Sir Fails-A-Lot On The Scene

I’ve hired a professional DJ with a sound system setup for a work event. It is in his contract that he will arrive by 10:00 am to be set up by 12:00 pm. He shows up at 11:00 am.

Me: “Is everything okay?”

DJ: “Yeah, why?”

Me: “Well, you were scheduled to be here an hour ago, so—”

DJ: “No, noon.”

Me: “We start at noon.”

DJ: “You didn’t tell me that!”

Me: “It’s written out in our contract.”

DJ: “No, it says you need me at noon, not that it starts at noon. I’m early.”

Me: “I assure you it does not. Please do what you can before everyone arrives.”

The DJ stomps off, muttering to himself about how unprofessional I am. He refuses to allow anyone to help him set up because, in his words, his “equipment is too expensive to let just anyone touch it.” I stall everyone just long enough to allow for a mic check before entering the banquet room. The DJ is standing beside one speaker hooked up to a microphone.

DJ: “We are ready!”

Me: “Um… I don’t think this is what we paid for.”

DJ: “Yeah, it is.”

I show him a printout of our contract.

Me: “No, we paid for the four-speaker setup with a projector and screen. This is not going to cover it.”

DJ: “No, it’s fine. See?” *Speaks into the mic* “Can everyone hear me?”

The people closest to him turn, but no one past fifteen feet looks his way.

DJ: “It’s fine; they’re just not looking.”

I walk away. The event is rough, with most people struggling to hear. The projector was a major part of the presentation, so the presenter we hired is also annoyed at the lack of equipment. We muddle through, and as soon as the DJ knows we’re done with his one speaker, he packs up.

DJ: “Right, so I’ll send the request for payment to your email and—”

Me: “I’m going to have to go over our contract again. You barely delivered anything. It’s certainly not worth [amount] for this.”

DJ: *Angry* “Look, it’s not my fault you don’t know what you want.”

Me: “We do know what we want. That’s why we requested it. I could have done this myself, honestly.”

DJ: “But you didn’t.”

He did try to bill us for everything, arguing that we had cancelled all the other things and he was still entitled to the full amount. Our legal team got involved and determined that we would not be paying for any more than we had used. They stated that we had not cancelled, but he was late and his tardiness made the other things we requested unusable. He later left a negative review on our Yelp page saying we were thieves and should not be trusted with anything. I left a negative review on his page, as well. He shut down his page after a few days.