “We have reviewed your order and decided that we no longer want to do business with you” and hung up the phone.

So, rent from them AT YOUR OWN RISK and also expect ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELIABILITY. These people have no business ethics and should not be allowed to do...

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS PLACE BY ANY AND ALL MEANS NECESSARY. Where to begin. Well to start with the majority of their equipment and I mean like 75% at least or more is not professional equipment it's great for bedroom or like a garage performance but to take on a professional stage most of their equipment is far from meeting that criteria. That being said the equipment that is good enough to be on a professional stage is so beat to hell and not only unreliable but also visually unappealing especially if you're doing something higher in like weddings where everything does have to be perfect that almost everything that they rent would be unusable. I unfortunately rented equipment from them without actually looking at it before loading up the gear, once I got home, found that most of the equipment was could not be used for the show. Regardless, after I had returned it ,this "company " still tried to charge over $75 to my card days and days after the return had happened and the refund had been issued for the deposit and everything was good to go according to them when everything was turned in. After calling countless times for over a week and dozens of emails both getting no response from any of the staff members ,including management , I was forced to make a report with the Better Business bureau, and made the necessary steps to be able to take them to arbitration . Only then did they start trying to call , but,as far as I was concerned, at that point, the boat being able to talk without mediators had already sailed. Completely unprofessional company unreliable equipment and unprofessional childish irresponsible and rude employees , save yourself a nightmare of a situation and do not give them...

The staff is very unknowable of the equipment and it's proper use; they rented equipment which not for the needed use. The rental was scheduled for a 4 day period and was immediately returned the following day. I spoke directly to the manager on staff early Wednesday morning, she was dismissive and rude about the situation, and blamed me the customer for her employees lack of proper knowledge of the needed equipment. I offered to accept a partial charge for the equipment to apeace all parties which she quickly and rudely turned down. They charged the full rental fee for a 4 day use when the equipment was returned in one day. This is not good customer service unfortunately the facility is concerned more in making rentals than properly providing the needs of the customer........

Update spoke an individual by the name of Mike in the corporate office who listened to the situation at hand; whilst expressing his honest opinion on the situation he was willing to help rectify the situation. I greatly appreciate a good customer service experience and this gentleman went above and beyond. Thank you for...