The Blazing Donkey in Ham, Sandwich, Kent

marleyboy

beks wrote: »

I would so love to know how many times he has been taken to court ... it would make interesting reading. Its a shame that information is not in the public domain.

“Blazing Donkey” hit by costs order after wedding feast turns sour

30 June 2008
A district judge has imposed a £1,000 costs order against a hotel near Sandwich, Kent, after managers failed to appear at a small claims hearing in a case involving a disappointing wedding reception.
The bridegroom’s family complained that after paying £6,000 for the reception at “The Blazing Donkey” guests were given sparkling wine instead of champagne and half a sea bass instead of a whole fish.
They also claimed that some of the speeches could not be heard, after a public address system failed to appear, and strangers wandered through the “exclusive area” set aside for the party.
On its website “The Blazing Donkey” describes itself as “Kent’s prettiest and most popular wedding venue.”
Tony Reeves, legal executive at Pinniger Finch, a sole practice in Westbury, Wiltshire, said his clients had to travel from Bristol to Canterbury county court for the hearing.
Reeves said he had never, in his ten years in civil litigation, won such a large costs order in a small claims case.
“If judges award costs for unreasonable behaviour, it tends to be limited to a few hundred pounds,” he said.
“Normally I would advise clients that in small claims cases it does not always benefit them to have a lawyer present, but this was an emotional situation and the groom’s mother said she wanted me to be there.”
Giving judgment in Buchanan v Martin, trading as “The Blazing Donkey” ( 15 May 2008 ) Canterbury County Court, District Judge Jackson awarded the Buchanans £4,297 for breach of contract and disappointment, including £1,000 costs for the defendant’s unreasonable behaviour.
Reeves added that the defendants had refused a request for mediation and threatened to make a large counter claim which never materialised.


http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/story.asp?storyCode=12657&eclipse_action=getsession

Its always nice to see justice provial

hollydays

Could the op try again and write a review that stated she had a wedding reception and took the owner to small claims and won.See if they remove that,as it is factual.If you work on the basis that they will only remove facts that are in dispute. (In theory), keep trying.

kentcouple

Hi Beks

Yeah, exactly. It would definately be interesting reading! Yep, The Dog Inn reviews are awful too aren't they? It's annoying if you get bad service at a meal but a bad experience at your wedding leaves you with that memory for life. We wouldn't go back to where we get married because of our experience (unless it changed hands!).
I'm glad I found this thread because as you said we are not in the minority & it's nice to think you can help others avoid the same mistake.

Very interesting to read Marleyboys quote too!

Will TA not publish a review about taking them to court? I had seen other reviews before like that for the blazing donkey, but maybe they were the ones people mentioned had been removed?

beks

kentcouple wrote: »

Hi Beks

Yeah, exactly. It would definately be interesting reading! Yep, The Dog Inn reviews are awful too aren't they? It's annoying if you get bad service at a meal but a bad experience at your wedding leaves you with that memory for life. We wouldn't go back to where we get married because of our experience (unless it changed hands!).
I'm glad I found this thread because as you said we are not in the minority & it's nice to think you can help others avoid the same mistake.

Very interesting to read Marleyboys quote too!

Will TA not publish a review about taking them to court? I had seen other reviews before like that for the blazing donkey, but maybe they were the ones people mentioned had been removed?

It is very sad that The Blazing Donkey is ruining peoples lives because it is ruining the 'most important' day of your life. Like you say, if it was 'just a meal' then it wouldnt matter but a day like that, you cannot have again. I am glad that we never got to our actual wedding day at The Blazing Donkey (given others bad experiences) however, he has still effectively ruined our wedding day because it never happened. I cannot bear the thought of going through that stress again.

hollydays

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/UserReviewEdit-g947602-d620389-a_placetype.10023-a_ReviewName.-e-wpage1-Blazing_Donkey-Ham_Kent_England.html

click on bit where it says we have zero tolerance for fake reviews

I don't know if this has already been mentioned but has anyone seen these warnings that are mentioned on that link?


also
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=tripadviser+hotel+penalty+notice&d=4854661784866154&mkt=en-GB&setlang=en-GB&w=2cab9b17,cb71b639

Perhaps someone should start a thread called " Problems with tripadviser repeatedly removing negative reviews.Name and shame bad hotels."

marleyboy

TripAdvisor is far too unreliable a service for me to take them seriously, you can look at pretty much any scam company and be assured Tripadvisor is only full of praises for them. CLC comes to my mind amongst the many others.

kentcouple

Hi Beks
I agree. I imagine you will be very cautious when you do book yours but I am sure you will find somewhere wonderful and deserving of your wedding. It's sad to have this experience where you realise establishments like this don't care about people's weddings or how they treat their customers but hopefully they are few and far between!

beks

kentcouple wrote: »

Hi Beks
I agree. I imagine you will be very cautious when you do book yours but I am sure you will find somewhere wonderful and deserving of your wedding. It's sad to have this experience where you realise establishments like this don't care about people's weddings or how they treat their customers but hopefully they are few and far between!

Sent you a PM Kentcouple.

kentcouple

Thanks Beks

ljonski

thought about this thread as i read this........
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11419183
At least its a good excuse to keep the Blazing Donkey high on the google hit list ! Thanks for the good work beks.