​celebrity client giving my company bad wprd of mouth – opinions welcome!

So last night we catered a party for a recently engaged couple. The female half has approx 3 million insta followers. When we departed the event the couple was literally overflowing with praise of our staff and service. We checked with them prior to leaving and even stayed 30 min past our paid tear down so they felt less rushed with their rental wine glasses. Several guests approached me personally raving about the food and the service.

The last thing the bride to be said to us was that she wanted to give us a tip via credit card at a later date because she wanted to tip more than just the cash amount we had agreed on.

Long story short – this morning as my husband was heading out to the kitchen to unload trailers and clean up after last night, we got a call from them and they were FURIOUS… about leftovers.

Our contract states that “due to liability, all leftover food is the property of the cater”

They were angry because we did not pack leftovers for them.

FWIW – the food sat out for a very long time and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable serving it to my family so I didn’t even think about offering it to them. Second of all, they paid for 70 people and more than 70 people ate. Adding leftovers would have been more than 70, which technically they would have had to pay for. Leftovers are not a guarantee.

Our take on this is that at the discretion of the owner, our company makes a point to provide an abundant amount – but that does not entitle a client to any food beyond what they paid for. He put out enough food to feed almost 200 people – which is something he does regularly to protect our great reputation.

On the phone call this morning, the groom told us that “everyone loved the food and they were just so mad that we never even asked them if they wanted to box it up.” He also said he wanted to use us again but now obviously he “can’t”

I am having a very hard time letting this go. We work very very hard at everything and go out of our way for all our clients. I am so disappointed that despite all our efforts to protect our reputation and our food they made it clear they will warn people away from us. As if I would have risked the reputation of our business over leftovers!!!??