Horrible DJ wants good "word of mouth advertising"...

[Greatwhite]

Word of mouth advertising can be a great, free method of getting your name out there - and lots of businesses rely on that.  However, it can also work AGAINST you if you are a jerk, and a NIGHTMARE to the bride & groom.  I strongly believe in recognizing small businesses when they do a great job, but - there needs to be the flip side to restore balance in the universe, right?

So here's my story.

Saturday, my brother in law got married, and of course - I was there...   I was asked to video tape the ceremony because I own a camera.  SO I was at the ceremony room, setting my tripod in an inconspicuous place that no one would trip over, walking up the aisle.  It was then that this dude in a blue dress shirt ran in and started getting set up in a rush.  I didn't know he was late, or what the actual schedule was supposed to be.  According to the groom, he was supposed to be there and set up 30 minutes before he showed up though.

The ceremony started, and no one knew - because there was no music playing.  There was music while the bridesmaids walked in, and the same song was playing when the bride came in - so no one really knew to stand and look.  She just appeared with her dad and that was that.  I have on tape, her dad asking "why is no one standing?"...  Awkward.  Now, I can't blame the DJ for that, it might have just been an oversight on the bride & groom during the planning...  But any DJ with ANY experience what-so-ever should know to play music to announce the start of the ceremony and ESPECIALLY the bride's entrance!

At the end of the ceremony, the bride actually had to tell him to start the "walking out" music...  AWKWARD!

There was a little receiving line just outside the door, and people were standing around in the hall since the reception was literally right next door.  The wedding was at a hotel...  The DJ started moving his big dumb speakers from one room to the other, telling people to move, almost running over my super-cute 2 year old AT LEAST 5 times...

But this is just the beginning of the fun.

The bride had noticed his business cards fanned out beautifully on the signing table, all around their photo.  She promptly relocated them to the trash.  She then noticed that he was drinking beer during the cocktail time before dinner, which is a professional faux-pas.  I then noticed his plate of food during the speeches, which apparently was "allowed", but I find it unprofessional for "hired help" to be eating on the job...  I will let it slide, though - since it WAS supper time and he was going to be there all night.  HOWEVER, during one speech, he insisted on talking (interrupting, really) over his microphone with a full mouth.  No one understood a word he said, so he swallowed and tried again...  Good joke... NOT.

THEN - during speeches, he got a phone call, and was talking on his cell phone in his little booth.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but he was trying to talk OVER the speech!  I kindly asked him to take it into the hall.  He thought I was complaining about the quality of the sound somehow, and said "it's the hotel's system, not mine!"... umm.. what?  I said "I don't care about the feedback on the mic, I DO care about you blabbing on your phone over the speeches, just take it into the all please.."

He started swearing at me, and using words that I didn't really care for my 2 year old (who was standing with me) to hear... So I sent her to sit with my wife, and returned a few words, explaining that he was being rude talking on his phone while the speeches were going, and asked him AGAIN to take it into the hall if it's that important.

He walked out, swearing at me.

When he came back, he waved his phone around in my face, saying "this is my *** business, this is what I do.  I have 6 DJs out there and my phone is ringing off the hook!"  SO I gestured toward the head table, and said "right now, THIS is your **** business, and THIS should be ALL you are doing at this particular moment.  Now sit in your little chair and do your job!"... I got sworn at some more as he sat down.  I haven't checked, but I may have the whole conversation recorded on my video because my little camera has a great mic!

That was all I heard from him after that.  Looking over every now and then, I saw that he was NOT on his phone - at least while I looked.

The maid of honour wanted him to play Don't Stop Believin' by Journey after her speech.  He didn't know that song.  My 4 year old knows that song...  She then had to run through the hotel to find her ipod and locate the song, and queue it up for him. She told him "just hit play when I say" and went to do her speech.

Later, the music STUNK.  My wife's 90 year old grandmother wanted a slow song so that she could dance at least once. So she went to request something slow.  He promised to get a couple slow ones on... 5 songs later, some obscure slow song I had never heard before (country..) played - and that was it for the night.  After that, it was just him and his iTunes full of 80s music that is "standard wedding tunes".  I could have done better with my iphone and a couple big speakers.

