Have I been done?

toffeepopcorn

Not sure I am posting in the right place here, but this is the first time I have posted in any forum.

I recently had a wedding and was told we would need a generator as the main electrics from the house would not cope with the overload of power usage.

So we did our homework and decided that a 10.0kva would be enough to run the few things we needed in our marquee.

We said this to the man who we hired the marquee from and he then insisted it would not cope and we must have a 20.0kva generator or else it would not run and trip our electrics. When we asked what we would be expecting to pay he told us "no more than £400 including the fuel it needs to run".

We asked for a proper quote but never got one and he wouldn't give us a fixed price. We guessed that since we were told we needed the generator we had best let him put one in.

So, the genny arrived on the Thursday when the marquee was put up even though we didnt strictly need it there until the Friday and it was the higher voltage one which looked big enough to fire up an entire building site and noisy as hell to boot.

I had also hired a catering tent with light and an industrial size fridge as we were catering our own wedding. On the Friday when I arrived to start bringing food to the venue, there was only a household domestic Beko larder fridge, I have the same fridge in my own house. It was not exactly what I would call a catering fridge at all!! Also the catering tent light was broken and he said he would be back to fix it. He managed to locate another larder fridge for me but at no time did he say this would be extra as I complained that he was well aware I was expecting a huge industrial type fridge and was under the impression that when I first discussed prices and quotes with him he was well aware of what I required.

Anyway, the big day arrived.....we turn up and a second battered old fridge had arrived and we assumed the light had been fixed, but since it was our special day we were not really thinking about checking this.....yes, you see exactly where this is heading.....We ended up with zero light to work by come dark and had to ask someone to park their car with engine running and full beam shining into the catering tent so my brother could deal with the food.

The following day it piddled down with rain and no gutter had been erected between the catering tent and the main marquee. It was quite spectacular, like looking at the Niagara Falls between the 2 structures. Had this of happened on the Saturday I think I would have freaked. It was impossible to pass between the two and the floor flooded on both sides. Now imagine my expensive wedding cake for a moment and what might have been due to his lack of thinking.

After the wedding I had a call the following Friday to say the generator was still sat on the lawn at the venue. I called the marquee man to ask what was going on and apparently later that day it disappeared.

Well, I have since had a bill for £120 for the battered old fridge that had no interior light and no quote for, lets face it, I could have gone on Gumtree and bought 3 or 4 small second hand ones for that and kept them after! And a bill for £550 for the generator, one that was never quoted for and at that price I would have said no as I know I could have found one cheaper. I reckon he forgot to tell them to pick it up and he has been charged and passed that charge to me. I spoke to the company he hired the machine from but they cant discuss with me what they charged him and I understand that, but they said no way would it have been that much.

Sorry for the essay.

Where do I stand?

hollydays

So where did you find him ?
Do you have nothing in writing?

mije1983

Forget about the lack of guttering. It didn't affect the wedding as it didn't rain on the day and you can't claim for something that might have happened but didn't.

The guy you hired the generator from will of course charge you more than the company he hired it off charged him. If he didn't, he wouldn't make any money!

As above, did you not get anything it writing? If someone has refused to give me a price and a written quote I would have taken my business elsewhere. You say you were 'expecting' a large industrial fridge, but did you and he agree that is what would be supplied or was it just an assumption? What did the price/quote for the catering tent say?

toffeepopcorn

I found him at a wedding fair, he is one of the larger companies in our area.

He said he would do the generator at cost as he wasnt the one to transport it, just make a phone call to arrange drop off and pick up. He never put this in writing.

As for the fridge I asked him on more than one occasion "its like the big American ones yes?" and he told me it was. One that size would have been ample. On the quote it just says large fridge, it doesn't give dimensions. The part of the quote for the catering tent just says catering tent, £200. Nothing more. We met with him 4 times on the lead up to the wedding to make sure he understood everything and he said he did. There is nothing in writing other than the marquee, one large fridge, tables and chairs and a tea urn on the quote. The catering tent light which was not functioning was quoted at £15 on the document.

The ironic thing is that after all that we didn't need the damn thing anyway as the other company that was to supply all our entertainment things that needed the power let us down big time. It was a farce, but that is our problem and they have at least part refunded us and I don't want the headache of taking it further.

There is no way we had budgeted for almost another £1000 on top of what we had already paid for the wedding. The marquee man knew this and knew we were not prepared to pay any more than the £400 he had quoted verbally already. He should have told us to go elsewhere knowing this.

DCFC79

Cant add anything except to say I would have got a couple more quotes.

arcon5

I'd tell him to shove the bill for the fridge - you consider that him remedying his breach of contract in not providing a 'big american' catering fridge as advised.

As for the generator, I guess you have two options-- either pay £400 and tell him that's all you will pay as per his quote. Or get some local quotes and tell him you consider this fee excessive and without proof of purchase (since he promised to charge it at cost price) you will only pay the reasonable market value.