Vendor Response Slowness - Vent

I am my photographer takes close to a week to respond to an email. I don’t think it’s expeCiti g to much to get an email reply within 24-48 hours to a question. I am paying you over $4k to shoot my engagement photos and wedding photos. I am also not talking about emailing them everyday. I think they have gotten maybe 5 emails from me since January when we booked and while we were booking they responded to questions within hours. Now it’s a week to get an answer to a question

Yes! When I decided on a venue it literally took them a week to respond back to me everytime I contacted them and it was super frustrating. I just kept telling myself that it’s wedding season and they’re probably swamped right now lol

Anytime it took longer than 24 hours for a response I crossed them off my list (unless it was over the weekend). I am a project manager and tied to my phone or laptop, so I know how accessible people are with email. It takes just a few minutes to respond back to someone, even if you need to find out, or check on something, just acknowledge and see a reminder. If I did that with any of my clients, which could be 40 something at a time, our company would lose all it's business.

View Quoted Comment I agree. I try to be reasonable and think 75 hours should be a good response period. I don't even count weekends for that 75 hour period.

View Quoted Comment If I wasn't on a tight budget I would definitely cross them off the list. I respond in a timely manner whenever people email me, I like to expect the same

I’ve been dealing with this as well. It’s annoying but I try to be mindful that this is wedding season and they aren’t just sitting around twiddling their thumbs lol I usually also reply right back to their emails and it still takes a few days for a reply back. Definitely teaching me patience 😩

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Just because you’re accessible doesn’t mean everyone needs to be... My dad is a project manager, and he refuses to check his email or answer his work phone after 5pm on weekdays. He absolutely won’t reply on the weekends. .

I’m a community leader for a non profit, and run Facebook groups, but Im not constantly tied to my phone. My life comes before my phone. I don’t live my life through a phone. I reply when I can, I’m not going to send a pointless email saying i don’t know. I’d rather find out the answer then reply. That’s just my preference.

I’m normally really good at replying to vendors within a day or two, sometimes it takes me s few days. My vendors are busy, and sometimes a reply takes a few days. I don’t stress over it because we’re in wedding season right now.

OP, if you’re the concerned or frustrated, maybe calling them or going there is a better option.

View Quoted Comment Good for you

View Quoted Comment So are you ok with your vendors stopping during your wedding to respond to another bride’s email, text or phone call? Just because you’re to your phone doesn’t mean everyone else is. I took email off my phone so that O could respond when I had time to sit down at my computer and make a thoughtful response. It’s not as fast, but at least when I reply it’s accurate and well thought-out. I also don’t lose emails because I replied and my phone didn’t send. It works for me. Try not to get bent out of shape when vendors take longer to respond. You are not their only client, and if you would t want them tied to their phones while with you, try to be understanding that they won’t be while with other clients, either.

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This isn't a reasonable expectation for a lot of professions. There's no way I can reply to an email when I'm in surgery, working in post op, checking on patients in the ICU or working in the ER.

Taylor is right. Vendors aren't sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for a text, email or phone call. They are meeting with clients, out drumming up business and preparing for upcoming events.

Everyone wants to come at me for my response. 24 hours is more than enough time to simply type a response of acknowledgement. If you can't do that then you need to hire more help period. Not once did I suggest you just stop what you are doing, and that's great if someone doesn't answer emails after hours-my job situation doesn't always allow that. But if someone sends me an email, you better believe I'm gonna send a response within 24 hours or they WILL find someone else to work with our complain about lack of response.

I have all my vendors and for me being able to get in touch within a REASONABLE amount of time was a requirement. And those who didn't respond within 24 hours took DAYS to get back to me. I had one even message 2-3 weeks later. And this was all before wedding season. I politely let them know I was not comfortable with the timeliness of response and that I went with a vendor that was more responsive.

