How many people.... RANT

[Gunner69]

So I just got done doing a luncheon for my wife's employer... They are a construction company... Foreman calls me up 2 weeks ago and say hey we want to do something nice for the crew on Tuesday is there anyway you can pull somethign together on short notice.. I look at my calendar and other than a drop off on Monday my Weekend is free... So sure its no big deal how many guys are we talking about... I'm told 30-45.. I figure cook for 55 as having catered for them before they eat like typical construction workers... ALOT....

Menu was very basic... PP, beans, cobbler and my new favorite cut of meat.. sliced Shoulder Clod...

So Monday morning I get CC'd on an email to 3 other construction companies telling them about this BBQ... The address list on this email was 150 people... Needless to say I freaked a bit... Called the guy up and said we had agreed on 30-45 not 150-200... I get the whole "Oh well I only figure half of them will show up.. And that if I run out they've got a grill there and can cook up hamburgers and hotdogs... I reminded him that for anybody over the agreed upon amount it was $xx/person...

So I run out and pick up another 2 pork butts and a 4th shoulder clod... on the smoker they go as soon as I got home and got them trimmed and rubber...

Fast forward to this afternoon... I show up an hour before the lunch is supposed to start.. I walking to building and theres easily 250 people already there.. I immediately go from a self serve buffet line to a portioned serving line..

3 hours later I've got maybe enough PP left for a light sammich and maybe enough clod for 2 people... all 8 cobblers are gone and the pans have been scraped clean... Beans only lasted for mayber 3/4 of the people... but everybody got meat and dessert..

My rant is this... if you know you are going to invite more people than agreed upon why the hell not just tell me up front in the original estimate.

Any of you other guys have this happen and how do you deal with it?

[SoEzzy]

Because he got you to feed 250 on the food you brought to feed 55.

The next time he calls, give him a realistic price for the gig as requested, and quote him exactly, bring the food and the flatware and serve those that are paid for!

Then tell him you can't work with him again, because you'll make him look so bad he'll never have you back.

On the other hand, do what you are doing now, but break it down to the price per person or per plate, when you get there, offer to feed the total - X and feed them at the same price, but offer it before anyone gets to eat! Do it discretely, if he bulks at paying you the extra, go back to plan one and feed the first 55, explaining loudly all the time that there was only food for 55, and there was no way you can feed everyone etc.

See disclaimer below!
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[Geronimo]

We always took extra food for "over and above" the guaranteed number of guests by about 10%. Even at that when we knew there were more guests that that amount would feed, we feed each guest less as we always served.

Working with some repeat clients, they sometimes will THINK because I had so much food left over last time (because we served the guaranteed number of guests) that we would do the same this time (have extra food) and be able to feed more than paid for.

I do as you did and tell them right up front that they WILL be charged for any guests served over and above our original guarantee...until the food runs out.

I also tell them (sternly) that by inviting more guests than paid for, the chance of running out of food is greater and that makes us BOTH look bad. And I for one, won't tolerate it.

I haven't lost any clients by this method of business practices...that I know of.

But 250 guests when only 50 were paid for....no way in he!!.
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Where rumors end and legend lives forever...

[Gunner69]

To clarify he did indeed pay for the 250 guests, but like you I dislike the idea of running out of food... I always break my invoices out to a per/person amount as it seems to alleviate some of the "sticker" shock from the bottom line on the invoice.. When I did my neices wedding her mom got a bit of sticker shock at the total for 300 guests, until I showed her that it was only $12/pp then she was like oh well that makes sense...

[PorkQPine]

My contract reads that I need the final count 10 days prior to the event, after that any additional guests will be charged an extra $10 p/p. This solves the problem of under estimating. Once the final count is given that is the minimum charge no matter how few show up.