Community Update

CAUTION - DO NOT book wedding at Surf Club in New Rochelle!

We had our wedding at the Surf Club in New Rochelle in July 2013. We had read the other horrible reviews but somehow thought it was other people just griping. Boy, were we wrong!

We had the same experience as most of the bad reviews:

- Slow service, no callbacks
- Lack of care, extremely low attention to detail
- Big promises in sales room, little delivery on big day

However, it got much worse!

1. DISHONESTY - They disrupted our wedding after the ceremony and demanded $2,500 cash before they would serve dinner. This was a false claim of "extra people" and they would not accept a check or credit card. Our groomsman had to drive all over town looking for ATM's - this delayed the wedding 90 minutes and we were not able to have a proper dance. My bride was obviously in a panic and there was no reasoning - I overheard the owner, Sal, swear at us while he was talking with one of his minions.

2. BAIT AND SWITCH - We negotiated our wedding with their salesperson, got it in writing, and then he mysteriously dissappeared from the place. We got a call months later, after paying $5K in downpayment saying "are you still getting married here?" We received a call 6 days before the wedding and they changed the signed contract by removing the Viennese hour unless we paid more!

3. UNETHICAL - They wanted everything in cash since the day we locked in our date. Perhaps everything isn't on the up-and-up. Will copy IRS on this review.

4. BROKEN PROMISES - Everything from "top shelf" liquor that was never served, to carving stations that never appeared. They force you to use their florist who then significantly overcharges. They promised to charge "half price" for children and vendors - they ended up charging us full price and more.

5. POOR TREATMENT of vendors - the photo booth guy had to carry his equipment up the stairs because they gave him a liability excuse on the elevator. The DJ, videographer and photographer were all limited to what they could do and where they could go even though we had the place to ourselves. While they were demanding the extra cash from #1 above - they would not let the DJ play music.

Needless to say, it was a cluster from the very beginning. They have a nice location, but feel that no effort or investment needs to be made on customer service.

Two thumbs down.