LIDJMUSIC

I would like to address the comments made by Anita S. 1) This customer made a negative reference about me stating “Let me start by saying DJ Fred had quite the attitude when he showed up. Then he said he needed one and half hours to set up, he showed up at 4:30 for a 7:00 start time” complaining that I showed up too early for her event. That event day had heavy rains due to remnants of a hurricane. Anticipating flooded roads and heavy traffic, I did arrive around 4:45pm for their 7:00pm start. For Karaoke events, all of my customers are told in advance I will arrive 90 minutes early to set up for Karaoke because it involves both audio and video setups. I was ready to start by 6:15PM, as her guests were arriving early, and I told the customer that I would start 45 minutes early at no extra charge—offering them an extra 45 minutes for free. What would Anita say if I arrived late and started her job late? My other customers are thrilled that I care enough to show up early and, on rare occasion such as this, I am willing to give them extra entertainment time for free. 2) In her complaint about me, Anita stated “He told me he gets paid in cash as soon as he was done setting up and sound check was done. He followed me around and would not start till he got paid. There was music playing but we wanted the karaoke.” In general, I do not ask for deposits from my customers. I did email Anita weeks in advance an Invoice for her to review and approve. As part of my terms clearly shown in my Invoice, I do require to be paid in cash, in full prior to the start of the job on the day of the job. Before I request any payment and prior to the start of the event that day, I always offer the customer the opportunity to hear the music and I even let two guests sing a karaoke song as a trial. This customer had every opportunity to let me know if there were any sound issues. There was no problem with the sound. This customer was happy, made no complaints (until what I will describe in item 3 below), they were completely satisfied, and paid me in full. I didn’t follow her around, as she falsely stated. 3) In her complaint, Anita S. stated “His equipment was defective the sound system was full of static and crackly. He was Nasty and Rude to my guests. He told 2 of them they were drunk. Fred brought 2 mics for a party of 75 people so if you wanted to sing as group that was it. After putting a mic on the table it rolled off and broke, then announced to everyone ‘Well folks we're down to only one mic’, because he just broke one pointing to my 8 year old nephew. It was a piece of crap to begin with. These are just a few of the problems we had. “ My responses to Anita's statements are as follows; a) Also stated in my Invoice is that “The customer is responsible for any equipment damage for guest misconduct/negligence”. This is a standard protocol that any DJ would have in their terms in case we get a customer like Anita S. At her party, one of the adult party guests negligently left a wireless microphone on a table unattended and a child picked it up and thought it was a toy. When the child put it back down, it rolled off the table, fell on the floor and broke. When I went to her husband in the kitchen area to discuss the issue privately, Anita and several of her party guests joined in. Just like a bad driver after a car accident, Anita denied that the microphone could not have been so damaged (rolling off a table onto a hard tile floor). She then attempted to lie saying that I brought the microphone to the party already broken. When I reminded her that her husband and several guests who saw/used both microphones at the start of the party, she had nothing else to say. Her husband then said that they weren’t going to pay for the microphone, I told them that this was a breach of contract and that I would be leaving the job 30 minutes early as payment for the broken microphone. b) I continued to fulfill my obligations, but several of the adults who were drunk, started behaving badly. For example, after two teenage girls sang a song, one of the male adults yelled out “throw the other mike on the floor and break that one too!” Then, another drunk female guest started dancing and tipping over the video monitor (nearly breaking the video monitor) while another guest was singing. That same female guest later came back to my DJ table and started touching my equipment and I literally had to hold my own wired DJ microphone as she was trying to grab it. A third drunk guest, came over to me at the end of the job and started berating me while I was just trying to pack up my equipment. c) Anita falsely stated that I pointed to her nephew after the mike broke. Also, assuming what Anita is saying about my sound system were true, they why didn’t she or her husband bring any concerns to my attention at the beginning or before they paid me? The truth is that there was nothing wrong with the sound system, and the complaints started after they customer refused to take responsibility and pay for the wireless microphone they broke. 4) Finally, the customer stated that she wanted a Karaoke party. Furthermore, Anits S. in her complaint stated “I told him I wanted an emcee, that I would pay for one. He talked me out of it and said he could handle it. He didn't not get up from his sit behind his table. Crazy!”. My response is that I discussed this with Anita weeks in advance and explained to her that if you want a Karaoke party, I emcee the Karaoke party at no additional charge because I introduce the guests to come up and sing. I told her that at a Karaoke party, if no one wants to sing, then I would switch to DJ music and dance music—as a back-up and fill in. Her party had more singers that wanted to sing than I had time. What Anita apparently really wanted was a DJ Music party with an emcee to motivate/interact with the guests to dance. That emcee service is an extra charge because I hire a dedicated party emcee person for that purpose. As a DJ (and the owner), my job is to run the equipment and music and stay at the DJ table. I encourage you, the reader, to visit my website to see and hear the video testimonials from some of my many satisfied and even some repeat customers. You can also see video samples from actual jobs on my Contact Us page.