Taking Wedding DVD provider to court.

lucylouwoo

Hi all,

Am looking for a bit of advice.

I recently got married at the end of last year and paid a company to record our wedding.

We paid the deposit 5 months before the wedding, then paid the final balance 1 month before the wedding.

He was great in the run up to the wedding, he answered any e-mails I sent him with various questions really quickly and was happy to help with anything.

The guy turned up on the day and did a brilliant job, even stayed later than he was meant to!!

We went off on honeymoon all happy that our day had gone perfectly and could not wait to see that DVD!!
When we returned from the honeymoon we e-mailed him again to say thanks for doing a great job and when would the preview copy be avaliable to view, again he replied staright away saying that he was still working on it and he would contact us when it was ready.
Well that was the last contact we have had with him!!!!!
We have e-mailed him 4 times since the last contact in Febuary and he never responds!!!
I know that he has internet access as he is constantly updating his website!!!
We have called various times but it always goes straight to answer phone and messages are never responded to.

We have had to wait until 4 months after the wedding as it states in his terms and conditions that the preview copy will be avaliable by then, but that has passed (at the end of april) with no response or dvd.

I have already written him one LBA at the begining of may giving him 14 days to respond, which he did not, and i have just written the 2nd LBA giving him a further 14 days, then we will be going to small claims.

What my main question is really, does anyone think that we will be able to apply for compensation in my claim or just the cost of what we paid for the service that has not been provided???
At the end of the day we are never going to be able to have video footage of our wedding and I am so upset by that i think he deserves to pay out!!!!
I know money is never going to get that video back and we could never do it again but I do feel that he should pay for the upset that he has caused!!

Thanks for any advice.

Equaliser123

I don't think damages help you here. Can you try popping round to see him? Is he a one-man band or does he work for a firm?

Oh, the point of LBA's is to write and then take action. Not keep writing them.

How much is the deposit for?

lucylouwoo

I can't pop round to see him as I am based on the south coast and he lives the other side of London.

He seems to be a one man band.

The website I looked at which gave advice on small claims said to write 2 letters before you do the LBA, so I am on letter number 2 at the moment still trying to get the issue resolved.
I appologise, in my original post I worded it as a LBA but at the moment I am just writing letters recorded delivery asking him to get in contact with my husband and myself to find out what has happened to our wedding DVD or our money.

The original deposit was £100, then a month before the wedding he had the final balance of £495 so in total he has had £595 from us.

What reason would you think we might not be able to get damages??
I thought we might be entitled to something as he is the only person that has any video record of our wedding and for some reason he is not giving it to us.
The sad thing is I don't think he intended to rip us off as he traveled from his home in Hertfordshire, to our wedding in Dorset on New Years Eve and filmed the wedding, when he had already had his payment, I just think something has happened to the footage and he has not known what to do so has tried to ignore us!!!
The whole situation has been really upsetting!

KeithP

I think Equaliser was suggesting that what you really wanted was the video, not damages.

Getting damages wouldn't be the best memory of the happy day.

But I may be totally wrong. :beer:

Equaliser123

KeithP wrote: »

I think Equaliser was suggesting that what you really wanted was the video, not damages.

Getting damages wouldn't be the best memory of the happy day.

But I may be totally wrong. :beer:

Completely. Getting money back in this situation isn't really a solution.

Get him back onside. If not, take it further. But you need that DVD!

lucylouwoo

Oh yes, I would love to have the DVD but really don't know how to get him onside as he does not answer letters, phonecalls or e-mails.

The update at the moment is that Royal Mail have tried to deliver the 2nd recorded delivery letter I have sent to him but he has not gone to the post office to collect it!!!
I am worried that he might of done this sort of thing before and has some experience of the process.

Not sure what to do next???
Can I still go ahead and sent the LBA if he has not recieved the 2nd letter I have sent???

AndyAndyAndy

If he is a one man band then he will almost certainly be the owner of the company which must be registered with companies house (assuming that he's playing by the rules some of the time). Presumably you know his name and the name of his company. You can request information on his company which I believe includes the address of the owner/principle (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) This costs £1 a pop. You can see some information for free however if you search the name and click on the company number down the left. You could try to then send recorded/signed for delivery to his personal address?? Just an idea.

paulofessex

I wonder if a check with the guys local Trading Standards to see if he is known to them would be of any use.

pendulum

It does sound like he might have deleted the footage by accident or a memory card failed etc and he does not know how to handle it. There's no excuse for not contacting you though and I think you should get the ball rolling with court action. Let us know how it goes?

The only other thing I can think of is ill health, career change or financial problems forced him to sell his profitable customer-attracting website to another video shooter who is now updating it, and now he's not interested it in anymore.

Why don't you try getting someone else to try and book him! Get them to ring from a different number etc and you should soon find out if he's still trading or not?

lucylouwoo

Well he has not gone to collect the letter from the post office so it is now being returned to me!!!
Have spoken to Consumer Direct who have advised me just to stick a LBA in the normal post with proof of postage so he will def get it.

No he has not sold the website as his smug little face is still on it, and he is constantly updating, have also checked with companys house and he is still trading!!!

So next step is court, something I really didn't want to do but he is now leaving me no choice!!!

Freddie_Snowbits

AndyDent93 wrote: »

If he is a one man band then he will almost certainly be the owner of the company which must be registered with companies house (assuming that he's playing by the rules some of the time).

Wrong. if they are sole trader, companies house do not come into it.

Still, please tell us how much you paid and whom was to do the work. Did you see any samples as well.

Remember, if you paid peanuts, you get monkeys