So that is my "word of mouth advertising"... And this is the guy to avoid:
http://www.xtremesoundzz.com/index.html

I hope that this story helps you to avoid the same nightmare that I witnessed... If anyone you know is looking for a GOOD DJ.. pass this story on to them and tell them NOT to call Matt.

[Medym]

The name alone was enough to make me cringe. "Xtreme Soundzz;" as if one 'z' wasn't bad enough, he just needed to add that extra one...

[Fishnut]

Wow!!  That's awful!  HOw much of that did the bride and groom experience...or were they oblivious because of everyone's efforts to get the guy to do his job?  I wouldn't pay the DJ if that happened to me.

[Stussi613]

She then noticed that he was drinking beer during the cocktail time before dinner, which is a professional faux-pas. 

Agreed.  I don't understand why people in this industry don't get this. If I walked into a meeting in my day job with a beer I'd probably get fired.

I then noticed his plate of food during the speeches, which apparently was "allowed", but I find it unprofessional for "hired help" to be eating on the job... 

As someone that is frequently the "hired help" when I photograph weddings in my part time business, I couldn't disagree with you more.  You're right, service people in the wedding industry often work long hours, over dinner, with little to no breaks.

My contract states clearly that I receive dinner and 30 minutes to eat it when I shoot a wedding.  If the bride and groom won't agree then they find a new photographer.

I start at 9-10am shooting the bridal party getting ready, then move to another location to do the groomsmen. Front there I rush to the church to set up and get shots of people arriving, then shoot the ceremony.  Then go take family/bridal party/bride & groom shots...sometimes at multiple locations.  After that I rush to the reception venue and get set up, take arrival shots, shots of the speeches and dancing shots.  The whole day goes for 12 hours if I'm lucky, or 15 hours if I'm not. There is no time between all these venue changes and shots that need to be taken, for me to grab some lunch or dinner and eat it elsewhere.  Sometimes I have a hard enough time even finding a minute to go to the bathroom, much less find some food.

The DJ you're referencing did a terrible job, according to what you have written, but to say that he doesn't deserve a chance to eat is pretty shallow minded.  He's probably working a full 8+ hour shift (assuming the ceremony is at 3 and the reception ends by 1) but has to stay in the room for the speeches and dancing so how do you expect him to eat?  His behaviour was certainly unprofessional and uncalled for...but he is a human being...after all.

[Hookup]

I'm 100% sure it was your fault.

JK.

Sounds like a pretty crappy deal.

[Greatwhite]

The DJ you're referencing did a terrible job, according to what you have written, but to say that he doesn't deserve a chance to eat is pretty shallow minded.  He's probably working a full 8+ hour shift (assuming the ceremony is at 3 and the reception ends by 1) but has to stay in the room for the speeches and dancing so how do you expect him to eat?  His behaviour was certainly unprofessional and uncalled for...but he is a human being...after all.

True on all accounts, yes he obviously deserved to eat - I don't mean to be "shallow minded" of course - it WAS in his contract to be allowed time to eat (and food).  I think that my issue was mainly with the "full mouthed" comment on the mic DURING a groom's speech BECAUSE he was stuffing his face.  He also could have eaten between "events" though.  The ceremony was done at 5, and then there was a lull until around 7.  The hotel/caterer may have dropped the ball in not providing him a plate subtly in that time...  Or maybe the bride & groom didn't think of that as a possibility...  I don't know.

The beer was a no-no.  A coke, some water, whatever - no problem!  NORMALLY DJs are working pretty hard, and I could see him being thirsty...  MP3s have made DJs a little less "fun" though... They have a play list, and it's pretty much automatic these days.  I miss the days of records in milk boxes getting wheeled in to the DJ booth!

The bride & groom were subject to every bit of the nightmare, except for my run-in with the DJ.  I tried to help them out there.  I would have let the guy finish on the phone, because he HAD to be done soon - it was a long conversation.  But he unfortunately just got louder and louder to talk over the speech that was going on.

Oh, for the record though - the photographer was AMAZING.  VERY friendly, VERY professional -- and it was HE who eventually ran around to find the hotel's sound system to fix the squealing from feedback.  I would have expected the DJ to help out there, but "it's the hotel's problem" according to him.  *shrug*  The pictures that I saw were AMAZING.  He got some of my daughters (flower girls) up in the "getting ready" room that are gallery worthy...  I can't wait to get my hands on the pictures to blow them up.

