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Community Corner

Smash Party Entertainment, Amy Gottesman the WORST

I've had many events over the years and I must say that Smash Entertainment NYC is the worst I have encountered. They sent me a video of an example of what my entrance to my party would look like. That is what I expected when I paid $4500. They were to arrive before 4:15pm and didn't arrive until 7:20pm. They were over 3 hours late and as a result, I did not receive the entrance I paid for, since they weren't there when the entrance happened.

Amy Gottesman called and left a message on my home phone hours after the entertainment was supposed to be there (when I obviously wasn't home because I was in the middle of an event). She said she said she had "a plan A, B, C, and D”. She never said what the plan was and never called my cell phone or the event coordinators. In addition, my event coordinators could not reach her despite calling her over and over. I tried calling the entertainment directly and they did not pick up the phone. When they arrived over 3 hours late, we were told there would be no refunds by the entertainment.

When they would not give us a refund, we decided to let them go on 2 hours late in the middle of the party (which was not at all what I wanted or paid for). Because there was no chance to rehearse, the original plan of me being involved could not happen and it looked nothing like the video that they sent me. I also have emails where they said they would be there by 4:15 and that the entrance would be performed.

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Their excuse was that there was a road closure. However, this happened at 11am and several other entertainers coming from the same place were able to make it to the event on time for their rehearsal and slotted time performance. So it was just bad planning and bad preparation that destroyed everything I paid for from Smash Party Entertainment. I had no use for them going on 2 hours later than they were supposed to and because they were not able to rehearse since they showed up in the middle of the event, it was a disorganized mess that closed my bar for 30 minutes and they ended up crashing into a table and knocking a centerpiece over. In addition, their performance lasted about half as long as it was supposed to. I also have emails saying there were supposed to be lights, a lighted head piece and a lighted belt – none of which the entertainment knew anything about.

I expected at the end of the night to have a message from Smash Party Entertainment being very apologetic. Instead I heard nothing and when I called Amy the next day, she was argumentative and had no interest in apologizing or offering any type of refund. When I got upset, because this was not at all what I had paid for and my party was completely disrupted by the timing of their performance – fitting them in 2 hours late and shutting my bar for a half hour – Amy responded by calling me names. She continued on with her unprofessionalism and name calling via email 2 days later.

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She refuses to apologize and I’ve given her every opportunity to work through these problems and to make a partial refund. At one point I accepted her offer and then she said no, she changed her mind. 

The bottom line is Smash Entertainment is only a middle man for entertainment. You can book all of these acts much cheaper by going directly to the act themselves. There is no advantage to going through Smash Entertainment since the “protection” of a company obviously doesn’t apply based on my experience.  When a company’s owner, whose hired entertainment was 100% in the wrong, resorts to name calling instead of being apologetic and trying to resolve the issue – this is not the type of company I would recommend for anyone’s event. They don’t stand behind their contract and don’t try to resolve issues. Again, I could have saved thousands of dollars booking directly with the entertainers, just like you can and I would have been able to deal with them directly, likely avoiding the problems I encountered.

 





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