Painfully Average at a Premium Price
Unfortunately, my wife and I have had problems with Andy both before the wedding and on the wedding date itself, which have left us feeling disappointed, underwhelmed and ripped off.
First, we selected a dance floor as part of our initial order. We selected a large floor and were told that we could alter it at a later date if it turned out to be too big. With more than a year to go before the wedding date we contacted Andy asking to remove the floor because we didn't think it would be appropriate size wise. He said yes fine, but declined to warn us that we would be losing the deposit if we did. When we realised we had lost our £118.50 deposit we asked him to add it back on at a smaller size so that we wouldn't lose money. Andy said we would have to pay a new deposit because his business had changed and so it would require a new contract. Now, I appreciate that the fine print said that the deposit would be forfeit after a certain time so that is 'our fault' (I'm sure Andy will attack me with his usual bile for that) but to take our money without warning and then refuse to add a new smaller floor in good faith is just low business practise. We complained to Andy on this point and he simply said we need to read the fine print and it means he can't sell the floor because we booked it. Come on Andy, you had well over 12 months to 'sell the floor'. It's dishonest and low and soured our relationship. I accept it was technically our mistake but Andy had plenty of opportunity to build some good customer PR by supporting us out of our mistake by allowing us to add on a small floor so we didn't lose out. Instead, he threw it back in our face, lesson learned.
Second, on the wedding day itself, neither Andy nor his assistant came to introduce themselves to either myself or my wife. Instead, he asked the wedding MC to 'remind me' of my contractual obligations to him regarding drinks at the bar. What a good start. The only contact I had with either was when his assistant found me to ask for food. I missed a trick there, I should have asked for proof of my contractual obligations. You win again Andy.
Regarding his DJ set, both my wife and I questioned the number of requested songs he actually played. We gave him the courtesy of privately asking him to hand over his played set list before we reviewed him but he declined. Instead, he rudely insisted that our dance floor was empty because it was hot and he played everything we asked him so it's also our fault. Unfortunately for his defence, neither my wife nor I care particularly about the population of the dance floor. What we do care about is that there were some songs on the list that we requested that have sentimental meaning to us and neither of us recall them being played. We found this very disappointing because music is important to us both and we carefully selected the songs on the 'must play' list together. As such, we expected to hear them. If he could prove that they were played, then my apology would be forthcoming and this review would not have been so harsh. However, he declined that opportunity.
Since he brought it up in his emails to us however, I will say his DJ set in-between the songs we did request was painfully average. We opted to pay extra for Andy because he was advertising his service as award winning. I thought this meant he could read a crowd and build a good set around the songs being selected. Unfortunately for us this was not the case as most people seemed to enjoy the songs that we had selected but then left the floor when whatever 'typical wedding fare' was selected by him afterwards. However, in the interests of fairness, I must accept that it could have been the heat and our choices benefited from cooler weather by chance.
I fully expect Andy to react to this review with his usual aggressive defensiveness. However, we gave Andy the opportunity to explain himself privately before we wrote a review. He chose to use that opportunity to be incredibly rude and condescending to us. Therefore, my tone and criticism in this review is unapologetic, honest and justified. I look forward to seeing the set list published in a rambling angry comment from Andy below.
If Andy has provided an adequate service for your wedding, then I congratulate you. However, if you are currently in the market for a DJ, I would recommend that you proceed with extreme caution with Andy Collins and do not order anything extra from him during the initial agreement. Add items later if necessary and read all of the fine print.
To be brutally honest, it's probably simpler for you to find someone else rather than risk the same disappointment that we experienced. read more
