Cancelled Christmas meal booking cover?

chattychappy

bris wrote: »

Their terms mean nothing, the law states they must mitigate a consumers losses, those losses are mitigated if they resell the table so they must by law refund or they can be taken to court to make them pay.

There is no loss arising from a breach of contract. That is where the duty to mitigate comes in (and in tort law, ie negligence etc.)

bris wrote: »

it's widely known on this forum that a companies T&C's can not over rule your statutory rights.

It is. But given it appears the T+Cs state the deposit is non-refundable, it is now for you to cite the relevant statute or case law rather than simply saying "by law".

As for "taken to court". Well, yes. But you will lose. Just as happened to my client when she was sued for failing to return a deposit for a booking on a course she was offering when the student couldn't attend.

Non-refundable deposits are common practice - indeed in some industries (airine booking, hotels etc) it is even common to take full payment on a non-refundable basis. If people were entitled to refunds, there would be a whole industry based around claiming refunds off the likes of Easyjet.

Hopefully the restaurant will have some sympathy given the background and allow the deposit to be used against a booking some time in the new year.

System

You'd also have to accept their costs incurred by the cancellation - if you go down the route of pursuing the matter further.

Robin9

If the restaurant has three cancellations for tables of 4 and resells 2 of the 3 which of the 3 customers does he reimburse ?

elsien

The first two to cancel?

eset12345

bris wrote: »

You can actually try and find out if they are fully booked for the day in question, if they are then they must refund you as they have mitigated the loss.

that's not true, they can keep back any costs involved with filling the spaces once again.

£70 can easily be eaten up by having a couple of staff members sorting tables reservations, taking phone calls, confirming new reservations, taking the call from the op to cancel, the card processing fees for the OPs payment, along with a multitude of other things.

what if the op had a table of 4 booked and a new reservation only has 2 people on the same table, that's a loss of 2 full seats, meals and drinks to be covered out of the deposit.

source? in catering for nearly 2 decades. not refunding deposits is perfectly legal and just.

You'd be amazed at how many peoples families / friends suddenly fall ill, the cat dies, the car breaks down etc etc the night before they are to attend a pre booked and deposits taken for.

McKneff

Why cancel....you still have to eat.....

boliston

McKneff wrote: »

Why cancel....you still have to eat.....

I'm surprised nobody has picked up on this. Also if I had a family member in hospital there would be more time for visiting if there was not the lengthy preparation involved with a home cooked meal.

I would also say that I want the extra portion of turkey shared between the remaining diners. Also I would want extra roast potatoes as most places are mean with them.

Robisere

Poshandspecs does say that dad is "seriously ill" in hospital. We don't know from that, whether that is expected to get worse and they may be anxiously awaiting other news.

I remember what turned out to be the last months of my dad's life, which contained the Christmas period. The whole family were on pins, waiting for news and hoping it was good news. It is not a situation conducive to having a happy family meal. We all ate subdued meals at our various houses. I hasten to add that I hope this is not your situation OP, I sincerely hope your dad gets well soon.

forgotmyname

boliston wrote: »

I'm surprised nobody has picked up on this. Also if I had a family member in hospital there would be more time for visiting if there was not the lengthy preparation involved with a home cooked meal.

I would also say that I want the extra portion of turkey shared between the remaining diners. Also I would want extra roast potatoes as most places are mean with them.

We did this when my FIL was in hospital, arranged for the family to meet at a carvery and we took the MIL there. Some visited before the meal and others visited after the meal.

Worked really well.

[Deleted User]

Sorry but I would be far more concerned with my fathers health than a mere £70, having said that I hope he recovers