The Fountains double booked their facility on the day of the Rotary fund raising event for 500 people. They expected the event to be set up and decorated fifteen minutes before it was supposed to start, when they knew it usually takes 8 hours.
They forced us to move the event two weeks before the event to Dove Pointe. Now they are suing the club for the entire contract and keeping our deposit!!
They expect this community to support them?
Those people need to take their butts back to Montgomery County. Do they not realize the Rotary membership is business people from the community. How much business do you thing the community will give them after filing a suit like this.? The first thing out of their mouths, "we'll sue you". Well, bring it on.
ReplyDeleteAnd the first thing out of your mouth is "Those people need to take their butts back to Montgomery County."
ReplyDeleteAnd you wonder why no one wants to open a business here.
The Fountains may be right and they may be wrong who knows at this point in time. The prudent thing to do, would be to try and work this out amicably without the courts involved, due to the public relations involved.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree
Delete8:23 Do you know these folks? I would say not.
ReplyDeleteTo expect that a facility will not charge the client for additional time but needs to keep the facility open and free of patrons for 8 hours prior to booking time is a bit excessive. I can understand 2 hours for decorating, but if the Rotary needs 8 hours to decorate, they need to pay for more hours. You can't expect a business to stay in business when they give up a room all day and only get paid for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteIs the Fountains that packed with patrons all day? Wow, they must be doing fantastic!
ReplyDelete8:53 - no they're not packed...they just have to pay their overpriced mortgage.....
ReplyDeleteTO 8:23a.m.- 8:10 is just illustrating the "southern hospitality" that mr. albero was talking about yesterday:)
ReplyDeleteWondering why the Rotary would want to pay the Fountains when Hackett at Dove Pointe would let them use that facility for a donation.
ReplyDelete8:34- I get what you are saying but the comment says they "double booked." In the true meaning of the phrase both events were paying for the space and time at the same time or overlapping.
ReplyDeleteHave no fear.......word of mouth is the best advertising and I can assure you they have had a hard time getting going and now they will just need to fold up. Beautiful stairway, horrible food IMO.
ReplyDeleteThat place has had so many problems since it's conception, it's a beautiful place but it takes more than pretty to keep a place in business. The Fountain's must have been built on an ancient burial ground. The spirits are not happy.
ReplyDelete9:10--Although the letter stated the Fountains "double booked" it sounds like they really just booked another event and the break down time in between was not sufficient for the Rotary to spend 8 hours decorating. Unless the Rotary had the foresight to put in the contract that they had permission to come in 8 hours prior to decorate, they don't stand a chance in court. Simple contract case.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the contract, but most places charge for rooms by the hour. Where I work the contracts clearly state that the room fee is $250 an hour, yup 4 hours is $1000 just for the room. Food, bartenders, servers, butler service is all extra. If there are no other bookings, sure they can be free to set up. Contracts are binding for a reason.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the Rotary Member who
ReplyDeletewrote the 1st comment isn't getting much support. 8 hours to set up ?? And you think that's acceptable ?? If The Fountains was at fault it makes sense that the Rotary would be the one suing and not the other way around. The Fountains is supporting Salisbury by employing many, many people and paying taxes to help fund our community. Sending them back to Montgomery County is
an ignorant thing to say. Oh well.
My experience is that The Fountains is lovely with unparalled food quality.
I booked many events at the Fountains under the old ownership.
ReplyDeleteI always paid for enough time to ensure that the setup tasks happened. But they were nice enough to let me set up the day before, provided nothing else was going on. When I could, I would set up early to ensure we had no surprises and take a load of stress off of me.
If the Fountains said they can get their setup job done in 15 minutes, I'd say that's on them and I would assume that it's possible until proven otherwise.
As for Rotary...This might be a rookie mistake. You shouldn't book a space for just the time of the event. You should book it to ensure enough control over the facility to make your event successful. That includes setup.
Since none of us has a copy of the contract to read, we'll never know who is in the right. If it said the Rotary had the facility for "the day," I'd side with them. If the contract says "8pm to midnight" I would side with the Fountains.
All of this suing and badmouthing in a public forum is stupid. It's only going to cause bad feelings. The Fountains will miss out on booking events, and Rotary is going to lose some money. Lawyers will take even more from both of them. It's obvious everybody is going to lose here.