To view marquee hire companies in general with any kind of suspicion is both counterproductive and unfair. These days, getting by in any kind of specialist business area without offering outstanding quality standards and extraordinary value for money is difficult to say the least. The reason being that the Internet has led to explosive competition in practically every sector across the board, meaning that only the strongest have any chance of surviving. Nevertheless, such an abundance of service providers will always make it easy for certain ’bad apples’ to slip the net and find their way into the mix.
The good news however is that when and where these cowboys do emerge, it’s easy to give them the slip. According to the experts at www.cameocateringequipmenthire.co.uk, it’s simply a case of going about things with just a tiny dose of common sense savvy, carrying out a few very minor checks before going ahead.
So in order to ensure that you don’t end up getting considerably more/less than you bargained for, here’s a quick guide on how to avoid cowboy marquee hire firms at all costs:
1 – Website Quality
First up, it’s worth bearing in mind that building and launching a genuinely impressive business website these days is actually pretty easy to do – it’s also extremely affordable. As such, if you ever find yourself looking into a service provider with a website that looks as if it was designed and built by a pack of primates, it doesn’t exactly speak volumes for their professionalism. Put simply, if the first impression you get doesn’t win you over, don’t bother sticking around for a second impression.
2 – Business Premises
Something else to check is whether the business you’re looking at is in fact a real business, or simply something of a back bedroom operation being run out of some random person’s house. It’s so easy these days to pose as a hire company of any kind, when you are in fact nothing more than a middleman who jacks up the price to make easy money. If the business you’re looking at cannot list its registered business premises, business telephone number, business e-mail address and so on, chances are it isn’t in fact a business it all.
3 – Insurance
More often than not, any marquee hire company that’s worth doing business with will make it abundantly clear that they are fully insured to do what they do. In some instances, it may not be clear, but simply by asking a question or two, you’ll be able to clarify everything. As such, when and where you come across a company that doesn’t say anything about insurance and sidesteps the issue when it is questioned directly, chances are they have no insurance to speak of. And if they have no insurance, it would be anything but a good idea to consider working with them.
4 – Inclusive Services
Another important check to make is that of exactly what is included in the service package the company is offering. In a nutshell, you should really only be looking to work with those who take care of pretty much everything from start to finish – everything from advising on location choices to preparing the ground/area to setting up to dismantling to cleaning up after and so on. Right at the opposite end of the scale, you’ll find those who pretty much expect you to do everything off your own bat – hardly a wise choice if you’re not already experienced with the complexities of setting up marquee events.
5 – Marquee Quality
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the only marquees available on the market today would be those of extraordinary quality and manufactured to genuine 21st century standards. Sadly though, this isn’t the case at all as when the market’s very best service providers invest in the latest state of the art marquees, they usually sell on their old, worn and somewhat redundant hardware. Suffice to say, no prizes for guessing who it is that tends to buy these dilapidated marquees – the cowboys! If it’s not made abundantly clear, question marquee quality and age extensively.
6 – Suspicious Deals
Last but not least, if after checking with a few service providers you find that the average price quoted is between £1,500 and £1,750, chances are this is a pretty accurate and realistic estimate. As such, if you can find yourself being offered the same package elsewhere for £450, common sense should tell you this is probably too good to be true. And indeed it will no doubt turn out to be as while it’s always possible to find excellent deals, discounts and special packages, any prices on the suspiciously low side should indeed be treated with plenty of suspicion.