Rathihuey Wedding Planer Melaka (not sure if the missing “n” was on purpose, or just too show how shady they are), seems to be the honest and best when we were surveying their package and they seem to be good, able to meet our requests. They were not the cheapest but rather mid-range. There are two sides to a story, here is ours.

Problem 1 – Poor communication

When we were signing up the package we wanted all the softcopies and we inform them about our limited budget, X, which we were willing to fork out extra on top of the package.
Owner mentioned that they are not in charge and have to ask photographer regarding the charges but were willing to help us out to fulfil our request. They will be on our side to do the negotiations.
This was one of our main criteria and we were persistent about it.
I guess we were at fault here because we did not get this in writing, only a verbal confirmation.

Met the photographer by chance when selecting gowns for the shoot so we sked him about his charges and he said that there was no additional charges as there was no point for him to keep softcopies.

Phew, what a lifesaver. Then came the photoshoot day, during the shoot this point came up and we just casually chatted with the bridal shop to confirm that there were no additional costs. Lo and behold, the bridal shop had a change of heart and said that the softcopies will be charged a certain amount per piece! R insisted that there was charges and asked us to quietly go about finish taking our pictures and will give us a huge discount afterwards. We brought this up the very first day we were signing up!

The photographer by the way was very professional, takes excellent photographs. Unfortunately for him he was caught in between this bridal house. Due to this being his bread and butter, we understand that he had to side R to some extent.

Moving forward when the photos were ready for selecting, this is the most astonishing part. They quoted us Y amount for all the softcopies. A whopping 2666% of our budget for the softcopies which we shared with them. We insisted that, that was way above our budget.
They then tried to throw us a bone by offering us half the softcopies at 233% of our budget.

This however was still beyond our tight budget and we told them we could not afford it. You could literally see their eyes rolling. 

We also enquired about their actual day photography package. The rates for videographer and photographer. Boy oh boy where their answers all over.

They first stated that they have no videographer, a bit odd so we asked a bit further, to which they said they were fully booked.

That would sound more logical in the first place so we were curious to know how many videographers they have - an honest question, to which they rudely answered back why do we want to know how many customers they had?
We were taken a back.

They then tried to cover up again by saying that their videographers were not very good and they do not meet their requirements so they do not offer them to customers.

For a simple query on if they were able to provide such services and the rates makes us wonder what are they trying to cover up or trying to pull a fast one on us.

Problem 2 - Poor time management.

R mentioned photographs required 3 weeks for processing and 2 weeks for printing after we selected them.

By the end of the fifth week they texted and informed that the wrong album was processed and the photos were not ready.

Wow, what happened, do we need to wait an additional 3 weeks?
Texted them to see how long more we have to wait, they replied, 3 days.

Not too sure the reason why they could not inform that they were off schedule and require only an additional 3 days for processing. Would be a better way of handling this situation.
Unnecessary added stress for planning a wedding.

It was a huge relieve when the photographs were ready for collection two weeks after we confirmed them.

Problem 3 - Overpromising.

Since we were taking photos in Melaka, we wanted a traditional trishaw, ones without any decoration, an old-school trishaw. We will pay for any extra rental this will cost us. R informed they will help us in getting this. Couple of weeks later, they informed us they could not get any trishaw. Wait, no trishaw in Melaka, not even an attempt to offer us a funnily decorated one? This can’t be right. So we went to Google and manage to book one trishaw for ourselves, while being outstation. A wedding event planner who cannot fulfill a simple trishaw request.

Flowers. All brides love their flowers during their big day. When we were discussing the package we showed R our ideas for flowers.

No problem, no problem, we can accommodate as long as within budget or just top up a bit more.

We were happy, this seemed to be a good deal. Nearer to the big day we had to finalize our flowers. Again, we were let down. They had a pre-selected flower option, option being the color only. Our choice earlier was not feasible, and if we wanted it we had to top up a significant amount.
We then actually stumbled across the florist they were using and managed to get the flowers we wanted at a much cheaper price then they quoted.

If they had told us in the beginning that there was only this choice this overpromising issue could have been avoided. Again, this situation could have been avoided from the beginning.

