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The Pros Wedding Services Not Reliable
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I spent a fun weekend fishing, seeing my parents, and, oh yeah, attended a beautiful wedding. Two of my college friends became one and I can safely say that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and that it was a great time. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was a lot of fun, and the cake was delicious. (Actually everything was delicious, I think I gained ten pounds between all the alcohol and the food) The only blemish on the night, not for me personally, was the absence of the videographer, from “The Pros,” who didn’t show up at all. At all.
This led me to wonder… does a large company, with a presence in multiple states, really necessarily mean reliability or good service? In most cases you would say yes because there has to be a reason why they grew to the size they are and that reason has to be a high level of service and reliability such that they get a lot of business. “However, value in product is only true value when it is supported by consistent, excellent service.” states their website but they weren’t consistent and who knows about their service since they never showed up.
In this particular case, no, and in fact I would venture to guess in a scenario such as this one (only one chance at it, you can’t be late or flaky or anything… it’s a wedding!) the best bet would be to go with a small one or two person operation (who does it out of enjoyment or is trying to make a name for themselves) that come with good references. Would I have guessed this before this weekend? Never.
Sadly, the couple were warned that The Pros were not 100% reliable, a product of having such a large operation, but very few videographers will give you 8 hours of raw footage (most cut and splice it down to a 30 minute product) so they reserved them anyway. The Pros can afford to miss a few weddings because they conduct so much business. They can afford to miss a few? Ridiculous! Now, do I know the full story? No I don’t, but I do know there was no videographer at the ceremony and that a very capable DJ, who did happen to have a camera, did catch the reception so all was not lost.
The Pros are not reliable, based only on this one situation, and I recommend that you not take the risk of their services. Dennis J. Tessler, Brian M. Tessler, and C. Keith Tessler should be ashamed of themselves that they permitted this to happen.
This is a courteous response sent recently (November 06, 2007) by President and CEO Dennis Tessler:
{ 15 comments, please add your thoughts now! }For several years now when people “Google” The Pros Weddings within the first page is an extremely uncomplimentary article about our company written by a guests at a wedding at which, according to this guest, The Pros videographer was late and missed the ceremony. Since we have no idea what wedding this relates to, the circumstances, or what restitution was made to the client, it is impossible for me to comment on this specific incident. However, after all these years of having to see this article I decided there is a need to respond.
Accepting the letter at face value, it appears, for whatever reason, the videographer was late. If so, I am confident we did everything reasonable and more to make restitution with the bride. I can speak with confidence that everything is done to ensure such instances are extremely rare.
The Pros is a family owned business. I am the owner and my two sons, Keith and Brian, are working hard to build this business for their family’s future. We, along with a dedicated staff, all work extremely hard, to provide the finest in wedding services. Last year we provided service to 8,000 weddings and in total did 13,000 services. We did not build this business by disappointing brides. In fact, we are the most referred provider of disc jockey, video and photography in the nation. With those referrals comes a trust we take very seriously.
Recently, we were given “The Knots Best of Weddings” award as rated by The Knot brides.
We do everything possible to create reliability and are extremely successful in this pursuit. We spend significant dollars in order to have emergency back up in every area at all times. Should a last minute issue prevent a professional from performing their duties, an 800 line is provided which goes directly to a qualified individual, armed with the information necessary to dispatch a backup on a moment’s notice. Because we have a highly professional, stable workforce of individuals
who have been part of The Pros, most of them for a very long time, our emergency line is not as active as one would think. I am constantly amazed that the quantity of work we do and the very few problems we have. It is a credit to those individuals with whom we have been able to surround ourselves.The article you present “The Pros Wedding Services Not Reliable” written by a guest at a wedding who provides little detail, perhaps because of a lack of information, about what actually happened at a wedding no one can identify, is highly inaccurate and extremely misleading. It undermines the reputation of not only our family business but the 500 people who work so very hard to create an the organization of which we are so proud.
The article has been up for a very long time. I ask you to use your good judgment as to whether it indefinitely serves the consumer community. Perhaps the time has come to take it down. Your
consideration of this matter is greatly appreciated.Dennis J. Tessler
President and Chief Executive Officer
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The Pros really do seem to be hit or miss, though I think it tends to vary from state to state depending on who runs the local office. I know you’re in the same general area as me, though I’m not sure if this wedding was in the same state in which we live.
