The Party Place

We reserved some chairs for a party that was happening on Friday the 13^th. We said we would pick them up on Thursday before 5. We work 9 – 5 so we had to leave work early to make it there in time. We showed up before 5 and the store was closed and the gates were locked. We called the store at 8, they open at 730 according to my reservation, and the voicemail comes on stating the store is currently closed and they do not open until 9. I take it they close early and open late. I just spoke with someone on the phone and they were unaware the store closed early yesterday. I would not use this place for rentals. I called another place and they have much better hours and answer their phones when called during «business hours!» If you need stuff in a timely fashion go some where else!

I got married in August and used The Party Place for our tables, chairs, linens, tents, plates and silverware. From the moment my mom and I walked in, we should have walked right back out. We went in on a Friday at about 4:45pm. After being ignored for some time, we were greeted with, «We’re closing at 5.» Okay… We were planning my wedding in about a 3 month span, so we really wanted to get everything ordered. We picked out everything very quickly and the employee said she would contact my mom the following Monday to go over cost details. She never contacted my mom, my mom instead had to call her on Tuesday and when she received the summary, everything was wrong. She corrected the errors and the order was placed at that time.
Fast forward to the day before the wedding. Everything was to be delivered in the morning, and when they arrived, they only had 1 tent-​we ordered 2. So we had to wait for them to come back. The inside of the tents were brown and had black mold spots all over. The two tents were completely different-​1 was scalloped edges and one was straight. The chairs were filthy-​scuffed and had black grease stains all over them (white chairs). The plates were wrong and the linens were wrong. My mom called and talked to the same lady who helped us who LAUGHED at her. I kid you not. Luckily, the delivery drivers were able to take everything back and new delivery workers brought us new things (they are the only reason I’m giving a 2 star rating because they worked their butts off). They were there until 10:30 the night before my wedding setting up the new tents. They also let us know the tents are supposed to come with a lining for inside (to cover up the mold and stains) that the lady never told us about. They didn’t have all the parts they needed so they told us they’d be back first thing in the morning, at 8am.
The next morning, wedding is set to start at 11am. At 9am-​no delivery people. My mom called the manager of the store and he told her, «They just clocked in, they’ll get there when they get there.» Yes, the manager told her that. Thankfully they had it all taken care of by 10:30 and we frantically got ready for the wedding. I couldn’t believe the lack of customer service brought forth by this company. I’ve told everyone I know, everyone who was at my wedding, this story and recommended they never use this company. Weddings are stressful enough and mine would have gone on without a hitch had they not completely dropped the ball and treated us so poorly.

Breezy helped us with our order and made recommendations, which was very helpful as I have never thrown a large party before. There was an issue with pick up time but that issue was rectified. Would use them again!

Ready for a wordy review? If you are getting married heed this warning:
My husband and I got married this July, but started planning the year prior. We settled on using this location, after a friend of the family recommended using them as she had her wedding at the same venue. This review is specifically for the Stark St location, as we did not deal with the other location (which seems to have better reviews).
Like other Unilocalers, on first impression I was pleased with the amount of selection they offered. They have a «showroom» that you can visit where you can view the linens, silverware, tables, chairs and even centerpiece items. Anything you see you can rent, which is definitely fun and would spark any brides’ imagination. When we visited the first time, we were lazily greeted by an older woman, who was neither intrusive, nor overly helpful. She explained that she was retiring in a couple days, so that kind of explained her apathetic sales attitude. She did however direct us to another associate who could take care of us since she was leaving. The girl we dealt with, was young and nice enough but clearly inexperienced in professional sales and customer service. We didn’t receive any input as far as putting pieces together, or style suggestions, so don’t expect much help on that end.
We selected our linens, tables, tent and chairs on our own after wandering around a while and got a print out of what we wanted. We paid the balance in full a few weeks before the wedding. The same day we paid off the balance, we added an extra table, linens and chairs when we realized our count may need some leeway. Like most couples, we were totally drained of cash with not an ounce to squeak by in the budget after it was said and done and were very much looking forward to relaxing and just enjoying our day with the satisfaction that we had everything taken care of.
Three days (yes THREE!) before the wedding, I get a call from our «sales rep» casually letting us know we still needed to pay a balance of over $ 300 dollars. Say WHAT?! Instant panic sets in. I asked her what on earth for? My husband made sure to pay it in full. She proceeds to explain to me that someone screwed up in the system (aka probably her) and didn’t add the cost of the linens in with the balance, information I had to ask for, it was not volunteered to me. Just surprise, you still owe us money! I explained to her that is just not acceptable… we were given the balance to pay, and we paid it and no one said anything about it even when we added more items to the order (one would think they would have noticed). I don’t think she really grasped the gravity of what she was telling/​asking of us because when I made it clear this was not ok, she sort of half arsed offered a discount off our entire rental purchase, which still left us with a $ 200 something balance. She tried to tell me in so many words that I should be grateful for what she was offering, and spent more time defending herself than apologizing which only infuriated me more. I explained to her this is the difference between me being able to go on my already meager honeymoon or not. It is one thing to say «Oops, we screwed up» a few weeks before the wedding, it’s another thing to say so three days before and demand the difference. I asked to speak with a supervisor and she said she would call me back. After some back and forth, I never did get to speak to the supervisor but she went to great wordy lengths detailing to me her conversation with her supervisor on how it wasn’t my fault and that they were going to credit the linens off for me, except for the most recent extra set we ordered (yeah, that extra set we thought we already paid for, but $ 30 was more manageable than $ 300).
Seriously, if you make an error like that in business you cannot ask the customer to pay for your mistake. It shows very poor customer service on your part, as well as being tremendously unprofessional… something that should have been recognized immediately by the sales rep, instead of arguing with me. If you are in the business of parties, you know how emotional and stressful the process is and should be sensitive to that. While they did eventually do the right thing, they put myself and my husband through a lot of stress and frustration in the process. This was a complete betrayal of a customer’s trust at one of their most important times in one’s life and as far as I am concerned, there really is no earning it back after that.

