Wedding Venue Refund for Bad Service

Dashofmapleleaf

I recently got married and I'm unhappy with the service provided by the venue. 
I've listed all my concerns in an email and they have responded offering me a refund of £750, this equates to 8.7% of the cost.
Although some of the poor service on the day are trivial, a major factor is the heating in the ceremony and reception room wasn't working on the day, this meant a large proportion of my guests were extremely cold especially during the wedding breakfast. They plugged in a few small oil heaters to attempt to tackle this however it did not. Guests who complained on the day were told it was due to the doors being left open by smokers.
Combining this with the list of other errors and poor service on the day I don't feel like 8% covers the upset caused on our special day.
My question is can they retract that written offer of £750 if I request more?
Also is there a standard refund percentage expected for this kind of situation?
Thank you in advance for any help

eskbanker

There's no standard refund percentage so it comes down to what you can negotiate, and likewise there's nothing to stop them from retracting an offer at any time.  Do you have a figure in mind and if so, how are you calculating it?

marcia_

Dashofmapleleaf said:

I recently got married and I'm unhappy with the service provided by the venue. 
I've listed all my concerns in an email and they have responded offering me a refund of £750, this equates to 8.7% of the cost.
Although some of the poor service on the day are trivial, a major factor is the heating in the ceremony and reception room wasn't working on the day, this meant a large proportion of my guests were extremely cold especially during the wedding breakfast. They plugged in a few small oil heaters to attempt to tackle this however it did not. Guests who complained on the day were told it was due to the doors being left open by smokers.
Combining this with the list of other errors and poor service on the day I don't feel like 8% covers the upset caused on our special day.
My question is can they retract that written offer of £750 if I request more?
Also is there a standard refund percentage expected for this kind of situation?
Thank you in advance for any help

Nope no standard amount of refund/compensation. They could just offer you nothing and claim it was out if their control or quote something in your contract which claims they are not liable. 

DullGreyGuy

Yes, offers can be retracted.

You need to check the terms of the contract. 
What caused the heating failure? 
When/where was the wedding?
When did you first learn of the heating issue?

Because you have not sustained any financial loss as a consequence it is hard to say what is "fair". Courts however do not work on fair but what contracts state and financial losses. 

Let's assume the loss of heating was an unforseen issue, ie heating system is regularly serviced and it just packed in that morning. What realistically would you preferred them to have done? Cancelled the event because of it? Arranged for it to be held at the local pub/village hall/anywhere else it legally could have been in under 24 hours notice?

Tucosalamanca

Did you ask or did they advise what the ambient temperature would be at the time of booking?

Did you specifically book because it was described as a 'warm' venue?
If they haven't misdescribed, I think they've been very generous already.

I've been to many receptions where the venue has been cold.
At my own wedding, the venue even had a box of blankets for guests to borrow.

A fairly typical occurrence I would say, and not one that requires compensation....

Aylesbury_Duck

How much are you after?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

You are effectively talking about a price reduction due to the service not being carried out with due care and skill where by you would be entitled to a repeat performance (probably not applicable in this instance) then a price reduction.

Whilst a price reduction is typically the difference between what was paid for and what was received (which can be calculated in terms of money) the guidance notes on the Consumer Rights Act give a rather odd, and not very useful, example of:

In relation to services, however, there may be some cases consumer is able to ask for a reduction in price even where it may be argued that the value of the service as provided has not been reduced by the breach of the consumer’s rights. This could occur, for example, where the trader has not complied with information they gave about themselves. For example, if the trader tells the consumer that they will pay their workers the living wage and this is important to the consumer and a reason why they decided to go with this particular trader, arguably this does not affect the value of the service but the consumer would still have the right to request a reduction of an “appropriate amount” to account for the breach.

But this does clearly imply for services that a price reduction can be a valid remedy without there being a loss in terms of money. 

Alternatively you could state the temperature of the venue was a reduction in the benefit you derived from the contract. 

In either case it's very subjective and ultimately if two parties can't reach an agreement you are looking at small claims. 

Details of the other issues may result in opinions but if you don't wish to accept £750 you'd need to negotiate for more and use the small claims process if an amount can't agreed. 

m0bov

What sort of venue is it? Manor house, modern venue?? Did you visit it before, maybe evening before to check on prep? Why was the venue cold, did they say? Was there a fault? If so, do they have the system serviced and do they have a call out contract in place? Or was it staff error, did they forget to turn it on? Have you got reviews or ways to contact others who used the venue, same experience?

What you need to establish, was this just bad luck, a fault beyond their control. An old venue, last minute failure.

Or is this something they should have delt with, putting the heating on in advanced, or a non working or non serviced system. It does sound like this might have happened before if they produced oil heaters suddenly! In which case, you have a stronger case for more compo.

If the service was poor, then its normally goodwill. But if they are charging top dollar but giving top service, then again its taken into consideration. You need to state your expectations and how they fell short.

ThumbRemote

Tucosalamanca said:

Did you ask or did they advise what the ambient temperature would be at the time of booking?

Did you specifically book because it was described as a 'warm' venue?
If they haven't misdescribed, I think they've been very generous already.

I've been to many receptions where the venue has been cold.
At my own wedding, the venue even had a box of blankets for guests to borrow.

A fairly typical occurrence I would say, and not one that requires compensation....

What a bizarre attitude. 

Did you ask or did they advise that they wouldn't hit you with a hammer? Did you specifically book because they said they wouldn't hit you with a hammer? Well, they haven't misdescribed so they can hit you with a hammer! 

See how utterly ridiculous that line of thinking is.

It is always, always, always down to the retailer to provide the information that the average customer might need, it is not down to the customer to ask about this. And I pity the guests at your wedding, being treated that way by their host. 

ThumbRemote

For an event like a wedding, you are entitled to claim "loss of enjoyment". Like holidays, this can even exceed the amount you paid in the first place. However you might need to go to court for it. 

Google "loss of enjoyment" wedding for some information, eg https://www.daslaw.co.uk/blog/weddings-no-fairy-tale-ending

Initially you need to think of a figure you want, and ask them for it. 

powerful_Rogue

ThumbRemote said:

Tucosalamanca said:

Did you ask or did they advise what the ambient temperature would be at the time of booking?

Did you specifically book because it was described as a 'warm' venue?
If they haven't misdescribed, I think they've been very generous already.

I've been to many receptions where the venue has been cold.
At my own wedding, the venue even had a box of blankets for guests to borrow.

A fairly typical occurrence I would say, and not one that requires compensation....

What a bizarre attitude. 

Did you ask or did they advise that they wouldn't hit you with a hammer? Did you specifically book because they said they wouldn't hit you with a hammer? Well, they haven't misdescribed so they can hit you with a hammer! 

See how utterly ridiculous that line of thinking is.

It is always, always, always down to the retailer to provide the information that the average customer might need, it is not down to the customer to ask about this. And I pity the guests at your wedding, being treated that way by their host. 

Is it really? I'm sure if it was a summer wedding people would ask the venue about aircon.