• User rating:

"Look elsewhere"
Portland, OR
February 8, 2011

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First and foremost, I want to say that if you are looking strictly for someone who is pleasant and a good conversationalist, Reverend Figley is great. If you want someone you can rely on, that will do the right thing as a business owner, and ensure that your wedding day goes smoothly, I could not recommend anyone less. Before I start into what I know will sound somewhat like sour grapes, I would be happy to provide documentation of every claim that I make in the story below. We decided to hire Reverend Figley in early January 2010 after talking with he and his wife. We left that day with no contract, as we had yet to decide a final time for the ceremony. We followed up with them by email a few weeks later specifying that we had determined that we were going to start our ceremony at 4:00 but that we still didn't have a date and time for the rehearsal (this was required on the contract). They told us we could go ahead and reserve the time and date by sending our deposit based on the information we had and get the final contract to them when we had determined the rehearsal information. Several weeks went by and the final details were set for the rehearsal, so we sent them the signed contract. Another week went by and we emailed them to let them know we had just put the check for the remainder of the fee in the mail so that they would know it was coming. They responded that they had received the contract but there was a problem with the time. They had marked the time as 4:30 in the initial conversation and had booked another wedding at 3:00pm. We were unable to change the time at that point (which they asked us to do), so we requested that they send back the check for the fee and the deposit since we had no contract. They refused to refund the deposit citing the non-refundable deposit clause in the contract. Keep in mind, this is a contract that they had not signed and which stipulated a 4:00pm start time. Our grievances come down to 2 points. 1. They have refused to refund money which they legally have no right to. 2. Even if we had been able to change our wedding to 4:30pm, they most likely wouldn't have made it on time. Their contract states that they will stay at a venue for at least 1 hour to ensure that the ceremony and related activities are completed. Our wedding site was a 30 minute drive from where their 3:00pm wedding was booked. Although we were strongly encouraged to take the financial matter to small claims court, we ultimately decided not to because of some family matters. Perhaps the financial issues would not be a problem for others, but do you really want to hire a minister that may come to your wedding late or tired from previous jobs that are booked to closely together? And, based on their questionable business behavior and ethics, can you trust that they will hold your wedding day with the same regard that you do? There are many, many ministers out there that charge the same fees, so learn from our experience and go with one you trust. We would be happy to provide a reference to the phenomenal minister we hired. Please contact us for more details.

Vendor response: I am so sorry that we could not come to any type of suitable compromise to this situation with Matt and Veronica. There are a lot of facts left off, the first being that when we met with them in March at our home they told us there wedding was going to be on August 1st at 4:30 PM. We received a phone call within that week letting us know that they wanted Rev. Rob to officiate their wedding. We promptly received their $50.00 retainer in March for us to hold their date for them. The problem was, they did NOT return the contract at the same time. On June 6, 2010 they signed their contract, on June 22, 2010 they mailed it to us. When we received it we noticed the change in their ceremony time and contacted them. We had a booked another wedding for that same day at 3:00 and that couple understood that their wedding would need to start on time, so that we could be at our 4:30 obligation. The locations were within 20 miles of each other. We offered a few solutions that were not acceptable to Matt. He was very agitated and we are extremely sorry this happened. It is the first time in eleven years of marrying couples that this has ever happened. We have learned not to NOT accept our $50.00 retainer fee to hold your wedding date unless the contract is also attached. We returned $25.00 dollars of the fee in a good will effort to accept half the blame, this still did not appease Matt. We regret the torment that Matt must live with, he did threaten a lawsuit, but it was never filed. The best we can tell prospective couples, please give us a call, meet with us and you decide if we are what you are looking for. We marry between 75 and 80 couples each year all over the Portland Metro and SW Washington area and beyond. Please veiw our website at www.redraccoon1.com and give us a call at 360-721-7698. Thank YOU for taking the time to read this.

This is the subjective opinion of an independent reviewer and not of Decidio, Inc.