Wedding car got a flat tyre... Are we entitled to money off?

imafatskintslug

Hi all

Looking for advice here,

We got married last month, and had a vintage Jag as our car. The car got the brides mum and the bridesmaids to the church, 3 mins down the road. It then came back for the bride and father, and got 3 metres down the road before getting a flat tyre. the driver asked us if we had any other form of transport (i thought he was joking, what a nightmare), so we had to call a guest to come and pick us up, who had luckily not turned their phone off in the church yet.

The driver said he would 'try' to get the flat changed before we left for the reception.

So anyway.... I arrived at the church with my father in a 5 year old Lexus, not quite the same, when you've paid over £400 for the vintage car you wanted. As a result i got no photos of me and my dad arriving at church in the car. I was quite disapointed, but had to carry on and not let it ruin the day.

The driver managed to get the flat repaired on time to take me and the groom to the reception, and we didnt really say any more about the tyre to him on the day, cause i didnt really want to get into an argument about refunds on my wedding day, and to be honest i thought the bloke would have contacted us to discuss this before cashing the cheque in for the remaining balance we had given him just before the wedding.

However, we came back from honeymoon to find the cheque had been cashed. We emailed the bloke to let him know how disapointing it had been that we hadnt had our photos/got to the church in the car we paid for, and also mentioned that we would have assumed he would have spoken to us first about not charging full whack as a gesture of good will. We can never get those photos back, and although he cant help what happened to the car and he did his best to fix it, it was equally not our fault, and this was our wedding day. His job was to get the bride to the church for the price he was paid, and he didnt do this, so do you think i have a case here for getting a partial or full refund, or even taking it further as our photos cannot be replaced and it was a very important day.

We have emailed him a few times now and he is just ignoring every email. I definitely want to take this further because i feel a bit cheated to be honest that hes even considered charging full whack, let alone done it. We paid over £400 for that car and it didnt even get me and my father to the church!

What is your opinion on this? Are there any experts out there?

Thanks in advance!

McKneff

One last recorded dleivery letter telling him you want a partial refund (i really dont think, in fairness you can expect a full refund)
Tell him you will be taking him to the small claims court.

I dont see why the tyre couldnt have been changed while you waited. If he was a professional driver he could have changed the wheel
in a short time. Was this not suggested to you.
It would have been part of the tradition of a wedding day - the bride being late I mean.

themull1

i would ask for half back, but i would have stopped the cheque if i could have first, not assumed he wasn't going to cash it.!

adonis

When my niece got married the vintage wedding car had a puncture on the way to the reception, the driver didn't have a clue how to change the wheel but fortunately where it stopped the householder gave them a lift to the reception.
Of course the terms and conditions state no refunds but i would expect these cars to have a puncture preventative at least in the tyres.