wedding shop witholding deposit

Buzby

Okydoky25 wrote: »

Turn up at the appointed time. See if your space has been re booked.

An irrelevance - even if the shop was empty they may have already put off another appointment for that day. Clearly the owner has had a lot of cancellations - why didn't you ask to change the day?

photome

Okydoky25 wrote: »

Turn up at the appointed time. See if your space has been re booked.

Is the OP a time traveller.

halibut2209

unholyangel wrote: »

Also to throw a spanner into the mix.....

Would the OP have been refunded the £25 if they had turned up and not made a purchase?

If so, it would then amount to a financial penalty and be void under unfair contract terms.

No it wouldn't. You are paying for their time. It's like going to a funfair which charges an entrance fee but you get money off tokens for the rides.

unholyangel

halibut2209 wrote: »

No it wouldn't. You are paying for their time. It's like going to a funfair which charges an entrance fee but you get money off tokens for the rides.

If the £25 would go towards a purchase and not be refunded, then you are correct, they're merely giving a £25 discount.

However if the money would've been refunded had OP turned up and not purchased anything - then its a completely different scenario.

flashg67

Is this a strange business model - sounds like a good way to pi$$ people off from the start. What other businesses charge you £25 to come and look at the stuff they are selling - seems weird to me.

anmarj

flashg67 wrote: »

Is this a strange business model - sounds like a good way to pi$$ people off from the start. What other businesses charge you £25 to come and look at the stuff they are selling - seems weird to me.

there are some people who try on dresses just for fun. might be a way to get the serious shoppers. I know of one shop that you make appointment and will shut the shop to prevent others just appearing.

pimento

anmarj wrote: »

there are some people who try on dresses just for fun.

Like the people who like to view houses for sale with no intentions of buying?

I can't think of any estate agents who charge a deposit refundable when you buy a house.

flea72

pimento wrote: »

Like the people who like to view houses for sale with no intentions of buying?

I can't think of any estate agents who charge a deposit refundable when you buy a house.

No, but many EA wont let you view until you have had a meeting with their financial advisor, so as to cut down on time wasters and people with delusions of grandeur

Horizon81

flea72 wrote: »

No, but many EA wont let you view until you have had a meeting with their financial advisor, so as to cut down on time wasters and people with delusions of grandeur

No, they ask you to have an appointment with their financial advisor so he can make commission out of you and sell you a worse deal than you can find elsewhere. What they will ask to see is a mortgage in principle which indicates how much a lender is willing to lend, which goes some way to proving the buyer is genuine.

But in this case, weddings are big business so yes I can understand why they ask for a deposit. It's the OP's fault for cancelling it and it's very myopic to just assume there would be other buyers ready to take their timeslot. Duh!