Wedding reception venue dispute

Lm2210

Hi
Looking for some advice.
We got married last year and held our reception at a local golf club.
We paid for our reception before the day itself and actually paid over the cost.
We decided to use the excess funds as a free bar.
The staff were informed that once the bill hit a certain amount to notify us.
We had our wedding there were a few issues with people having to pay for their drinks when the free bar should have been in action.
Around seven hours into the reception we asked what the bill was and we were still not at our limit by some distance so we let it go on for another hour.
We had stipulated that certain things like bottles of champagne were not to be issued under the free bar.
A few days later we received a bill from the club asking for £400 that they claim we went over on our already paid funds for the free bar.
We never had a contract of any form at all for any part of the reception and so far we have argued paying.
We agreed to pay £200 just to shut them up, my husband gave them our card details to pay the sum over the phone.
It appears rather than processing the payment immediately they wrote all our card details down and tried the card a few days later, our bank suspected fraud and stopped the transaction.
So do we have to pay and is it more than bad practice to take note of a customers card details?
I must add at no point during the evening were we told we had gone over our limit. Neither of us was drunk so memory wasnt an issue! On the final bill they had listed bottles of champagne that had been allowed, when we gave them our details to carry out the transaction for £200 they wrote everything including the cvv down and proceeded to attempt to charge us for £400.

daytona0

Well, if you have attempted to pay £200 then you've effectively indicated that you are liable. Unless, of course, you were under duress to pay....

I would recommend either:

1. Paying the bill which you probably owe and moving on with your life.

2. Cancelling your associated cards and request a replacement from the bank (with a new 16 digit long number and CVV number). Then wait for the golf club to take you to small claims court and present your case at court.

Bear in mind that you may need to prove some aspects of the contract you had (you did have a contract by the way! Unless someone else has the contract, in which case you should be passing the buck onto them!!).... You won't be disputing the fact that a free bar was arranged and it seems fairly clear that you were happy for the bill to exceed the free bar limit by at least a small amount. What is not clear as to whether your contract excluded things like champagne or whether you had communicated the limit with staff effectively. All things which will be discussed at small claims!

Thinking about it, another option you have is to call up your guests and ask them to pay their part of the bill But that's not going to go down well is it?

pinkshoes

Sounds like the venue were a little disorganised!

I would take the itemised bill, cross off anything that was not permitted (champagne etc...) then work out exactly what you owe.

I would then offer them the COST price for the drinks that you had said were not to be on the tab a a good will gesture.

Lm2210

Thanks pinkshoes they were a total nightmare we didn't have a contract the only thing we have are the emails sent between us which clearly state what was and wasn't allowed and the maximum amount the bar was allowed to run to.
Your suggestion is excellent we will definitely be asking for a detailed timed breakdown before wielding a marker!

Billy_Bullocks

Lm2210 wrote: »

Thanks pinkshoes they were a total nightmare we didn't have a contract the only thing we have are the emails sent between us which clearly state what was and wasn't allowed and the maximum amount the bar was allowed to run to.
Your suggestion is excellent we will definitely be asking for a detailed timed breakdown before wielding a marker!

Yes you did.

lammy82

I think when Daytona says you did have a contract, he means that it is effectively formed by the verbal and written agreements you made with the venue. A contact doesn't have to be a piece of paper with CONTRACT at the top and signatures at the bottom.

The verbal conversations may have have been part of the contract but rather hard to prove either way. The emails are solid indications of the contract in place.

I suggest you re-read them carefully and pay them what you rightly owe them (special-delivery cheque rather than card details over the phone). Include a printout of the emails highlighting the limits that were agreed. Then leave the ball in their court.