Minimum spend not met but faulty bar pumps

kerrypops1979

We recently held our wedding party at a venue in Manchester. We had a minimum spend on the bar which worked out at £25 per head. Towards the end of the night, although everyone was drinking throughout the party (started at 7.30, finished at 12), the bar manager came to advise me that the spend was only at £800 (equating to just £8 per head spent - average drink price was £4.50...). We learned that, within half an hour of the party starting, the lager pumps went out of action and customers were buying their rounds from the venue's ajoining bar, which would not have been counted within our spend. They are now talking about charging us something for the spend not being met but our argument is that they cannot prove this as they don't know exactly how much was spent on the bar downstairs.

Does anyone have any advice for me? we signed a contract but it didn't state anything about if there was any faulty equipment or fault of theirs involved in not being able to provide a full service.

Thanks in advance

ThumbRemote

My advice - ignore them unless they actually do ask for more. If they do (which may not happen), write back and state that as they were unable to provide a full service you consider them in breach of contract and are seeking a refund of part of the money you paid to them.

kerrypops1979

ThumbRemote wrote: »

My advice - ignore them unless they actually do ask for more. If they do (which may not happen), write back and state that as they were unable to provide a full service you consider them in breach of contract and are seeking a refund of part of the money you paid to them.

Great advice - thank you. I didn't think to turn it back round on them but that makes sense. The guests had to spend a lot of the night in a very busy city centre bar waiting to be served so yes, this was a massive inconvenience.

I've also cancelled my card as a precaution.

Thanks