We went with The Pros for our wedding based on recommendations of people we knew in the area who had a generally positive experience with them. We went with their photographer, videographer, and DJ, and the day went pretty smoothly. They did have to switch us to a backup DJ a few days before the wedding due to a family emergency with our first choice DJ, but everything worked out okay in the end. Whether or not we went with The Pros, we would have still had our backup plans in place: a photographer relative with a good camera, another relative who was filming everything anyway, and the entire reception music program completely automated on my laptop and ready to be hooked up to a friend’s speaker system on short notice.
As for the quality of the finished products: the pictures turned out nicely, the video looks good (we went with the raw version which I intend to edit myself later), and the DJ was entertaining and nearly flawless (he was missing one song we requested, but it wasn’t that big of a deal).
While our experience with The Pros went all right, because of all the negative reviews I’ve come across, I’d still recommend people explore other options if they can afford to do so. At the very least, be sure to have a backup plan should a Pro turn out to be a Con.
Thanks for writing about your experiences with them, my friends were married in New York about an hour and a half or so outside New York City.
1. You fish? That explains a lot…
2. The DJ with the camera — I bet he made out nicely. $$$$$$$$
3. You should have brought your own camera and picked up some spending money.
I have a little inside knowledge of how the company works, I can tell you assuredly that the pros (the professionals — yah right!) severely underpays their contractors. photographers, DJs and videographers are actually told to do substandard work, Dennis and co. would apparently rather save a few dollars on hiring the cheapest people. Even good people that take occasional work from them will not bring their A-game to your wedding… there is simply no reward for doing so. best advice, if you hire the pros, tip your contractor at the start of the night, and let them know that there will be another tip at the end of the night based on performance. Contractors (video, DJ, photography) will make an effort only if they know they will be taken care of by the client. Remember too, that your video and photographer need to do work after the wedding! if they leave feeling neglected, your video and photos will not be as good as they could be. the pros as a company will do nothing to improve the quality of the work that the contractors submit. The pros are a cheap alternative to hiring a local, reputable, actual “professional”. But as the saying goes “there aint no such thing as a free lunch!”, take some of the money you saved, and give the contractors a handsome tip… it will pay dividends. If you don’t, the quality of the work supplied will be substandard.
You sound familiar – Like you were fired cause you SUCKED as a Photographer. Before you slander a company check them out you idiot. The company does not hide you can meet them weekely iin a town near you. REMEMBER you SCHMUCK! In todays world you GET what you pay for. And as far as thehe other guy goes, Too bad for you if they miss 1 out of 5000 a year thats pretty damn good. Name me any other service company with a 100% unblemished cust. svc. record – EXACTLY YOU CANT! Go back to work the dishes are stacking up.
This company (The Pros) does not pay it’s contractors in a timely manner. I recently joined on to work for them, and spoke with a DJ, one of the most popular for their company who said on several occassions he was not payed what was told to him. I worked a job and still have yet to be payed the correct amount Stay away and look for another company for your wedding, or special event.
Never ever use them! The messed up my wedding sooo bad!
Brian, you sound like an insider, I hope you aren’t actually Brian Tessler. Whether or not you are, your crass comments aren’t doing anything to improve the perception of The Pros as a professional, reliable company. Your customers will find this page! I found it with a random Google search.
I did use their DJ services once a few years ago and they were, well, acceptable. I wasn’t really impressed and wouldn’t recommend the individual.
As for the original story, I think to judge them we’d need more information. When you contacted The Pros after the fact, what was their explanation for missing the event? Did they offer any kind of reparations? Lots of things could explain why the person never showed up that don’t actually reflect on the reliability or integrity of the company itself. But how they respond afterwards surely matters.
wow. if only i had found this website BEFORE i booked this joke of a company! I cannot believe how UN- professional the “Pros” are. they were going to replace my Dj at the last minute without telling me. i only found out through contacting the dj on his cell phone..he let me in on the bad news. in trying to get out of the contract i had to call back MANY times with much miss communication through out the “management”.. and they still are saying they wont give me my deposit back – from a breech of contract on their part…I DONT THINK SO! they have never heard of the better business bureau or hank phillipi ryans , or for that matter, my lawyer. well, they will. this company shouldnt exist. what a money making scheme it is. i replaced my dj ( thank god- as its only two weeks before the wedding, and the manager of the pros said, “thats plenty of time”, apparently he’s never been a bride planning her entire wedding) for HALF the price, and im so excited! tell everyone you know – NOT to hire the pros..