Next, we wanted to change some items as we were not using them. We were not asking for a discount because for us we agreed to their pricing but wanted to try out luck if we could change it to something we could use. An item we raised was asking for a small bag about a football size of flower petals, R sarcastically offered us if a gunny sack was sufficient. I am a fan of sarcasm but there is a time and place for everything. Not welcomed.

Problem 4 - Poor Management
There are no experience staff in the shop if the owner is not around. Shop is usually cared for by several inexperience staff. Can’t complain much as they learn off the owner. Staffs were not aware of how the business runs and cannot make any decisions without going through everything with the owner. Even ordinary questions were often miscommunicated and answered out of context.

For example, the staff did not record down what articles of clothes were brought for the shoot. The groom brought his own suit. At the end of the day, the staff asked back for the groom’s coat. Why?

During the photoshoot, there were three people involved the cameraman, makeup artist and a assistant from the shop who was to assist the bride in her dress and belongings. During the day, the makeup artist ended up helping the bride on top of her makeup duties.

When were selecting the photographs for the album they sarcastically asked if we wanted the rest of the softcopies, and we told them it was simply out of our budget which we already discussed about. To that they remarked that we did not listen to them and take pictures quietly during the photoshoot.

Reviews are given based on customer satisfaction. After a harrowing photoshoot day, the we rated one star at their social media pages due to the unsatisfactory service and experience. R followed then called us up complaining why we gave them such a review. Harassing. Shortly this followed by several 5 star reviews by the owner’s relatives and staff. Very amusing.

Not technology savvy. Being based out station and only in Melaka for a short period during the weekend we asked if we could get our confirmed softcopies uploaded online. They could not fulfill this. Later when they requested our song for the album we offered to email them because they were edited songs. They had trouble understanding this and consistently asked if they could download the songs from Youtube.

The week before the wedding, was expecting a follow up call/text on reminder to collect flowers and coats for the wedding on Saturday. Even our other services like the roast pork aunty at the market, hairstylist, and bakery called us to remind/confirm our order. By Thursday afternoon we have not heard from them so we texted them to check what time we can collect. Was informed items can be collected in on Friday at 5pm, eve of the wedding. We were so busy with other arrangements and yet we still have to check with them on collection and was only available for pick up so late in the evening! Very obvious they seem to have completely forgotten about us.
Not only collection was not informed and late, they delivered wrongly as well. They short change us of a bouquet of flowers. When we called them about it they rudely told us off that we already signed the agreement and ask us to check with the boss. We then got them to send us a copy of the signed agreement (which clearly stated that there was supposed to be an additional bouquet). They then finally agreed to send the missed out bouquet to our event place. No apology from the staff who rudely told us off.

Problem 5 – Legitimacy of business?
Since signing up early in 2017 was informed that the credit card payment was not setup yet being a new business entity citing difficulty in paperwork. 4/5 months down the road when we were to make payments for our package, the credit card system was still not up yet.
Display/promoting “barrel2u”at their shop, an illegal money game setup blacklisted by Bank Nasional Malaysia
REF http://www.bnm.gov.my/documents/2017...920_FCA_EN.pdf
http://www.barrel2u.com/shop_details.php?um_id=17415

Overall
PROS: Modern album design
Good photographer and make-up artist (both which were actually outsourced and not in house)
CONS: Over promising, poor management, rude and sarcastic, hostile, inexperience staff
https://www.facebook.com/pg/rathihuey/

This post has been edited by malaccakid: Oct 25 2017, 03:18 PM

lesson learn.. all have to be in black and white

Even the flower bouquet got black and white, they still delivered wrong and told me off rudely. My advice to those who want to sign up with any bridal house, check their rating and review before you sign up, if they don't have a lot of good reviews, DO NOT sign up. We were thinking to give this new bridal house a chance to build up their reputation, who knows we got terrible experience. Don't sign up with any new bridal house or bridal house without good reviews, unless you are ready to add more stress to your wedding preparation.

This post has been edited by malaccakid: Oct 26 2017, 10:15 AM