Problems with wedding venue

helent1969

We were due to marry early in May and our venue contacted us to rearrange our wedding on 21st March. We were told we couldn’t have a refund, the insurance wouldn’t cover us and at that point they had over £15k of our money. We were offered 3 alternative dates at the end of the year or wait until next year and pay more with inflation. None of the dates were a Saturday which we had paid extra for and they wouldn’t reduce the price. We panicked and took a date so we didn’t lose our money. Now with the VAT reduction they are refusing to amend the price saying the saving is theirs which is £2k.  What can I do? I’d rather cancel but they won’t give me my money back.

JCS1

What does your contract say about VAT?
When it was announced it did state is was up to the business whether they passed the saving on or not.

helent1969

It just says all prices quoted include VAT

Jeremy535897

helent1969 said:

It just says all prices quoted include VAT

Which means the price to you does not change. If VAT goes down, they benefit. If VAT goes up, you do.

mattyprice4004

The VAT difference is to support them, not you. 

ess0two

You could'nt make this up?...

gary83

If VAT had gone up would you have been instantly ringing the venue offering to pay more than the price you’d already agreed?

MalMonroe

gary83 said:

If VAT had gone up would you have been instantly ringing the venue offering to pay more than the price you’d already agreed?

How is this helpful? If you can't say anything helpful or nice just don't say anything at all. This forum is supposed to be helpful and friendly. Not sarcastic.

MalMonroe

Hi, I feel really sorry for you both. But obviously venues are really struggling now to keep afloat so they aren't going to refund anything if they don't have to. Sounds like you are booked now for an alternative date anyway so it looks like you will have to swallow that loss. Better to just adjust to it and get over it otherwise it'll cast a big cloud over your wedding. I'm sure you won't be the only couple in this kind of situation but it's caused by something that couldn't have been predicted and it's nobody's fault. If the venue DID give you any refund, it'd probably be a goodwill gesture and may not even be the full amount anyway. Weddings are costly. It's just a shame that yours is even more so. 

gary83

MalMonroe said:

gary83 said:

If VAT had gone up would you have been instantly ringing the venue offering to pay more than the price you’d already agreed?

How is this helpful? If you can't say anything helpful or nice just don't say anything at all. This forum is supposed to be helpful and friendly. Not sarcastic.

The OP had agreed to pay for a wedding, they’d agreed to pay a sum that included VAT & were happy to pay that price. It’s pretty obvious that most people wouldn’t have been instantly ringing up & offering to voluntarily pay more If the VAT had moved the other way but think that’s what the supplier should do now. 

There are many winners and losers out of a lot of the recent financial schemes (For example you might have bought a house just before the pandemic & paid stamp duty when It’d now be waived) unfortunately that, like the recent cut in VAT and the whole Covid pandemic was pretty much unimaginable. The OP is not financially worse off as a result of the VAT change, the cost of the wedding hasn’t changed, they just haven’t benefited and got an unexpected wedding present of a refund from the government due to a global pandemic that’s killed nearly 45,000 people In the UK.

This forum has been filled with people being told things they don’t like & don’t want to hear over the past few months. some of them have been disappointed due to bad luck or unfortunate timing, many just because they feel particularly self entitled. If your looking for a forum where everyone agrees with everyones point of view & everyone likes the advice or opinion they receive them I think you might be in the wrong place.

jayzor

MalMonroe said:

gary83 said:

If VAT had gone up would you have been instantly ringing the venue offering to pay more than the price you’d already agreed?

How is this helpful? If you can't say anything helpful or nice just don't say anything at all. This forum is supposed to be helpful and friendly. Not sarcastic.

It’s pretty obvious and has been stated the VAT decrease is to help support businesses, why on earth would anyone think wedding venues which have been struggling for obvious reasons would pass this on to customers?