This company “The Pros” sounds a lot like the company “Solid Gold” which was then changed to “Solid Gold Sound” and then to “A Solid Gold Sound” They had to keep changing their name because of the bad reputation they have. $499 for a wedding is ridiculously low, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. The “company” is located in one state but they “SUB-CONTRACT” out the business in all the other states. Are they listed with the Secretary of State in your state as a legal business? In many states it is the law that they have to be registered and pay taxes in the states they perform in. Also check with the BBB in your state as well as the home state of this business to find out if they have complaints about them and if the BBB thinks they handled them properly or not. If you search the web you may find more discouraging news about this and other DJ services.
“After meeting with the premier design agencies in Philadelphia and New York, I chose AgileCat to completely re-brand our company. While it was a complex project, AgileCat did a wonderful job of staying true to our vision while producing an original image beyond our imagination. Since launching our new image, sales have sky rocketed over 30%.”
Brian M. Tessler
Chief Marketing Officer
The Pros Entertainment Inc.
June 07, 1998
RIAA Obtains Quarter Million Dollar Settlement For Illegal DJ Compilation
Washington, DC – The Recording Industry Association of America obtained $250,000 cash in a settlement with The Pros Entertainment Services, Inc. — a Philadelphia-based DJ company — for claims of copyright infringement. The Pros illegally manufactured 500 sets of a nine-volume DJ compilation called DJ Tools. The settlement was reached before commencing a formal lawsuit. In addition, The Pros has agreed to the RIAA conducting unannounced, on site inspections of their inventory over the next three years. This settlement is part of an ongoing effort by the RIAA to address flagrant copyright infringement by certain DJs who create and manufacture multi-disk compilations of top hits without obtaining appropriate licenses from the copyright holders.
In January 1995 Dennis Tessler, president of The Pros Entertainment Services, placed the unlicensed 500 set order with a domestic CD plant that promptly notified the RIAA. The Pennsylvania State Police Department, with assistance from the RIAA, confiscated the CDs upon delivery from the plant.
“We are pleased to bring closure to this case and delighted by the outcome — it’s an appropriate settlement given the nature of the infringements, ” said Steve D’Onofrio, RIAA executive vice president and director of anti-piracy. “DJs are not exempt from copyright laws. Each and every song on a compilation must be authorized.”
The Pro’s are just middlemen, you are booking a website, not personalized service. They get their people from craigslist, then add on a service charge of 300%
Videographers and photographers work for $250 or $300 a day, are told to shoot without style (since if they start getting creative, they might end up with nothing), so it’s very meat and potatoes at best.
Videographers are told to shoot on tripods and don’t try anything new. Most of the Craigslist videographers are not that experienced in the first place, so being told to get static shots is not a bad idea, but is this what you want for your wedding???
Price, well, its not cheap as they advertise, cheap work, yes, but paying $795 for a $300 videographer (you can book yourself on craigslist) and $50 for the edit to slap a company promo logo and then roll off the raw footage, is $550 more then you can find yourself.
Now, what the Pros are doing is not a bad business model, its not reliable or consistent and its hit and miss, mostly something associated with them is below average or totally of and at your wedding, all the vendors have to be experienced since this is when things go wrong.
a DJ that gets all the names mixed up, then plays the wrong songs or has no personality, and to top it off wears that tacky name tag on jobs and constantly blurts out ThePros advertisments all wedding long.
a photographer that is learning and experimenting with your wedding, its just a local person taken off craigslist, you can book that yourself, same guy or gal, no difference except you save $$$ if you go to craigslist yourself.
a videographer that doesn’t know how to operate the gear, blows out the shots, misses key moments, etc. Your cousing could do the same.
The Pros hi-tailed it out of most states, and even though the used to have telephone sales teams in some states with some open houses at Dave and Busters to try to get brides to sign up, they no longer are doing that, they ran back to New Jersey and left the sales people overnight, so if thats the kind of company you want to deal with, then just be careful you don’t end up standing left at the alter without vendors, and certainly not with anyone skilled.
