don't know were to turn

stanalise

Help please in march we were throwing my dad a 60th birthday party and got in touch with a catering company to put on the food. We went to the company ordered the food and they asked if we were just paying the deposit and the rest on the night, but we decided to pay it full in cash to save hassle on the night we also got a receipt for this. Mean while my dads wife took ill and we had to cancel the party, I got in touch with the company and explained we had to cancel and could they take there deposit out and refund us the rest. They seemed put out by this but agreed to send it us with a cheque. We waited 10 days and nothing came so we called the company again, and they said they would send it out but still nothing, this has been going on for nearly four weeks now and they will not even answer the calls, if we do get threw they say the manager is not in and they will get her to phone us back, can anyone help as I don't no who to contact about the matter and if you pay in cash can they send you a cheque ?. We even said we would go and collect what they owed but they said no we will send it.:(

wealdroam

stanalise wrote: »

...if you pay in cash can they send you a cheque ?

Of course they can.

How much notice did you give for the cancellation?

stanalise

3 days notice but if we were to have only paid the deposit, and the rest on the night like she said she would not have had the money anyway.

tomtontom

How much was the deposit? The caterer will have incurred costs as a result of your late cancellation, will these be covered by the deposit?

You could issue a small claims action against the caterer, but be aware that they may counter sue for their losses.

Bantex_2

stanalise wrote: »

3 days notice but if we were to have only paid the deposit, and the rest on the night like she said she would not have had the money anyway.

I think even if you had only paid a deposit, they would have a case to pursue you for more due to such short notice.

How much are we talking about here?

stanalise

The deposit was 20% of the cost, and we could not of given her any more notice of cancellation as we booked it on the Tuesday and we had to cancel on the Thursday.

Bantex_2

stanalise wrote: »

The deposit was 20% of the cost, and we could not of given her any more notice of cancellation as we booked it on the Tuesday and we had to cancel on the Thursday.

Sorry, I was asking how much money in total.

The fact that the cancellation was unavoidable does not mean the supplier had not made a substantial financial loss or possibly turned down other business though.

stanalise

Sorry it was £150 , not much but if she would of said in the first place that we couldn't have it back we would of just left it, the fact of the matter is that on 3 occasions she has said she will post it yet they are now not even answering our calls.

bris

Doesn't matter now how much the caterer has lost, they have agreed to return all but the deposit so this is now binding on them like any other contract.

piglet25

£150 for catering seems might cheap to me, have you looked at the business closely? Do they have all the right paperwork, inspections, registration etc?

unholyangel

piglet25 wrote: »

£150 for catering seems might cheap to me, have you looked at the business closely? Do they have all the right paperwork, inspections, registration etc?

I may have missed it but did OP say how many were being catered for? Every catering company I've ever dealt with quotes £ per head, so unless we know how many people are attending, cant really say if its cheap or not.

Cheapest I've saw personally was £3 per head.