Marsh’s Rentals Review
Our experience with Marsh’s Rentals (MR) was 5 star worthy up until the day of our event and the day after.
This is a long review as I wanted to provide ample context, so here’s the main points:
- We hired MR to setup tents, tables/chairs for our backyard wedding
- They were two hours late arriving the morning of with no call
- They didn’t know how long it would take to get to our house until 30 minutes after they were supposed to get here
- They forgot required hardware for the tent and had to wait an additional hour for someone to bring it
- Their tent collapsed 1.5 hours before the wedding and said they couldn’t make it out to fix it for 3-4 hours, but after 30 min of pushing they were able to come out ~2 hours later and did get it back up.
- They changed pickup time without a call or notice and showed up while no one was home after confirming a Monday pickup 3 times and to call/text if there were changes
- They went into our house without permission, knowing no one was home and our dog was loose, without bothering to call, to collect items that were moved inside due to their tent failing
- They didn’t apologize or see anything wrong with entering our home and accused us of calling them thugs and thieves for doing so, which we never said and reiterated
- We were verbally promised a 50% refund for our trouble to end the confrontation but after leaving they sent us an email saying that they weren’t going to do that anymore
Start of review:
We hired MR to provide and setup tables and chairs for our wedding that we were hosting in our backyard. Sharon was great to work with in the design phase and sent us several pictures and provided many options for us to choose from.
As we got closer to the wedding date, my wife and I decided it would be a good idea to reserve tents on the off chance that it rained. MR was accommodating and added tents to our invoice and would let us remove them if we didn’t end up needing them.
As we got closer to the wedding, we confirmed several times with MR that they’d arrive at our house Saturday at 10am to begin setting up everything for the wedding which was scheduled to start at 6pm that same day. It was scheduled to rain off and on Saturday, and had been forecasted so for a couple weeks, so we knew we would need to use the tents. I had constructed a “tunnel of lights” over our driveway (reception area) that needed to be torn down to allow the large tent to go in its place. We needed MR to arrive at 10am so they could get setup and we’d have plenty of time to restring the string lights inside the tent as that would be the only source of light in the reception area. There was a lot of other setup that needed to be done, but we had our setup for the day planned out and many wonderful family and friends there to help.
Fast forward to the day of the wedding, Saturday. The rain thankfully held off until around 11:30 am. Unfortunately, MR didn’t show up until 11:45 because “they were worried about the rain.” There was no communication asking about how the weather was looking by us or a courtesy call saying they were running behind. MR took it upon themselves to show up whenever they pleased without informing us. I had to call Jermaine directly at 10:30 to ask where they were and he hadn’t even left yet. He even asked me “how long does it take to get to your place from Durham?” so needless to say he was unprepared to arrive on time. I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt or have to setup in dangerous conditions, but MR would’ve known it was safe to setup if they checked in with us earlier in the day, like the rest of our vendors did. They either called or showed up hours early in person to check in and make sure things were still proceeding as scheduled, like professionals do.
To be fair, we did receive and email from Sharon at 5:06pm the evening before asking “What time is your wedding tomorrow? The weather has us a little concerned.” We missed this as that was right in the middle of our rehearsal dinner, and we were doing additional wedding prep. However, this reads to me as “as long as we setup before the wedding starts we’re fine.” This logic was confirmed in a later email from MR that I’ll discuss later in the review. There was no follow up from them on this time sensitive question. The wedding could’ve been at 12pm for all they knew and arriving 2 hours late was acceptable to them.
The crew arrived at 11:45 and began setup. Shortly after, I checked outside and saw they had stopped putting the tent together and were all just sitting in the truck eating. I asked what was going on and they said that all of the pins that hold the tent up were left behind in Durham and there was nothing they could do until they were dropped off by someone else. I asked if they could continue to setup what they could without the pins in order to save time, and they started doing prep work to get ready for when the pins arrived. An hour later, around 1pm, the pins arrived so setup could resume, so the 10am start was actually delayed 3 hours.
