Several months ago, I began contracting with A Solid Gold Sound/A Sensory Sound. I am a Mobile DJ and have many years of experience. I decided to use the company for the weeks that I did not have work lined up. It has been a complete nightmare.
First off, it's impossible for me to get paid. To be paid, you send an e-mail to an address stating what work you did, when you worked and they will pay you for the event. What happens is that they won't pay for approximately 4-6 weeks (probably longer if no one complains). To make matters worse, when they pay, they send out post-dated checks. This means that after you've waited six weeks for your check, you receive a check that you can't cash for another two weeks.
What irritates me more is that all of the clients have paid the company several months in advance, so it appears that the company is using future earnings to pay for past gigs. This won't last much longer and I hope to get paid before bankruptcy sets in. Currently, the company owes me $1,250 and I won't do any more gigs for them. I haven't told them this and I'm remaining anonymous until I get paid.
As far as the company goes; it sucks. About 3 weeks before a wedding or event, the company sends out an e-mail to all of their DJs with a list of weddings available. You choose which ones you want and e-mail them back. They offer such extras as a disco ball (which I don't even own) and additional speakers but don't pay extra for them. Several days before the wedding, they will send you the clients name and info for the reception.in all of the gigs that I've done for them, I have received all of the correct paperwork once. I generally have to call the bride, apologize and request that she e-mail the songs that she wants for her reception and all planning information.
In every case, the bride or groom is pissed before I call them or pissed after I call them and request that they resend me the info directly. I gave up on contacting the company directly, the staff is worthless and I believe they are too busy to care.in one recent situation, they called me and said they had a last minute wedding (meaning they couldn't find a DJ or the DJ didn't show up and they were desperate). I was free but wasn't interested in working for them, but I would feel terrible if a bride didn't have a DJ and her wedding was ruined. I took the gig for less than half of what I'm usually paid. I raced home, loaded up my van and called the bride to get directions to the location. The bride tells me the wedding isn't for another 3 weeks and that they told the company this several times. There was no emergency. When I called the company to complain about ruining my day, they told me that the bride changed her wedding date at the last minute (?!?).
There are many, many other issues regarding this company that I can't detail here, so to put it simplyDON'T USE THEM. As I said before, I've had many, many years of experience and have performed at several hundred weddings. There was no screening process; they had me booked on gigs BEFORE they had my last name or address. To get paid, I needed to send them this information. Any moron could have called them up and would have been hired to do YOUR wedding.
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