Bar hire service

PinkLady25

Hi all

Just wanted to see if we had any rights regarding the bar hire service we used for our wedding a few weeks ago. We booked them as they seemed to be a professional company but sadly they didn't adhere to their claims on the day. Have listed why we weren't happy below:

• The bar staff arrived later than agreed and interrupted my interview with the registrar to ask where to set up the bar; I was then panicking as they were late and reception drinks for guests weren't ready.
• We were told that they were providing a free bar hire service based on our guest numbers so we had to purchase reception and toast drinks from them. The reception drinks were served 40 mins late meaning me and groom didn't get one at all and it ruined the potential photo ops of us mingling with the guests.
• The reception drinks ended up being served by friends of family as there was no way the bar staff had time to do that and set up the bar due to them arriving late. Friends also had to wash the glasses before use. We are disgusted by this, as these friends should have been having a drink with us, not serving drinks! In that case, we could have saved £££s on the drinks as we could have purchased the drinks for a lot less than the bar charged as the venue didn't charge corkage.
• We paid £75 for glassware (being a wedding and all) and some guests had plastic glasses; those who did have glass mentioned that they weren't very clean.
• The only lager option on tap was flat for most of the evening and tasted awful.
• We had complaints from several guests regarding inconsistency in the prices of drinks - the price of drinks fluctuated depending on who was serving.
• We paid for children to have a soft drink during the toasts which weren't provided at all; parents were having to pay for a drink for them.
• Our contract said that the bar service was to end at 11.30pm but the bar staff requested last orders be announced at 10.20pm. They ran out of wine, bottled lager and certain spirits quite early on in the evening (due to the crap lager) despite having guest numbers in advance to plan the amount of drinks that should be required. This left our guests without drinks from 10.30pm til midnight. The bar had left the venue by 11pm (leaving behind loads of rubbish which the venue owner had to dispose of; he was not happy about that!)

So we have basically told them we aren't happy paying £75 for glassware when there was a lot of plastic being used and dirty glasses had to be cleaned by friends. We also asked for a reduction on the cost of the reception drinks (£252 to pay) due to the issues above.


They have offered a 'goodwill' gesture of either £75 refund for the glassware or 25% (£63) off the drinks. We don't think this is good enough, especially when we hear comments about the day being lovely, just let down by the bar. It's so upsetting to hear this.


A relative has suggested we try to negotiate not paying the £252 for the drinks as the bar was in breach of contract as they left early and didn't provide the service agreed to. We're so disappointed with how they were on the day that we really don't want to pay them another penny.



Would appreciate anyone's advice on this.


Thank you in advance

shaun_from_Africa

Have you paid anything yet?, if so, how much.

If you have paid, how was this done?

PinkLady25

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Have you paid anything yet?, if so, how much.

If you have paid, how was this done?

Hi Shaun

Thanks for your reply.

We have paid the £75 glass charge via BACS.

The £252 remains outstanding.

shaun_from_Africa

Personally, what I would do if it happened to me would be to write a letter stating exactly what happened and say that as the company didn't supply clean glassware as they were contracted to do, you are not willing to pay the £75 cost of this.

As to the reception drinks, state that you feel that as the service provided did not meet up with what was promised, you are only willing to pay 50% of the cost. (or whatever percentage you feel is appropriate)
Send them a cheque for the £126 and take it from there.
This way you will have shown that you are willing to pay for what service was provided, but not for something that wasn't.

They may well just take the cheque and bank it, but if they do decide to take action against you, you can show that you made an effort so sort the problem out.

OlliesDad

I would agree with the above.. I would maybe pay them the money less the £75 AND 25%.

I doubt they would take any further action.

PinkLady25

Hi guys

Thank you - I've offered them 50% and less the £75 glass charge so we'll go from there.

Thanks again!

paddyrg

I'd be tempted to forget offering, just send a cheque and if they decide to sue you for the balance or write it off, ball's in their court.

PinkLady25

paddyrg wrote: »

I'd be tempted to forget offering, just send a cheque and if they decide to sue you for the balance or write it off, ball's in their court.

I've already sent the email, oops. Hopefully they will realise we're not just trying to pull a fast one and get out of paying and that we really are so disappointed with their service or lack thereof.

I guess now we just watch this space and hope they understand this was our wedding, not some party or other... We're (hopefully!) never doing it again!

PinkLady25

Update:

Company have responded 'without prejudice' and offered to reduce the outstanding bill (which is £264, my error previously as they later added £12 for children's soft drinks which I'm pretty sure they didn't supply).

They are proposing taking off the £75 and reducing the bill by 20% leaving a total of £157.50 to pay within 7 days if agreed.

They just don't seem to care that they caused a lot of problems and stress for me, husband and guests on the day; if it was my company I would be mortified and bending over backwards to make sure I didn't get sued!

So they're basically offering around £30 discount on the drinks once the glassware charge has been removed as we'd already paid this anyway.

Further thoughts/advice?

Cheers all

mije1983

They have pretty much met you half way in what you offered to what they offered.

Nothing (even them writing the whole bill off) is going to make up for what happened on your wedding day, so you need to decide whether you just accept their offer, pay up and move on.

Alternatively you could push for more, or attempt to go to small claims court. You just need to decide if it's worth the extra hassle and stress it will cause you.

wealdroam

Perhaps send a cheque for whatever you proposed in post #6.
Adjusted to account for the discrepancy mentioned in your most recent post.

As said earlier, this then puts the ball back in their court.