Baja Dogs Taquero

Baja Dogs is a guy who offers Taquero catering to your home or place of party. He is extremely cheap and provides lots of food selections to pick from. But please do not let the price and amount of food fool you.
The taquero’s name is Alberto and his wife Elizabeth helps him with the catering. Alberto speaks fluent English and Elizabeth does not.
I reserved their services one month in advance from the party date. I requested catering services for up to 75 people. Elizabeth quoted me $ 440 dollars, which is extremely cheap. It was about one week away from the party and they still hadn’t contacted me to confirm their services, so i decided to call Alberto myself.
He answered the phone and sounded helpful, he mentioned that he usually requires a deposit of any amount and then he will provide an invoice. I agreed and advised that I could meet him any day of the week in the evening.
Note: Their services included– 40 hot dogs wrapped in bacon, bread, mayo, ketchup, tomato, nacho cheese, french fries, tacos de carne asada and pollo, quesadillas, mulitas, cilantro, limones, rabanos, plates, utensils, and napkins.
I texted Alberto on Monday evening to attempt to meet with him, he answered saying that he was stuck at work and couldn’t leave (Flag #1). Tuesday, I reached out to him again to see if we could meet. Alberto responded by saying that he had to stay late at work again (Flag #2). On Wednesday, i texted him again and got no answer. I called him and he did not pick up (Flag #3). Thursday came along and I decided to call him to see what was going on. Of course, he did not answer his phone. I then attempted to reach out to his wife Elizabeth, and no answer. I resorted to sending Alberto a very long message saying how inconvenient this whole experience has been and i wanted to know if he was going to show up on Saturday or not. Alberto simply replied with a «Yes, we are still on» (Flag #4). Friday came (one day before the party), I sent a message to Alberto confirming all the items he was going to bring and cook. He answered my message and added that he was also going to make carne asada fries and chilly cheese fries. I was shocked but pleased and was excited to have him at our party the next day.
10:30 PM on Friday night– I receive a phone call from Elizabeth (crying!!) saying that unfortunately they had to cancel due to a family emergency. There was someone in really bad condition in the hospital. I understood that family emergencies happen, however, i wanted to know why so late and how long had this person been in the hospital for? Elizabeth mentioned that this family member had been in the hospital all week and that the reason why Alberto couldn’t answer me the whole week was due to him being in the hospital the whole week.
Now, didn’t he tell me he was stuck at work?
The issue wasn’t the family emergency. It was the way that they went about communicating what was going on. At that point, i thought everything she told me was BS.
Think about it, if a someone cancels on you. the most reasonable thing to do is 1. call at a reasonable time (not at 10:30 pm the night before the party) 2. offer a solution, call and cancel but say that you have other buddies that do the same service and you have found a replacement.
After venting to someone that had previously contracted him, they told me that i was actually lunky that he did not come. Apparently this guy is nowhere near clean. His oil for the french fries is dark black (like car engine oil) and that the meat that he cooks is re-​used. In addition to this, he uses bread from Mexicali for the hot dogs and uses them till they are practically bad. So many people have gotten sick from eating his food!
Please think twice before contracting this guy! I hope that my experience will allow people to go through professional companies or people that actually dedicate their lives to this business. Not A-​Holes like this guy and his wife!