Rafters

Reviews 3

AM

Amanda Schmitz

I was planning a birthday party for this past weekend and called to inquire about the space approximately one month prior to the expected party date. I didn’t want to reserve the space for a private party but simply wanted to let the staff know a party of 25-35 would be coming in at 9:00 pm or so. I was directed to the events coordinator. I was informed there was a wedding the evening I wanted to come in but that the wedding would be done around 10:00 or 10:30 and Rafters would open up to the public then. I was also informed that when the plans for the wedding were finalized (i.e. the times), I would get a call back. About 5 days prior (a Monday) to the event date (that Friday), I called to confirm when Rafters would be opening up again for the evening after the wedding and spoke to a gentleman behind the bar. He confirmed they had a birthday party scheduled to come in after Rafters opened to the public for the evening but could not confirm what time Rafters would reopen. I asked if Rafters would have music and was told yes, they would have a DJ. I received a call on Wednesday of that week (2 days prior to the date of the event) and was told I was no longer able to come in on Friday evening because the wedding party was staying longer. I expressed my concern that I altered my evening accordingly already and asked to talk to a manager. I was told the manager was fixing a credit card machine and would need to give me a call back. I received a voicemail shortly thereafter from the same employee that just said there was nothing Rafters could do. I called back and requested to speak to a manager. The woman I spoke with stated she understood - but clearly was not sympathetic to - my frustrations of the short notice but asserted there was nothing she could do because the bride wanted to stay until midnight. However, the manager said she could keep me updated because the bride was aware - according to the manager, the "fine print" - if there were not enough people at the wedding, the space would reopen to the public. I asked if the wedding was getting done at midnight, why Rafters wouldn’t open up then, as I had already sent out messages confirming the plans for the evening. The manager confirmed she was opening back up at midnight but stated she didnt realize I would be interested in coming in that late. I reiterated it was not ideal to get there so late but I would make it work because the birthday girl wanted to dance/have a DJ. She apologized for the inconvenience and offered to buy my party a round of drinks, gave me her cell phone number and said I could call to check and/or they would call if the wedding get done earlier than midnight. The night of the party (Friday night), I called at 11:30 pm after not having received a call AT ALL updating me and was told they would no longer be opening up to the public at midnight and that the wedding was staying until 2:00 am. The manager was beyond rude to me. When I got mad - and I did - about the fact she told me they would open up at midnight and offered to buy my party a round of drinks, she made comments such as “I’m sorry your birthday girl wants to dance, or whatever, but what do you want me to do” and failed to acknowledge the fact she had lied to/misinformed me. Additionally, as I was trying to direct 30 people to an unplanned new bar, when people started talking to me she started laughing and said “oh do you have people telling you what to say.” My response, while admittedly rude, asked if she was aware she was in the customer service industry and informed her I couldnt believe she was speaking to me this way. Her response was the same "there is nothing I can do". When I went to send a follow up email on Monday regarding the situation, the website was unreachable and the domain is pending renewal or deletion. The food is mediocre at best, the drinks and service have always been hit or miss, but this experience was "icing on the cake" and I will not be returning, regardless of that ideal patio view.

SY

Sydney Wilcox

DO NOT BOOK ANY KIND OF EVENT HERE. Everything about our experience with Rafters was bad. EVERYTHING except the ribs. Their chef makes tasty ribs. We booked Rafters for our wedding reception in Stillwater. The first employee we spoke with was unsure of the food&drink minimums for different days, but indicated that the Rafters staff does all of the set-up and tear-down as long as you provide any additional materials and that security, DJ, tables, chairs, linens, dishes, etc. were all included. When we contacted the GM, Larry, he indicated in writing that we would have a $3000 food & drink mimimum on our date (the Sunday before Labor Day). Then asked that we coordinate with the event manager, Dawn. Dawn would not return calls or emails unless we also copied Larry on the email and even then it was Larry responding half the time. When we finally met with her to go over the details of our event (menu, drinks, decor, set-up, etc.) she took notes on a post-it note and had all kinds of excuses for why she wasnt very good at responding to simple emails. She seemed frazzled and unsure of what actually happens at a reception or of how to plan for it. After a few weeks of nagging to get our quote/contract on the details we discussed Larry finally sent us one. And no surprise, literally every detail was wrong. The plates we wanted, the type and amount of bear we wanted to host, the number of drink tickets, the menu selections, all of it was not what we had expressed to Dawn. (Except the ribs. The ribs made it on the list.) On top of that, all the things that we were told were included were not. Every little thing was itemized out including the "included" linens and security. I mean just nickel and diming us. So, that all was awful, but the REAL problem is that Larry more than tripled the minimum he quoted to us. When my fiance tried to address it to him he was a real asshat about it. His primary reasoning was that since it was a holiday weekend he needed to make up any lost revenue from the event. This is logic I could respect except me and my fiance were actually there on the Sunday before Labor Day this past year and we were one of less than 10 people in the bar. There isnt any business to "make up". However, even if there were, he had already promised us one price upon receiving our deposit. Obviously, we arent having our reception there any longer. We may be pursuing legal action since he has still refused to return our deposit. TL;DR The service was SO bad that I have to think they do it on purpose to trick people into putting down a non-refundable deposit so they can then keep it.

TH

Thomas Ward

Words of advice for anyone looking for a wedding reception venue: Look elsewhere. Very very disappointed trying to plan our wedding reception here. We finally decided to drop them and forfeit the deposit just to save ourselves the headache. We became so fed up that we couldnt trust them to get any of the details right for our reception. From the get go, I shouldve seen the red flags. It took several phone calls with messages just to get the deposit paid. Finally had to call the owner to ask what the problem was, before getting a response from the "event manager." It didnt stop there. Took a month to get a response for a weekend we could meet (we hurried to pay the deposit to reserve our date, probably the most foolish thing Ive ever done), followed by 4 weeks for the actual preliminary budget to arrive. And another 7 weeks for the pictures of the decorated venue to finally get to us after we requesting them in our face to face meeting. Dont even get me started on the estimate. For starters, although I had declared our exact date when inquiring about the minimum revenue generation, suddenly the "Sunday rate" of $3000 we had been quoted was no longer the case, and now it was a full $6500 higher due to a holiday rate for Labor Day. Dont get me wrong, I understand the need to generate more revenue on holiday weekends, but why were we not told that up front before we had paid the deposit? What a joke, and a definite budget buster. The details of the estimate were about as accurate as I could expect when the face to face meeting details were recorded on a post-it note. Even though the quote was wrong, and the verbal assurances we were given were misleading, the deposit was still not refunded. When a customer feels misled and they let you know this is not what theyre looking for, the least you could do is refund the relatively small deposit for good measure. Not to mention it was 10 months ahead of the date, and apparently "more than one person had been turned down because we reserved the date." It wouldve been a stand up move and good business to recognize their was a huge misunderstanding and refunding the deposit since were so far out. Instead I hope this google review will save someone else from the headache we experienced, and save you from the frustrating experience we had.

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