Tags
07470, account, business, Customer Support, Davids Bridal, favors, Favors by Dorinda, I Do Appointments, IDoAppointments.com, JJ Kelly Bridal, Patrick Kelly, sales rep, suspended, Weddings, WeddingWire
Ah, WeddingWire…you’ve disappointed me…again.
After a week of waiting for a response from my sales rep, who has apologized twice for not getting back to me, and a follow up from Lauren Schwarcz, Customer Satisfaction Representative, who also apologized for the delay, this is the wonderful email I received on Friday, November 15th, after I sent in the documentation they requested, letting me know my account has been suspended…..indefinitely.
Dear Dorinda,
As a result of your recent submission of Out Of Business documentation, your WeddingWire listing has been deactivated and marked as Out Of Business. Additionally, your WeddingWire Account and Access are suspended indefinitely.
Sincerely,
WeddingWire Account Services
I suppose that’s good since my business is CLOSED indefinitely. However, they do not have permission to display my logo on their site.
I further investigated and this is what I found. If you search for favors in the zip code 07470, you will not find me. However, if you search my business name and zip code, my page comes up, but with nothing except my logo, business name and state. It’s not clickable and there is no indication that the business has closed. Earlier today, in an anticipation of them doing exactly what they did, I removed EVERYTHING from their site. Photos, descriptions, any other info, including phone number, etc, all gone. Ironically, it shows my recently viewed on the left side of the page and there I am. If I click it I get the screen you see pictured below. This was the only way for me to get to this page.
If you are not going to leave the business in the catalog listings, what is the point of leaving it on the site at all? They claim reviews are considered the intellectual property of reviewers. I’d like to see them notify all reviewers should they decide to close their site down. I suppose I should be happy with the results but this is, for lack of any other way to put it, total bull shit. You have MY logo and you suspend my account indefinitely? No. I’m still not done with this, not by any means. You poked the bear and that’s never a good thing.
In a recent conversation with Patrick Kelly, owner of JJ Kelly Bridal & I Do Appointments, I discovered that WeddingWire has been jerking him around for over a year and continues to do so. While JJ Kelly Bridal’s page can’t be found during a search, his I Do Appointments has been altered to simply say “I Do”. Now I know the TOS states nothing about their rights to changing a business’s legal name. What’s also fascinating is that when Patrick first inquired about adding his I Do Appointments site to their directory he was confronted with a letter from WeddingWire, dated May 30, 2012.
Hi Patrick,
We hope this email finds you well. We are emailing you to let you know that while we certainly appreciate your interest in WeddingWire, due to a conflict of interest we will not be able to approve “I Do Appointments” as a member of our vendor catalog. Thank you in advance for your understanding!
Warmest Regards,
WeddingWire Support
This week, Patrick again requested that his other business, JJ Kelly Bridal, be removed from their directory. He received this email today, November 15, 2013.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for your email. It seems that one of our users created your account in order to review you. When we inactivate an account, all personal contact information is removed, but the business name and reviews are public information and will remain on the website. I have personally removed your phone number, website, and location from the listing.
If you have any further questions, please let us know!
Warmest Regards,
Samantha
WeddingWire Support
This is where the problems really come into play. No one seems to know what the others are doing. First of all, what right does anyone, other than the business owner, have to set up a page just to review a company? Who’s to say the information put out about said company is correct. No one should be able to add their business/website other than the owner themselves. When I searched for Patrick’s page what I found were multiple listings for the same shops. David’s Bridal, Mary’s Bridal, each had at least five pages, in the same city. This was caused by someone, other than the business owner, creating the page. As for WeddingWire’s customer service department, one says business name, address, phone number are kept with a stupid one liner that claims “The owner has indicated they are no longer in business.” Another customer support rep told Patrick his phone number, website & location have been removed. Yet when I look for his page on their site, it’s gone.
I know there are more of you out there experiencing issues with WeddingWire, some of whom have already contacted me. I want to hear from you if you’ve had problems with them. You can email me at dorindad@yahoo.com I know I left the wedding & event business, but I’m still a voice. We cannot continue to allow this practice with our businesses. We’ve worked too hard to be held hostage by a wedding directory who clearly has no continuity regarding their own business practices.
