Not enough food at function

PopsyT

I remember the bowl of potato salad and onion salad was the last left, due to the fact it was a "finger buffet". We have asked that they reduce the invoice to reflect the fact they only catered for max 50 people but they are refusing. Yes they are asking £1250. It was at a small town golf club, by no means the regional National golf club.

Silver-Surfer_2

PopsyT wrote: »

I remember the bowl of potato salad and onion salad was the last left, due to the fact it was a "finger buffet". We have asked that they reduce the invoice to reflect the fact they only catered for max 50 people but they are refusing. Yes they are asking £1250. It was at a small town golf club, by no means the regional National golf club.

The golf club goes some way to explain costs. How much did they charge for the room and was anyone associated with the funeral a member?

neilmcl

I think you've left yourself open for not getting a run down as to what exactly they'd be providing for the money when you booked them. They may well have taken you for a ride but I fear it may be end up being an rather expensive lesson.

neilmcl

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

The golf club goes some way to explain costs. How much did they charge for the room and was anyone associated with the funeral a member?

Precisely, the overall cost would not just cover the food but would include the venue/staff etc.

PopsyT

The cost was all in, apart from the bar. no no-one was a member. They have advised that the room hire was £150 and they charged £120 for 100 teas/coffees.(most people were at the bar spending) and £40 for an extra member of staff. This leaves £940 worth of food.

lincroft1710

What resolution are you seeking?

neilmcl

Well if you went into you local supermarket at lunchtime and purchased a salad, 1 piece of bbq chicken, a samosa, spring roll, sausage roll and a sandwich you probably wouldn't get much change from a tenner either. So £9 per head starts to seem a bit more reasonable. Maybe you had some greedy guests at the wake who had more than their fair share.

PopsyT

We still have the balance of £1000 which we have not paid, and we requested they adjust the invoice to reflect only 50 people as they only provided maximum 50 food. They have refused. I think we would have paid that.
Yes when we went to the venue, they wrote down our requests on their booking form but we did not get a copy. Our mind was elsewhere, knowing we had chosen a venue that was suitable for our requirements.

PopsyT

Thank you Neilmcl. However I think that would be full size food, not mini's (mini sausage rolls, mini samosa, etc, they were all the tiny party food versions)

HappyMJ

PopsyT wrote: »

We still have the balance of £1000 which we have not paid, and we requested they adjust the invoice to reflect only 50 people as they only provided maximum 50 food. They have refused. I think we would have paid that.
Yes when we went to the venue, they wrote down our requests on their booking form but we did not get a copy. Our mind was elsewhere, knowing we had chosen a venue that was suitable for our requirements.

Your options are not to pay the bill. I'm surprised they didn't ask for money up front.

They will then get quite annoyed and start debt collection against you. It won't affect your credit rating just yet.

You can continue to refuse to pay at which point they may start a county court claim against you.

You would then go to court with your evidence. The contract and the photos of the food that was delivered and a witness. They'll probably do the same maybe not with photos of your food but a reconstituted photo from another event. You then ask someone else to decide whether they delivered on the contract or not. If the court decides they did deliver on the contract they will get a CCJ against you. You've now got 30 days to pay that and it won't affect your credit.

What's the chances of it getting that far? That's up to you and them and your negotiation skills. You can elect to use mediation to resolve your case if you wish.