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Restaurant Booking Deposit Refund

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Comments

  • owen10zzy
    owen10zzy Posts: 6 Forumite
    I am actually in a little bit of similiar situation. Well with regards to collecting a deposit. Having had a meal at a local restaurant last weekend I realised that I had not collected my deposit following the meal. I put down a deposit of £50 (£5 per person). All people turned up to the meal and we had a great time. On collecting the reciept at the end of the meal we paid the sum of £161.35. It was only two days later that I realised the bill had not had the deposit taken off it. I was also certain that the deposit had not been returned to me on that evening as:

    a)someone collected the bills with me and had assured me nothing had been given to me in terms of cash
    b) I still have the deposit reciept with me

    I went into the restaurant yesterday to ask for the deposit..to which they are claiming that the deposit was returned. Now i declared that i was certain this wasnt the case, however the owen declared that the staff would vouch that it had.

    Now obviously she has a right to trust her staff, however that for me sits about as well as me saying well i have ten people who were at the meal who are all willing to claim I did not get a deposit back.
    I didnt kick up to much of a fuss so left and said that I wasnt happy with the matter and didnt consider it resolved. After doing some reading today I believe I am well within my rights to go back and ask for the full £50 for 2 reasons:

    Whilst they can provide 2 staff members who will say the deposit was returned their word is just as good as my friends..there is no other proof i.e. no cameras within restaurant to show they did return it.

    The 2nd stronger reason is the fact that I have within my possesion a deposit reciept. Now almost all restuarants (and ive worked in 8) retract the deposit reciept from the person who paid it when they go to get it back. This was not done in my case. The reciept acts as cover for both parties..i.e for the person who paid it to confirm that a deposit to hold the table was paid & for the restaurant itself as an assurance act to prove that due to the fact they take the deposit reciept back on refund of the deposit; thus proving they did give it back.

    Now i may well be wrong but as far I can see, by not taking that reciept off of me when they claimed to have given the deposit back they have no proof that they did so.

    Anyone know of any regulations or laws in this matter?!
  • gordikin
    gordikin Posts: 4,422 Forumite
    I would have thought the deposit would/should have been deducted from the bill at the time of paying. Paying £161 over and getting £50 back seems a cack handed way of doing it. Are you sure the total bill wasn't £211. £161 seems cheap for a party of ten...especially if people were drinking.
  • bigpound
    bigpound Posts: 259 Forumite
    edited 12 May 2011 at 10:07PM
    Ring up saying you want to book a table :-) 6 months down the line, but say you're not sure on the date due to personal commitments, then ask what is the latest time you can cancel and still get your get your deposit back. That's one way to extract the info.
  • Flyboy152
    Flyboy152 Posts: 17,118 Forumite
    bigpound wrote: »
    Ring up saying you want to book a room 6 months down the line, but say you're not sure on the date due to personal commitments, then ask what is the latest time you can cancel and still get your get your deposit back. That's one way to extract the info.

    I don't think many restaurants have rooms. ;)
    The greater danger, for most of us, lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark
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