We used the Party Place on SE Stark for our wedding last month. If I had the option, I’d probably give them 2.5 starts rather than 2, but I couldn’t justify a 3 and you can’t do half stars, so…
Our first impression was great. We loved their selection, and their prices seemed comparable to other party rental places (which are all way overpriced, in my opinion, but that’s another story). The woman we worked with in the showroom was FANTASTIC. Can’t say enough good things about her. So nice, so patient, and so helpful.
The reason for the not-​so-​great review is that their delivery was late (really threw a wrench in our schedule the day before the wedding and made us scramble to get everything ready in time), but mainly because of the way they responded when some of their rentals were not in proper working order. Our caterer had requested that we order a large propane grill, which we did. Unfortunately, when she arrived to start cooking the day of our wedding (the day after the rentals were delivered), she found that the propane was leaking and only half of the grill was working. Our caterer was amazing and somehow still managed to get dinner done (later than planned, but what can you do with half a working grill when most of your menu is grilled?!), but it was a massive inconvenience.
After the wedding, both the caterer and the venue owner told us they thought we should let the Party Place know about the problem, and they both expected they would be decent enough to offer us a refund for the cost of the grill, since it created such a problem on our wedding day. So we emailed them when we got the final bill and requested a refund for the grill… and about a week later got a response saying, «I split the cost of the bbq with you since you did use ½ of it. I am wondering if anyone called us when they found it wasn’t working to see if we could trouble shoot over the phone and possibly help to have it fixed as it may have been something minor.»
I’m sorry, but we thought that response was really lame. Way to dodge taking responsibility for your malfunctioning equipment. No, our caterer didn’t have a chance to call because she was working like mad trying to salvage our wedding dinner with half of your grill not working! And we were on a ranch with poor cell coverage (which we had notified your staff of ahead of time)!
It was only a grill in our case that wasn’t working, so it could have been much worse, but I’d hate to think about how much someone might get screwed over if something more costly didn’t work as it was supposed to.

I have used the Party Place/​Portland Rents All numerous times for party rentals (helium tanks and such), and have visited a few times to peruse their selection of party trinkets and decorations. The place seems to be really hit or miss depending upon what you need.
1. Location — the location of this Party Place is freakin’ awesome because it’s about a mile from my house, so it makes for a really convenient stop for me on the way to or from parties.
2. Service — The phone service when I call is always on point. They help me out, are quick about it, and get right to the point, which is great when I am on the phone. The service is the same when I walk in, however, which makes it impossible for me to browse or check out anything in the store. It’s almost like they don’t even want me in the store.
3. Supplies — This place probably has anything and everything you could need to make your party a success… on the major supply end. As far as the minor supplies — decorations, ornaments, etc, they carry the most standardized of standard selections. Not much cool and fun. I would probably go to Dollar Tree first to get a plastic tablecloth. Or possibly down to Lippman (if I didn’t have time to go online for my party supplies).
So for location and to fill my helium tank and other major party essential needs, this place does the trick. For the fun stuff, I would head elsewhere. And hey, it’s not like I really need to browse anyway.