The Vendors That Could Have Been....

It strikes me as odd that, even in this economy, I sometimes feel like some wedding vendors don't want my money.


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Now, this post may sound like a bit of a rant, but I like to think it's more of a venting of a frustration with vendors, that I'm sure others have had...

See, it's no secret that I like to research, to the point of going overboard sometimes. But when searching for wedding vendors (and, well, wedding everything!), I know I'm not going to be happy making a decision until I've seen every. option. available. I need to compare pricing, service policies, pretty much everything to make an informed decision. (And to save money too, since the more I research, the better discounts I usually find!)

And because I spend about 12-14 hours a day on my computer, I like to do almost all of my wedding research online. I like the ease of just shooting off e-mails to request quotes from many vendors at once (all separate e-mails though), or filling out the online quote request forms, rather than having to individually call each and every vendor. Convenience for the 2010 bride and all that jazz, right?

But for some reason, I've found that in almost every one of my quests to research vendors online, there are invariably some vendors who just don't respond. For example, in my search for a DOC, there were 4 or 5 that never e-mailed me back. Party rental places who I've contacted about their rental policies and delivery charges who've been silent. Bridal salons who have a 'Contact Us' form on their website, but never responded to the inquiries. Last week I requested about 10 online quotes for charter buses, guess how many have e-mailed me back? One!

And what's even worse are the vendors who will make initial contact with you, and then drop off the face of the planet. Most recently, I was looking into having a garlic fries cart for an end of the night snack for all our guests, since garlic is my favorite food. I found the only cart in the area, e-mailed them, and they responded right away saying they could do it, and I immediately e-mailed them back saying I would verify with our venue that it would be allowed, and they e-mailed me right back saying just give them a call. I was excited, yay for vendors with a right now response time. So I called them a few days later and left a voicemail with all the details. Nothing. That was a week before the holidays, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but after leaving another voicemail earlier this month, followed by two follow up e-mails, I've given up on my dream of having a portable garlic fries cart at our wedding. :(

So my question to the hive is, has this happened to any of you? Are there vendors you've contacted that have never respond, even after several follow ups? I guess we should look at it as a way to weed out the bad vendors?