advice on getting a deposit back

priceey

Hello everyone

i am looking for some advice regarding getting a deposit back of a pub.

its my daughters christening in a few weeks and we wanted to book a pub for a buffet afterwards.

my wife booked a nice little pub form us, where the bar manager mentioned that the booking system was off and we had to pay cash.

my wife didn't think much of it, and gave the bar man 100 pounds, who then wrote it in a book and put the cash in the till.

we then realised a week later that there was a festival around that time, so we wanted to cancel.

my wife went in there, and the bar man stated that we had to phone the brewery as they had fallen out with the manager, and he had left, supposedly taking our deposit with him

we were given the ex-managers number, who told us that we had to take it up with the brewery.

we then phoned them again, and they said they had no record.

we phoned the police who were not interested at all.

we managed to get in touch with the bar man that placed the cash in the register, and he has given us a letter stating that the pub took the money from us.

we have been in touch with consumer direct, who have been a complete waste of time. they told us to write to the brewery stating they had seven days to reply. they do not reply on two separate letters.

we tried again with consumer direct, but we spoke to a !!!!less idiot and that was pretty much the end of it.

can anyone here offer any advice on what we can do to get a refund?

thanks in advance

arcon5

What is their cancellation policy?

Its quite common for deposits to be non-refundable

gordikin

priceey wrote: »

Hello everyone

i am looking for some advice regarding getting a deposit back of a pub.

its my daughters christening in a few weeks and we wanted to book a pub for a buffet afterwards.

my wife booked a nice little pub form us, where the bar manager mentioned that the booking system was off and we had to pay cash.

my wife didn't think much of it, and gave the bar man 100 pounds, who then wrote it in a book and put the cash in the till.

we then realised a week later that there was a festival around that time, so we wanted to cancel.

my wife went in there, and the bar man stated that we had to phone the brewery as they had fallen out with the manager, and he had left, supposedly taking our deposit with him

we were given the ex-managers number, who told us that we had to take it up with the brewery.

we then phoned them again, and they said they had no record.

we phoned the police who were not interested at all.

we managed to get in touch with the bar man that placed the cash in the register, and he has given us a letter stating that the pub took the money from us.

we have been in touch with consumer direct, who have been a complete waste of time. they told us to write to the brewery stating they had seven days to reply. they do not reply on two separate letters.

we tried again with consumer direct, but we spoke to a !!!!less idiot and that was pretty much the end of it.

can anyone here offer any advice on what we can do to get a refund?

thanks in advance

Why do you think you have a right to cancel and receive your deposit back?

McKneff

What has a festival being on got to do with a christening buffet?

priceey

the festival means that there will be around 10,000 people around that area on the day

so parking there would be impossible, plus we would have to share the pub with all those other people.

the service in there isn't great, so sharing it with about 500 people would be a nightmare

not quite the christening party we fancied!

when we realised we were very surprised they even let us book the pub that weekend.

the festival is pretty famous around here.

no at any point have they ever said that this is their cancellation policy.

all they have stated is that its not their problem.

the brewery is samuel smith, and after a bit of research we can now see that a lot of people have had issues with them in the past.

especially in the yorkshire area.

so you don't think its worth chasing up?

we can't really afford not to get the money back.

tomwakefield

priceey wrote: »

the festival means that there will be around 10,000 people around that area on the day

so parking there would be impossible, plus we would have to share the pub with all those other people.

the service in there isn't great, so sharing it with about 500 people would be a nightmare

not quite the christening party we fancied!

when we realised we were very surprised they even let us book the pub that weekend.

the festival is pretty famous around here.

no at any point have they ever said that this is their cancellation policy.

all they have stated is that its not their problem.

the brewery is samuel smith, and after a bit of research we can now see that a lot of people have had issues with them in the past.

especially in the yorkshire area.

so you don't think its worth chasing up?

we can't really afford not to get the money back.

Deposits of this kind tend to be non-refundable, unless they explicitly say otherwise, as their purpose is to provide some compensation for the inconvenience and financial loss caused by you cancelling the booking.

You can chase it up if you want, but I think the law would be on their side, so you'd be relying on goodwill.

arcon5

The problem is you formed an agreement to rent the place and now backing out of the agreement which doesn't have automatic cancellation rights.

However, there was a thread around here a while back about somebody wanting to know if they can get a deposit back for a car order they cancelled/breached. The discussion was interesting in that they could not fine a consumer for breach of contract and could only keep/deduct-from the deposit liquidated losses.

Maybe somebody knows the thread I refer to and has a link..

The only problem would then be if they have turned away other booking in which case the deposit would cover such losses -- rightly so also.

priceey

tomwakefield wrote: »

Deposits of this kind tend to be non-refundable, unless they explicitly say otherwise, as their purpose is to provide some compensation for the inconvenience and financial loss caused by you cancelling the booking.

You can chase it up if you want, but I think the law would be on their side, so you'd be relying on goodwill.

i get that

but what financial loss is there on their part?

we didn't give any numbers, just literally put a booking in.

they would not have made any bookings with the catering company as they don't know how many of us there are.

and if anything by having our party there would incur more of a loss due to the festival that's on.

if the deposit is non-refundable, why haven't the brewery stated this at any point?

the only reply we have had off them is that its not their problem and we should chase it up with the ex-manager.

my next port of call is the local press and the press in yorkshire.

vax2002

Basically NO.
A deposit is compensation if you back down and they could have booked the room to others.
Which you have.
A short sharp lesson in the legal term "deposit"

tomwakefield

priceey wrote: »

i get that

but what financial loss is there on their part?

Perhaps they will be unable to rebook it.

priceey wrote: »

if the deposit is non-refundable, why haven't the brewery stated this at any point?

Have they said anything about it being refundable? If they haven't said anything either way, why assume it's refundable?

priceey wrote: »

my next port of call is the local press and the press in yorkshire.

I don't really think it'll make much of a story: "Pub doesn't refund deposit upon cancellation". Most people will just think "well, why should they?"

arcon5

I don't really think it'll make much of a story: "Pub doesn't refund deposit upon cancellation". Most people will just think "well, why should they?"

:rotfl:

That headline would be an improvement to our local papers