Photo Franchise Deny Liability - Help Please

glitter4ever

Hi,
- I booked a photoshoot for me and my friend back in April with Revolve Studios in Cardiff for 3 Dec. They are located in House of Fraser in Cardiff (a franchise) and we have used them before. They took a £50 deposit and sent me email confirmation.
- We turned up on 3 Dec after paying £54 for the train (we're not local) and booked a hotel for the night - a kids-free night away!
- They were not there and HoF said they moved out ages ago.
- I called their other studio in Cheltenham (their main office I think) to be told there was nothing they could do but they would call me back
- They never did and I chased them again today asking as a minimum that they refund my deposit.
- Their response, I quote "Like i said, as we have absolutely nothing to do with your booking, nor do we have your money to refund to you, there is nothing we can do here at the Cheltenham studio. I recommend that you contact the House of Fraser in which the Cardiff studio was located in"
- I'm pretty sure it was the Cheltenham office who took the original booking and payment was to Revolve - not HoF.


Advice please? They clearly don't care about making it right. I don't want to let this go as we are seriously out of pocket (I know I can't get that back) but they have just closed up shop with my deposit and their sister company/HO couldn't care less.

cono1717

Who did you make the contract with, was it Revolve or house of fraiser? I'm guessing Revolve at which point they can't just fob you off and tell you to get in touch with HOF since it had nothing to do with them.

How did you pay for the deposit was it via Credit Card?

As for the hotel e.t.c I believe you can claim that back from them also but someone should be able to further clarify that/

m0bov

Who did you pay money too? Who issued the receipt? How did you pay? Should be able to claim back reasonable consequential losses, i.e. travelling but not the hotel stay as that was your choice, unless you made them aware of that during the booking. Send a LBA.

ThumbRemote

When you say 'franchise', do you mean a franchise of Revolve (like many McDonalds stores or Specsavers opticians are independent businesses but use the main chain name), or do you mean it in the sense of 'another store in the House of Fraser branch'

If the former it's going to be trickier to get your money back, as the business you paid may no longer exist. However, I can't see anything on companies house that suggests it was a Revolve franchise, there's only one Revolve Studios Ltd on there.

In which case it's easier - whoever you paid owes you the money back. Check your card statement to make sure. Then contact them politely again.

If they continue to refuse, you would need to threaten then take small claims court action against them. Whether you think it's worthwhile is up to you. They've closed three studios this year (Sheffield, Leeds, Cardiff) and are only left with the Cheltenham one. Their last accounts don't show much in the way of assets, and that's before they closed those three. You may still not get any money back even when you win.

m0bov

OP needs to act quickly!

glitter4ever

Thank you all - much appreciated. :-)

To be honest, I have described it as a franchise but purely based on the fact that Cheltenham have told me they were separate. They had a studio in the basement of HoF. I made the payment to REVOLVE of £50 according to my statement.
When I called to make the appointment the person I spoke to was not familiar with the Cardiff location so that suggests it was at their Cheltenham office, but I can't be sure - you don't think to ask do you!
I paid the deposit on debit card.

macman

If it's a franchise and that has ceased trading, then all you can do is a request a chargeback from your debit card provider. That will be for the deposit only, they won't refund your hotel or rail costs because those were contracted directly by you-and you received those services.
Section 75 claim only applies to credit card payments over £100.