The limo driver was good - except that he couldn't find the experimental farm from around the airport, and led a caravan of people on a bit of an adventure.  The "officiant" was amazing, from Ottawa Weddings (they married me & my wife, and also do baptisms - and baptised both my girls)...  

Everything was great - except this DJ...

and ya... Xtreme Soundzz... classy.  haha

[Greatwhite]

I'm 100% sure it was your fault.

Truth.

[Greatwhite]

Hehe.. The maid of honour just informed me via facebook that after I left, there was awkward silence between songs of 10-20 seconds.  Fortunately the bride was a good sport (drunk) and busted into "if you're happy and you know it" to fill the gaps.

At least she has a funny story to tell about her wedding day now. 

[bt]

The name alone was enough to make me cringe. "Xtreme Soundzz;" as if one 'z' wasn't bad enough, he just needed to add that extra one...

Oh yeah... I'd be scratching that one off the list right away just from the name.

[az]

could have been worse ie ......DJ started a fire...or... DJ ran away with the bride......or both... etc!!
j/k    

[kevin]

Same type of crap with the DJ at our wedding, didn't have any of the songs requested, not even the one special song for my wife and her fathers dance. A friend of mine and her boyfriend ran around the hotel, overpaid huge for a spindle of 50 blank CD's, went to their room, downloaded the song, burned it and gave it to the DJ, he didn't know our names to introduce the wedding party (14 people) he had the list, the minute some older guests started leaving around 10:30 he was starting to pack up???!!! I had arranged for me and 4 buddy's to play a song with accoustic guitars (surprise for my wife she had no idea) so arranged this 3 months ahead of time for the DJ to have a mixer, he couldn't hook it up. Here I am in a tux, under the table hooking up his mixer with my wife wondering what I am doing. Ended up not using it and playing without mics (good thing I have pipes and can sing loud). End of the night he wanted to get paid (this was my revenge) I told him the 150$ deposit was all he was getting, and be lucky he got that. He got lippy and 6 of my buddies came up behind me, needless to say he quietly hauled his gear out of there.

Kijiji and sites like that can be risky for these kinds of events, anyone with a great sound system can advertise, be extremely competitive with pricing and not have a clue what they are doing. I should have figured this when his rate was only 500$ for the night 

We spent 15,000.00$ on our wedding and really did not need or anticipate DJ issues. Going to the Dominican the next day releived all that stress however.

[Greatwhite]

I had dinner with my bro-in-law and his wife on Saturday and heard more details of their DJ drama...  Aside from being an all-around jerk, he charged them an extra $150 for a "second setup fee" because he had to move his laptop and 2 speakers from the ceremony room to the reception room - right next door.

He was supposed to be there at 3, to set up and play music while people arrived, but only got there 15 minutes before the ceremony and then rushed his setup in the first room.

Apparently, they didn't meet the guy until the day of the ceremony as well, since he's from Cornwall - and wasn't willing to drive to Ottawa *or half way* to talk about details.

Just everything about this guy screams unprofessional.  When you're doing business, ESPECIALLY around weddings, you NEED to meet with the clients and talk about what THEY want.  Our DJ met with us before the ceremony and came with ideas that made our wedding awesome...  THAT is what I'd have expected from this guy too.

It was all a package deal, coordinated by the limo service...  I hope that the limo service got some feedback and doesn't put anyone else through all the pain that he put everyone through for this wedding!!!

Kevin, I'm glad that you had the balls to tell your DJ that he wasn't getting paid.  Not many people would have.  They'd have just bent over, paid, and then complained about the service - that they paid full price for. (plus $150..) 

[kevin]

Oh yeah, when it comes to crap like that I would rather have to face potentially getting sued and going to court than take it up the tail pipe! Can be 25$ or 6000$ is a matter of priciple. I used to fix TV's on site on the side, a gu from Montreal would do calls here and a common problem in Sony convergence circuits would be a blown pico fuse in the power supply. The repair part was 5 cents but an hour to do it, stripping the TV. I would make 250$ per call, many calls a month, good cash  This Montreal guy would hard wire the burnt fuse, taking a short cut and done in 5 minutes, take the money and run; that could potentially cause a fire, epecially with such high voltages in a TV. I could never do that, I would not sleep at night if my actions caused the death of a family due to fires. I couldn't beleive it!