chillifly
31-03-2006, 22:14
I just wanted to share my experience with a supposedly 'high quality' naming day celebrant who offers a 'unique service. To be honest it's more of a warning as in my opinion this women should not be allowed to practise. I'm on the north side of Brisbane and she's on the southside - PM me if you want her name so as to avoid her.
We were after a different type of ceremony - a welcoming and blessing rather than just a naming ceremony. This chick, I will call her Jay, promised a unique ceremony, and said she was willing to do whatever you wanted, that she was very flexible and wrote the ceremony as you liked it. She is a member of two professional associations and claims to have 100% customer satisfaction feedback.
We had a meet with her and she is a bit 'toffee-nosed' and talked and talked and talked and talked (mainly about herself and NOT related to anything), but we liked the service she offered and the price was right ($160 + $25 for excess travel).
So we went ahead, filled in her 7 page questionnaire and she sent us the first draft. First draft was clearly a rehash of another ceremony and didn't really reflect what we wanted. So, we changed it to what we wanted (incl fixing up her spelling and grammar), sent it to her, and she sent it back, changed back to the way she had it (incl. the spelling and grammatical errors). :banghead:
Anyway, we went back and forth like this for about a week. We'd change something and she'd change it back or decide she didn't like what we'd said and try to do it differently. We spent ages sending her really comprehensive, clear and nice emails saying 'no, please do it this way' (the way we want!!!). We were so concerned about the way she was speaking to us in the emails - she was so rude and offensive; I ended up in tears she was so rude. It was hard because we were trying to be so nice because we didn't want her to ruin the ceremony on the day. We had serious issues with just how professional she would be. We discussed cancelling (THAT'S how rude she was!), but as my brother and DH's parents were flying up especially, it was just too late to try and find another celebrant, so we persisted.
Eventually we got there and then it was on to the naming day certificates. We asked her to send us a copy of them (didn't trust her after what she'd been up to with the ceremony). Thank god we did, because on every certificate in the biggest print was 'I Jay .......... herby certify...........'. My god - who cares about her?!?!?!?!? Why she thought we would want her name all over these certificates I have no idea. So, we told her to can all the certificates and to make up a special one. She got extremely ****y with us at this stage (another teary session at our end) and ignored what we wanted for the one certificate. So I actually made the certificate myself, emailed it to her and said, please just print this out. Could she do this?!?!? Nope.
She did the certificate up as she wanted; we asked her to change it. She changed it to what she wanted again; we asked her to change it. Nope; so DH rang her and emailed her when couldn't contact her and then she changed it - still being extremely rude in how she spoke to us in her emails. Then she made up this other certificate which was absolutely atrocious (she'd taken the photo of DD and cropped it so she looked like an alien - disgusting!!!), but we were really getting concerned about what she'd be like at the ceremony so we said, 'oh how beautiful' :barf:
Anyway, we ended up cancelling because I had to have surgery short-notice (which we told her about and she was still really rude and nasty - thanks for your sympathy and understanding!) and it didn't go best-case scenario so I didn't get out of hospital until the morning of and would have been no good for the ceremony. She wouldn't accept the cancellation though and even rang my mother to find out what was going on. My mum thought she was ringing to harrass her for money. We explained that we couldn't give her another date to do it, because we didn't know when my brother and DH's parents would be up next. She FINALLY accepted it and DH asked about a refund which we were entitled to according to the contract we signed. She said yes for the $25 travel excess and would do her 'maths' as to the remaining amount and let us know.
In the end she only refunded the $25 despite the fact HER terms and conditions say she will only charge a 'reasonable amount for work already completed'. And she made the cheque out in my maiden name - a name I haven't gone by in 2 years; I can only assume to make it more difficult for us to bank the cheque. Nasty, nasty, nasty. I had to take my marriage cert. and DD's birth cert in to the bank to prove my name change. When we asked why she'd only refunded the travel excess (why had she charged us for performing the ceremony when she'd not performed it???), she said she'd had to do a lot more work on our ceremony - 27.5 hours to be precise, a total load of codswallop!!! and her own fault for not listening to us even if it was - talk about ineffiency if so!!) - and as far as she was concerned had earnt every cent of it. She sent us the souvenir ceremony copy (complete with errors and things we'd asked to be omitted), certificates and cd (with the atrocious croppig of the photo) - and all of which had her name in big bold print all over them. Yuck, yuck, double yuck!!!!
We said you didn't do the ceremony, how can you charge for it?? So she comes up with, I charge $5 an hour, so I'll refund you $4.75 - what a load!!!!:mad: If she'd done what she was told, she would have been lucky to have spent 5 hours on it, but because we had to fight her the entire way, we then got ripped off financially according to her own terms and conditions.
So, if you want someone who doesn't do what you want, puts her name in big bold print on everything, and is rude and offensive and makes you cry, then this is the celebrant for you!
Anybody else have a good or bad celebrant story? The two times I've dealt with a celebrant I've had absolutely atrocious experiences!
