A company that I would advise those…
A company that I would advise those seeking a pleasant and efficient customer experience to stay well clear of.
For an event for 200 guests the event organisers arranged for three items of equipment for the children. These were a photo booth, a cell phone case making equipment (with two operators) and finally a large Digital Graffiti Wall that 4 children at a time could play on.
The party was due to start at 18:30 and we were told that the set up of the wall would take just over an hour. The events organiser specifically telephone this company to inform them that there were a lot of diversions and traffic problems in the vicinity of the venue that day and they ought to ensure that they left with ample time to get there to allow for setting up for the 18:30 start to the party. At 1750 they telephoned the event organiser to say that their vehicle had "been in an "accident" and would now not be able to get to the party until 19:30 (and thus by the time it was set up it would be 20:30!
I will let the reader decide whether there was an "accident" or not when they take into account that they phoned 45 minutes AFTER they were due to arrive… This Digital Graffiti Wall was an integral part of our evening to keep the kids occupied whilst the adults were upstairs.
Regretfully the problems with this company did not stop with the non-arrival of this equipment. (circa £1400 worth of hire including a charge for late dismantling...see below))
The event organiser confirmed at the time of order (and in writing) that the party ended at 11:30 pm and that the equipment that they did supply could not be dismantled until the end of the party. Sorry to repeat but this was part of the WRITTEN contract.
The MD of the company,(Jason) on the afternoon of the event (!) told the event organisers that they were going to be dismantling all of the equipment at 22:30 (an hour before the party was due to end) and had the temerity to tell the organiser that he had previously informed them of this beforehand which was patently untrue not least the dismantling time of 23:30 was written on the contract. The MD of this company put the event organisers under such pressure that, rather tghan upset us on our big day, said to The Pod Group "...what will it cost to keep the equipment for another hour" and the MD said "..pay one of the operators £100!"
Finally, our videographer were filming the children watching the phone cases being made and the male operator of the equipment told the that he did not want to be photographed. The videographer then said "...No problem, I will just film your hands and the operator turned round in front of all of the children queueing up and aggressively said "… If you don't stop videoing I will leave and I will punch your face".
The reader will find the above bizarre and I can only but confirm my wife and I have seen the actual video/audio footage and audio of the operator acting in this manner. (One might reasonably assume that a videographer is meant to photograph all of the children having a great time and if this were unacceptable then of course it would have been for the company to have told us beforehand that their operators can't be videoed with the kids enjoying themselves.
We had another company in attendance with two VAR machines and the operators was so child friendly and pleasant.
In short, we found The Pod Group aggressive nasty people and thus we could not recommend them.