After doing research on Theknot.com, I found Mystical Entertainment Group. They had mostly great reviews and I chose to book them for a senior prom. The night before, the main DJ called me to confirm everything. All sounded like it was in p...lace except he informed me that there would only be 3 people at the event (they previously told me there would be 4).
Contractually, I booked them from 7-11, knowing that most kids leave at 10:30. I was there early and the Entertainment came around 5:30 to set up, which was great. I introduced myself, saw them start to set up, and then went to finish my tasks. I didn’t hear from them until 7; no one was using the photo booth. I went over and the attendant told me the venue’s wifi was really slow and he couldn’t get the photo booth to work. Understandably, I was annoyed. The photo booth wasn’t running until 7:45, but we couldn’t print pictures (still wifi issues, allegedly). I checked out the photo booth and didn’t find an option for a boomerang or a gif. Finally, the pictures started printing at 9:30 and I realized the background for the photos wasn't the one we chose. The kids got to use a fully functioning photo booth for about 1 hour before everyone left.
The next Monday I emailed. Two days later I received an email from the administrative assistant saying they did all they could, they determined they did a good job, the kids took a lot of pictures and seemingly had fun, and that was that. She also said that the boomerang and gif capability were there because there was ONE taken. I had 270 very tech-savvy teens at this prom. Clearly, it was not an easy option to find, and the photo booth attendant should have helped the students use the product. Unfortunately, he wasn’t at the photo booth a lot of the time. They offered no return on our money or apology for their ineptitude. I responded immediately and asked that the manager give me a call. It’s two days later, over a week since the event, and I have still not received a phone call.
To say I am disappointed in the clear negligence of this company and the cavalier attitude about their mistakes is an understatement. The manager didn’t have the courtesy to give me a call and responded to me via the administrative assistant's email taking no ownership of mistakes. "Connection issues” should be the number one issue that they work to prevent (maybe have a company hotspot or an IT guy that can come help them?? At least have a plan B!) but they were extremely unprepared.
I paid for a service that wasn’t functional for nearly 20% of my event and didn’t work to its actual functionality until 1.5 hours before the event ended (1 hour before the kids left). Charging full price and not delivering a fully functioning product as agreed upon is flatly unethical. They didn’t deliver on their contractual obligations but they surely took my money and are trying to sweep this under the rug. Not only did they disregard their mistake, they clearly don’t care about their customer relations as the way this was handled was beyond poor. I don’t know if it’s because they feel like it was an event “just for kids” but they are taking advantage. For reference, this is the sixth prom I have organized in my career for my employer. In doing so, I have dealt with anywhere from 15-20 different vendors. This has, by far, been my worst experience. Mystical Entertainment Group is clearly out to take money without regard to their performance or responsibilities.