A Chocolate Affair Events and Rentals — Local services in Springville

Let me start with what was great. The 200 chairs we rented were beautiful!! High quality and it completed the look of our wedding decor. That is why I gave 2 stars and not zero.

Now let me explain the rating. The negative experience and complete disregard of empathy was palpable. And if you look at the other reviews that gave a low rating there is a definite theme - punctuality and complete disregard for accountability. Attitude of “too bad for you” was evident throughout our interaction. My feedback, beware - if you choose to use them, you should be very specific about delivery time otherwise you are likely to experience the same thing. Below are details for those who wish to know more.

We agreed on a time of delivery. Because this was a wedding, it was crucial to remain on schedule as there are other things planned throughout the day. For those of you who have planned a wedding, you know this is how it works. When one element is behind schedule, it’s a domino affect. It’s a wedding not a birthday party.

They were one hour and 20 minutes late! That is significant. I had 20 people waiting for set up and all of us stood around until they arrived.

When they arrived, he didn’t even seem to show any concern - an attitude of “too bad, but it’s here”. I spoke with him briefly about needing to do a follow up communication to discuss how he will address this. I didn’t push at that time because I had a wedding to try to get back on schedule.

I emailed him after the wedding. I explained to him that his late delivery was a significant impact to our schedule. He offered to refund me $45 for the delivery charge! Are you kidding me? What an insult.

I responded and said that was unacceptable and to please reconsider. No response. I then sent a text that informed him that since he was choosing not to respond I would seek to use Venmo’s Purchase Protection Program which is designed to protect consumers from small businesses who do not deliver on their commitment. Some replies - “that’s a bit extreme”, “didn’t you get 200 chairs delivered, it was a late delivery”. What didn’t seem to register was that he is not in the chair business, but rather in the event planning business and timing and punctuality are a critical element of that business. To top it off his excuse was it took longer to load the chairs! What??? This is completely controllable by you and it’s not my problem that you started loading chairs too late. It’s your business!

Look - I am not trying to get free services. I was perfectly willing to pay the rate and did pay the full fee without delay. But I want accountability.

He did refund me the amount I felt was fair and reasonable. I graciously said “thank you” and he replied with “Make me feel better about it. What were the negative consequences that occur to your event as a result of that being delivered late”. Are you kidding me??? That’s how you respond to a customer? I then politely responded to say “it is not my responsibility to make you feel better. I consider this transaction completed”.

Wedding planning itself is stressful enough. I need vendors and business to deliver on what is agreed to. And if not, I’m a reasonable person - if unanticipated events impact it I would understand. This was completely controllable and the complete lack of empathy was shocking.

Follow up from owners reply - I think your response says it all! Accountability is not your...

The chairs were beautiful and exactly what we were looking for. Unfortunately, that is the only positive thing I have to say about my experience working with this company. I had a hard time getting a hold of them after I had already paid the bill and actually worried for a bit I was being scammed. When I finally got a hold of Darren about the matter, he was very defensive about it and a bit crass. He informed me he had sent an email that morning which I never found in my inbox, spam or other locations (this is after I had already reached out multiple times over a 2 week time frame). To Darren’s credit, he did apologize later for his tone. I called previously to verify the chairs would be at the location before noon on the day of my wedding. They were an hour and a half late. Because of this, set up took longer and we were late for...

This was our first time using A Chocolate Affair Rentals. We just rented 40 chairs and since we live 5 min away I just picked them up myself. We were very happy with the look and quality of the chairs. They were easy to load into our SUV and they stack so nice and tight that they all fit in one trip. Our event was on a Saturday morning so they were nice enough to let us pick up the chairs on Friday afternoon which really helped us to be able to set everything up the night before. He said we could bring them back on Sunday or even Monday if we wanted, that was very nice as well and much appreciated. There was great communication the whole time, they were very easy to deal with, we'll definitely rent from them...