Restaurant dispute

matt_wyles

I have read the forums for the past week looking for a similar story but i couldn't find one so i would appreciate some help here.

My wife an i booked a "Sabrage black tie event" evening out in June last year, the event took place in December 2010. These events are usually a large number of people having a gourmet dinner and learning how to open champagne bottles with a sword. We paid £150 in total in advance at the time of booking.

A week before the event was supposed to happen the events manager phoned me to say the event had a poor take up and only 8 couples would be attending including ourselves. As it was now a smaller party the event would be moved to the smaller restaurant. He offered a refund or we could go ahead with the event in the smaller restaurant. He did say the event was exactly the same only not in the grand restaurant. We decided we would still like to go.

The night of the event we show up, me in the Tux and the wife in a nice evening dress. We stood in the smaller restaurant for about 10 minutes before the restaurant manager came over and told us we needed to go to the bar for drinks first. So we go round to the bar and are greeted by the head waiter who says we look very smart and shows us to the bar to meet the other couple, he also informs us that it will be just the four of us as all the other couples cancelled. (first bit of bad news, now it's a couples blind date!) Then the head waiter tells us that the dress code changed and it's no longer black tie.

We sit with the other couple who are about 30 years older than us and we find they are quite nice but we have absolutely nothing in common with them. Our jobs and lifestyles couldn't be further apart. As we are talking we find out from this couple that the Sabrage part of the event has been cancelled. My wife goes to talk to the head waiter to see if this is correct and after about 20 minutes she comes back to the bar saying that the sabrage had in fact been cancelled and it was now just a nice meal effectively. My wife said to him we would be leaving but he convinced her to stay and take it up with management later.

So the evening passes, some courses were very good some were dry and overcooked. Neither my wife or i drink a lot and we had about 2 glasses of wine each with dinner and 1 drink each before dinner in the bar.

A few days later i write to complain that the event i had purchased had been cancelled and we had wanted to leave but had been talked into staying by the head waiter and we would like to be booked into the next event at no charge to us. The GM wrote back offering a free meal. The normal meals there are about £20 per head. (This place is not a chain, it's independent)

I didn't think this was acceptable as they had not given us any time to cancel, if we had known it wasn't going to be sabrage we wouldn't have gone, i don't spend £150 on a nice meal. So i wrote back explaining this and his response was, "my original offer stands, take it or leave it".

So what are my rights? They haven't supplied what i paid for and they kind of made us stay when we were prepared to leave when we found out the event had been cancelled.

Well that's the story in it's long convoluted form, if there's anything you need clarifying please ask.

Cheers

giraffe69

I think the restaurant behaved poorly but you chose to stay when you could have left. I would chalk it up to experience and not return to this place.

bris

You could sue for the missing service but you would still have to pay for what you got. The difference may be very small so perhaps you should just accept what they are offering and then never give them your custom again.

fluffnutter

matt_wyles wrote: »

These events are usually a large number of people having a gourmet dinner and learning how to open champagne bottles with a sword.

Niche.....

the_insider

Why has it taken you three months to do something about it? Has the booking just opened for the next one and you thought you'd give it a go? £150 for a meal is quite a lot but for two nice meals with the Mrs it's not so bad. I think you should take them up on the offer.

fluffnutter

Unlike most disputes about restaurant meals/service/etc., I don't think there was much you could have done at the time as you'd already paid. As you say, you were persuaded to stay and were looking forward to a night out anyway, so why not stay? But you've clearly not received what you paid for. £150 is an awful lot of money for a bog standard meal with no swash-buckling/sword-swallowing. I assume also you'd have got to drink this champagne that you've whipped the top off with a sword? So you're missing 1. a black-tie do, 2. a grand meal, 3. the ambience that a large party brings, 4. the sword bit, 5. the champagne (I assume). All in all, I think a £40 gesture is a bit mean. I'd argue that £40 is all you should have paid seeing as you only had their normal meal.

Suggest they refund you £110 stating politely how you've arrived at that figure. If they're still not interested, you have two choices. Chalk it up to experience or take them to the small claims court. I'd do the former, frankly, but it's your call. Oh, and never go back.

matt_wyles

Giraffe69 - How does your comment help?

The insider - I sent a letter of complaint 2 days after the event. We were out of the country for 4 weeks over christmas so didn't receive the reply until half way through Feb. We replied within 2 weeks (arriving back/jet leg/2month old baby with problems) and then we got the second reply early march and i have been researching what i can do since then but have yet to find appropriate comparative situations.

Fluffnutter - We did have champagne but only 3 glasses as we don't drink much. If the sabrage event had taken place we would have been given 1 bottle each to open with the sword. 3 champagne flutes does not equal a bottle though. I couldn't care less about the champagne to be honest but we were supposed to get certificates saying we were now Sabreur and it was all supposed to be a grand event as described by you in points 1. 2. and 3.

Thank you for your help Fluffnutter, I think i'll go back to them and suggest a compromise of half price for the next event as i'd still like to go and this is the first problem i've had with the hotel. The staff are very good it's just the management that are a bunch of numpties. We are regular patrons of this place as well and have had many friends and family stay there over the last 3-4 years.