I feel better now - although I'm still sending in a letter of complaint to the two associations she's a member of.
Thanks for listening
We were after a different type of ceremony - a welcoming and blessing rather than just a naming ceremony. This chick, I will call her Jay, promised a unique ceremony, and said she was willing to do whatever you wanted, that she was very flexible and wrote the ceremony as you liked it. She is a member of two professional associations and claims to have 100% customer satisfaction feedback.
We had a meet with her and she is a bit 'toffee-nosed' and talked and talked and talked and talked (mainly about herself and NOT related to anything), but we liked the service she offered and the price was right ($160 + $25 for excess travel).
So we went ahead, filled in her 7 page questionnaire and she sent us the first draft. First draft was clearly a rehash of another ceremony and didn't really reflect what we wanted. So, we changed it to what we wanted (incl fixing up her spelling and grammar), sent it to her, and she sent it back, changed back to the way she had it (incl. the spelling and grammatical errors). :banghead:
Anyway, we went back and forth like this for about a week. We'd change something and she'd change it back or decide she didn't like what we'd said and try to do it differently. We spent ages sending her really comprehensive, clear and nice emails saying 'no, please do it this way' (the way we want!!!). We were so concerned about the way she was speaking to us in the emails - she was so rude and offensive; I ended up in tears she was so rude. It was hard because we were trying to be so nice because we didn't want her to ruin the ceremony on the day. We had serious issues with just how professional she would be. We discussed cancelling (THAT'S how rude she was!), but as my brother and DH's parents were flying up especially, it was just too late to try and find another celebrant, so we persisted.
Eventually we got there and then it was on to the naming day certificates. We asked her to send us a copy of them (didn't trust her after what she'd been up to with the ceremony). Thank god we did, because on every certificate in the biggest print was 'I Jay .......... herby certify...........'. My god - who cares about her?!?!?!?!? Why she thought we would want her name all over these certificates I have no idea. So, we told her to can all the certificates and to make up a special one. She got extremely ****y with us at this stage (another teary session at our end) and ignored what we wanted for the one certificate. So I actually made the certificate myself, emailed it to her and said, please just print this out. Could she do this?!?!? Nope.
She did the certificate up as she wanted; we asked her to change it. She changed it to what she wanted again; we asked her to change it. Nope; so DH rang her and emailed her when couldn't contact her and then she changed it - still being extremely rude in how she spoke to us in her emails. Then she made up this other certificate which was absolutely atrocious (she'd taken the photo of DD and cropped it so she looked like an alien - disgusting!!!), but we were really getting concerned about what she'd be like at the ceremony so we said, 'oh how beautiful' :barf:
Anyway, we ended up cancelling because I had to have surgery short-notice (which we told her about and she was still really rude and nasty - thanks for your sympathy and understanding!) and it didn't go best-case scenario so I didn't get out of hospital until the morning of and would have been no good for the ceremony. She wouldn't accept the cancellation though and even rang my mother to find out what was going on. My mum thought she was ringing to harrass her for money. We explained that we couldn't give her another date to do it, because we didn't know when my brother and DH's parents would be up next. She FINALLY accepted it and DH asked about a refund which we were entitled to according to the contract we signed. She said yes for the $25 travel excess and would do her 'maths' as to the remaining amount and let us know.
In the end she only refunded the $25 despite the fact HER terms and conditions say she will only charge a 'reasonable amount for work already completed'. And she made the cheque out in my maiden name - a name I haven't gone by in 2 years; I can only assume to make it more difficult for us to bank the cheque. Nasty, nasty, nasty. I had to take my marriage cert. and DD's birth cert in to the bank to prove my name change. When we asked why she'd only refunded the travel excess (why had she charged us for performing the ceremony when she'd not performed it???), she said she'd had to do a lot more work on our ceremony - 27.5 hours to be precise, a total load of codswallop!!! and her own fault for not listening to us even if it was - talk about ineffiency if so!!) - and as far as she was concerned had earnt every cent of it. She sent us the souvenir ceremony copy (complete with errors and things we'd asked to be omitted), certificates and cd (with the atrocious croppig of the photo) - and all of which had her name in big bold print all over them. Yuck, yuck, double yuck!!!!
We said you didn't do the ceremony, how can you charge for it?? So she comes up with, I charge $5 an hour, so I'll refund you $4.75 - what a load!!!!:mad: If she'd done what she was told, she would have been lucky to have spent 5 hours on it, but because we had to fight her the entire way, we then got ripped off financially according to her own terms and conditions.
So, if you want someone who doesn't do what you want, puts her name in big bold print on everything, and is rude and offensive and makes you cry, then this is the celebrant for you!
Anybody else have a good or bad celebrant story? The two times I've dealt with a celebrant I've had absolutely atrocious experiences!
I feel better now - although I'm still sending in a letter of complaint to the two associations she's a member of.
Thanks for listening