Caterer Warning

CATERERING COMPANY WARNING!

As the festive season approaches I feel it necessary to warn as many people as possible who are looking for caterers and spit braai services. The company in question is called Olivers Twist Catering. The lady who runs Oliver's Twist Catering also runs a company called Spit Braai Pro. T

Our story: My hubby married in April and had the most magical wedding. Our special day was everything we dreamed of with the exception of the experience we had with our caterers...We chose this specific company because of their personal service and attention to detail pre-wedding that we received from them. We had a pre-wedding tasting where they brought the food to our home to taste ahead of time and it was delicious. We then had a meeting with the owner who met us at our venue to discuss all the finer details and, once again, we were impressed. I then had a final telephonic meeting with her 3 days before and were again reassured that everything would run according to what we'd discussed. However, sadly, our wedding day catering experience was dismal to say the least. Their company arrived at the venue 2 hours later than discussed, none of the food was cooked because of a Roodepoort power failure. Upon their arrival at our venue, they had no cooking utensils or equipment with the exception of warming trays and glass bowls. So, they in essence, arrived with only raw ingredients and expected us to allow them the use of all our friend's kitchen equipment/utensils as well as all herbs and spices. Needless to say the food was a shocker with limited canapés, the starter was not what we ordered, the mains were short 2 salads and had run out before everyone had dished up their mains and the dessert which was supposed to be a fruit pavolva and malva / custard was not provided at all. The cherry on top for us is that the chef and some of their staff members were drunk (probably from drinking the alcohol at our wedding) and we were later made to find out that the owner had hired some of the casual labour on the day of our wedding from Melrose Arch. After a great deal of nasty accusations from the caterer over email, she finally agreed to pay a a third of the amount back that we had originally paid her with the exception that she could only do it according to the Company's 90 day refund policy. Then, the very afternoon that she agreed to our refund she then emailed us a bill of almost R6k which she claimed we owed her for catering equipment that had gone missing. Turns out, she has hired many items from an external supplier and these items had temporarily been lost. When we found the items (which wasn't actually even our responsibility to do) she then sends us an email from her supposed head chef's email address once again agreeing to a refund. 90 days has come and gone and after being very accomodating of her apparent financial situation and agreeing to a payment plan for our refund, she has only paid us R500 back to date. In the interim she has changed the name of her company twice on Google which is also very concerning to us. This, together with her ignoring our follow up emails, calls and our WhatsApps has left us at our wits end and now in process of summons for outstanding monies.