Can you really trust The Knot?
This week I was at Barnes & Noble and I picked up The Knot’s 2009 ‘Best Of Weddings’ {the winners} issue. Now I know that many brides and grooms view The Knot - both the magazine and the website - as a reputable resource, one which they can turn to for recommendations for wedding vendors. In many cases - if not most - the pages are filled with respected professionals, some of which I know personally and would enthusiastically endorse like Mark Kingsdorf from Queen Of Hearts Wedding Consultants - www.qohweddings.com - for example, who truly is one of the best in his field.
But it looks like one slipped through ‘The Knot.’
On page 171 of ‘The Knot Best Of Weddings 2009′ issue, there is a DJ company listed as an editors choice, meaning, The Knot ‘hand picked’ them and chose to list them as one of their ‘winners.’ It seems to me that The Knot didn’t do very much research at all.
The name of the company is ‘A Solid Gold Sound.’ A simple Google search turned up several complaints on my3cents.com, and well over fifty complaint submissions on Ripoff Report and that was only on the first page. Dig a bit deeper and I found several news stories, one from WCPO, the ABC television affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio and one from Inside Edition. Even the Better Business Bureau has multiple listings for this company, and gave them an ‘F’ rating claiming that they never responded to refute any of the claims.
Here are the links
my3cents.com - http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=27820
Ripoff Report - http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q5=A+Solid+Gold+Sound&searchtype=0&q1=ALL&q3=&q2=&q7=&q4=&q6=&start=0
ABC Television - http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/April-30-2007-I-Team-Report-Solid-Gold-Wedding/SEI9Fa-lFEGYXS5HnKyVwg.cspx
Inside Edition - http://www.insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyID=1336
Better Business Bureau - http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews/#middle-result (Just type in ‘A Solid Gold Sound’)
Seeing that these complaints were coming from cities all over the United States, I decided to do a little further investigation of my own. I contacted a DJ colleague Rob Green of ‘Entertainment Express’ - www.houstondiscjockey.net - in Houston, Texas regarding an address that A Solid Gold Sound had listed as their Houston office. Rob physically drove to the listed address and had this to say…
They have a fake address for the Google “local business results” section here in Houston. The address they are using here is 9521 Westheimer. My work is close by, so I drove three blocks over one day to see what was there. It’s a mostly vacant strip mall that (surprise, surprise) doesn’t have A Solid Gold Sound office.
Ironically, this blog has very little to do with ‘A Solid Gold Sound.’
Do I think that The Knot could have been more responsible in giving a strong endorsement to a company like this? Yes. I can’t imagine how many brides-to-be look to The Knot for ideas and for vendors. This isn’t merely a case of a paid advertisement that turned out to be a scam, this was what The Knot saying is ‘the best’ of 2009. Remember… The Knot isn’t in the bride’s best interest business, they aren’t even in the wedding business. The Knot is in the publishing, selling magazines and selling advertising business.
It took me all of fifteen minutes to Google and come up with this information. I guess The Knot was too busy.
Brides, do your homework. Use Google, ask the other vendors you are working with, ask your friends but whatever you do don’t look to a magazine like The Knot as if it were scripture. Ask whatever vendor you are working with for references or ask the hall, country club or hotel where you are having your reception for their recommendation. For example, my friend Keith KoKoruz from Spinnin’ Discs in Chicago, Illinois - www.spinnindiscs.com - provides potential brides with up to four pages of past brides wedding dates, names and phone numbers (given with their permission of course) for them to contact before choosing his services. This is a man clearly proud of his work, but I guess that The Knot felt A Solid Gold Sound was a better choice for their ‘best of’ list.
Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistake that so many brides who submitted complaints to these sources made by not using the internet until it was too late.
-Craig Sumsky
Cutting Edge Entertainment
http://www.cuttingedgedjs.com/blog/2009/04/21/untying-the-knot/
