Bar Company Won't Return Deposit

kaysmith87

Hi

I am having a nightmare with our bar company. We got married on the 19th August and had an outside bar.

When we booked we were told (by email) that the bar would be free if we had more than 100 people attending in the evening.

We gave a £200 deposit.

We had over 100 (just) attend in the evening, however we had a bouncy castle, assault course and segways outside and therefore most people spent the majority of time outside and did not purchase as many drinks as I'm guessing the bar expected. Out of the 100, 70 were day guests and the rest were those whom just popped in for a bit during the evening.

The contract (which I have just realised that I never signed and sent back) says nothing about the minimum 100 guests and none of the corespondance says anything about a minimum level of takings.

They are saying that there were less than 100 people there, I have offered to provide names and telephone numbers, our wedding cards etc but they just won't budge.

What can I do? £200 is alot of money to us that we saved hard for.

ampafc

Names and numbers, wedding cards - they prove absoloutely nothing. What would be the point of sending these? Are you absoloutely sure that you had more than 100 people there?

The bit you mention about the contract is also meaningless, seeing as you didn't bother to sign it and send back. Sounds like it is their word against yours - and if there was not much money spent at the bar, then they would probably have every right to assume that significantly less than 100 people attended.

sammy_wheeler

sorry i agree with ampafc

anyone could just sit there and write wedding cards out- im not saying this is what you have done!- but that i can see why they wont accept that as evidence

i think that you might just have to learn a lesson and move on- i dont think you will be able to get your money back
you entered into a contract with them by paying a deposit and having them at your wedding- you didnt sign the contact- thats your fault i feel

it just proves that forward paying-- having a bar and activities at the same time wont result in people buying drinks

vax2002

Name and shame... Give them the Full £200 worth of publicity

ellay864

A contract doesn't have to be written - but it's harder to prove anything with a verbal one. They have made an assumption that 100 guests = £xxx and obviously they didn't get that much takings. Very difficult to know how you could take this further. You could try asking on one of the other boards such as consumer rights but be prepared to hear things you don't want to!

Idiophreak

Do you have it in writing that the reason they won't return the deposit is that less than 100 people attended?

If so, I think it should be possible to get your money back. You should be able to find proof (witness accounts, photos etc) that there were 100 people there - if that's the case, a strongly worded solicitor's letter might do the trick. I'd write to them and say that, should it come to it, you're 100% confident that you could prove the number of people there, so cough up.

Em88

As Ellay says you still have a contract even though it is not written down. I would try a strongly worded letter setting out the terms of the contract, i.e. that you would provide 100 guests to the evening and they would return the deposit. Tell them they are in breach of the contract and that if they fail to return your deposit with X days you will be seeking legal advice to pursue your claim against them (you may not need to do this but it might scare them into giving you the deposit back) If they don't return it consider going to a solicitor; lots offer a free initial meeting and will do a first letter free of charge (call around and see before making an appointment). Often a letter on solicitors headed paper will do the trick even if it says much the same as you have already told them

elvis86

I'm afraid I'm inclined to side with the bar people.

As I understand it, they agree to refund the desposit and effectively provide the bar service at no cost to you, in return for you providing them with a certain number of customers? If so, I think it's slightly unfair/unreasonable of you to argue that as you had "just about" 100 people there (even worse if you've included kids in this), they should honour this agreement, despite the fact that you laid on various other activities that distracted people from the bar, meaning they made little money.

These people are trying to make a living after all, and even the simplest of folk can see that way it works is that they provide you with a staffed bar service free of charge, in return for you providing a certain number of customer who will spend the night buying drinks from them.

If you could afford bouncy castles, assault courses and segways, I'm sure you can afford to forfeit the £200. I'd forget it and move on. £200 isn't worth tainting your memories of your big day with ongoing legal wrangling.

Even if you maintain that you're right in principle, I'd still say forget it and write it off as a lesson learnt; in future, be more careful when entering into contracts with people and paying deposits.:cool:

Idiophreak

Comments in red...

elvis86 wrote: »

I'm afraid I'm inclined to side with the bar people.

As I understand it, they agree to refund the desposit and effectively provide the bar service at no cost to you, in return for you providing them with a certain number of customers? If so, I think it's slightly unfair/unreasonable of you to argue that as you had "just about" 100 people there (even worse if you've included kids in this), they should honour this agreement, despite the fact that you laid on various other activities that distracted people from the bar, meaning they made little money.
"Distracted people from the bar"....? listen to yourself! A Bar isn't an activity...it's not "hey everyone...let's all gather round and watch the bar...ooooh!" people don't go to the cricket and go "it was really good, but the cricket kept distracting me from the bar". The bar's there to give people drinks - which they'll drink irrespective of whether there's clowns, bouncy castles or whatever other "distractions" may be laid on

These people are trying to make a living after all, and even the simplest of folk can see that way it works is that they provide you with a staffed bar service free of charge, in return for you providing a certain number of customer who will spend the night buying drinks from them.
Right...and OP provided those people...It's not their fault if people didn't buy enough to satisfy the bar company. If they'd said "it's free if people buy 200 pints from us", that would be a different thing...but that's not the case here. Obviously they average things out and find, on average, that they get a good return on events where there are 100 people or more...so this event was below average. They have to suck it up. They made an agreement, OP stuck to their side (in providing 100 people) so the bar have to stick to theirs (refunding the money). IMHO it's a really stupid business plan to base the cost on the number of people and not the amount of drinks sold, but that's their problem, not OP's.

MaggieBaking

I'm inclined to agree with the OP, you agreed there would be 100+ people in the evening, just because you don't have an extravagantly boozy evening doesn't mean that you didn't provide 100 people. They probably decided when reviewing the night that your guests bought x number of drinks so they only made x amount of profit and normally for 100 people they would be expecting more.

I would try writing in the consumer rights thread about what your next course of action should be to getting your deposit back. If you don't succeed I agree with a previous poster, give them £200 worth of publicity!

trinity_enigma

If they're being really difficult would it be possible for an easy life to compromise- say fifty percent of the deposit?