When you run a business, there should be an expectation to respond to someone with 24-48 hours, and even quicker if there is a deadline. My comment was based on the fact that if I don't get to respond to an email from a client that contacted me DURING BUSINESS HOURS, just because it's now after 5pm, I at least let them know I will get back with them shortly. I also attends meetings where I can't answer their call or email right at that moment, but we stress having an excellent response time because someone can easily take our business. Using everyone else's logic, that client could easily keep getting put off to the next day while emails pile up just because you don't have time and it's after your business hours.

Everything I said was reasonable so there's no need to keep responding to me and trying to justify why it's ok to go days without acknowledging an email, ESPECIALLY when I also work for a business that I have client meetings but still answer between 40-50 emails daily.

I said what I said. If you aren't happy with the response rate, then find a new vendor or TELL THEM. If you don't tell them it's a problem they will keep giving the same level of service.

Also, not responding to someone within a reasonable amount of time after you have taken their money is a quick way to make a client feel like they have been scammed. If someone is looking for info from a vendor, then why would you choose someone who takes days to respond over another who manages their time to make sure you are attended to in a timely manner?

Not sure why the pp thought this actually applied to some working in a medical situation.

I just didn't book vendors with slow response times. But I was contacting a lot over the winter/spring, not during busy season (now). I also called the ones I was super interested in, which was easier to contact then email.

View Quoted Comment I wholeheartedly agree with you, Saydee. I, too, am a client-facing project manager and our business would simply fail if we were not responsive to our clients’ needs. I’m ALSO a wedding vendor (lead singer in a very busy wedding band), and I can say with certainty if it took me longer than 48 hours to respond, we would not get hired or we’d be fired.


No one said anything about after hours. This is part of these vendors’ jobs. There are weekdays that are made for planning and corresponding (which I could still do with my brides while working full time), and you also can’t forget that most vendors have been there and done that- these events are like clockwork in most cases.

With that being said, there was a vendor here in Boston (Boston Rustic Wedding Rentals) who was not responsive... and then they literally would not show up to people’s weddings leaving them high and dry without tables, chairs, silverware. Look it up. Deplorable.
Now I’m a bride planning my own wedding and am struggling to get a response from our preferred venue about where to send our deposit - we’re trying to give them money! It’s not out of the question to expect a response within 24-72 hours. This industry (the wedding industry) is about service to couples. Period. And if you’re busy, there is such thing as an auto response. I think it’s nice that some of you brides are willing to be so forgiving, but I’m telling you as someone who is a vendor herself, you have every right to expect responses in less than a week.

Good vent. I have also noticed this theme across almost all vendors we've contacted, and it's infuriating. Normal response time in my book is 24-48 hours. With wedding planning, that standard has been completely obliterated for me to the point where I'm okay with vendors getting back within 1 - maybe 2 - weeks for them to still be viable. Anything over that and I'm pulling the plug.

I had a very similar experience with our preferred caterer, we were on the 2 yard line trying to sign the contract and send a deposit and then they went radio silent. I called, left 3 messages and sent 2 emails over the course of 4 weeks. Nothing. It boggled my mind that they wouldn't want to spend 15 MINUTES on the phone to lock in a $14K contract. Finally after more than one month, they got back and apologized for the craziness of wedding season. I was expecting them to literally be on vacation to not hear a peep. I was holding out in case there was extenuating circumstances to explain their lack of response. All they had to do was send a holding response! Needless to say, I'm finding another caterer.

There are many other examples I've encountered, but another particularly bad one was I submitted a quote request to a videographer twice via his website - the second time was after 3 weeks and I thought that maybe there was a glitch on his website the first time. He got back to me after that, so either he didn't catch my first request or he ignored it. He gave me a quote and then asked if I wanted to do a Zoom call. I responded of course within a few hours with my availability. Nothing after that. It's been 2 months now. I am not following up a third time.

My wedding is in February so I am aware much of my planning has been done in the busy season, but what happens when November rolls around - do these vendors wish they had followed up? Do they follow up, eventually? It's a bizarre business model to neglect new business.