The remainder of my review is an excerpt from an email I sent to MR the night they broke and entered into our house when we weren’t home and didn’t apologize for it:
[begin excerpt]
As far as setup goes once you guys were here and had everything you needed, we think you guys set the tents, tables and chairs up as we wanted them. Your husband was sure to check in with me during setup to confirm details as setup progressed. This is the level of communication I expected. As we discussed on the phone, I noticed one of your team helped outside of the table and chairs to help our friends string lights. However, this was all being done at 3:30/4 when it would have been done at 12:30/1 if you would’ve arrived at the confirmed time, leaving us several hours of prep. The wedding started at 6. Just because you were done before 6, doesn’t mean everyone can instantaneously be cleaned, dressed, and prepped for a wedding.
After Marsh’s Rentals departed around 4:30, the 20x20 tent collapsed around the DJ’s equipment. Luckily no one was injured and the DJ’s equipment wasn’t damaged, but now half of our tents were out of use and the remaining one and a half hours of time prior to the wedding is gone and focused on figuring out how to accommodate. Not to mention 90 minutes of work stringing lights under said tent is down the drain as the tent is out of commission and the strand of lights snapped rendering them useless. So I got to spend the next 30 minutes on the phone with your husband telling him now arriving at 7:30/8 to fix the tent was unacceptable. We agreed on 6:45 arrival to fix the tent which is 45 minutes after the scheduled start of the wedding, so no, you were not done on time. And no, the wedding as we paid for did not start on time since the tent wasn’t upright until around 7:30.
Alyssa and I made the tough decision to plan to not use the tent at all because we had little faith it would be ready on time and we did not want to delay the wedding as we had roughly $10,000 invested in other vendors to work from 5-10pm. Pushing the wedding to not start until 8 would’ve left us with cold food and 2 hours of DJ, bartender, and photographer service time, which again is unacceptable.
All that being said, we are not upset about the 20x20 tent not being ready as we chucked it up to a loss and planned around it. This tent failure required moving the DJ to under the carport where one of your tables which held our cakes was, and moving the cake table inside our home.
Once your husband and his help had finished setting up the tent, I was informed our lights snapped and couldn’t be restrung and told him since the tent already broke the lights to cut them down and save on time de-stringing. He assured me they’d be reimbursed. Also at least twice during this time I confirmed with him pickup of the equipment would be on Monday. I said that was fine and to call/text if anything changes and to do so anyway when they were on their way so I could ensure I was home.
Fast forward to Sunday evening. Alyssa and I go downtown for dinner to celebrate privately and come back to find your husband and team in our driveway packing up. We were annoyed that YET AGAIN there was no communication, especially after everything that happened Saturday and doubly so after confirming communication would be sent prior to pickup about changes in plans and ETA of arrival.
We are livid that the team entered our home unannounced, unscheduled, and unapproved. I understand that this was simply to get a table, however that violates the principle of entering property that is not yours. Bringing this issue up to your husband, it was downplayed as “just getting a table” and “something so minute.” He also claimed that they tried to see if anyone was home, came to the conclusion that we were not home and wasn’t sure when we’d be back. All of these unknowns could’ve been answered by a simple phone call.
[end excerpt]
We were promised a 50% refund for our trouble while Jermaine was at our house Sunday, but later that night received an email from Sharon saying they weren’t going to do that because they were setup on time. In fact Sharon said: “I know you said we were behind, but it was because of the rain. And we still had everything ready well before the time of the wedding. I would understand if we made your wedding late starting, but we didn't.” in her email denying us a refund. Mind you, they had no idea when the wedding started until halfway through their setup. This email also had no acknowledgment or apology for entering our unattended home without permission.
I would not recommend Marsh’s Rentals to anyone if you value communication, punctuality, a man’s word, or the sanctity of your own home.
