Deposit for wedding photographer

Legacy_user

Hello all,

I'm new here. I just wanted to ask if anyone knows where I stand. I paid a £50 non refundable deposit to a man who was arranging for a student to do the photography for our wedding. It has now come to light that he didnt give us all the information we needed. Which was the student cannot drive so would need to take two forms of public transport to get to the venue and getting home was a concern to him. He also wanted a member of the wedding party to pick her up from the train station 20 minutes away from the venue. Because of this we have cancelled with him, he was very rude to me and spoke to me like a child. I'm just wondering if I'm entitled to my money back even though its non refundable because he failed to give us all the information we needed to make an informed decision before agreeing to go ahead? Probably a long shot but worth a try since he was so rude.

Thank you for your time

Aylesbury_Duck

Talisa wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm new here. I just wanted to ask if anyone knows where I stand. I paid a £50 non refundable deposit to a man who was arranging for a student to do the photography for our wedding. It has now come to light that he didnt give us all the information we needed. Which was the student cannot drive so would need to take two forms of public transport to get to the venue and getting home was a concern to him. He also wanted a member of the wedding party to pick her up from the train station 20 minutes away from the venue. Because of this we have cancelled with him, he was very rude to me and spoke to me like a child. I'm just wondering if I'm entitled to my money back even though its non refundable because he failed to give us all the information we needed to make an informed decision before agreeing to go ahead? Probably a long shot but worth a try since he was so rude.

Thank you for your time

Begs the question: why did you go ahead, then?

If he doesn't give you your money back when you ask I doubt you'll be able to get it from him. A small claims court would probably view it as too trivial an amount and you willingly handed over what you knew to be a non-refundable deposit.

No harm in asking.

pinkshoes

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Begs the question: why did you go ahead, then?

If he doesn't give you your money back when you ask I doubt you'll be able to get it from him. A small claims court would probably view it as too trivial an amount and you willingly handed over what you knew to be a non-refundable deposit.

No harm in asking.

To be fair, having to pick someone up from a train station is highly unusual and is certainly something that SHOULD have been mentioned at the point the deposit was paid as it is a very unusual T&C.

I would say without a doubt that either he arranges to have the student dropped off and picked up, or he refunds the deposit.

Aylesbury_Duck

pinkshoes wrote: »

To be fair, having to pick someone up from a train station is highly unusual and is certainly something that SHOULD have been mentioned at the point the deposit was paid as it is a very unusual T&C.

I would say without a doubt that either he arranges to have the student dropped off and picked up, or he refunds the deposit.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that morally the guy should refund OP, but if he decides not to I can't see how OP can force the issue.

waamo

I would say you appear to have an extremely strong case. Material facts were omitted. I suspect you didn't get any t&c's in a durable form?

As above though if the guy isn't willing to play ball it's debatable if it's worth trying to force the issue.

System

Yeah that's what I thought. I paid the deposit because at the time of paying the deposit, everything sounded fine.. he never mentioned the issues until now... 2 months before the wedding. I'm going to look into it further.

Kentish_Dave

Send him a letter before action stating that he attempted to change the conditions after a contract was agreed (I.e. asked you to provide transport) and that as you do not wish to proceed under the changes terms you are requesting a refund or else you will go via the small claims court.

waamo

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

Send him a letter before action stating that he attempted to change the conditions after a contract was agreed (I.e. asked you to provide transport) and that as you do not wish to proceed under the changes terms you are requesting a refund or else you will go via the small claims court.

Agreed. Even though it's unlikely you will launch a claim if he doesn't play ball after being asked nicely a formal demand might rattle him.

davidmcn

Seems an odd demand on their part - I would have thought the typical price of wedding photography would cover a taxi fare?

agrinnall

Or you could just get somebody who is attending the wedding to do the pick up and drop off, that way you'll get your wedding photos taken without needing to find somebody else to do it.

bris

Basically travel arrangements didn't form part of the contract so they are not your problem. Its not enough to cancel the contract though.


You now need to tell him this and ask how he will overcome this problem. This puts the onus on him to arrange travel for the student. if he says he can't then he would be in breach, until then it's not.


Isn't getting a student to record the biggest day of your life a bit risky though?