Related Story: WeddingWire – They Just Don’t Learn
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Reblogged this on Thanks for Noticing Me.
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My Mom had a business that she closed over 4 years ago and it still shows up how yours is.
Well, I am dissatisfied with WeddingWire because I was hesitant from the jump to advertise with them because I just thought it would be a waste of money. They gave me all of these guarantees that I would get bookings if I did an ad with them. After a year of advertising, NOTHING. I told them I would not renew because I didn’t get a ROI and did they thank me for spending money on their site? No, did they offer a discount (not that I expected them to) to advertise for another year? I like their community where I can interact with other members, but spending money with them again? I highly doubt it!
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Leon, good move. Now for the other thousands who drank the Cool aid and fed into the BS so long ago….
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The punch bowl will always be full. For every three or four disgruntled clients, there are three to four who are thrilled with the response they’re getting from WW. However, I’d like to know if they’re thrilled because they’re getting leads from WeddingWire, that turn into paying clients OR because they’re sending out an email to former clients asking for a review. That would put a lot of things into perspective.
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Punch Bowl full; of what?
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Kool Aid, new clients, whatever you want to call it. Does it really matter? New companies are entering the wedding industry daily, in droves because they think it’s the answer to their prayers. All they have to do is look at the comments from businesses who have something good to say and, there ya go, another client for WeddingWire or whatever company is happy to scam you out of your advertising dollars.
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I’m going to be a Democrat for a second and ask, where’s the data on people entering the business in droves? I don’t see it like it was.
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I consider anyone who’s been in the industry two or less years part of the “drove”. I don’t have specific numbers, nor do I care to. I only know what I have seen as a part of this industry. Every time I turned around I was being introduced to someone “new”. Didn’t you know that if you planned your own wedding you could plan the masses? No offense to the wedding planners out there who really know their stuff. Was just using it as an example because that’s one of the major arguments you here. But that’s off topic. Not really what this is about.
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Slightly off but still part of the same story. I’m sure someone out there is in the market for a beta max or 8 track tape player too….
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everyday….
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Yes… it’s actually quite hard to search for a vendor by name unless you go digging for it. I just noticed the ad right underneath my logo on MY page for a competitor, REALLY?!
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Yes, all the non-paying accounts have competitors ads. The ads you see are paying accounts. It’s disgusting all around.
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Honestly I’ve only ever had major issues with The Knot, they were AWFUL and I would never give them a penny of my money!
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Do you actually have a WW account?
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The only issue I have had with them is that I was paying for a featured vendor listing and showed up at the bottom of the page….it was not in alphabetical order either so I’m not sure what I was paying for.
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You were paying for a listing, that’s it. If your business has many listings, you’ll find yourself among the pile somewhere. There should be a limit on the number of “featured” listing allowed per category, based on location. Not really sure what they’re doing besides taking your money.
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This is going on for two years with Patrick and that is just one who spoke out. http://www.ewednewz.com/2012/05/accuser-claims-foul-after-getting-tossed-by-wedding-wire/ I will restate: ANYONE who gets involved with these hack companies and/or marketing “experts’ deserve the trouble they face.
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Paul, your story shows that Patrick had issues regarding Idoappointments and WeddingWire’s online appointment system, this goes much further. They are changing business names to suit their agenda. Furthermore, their claims to how they handle clients who’s businesses have closed is full of lies. This is what I am trying to bring out. Not that the review system sucks, because it does, you already covered that, but the mere fact that they’re doing injustice to those who trusted them. When they opened, they weren’t considered a “hack” company. Only recent events brought that to light. What they’re doing is wrong and they deserve to have the heat.
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All part of the same culture now coming to light. Count on a company run the way it was back then to continue to follow suit in every aspect. You’re just embroiled in this part of it now. Would you be surprised in anything they did from here on in? If you want a prime example, look at Obama; whether it’s Benghazi, health insurance, fixing roads or anything it’s just how he (they) think. You can just smell trouble coming. To some it’s obvious, to others it needs to slap them in the face. Thanks for bringing it all to light.
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