The Pros Wedding Services Not Reliable
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:
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
9 responses to “The Pros Wedding Services Not Reliable”
Nick responds:
Posted: May 30th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
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.
jim says in reply:
Posted: May 30th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
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.
FMF responds:
Posted: May 30th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
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.
candida responds:
Posted: October 10th, 2006 at 11:25 am
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.
Tammy responds:
Posted: April 20th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Never ever use them! The messed up my wedding sooo bad!
brian Swift responds:
Posted: July 2nd, 2007 at 1:34 pm
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.
Jimmy responds:
Posted: July 10th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
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.
John responds:
Posted: August 1st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
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.
joanne responds:
Posted: August 28th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
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..
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