Event Depot is a temporary, get rich fast business from where we are standing. A quick background so we can fill you in on the goodies. And let’s be clear, as a businessman it’s never a good idea to talk crap about another business … unless you are the client!
We are a small business. We receive the work, we try to keep the clients in the loop when it comes to something they paid for. It’s the right thing to do. So on May 19th, Drawlines Studio had 2 events to shoot. Both clients asked for our photo booth services in their package. So as a growing business we network. It’s one of the most important things you can do as you try to grow your business into the size you’d like it to be…. stable! Whatever that word means to you and your business.
So we went to Groupon to look for a photo booth business that will help us. Now, on the other side of things whichever business we work with you’d expect that it would be great to work with a “business client” instead of “everyday client” where if we keep getting more business we can depend on them to help us satisfy our clients and they make money. It’s a win, win for everyone!
I made the call with Event Depot to book the photo booth. Now with this type of booking, you have to make sure your date is available by contacting them first. We went to there site, “contact us” page, filled out a form, got auto-response email with phone number and availability. Gave them a call, pressed 1 to book a date, talked to a representative and I asked if I can call him back to book the date with my card (credit card)? Guy said the date might not be available for long. I said I just need an hour or 2 to drive home, I’ll call back. Well, no more then 2 hours I call back and the date is booked… really?!
So I tried on my brother’s phone, used his name and look at that, the date is available. So I book it, pay it, ready to go.
The day comes and I’m ready to do my photography job, have my brother who is an amazing photographer help with the other event and my photo booth guy is there with the booth setup. He tells me the booth is ready to go. But since I came 30 minutes before the event I asked to “run through the booth” with me which is what I do with mine all the time. Meaning let’s have a picture taken so we are clear on the client’s motions and what they will do. It’s important that you control the area and what the guests will be doing, mostly for the kids but for everyone. The last thing you need is people tripping wires damaging the photo booth, taking props from the table instead of business cards and/or pictures from the printer.
Doesn’t work, the camera malfunctioned, cause it was set to auto. The camera/software dictated the flash on the camera on how it should open which causes the camera in the box to take dark images. Booth operator tries to call his business for help and I wasn’t going to wait so I go in and mess around with the settings… works.
OK, send the pictures to print… print error. My phone rings and it’s my brother asking for help over our printer from the photo booth at my brother’s event. So there I am working on both printers at the same time… works. Photo booth operator still waiting for his phone call.
Now, the booth operator was new from what he told me. He isn’t a real tech guy or computer nerd he is 100% salesman. Event Depot hires anyone to do the events with a really bad looking homemade photo booth after they get a possible client from Groupon. After the event was over I was supposed to get a copy of the images for my client. nope, the booth operator didn’t know how to download anything or get access to the tablet. Event Depot didn’t help at all so I luckily got the operator’s phone number and he invited me to his house cause he still had the booth at his location, I brought my external hard drive and went to his place to download it all. Mind you, I paid to have them burn a copy of the images to a CD to deliver to my clients.
