From: "Chris & Gerry" <50s4ever@igs.net>
To: "Balloon HQ" <balloondeco@fooledya.com>
Subject: Re: RE:How to get in the hotel door
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 16:48:03 -0500

Been there!  Done that!

When I 1st started out in this biz, I was working part-time for a banquet
hall which constantly asked me to do the exact thing. One New Year's eve,
they had inquired about contracting me out to prepare 6 balloon drops for 6
different parties they had booked.  To make a long story short, I gave them
the contracts in August of that year, and by November they still hadn't
given me a deposit.  I kept warning them to confirm their bookings or they
would be out of luck, as after the 60 day period (which is the amount of
time I allowed them to ponder their decision on the contract) if they didn't
commit I would book other events.  They kept telling me that they work on
their WORD, and if they told me I was booked, then a contract wasn't
necessary.  I told them, even if my own sister hired me, I would still have
her sign a contract too.  I love my sister, but you know the old saying,
business is business!!!  Well, December 1st rolled around and I STILL hadn't
heard from them, no deposit, no contract..  At this point I was tired of
hounding them and left it at that, and booked other decorating jobs.  By
December 5th, the General Manager of the Banquet Hall came up to me and said
casually, oh, by the way, we have decided to buy our own balloons and drop
bags, and oh, can you install them for us and we will pay the
labour.......to which I responded, sorry, no can do.  You never confirmed
anything with me, so I booked other decorating jobs.  This story isn't over
yet, it gets better.  Well, let me tell you, by December 15, the banquet
supervisor casually came up to me and said, so, are we all ready for New
Year's Eve?  I responded with the story  from the General Manager.  The
Banquet Supervisor was livid.  Well to finalize this story, I was scheduled
to work at the banquet hall on New Year's Eve at an evening  function, and
while I was working, some of the staff were frantically busy building the
balloon drops by mouth (forgot to tell you that the banquet supervisor
wanted to "borrow" my electric air inflator, but I said it was already
booked out).  When it came time to release the balloons, 90% of them
remained in the drop bag (due to static).  The banquet supervisor just
looked at me in dismay, to which I responded, you get what you pay for......

The upside to doing decor at the banquet hall, (yes, there was an upside),
is that I have some nice portfolio pictures from decor I did while I worked
there.

:o)

Chris Harding,
Daley Greetings,
Ontario, Canada.