BEWARE! I should have known something was wrong from the start when it took Francisco a while to respond to my emails or return my phone calls, but he had good reviews and came recommended from a few vendors, so I let the small things slide. Bi...g mistake.
Let me back track: we paid the deposit about 5 months in advance. We paid the balance more than once month before the wedding. We had exchanged 43 email communications (many of them began with, “per my previous email, please confirm receipt of [payment, email, song list, names, etc].)” I had reason to believe that everything was set for the wedding, but hadn’t received a response to a couple emails, and it was getting close to the wedding, so I called him the Friday (8 days) before our wedding to confirm that he had everything he needed. I was expecting to hear, “yep, I’ve got the time, location, directions, song list, how to pronounce everyone’s names, etc.” Instead I was met with, “Um, yeah. I meant to tell you, I got a new job and can’t make your wedding.”
Further discussions confirmed that he had known about this for some time and failed to communicate this to me. I understand things happen, and yes, there was a clause in the contract that said if he couldn’t make it he would “try” to find a replacement. Well he “tried”, but only after my phone call. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I didn’t call one week before the wedding. My guess is that I would have arrived at my reception with no DJ. So, after a few legal discussions back and forth with Francisco, which entailed commitment from him that he would sit down with me, my then fiancé, the replacement DJ (who it turns out he didn’t have lined up), I finally got him to connect me with a replacement DJ. However, he did not share any of our playlists, venue details, etc. with the new DJ. My then fiancé and I had very specific music instructions (which were communicated to Francisco via email and in-person conversations). We mainly wanted Texas country and classic rock. The replacement DJ he suggested specializes in rap and hip hop. To top it off, we later found out via a third party that his replacement was already booked for our date. Again, I likely would have shown up to my reception to find no DJ.
I have never worked with such an unprofessional, dishonest vendor with such limited communication skills. I could go on, but I will end this by saying we ended up scrambling last minute to find a replacement DJ on our own (after Francisco begrudgingly agreed to refund our money amidst the threat of legal action) and our new DJ did more for us in 5 days than Francisco did during the entire 5 months we had him booked.