Going back to their business model, its a good money making scam, many brides are only looking for price, they tote a Best of the Knot, but they don’t tell you they bonus brides for posting those votes, they only tell you the weddings that were complete, no mention to how many they screwed up.
They boast “the most reccomended vendor”, yet also mean “the most no shows in the business”, they post on the priavte WEVA forum they do 13,000 events a year and having some screwups is normal, and they are right, the numbers are against them, thier liability is more then any vendor in the industry, and overall it doesnt look bad on their bank accounts, yet it will matter when it’s YOUR wedding that gets messed up.
So those brides that are looking for price will have a decent chance thier vendors complete the task, you might be the one that gets screwed up.
Local companies wtih reliable reputations are not doing 13,000 events a year, they are doing 15, 20, perhaps 100 if they are very busy, yet they will make sure your wedding comes out better then someone hired from craigslist since they are looking to do thier best, not show up, get a few hundred bucks and walk away from the wedding, they do it from start to finish.
How hard would you work if you normally got $1000 or more and were hired out for $250-300?? Not your best, so its the same for their vendors.
Joel is not coming from New Jersey to shoot your wedding and he only cares about numbers, not you.
So my rating from that company is not an F, its broken into a few sections.
Business plan – A
Liability Factor – F
Customer Service – C
Support to thier staff and crews – F
So overall my rating for them is C-
btw – I am a vendor that has worked with some of their crew and not once did I see anything exceptional about the talent, some photographers were first time wedding shooters experimenting.
In all fairness, Bella is the same setup, they promise some sort of matching vendor with bride, but our on site experience tells us that the marketing scam, there is no training, their is no matching, its only which craigslit person is availalbe for a date.
Good luck on your wedding vendor search, and it’s better to support local companies and keep the money in your state instead of sending it to Dennis in New Jersy. He really doesn’t care about you, he cares about his position with the Jefferson Bank.
Do a google search for
“Dennis J. Tessler Joins Jefferson Bank Advisory Board”
As an experienced collegiate professor and digital multimedia specialist I can say that no “serious” videographer would outsource their skills to another company at a percentage of the cut; especially when the contracted individual would be responsible for 95% of the work.
I was led to this web thread after a simple Yahoo search for “The Pros Wedding Services”. Why was a searching “The Pros Wedding Services”? I was a bit curious! You see, from time to time I like to browse job solicitations on CareerBuilder.com just to see what new and intriguing opportunities might be out there.
As a professional videographer I found “The Pros” job solicitation on CareerBuilder.com to be an incredible insult to fellow videographers; it actually made me a bit mad. Apparently, they want to hire wedding videographers that will work at the rate of $300 per wedding. On top of this they expect you to submit a portfolio and go through their interviewing process; a big waste of time for only $300 a job if you ask me. What an insult! For those who aren’t familiar with wedding videos and fair pricing for such work, let me put it into perspective: Videographers have to have nice equipment which is very expensive ($8,000 per camera, $2,000 audio/mics, $2,000 fluid head tripods, $2,500 lights, etc.) and a certain amount of passion and talent in order to capture video that will be truly memorable. If the client wants the video edited, and who doesn’t, the videographer could be looking at upwards of 100 hours to produce a high quality product. Remember, the videographer has to go through all of the footage cutting it together into sections, color correct, create splashes/graphics, master sound, build/encode DVD w/ menu, design and print DVD package materials, etc. etc… The average wedding video should cost the consumer between $3,500-$15,000. If you’re paying less than this you’re probably not going to end up with the best possible outcome. If you’re paying more, well, I’m sure if you shop around you’ll find someone capable of delivering just as good of a product for less than $15,000.
As a general rule of thumb, don’t go through an intermediary when hiring a videographer! Shop around locally and on the internet. Talk to friends who’ve hired a videographer before to get an idea for what they paid and their satisfaction with the final product.
Anyhow, all I’m saying is that no respectable videographer would outsource their skills for the type of peanuts that “The Pros” pay their contractors. Likewise, I’m not surprised that they have so many unhappy customers!
Did anyone ever get told that they were going to receive their deposit refunded and never did? That was my experience, even though I was told, by their website, that I would, if I canceled by 7 days. Thank you reviews for making me back out of this crappy situation, I ended up finding a great DJ on my own. I hope that my deposit is actually being refunded like I was told…