Wedding Venue Refund for Bad Service

Money_Grabber13579

ThumbRemote said:

[Deleted User] 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. 

Agreed, there are some things that just shouldn’t need asking. Will the venue be heated to a comfortable temperature, will the food be fit for human consumption, will they undertake that the local naturist society (or whatever) will not be wanting to use the same room at the same time etc.

With heating though, there is an acceptable range and some people might find certain temperatures within that range too hot and others too cold. There isn’t much can be done about that, if it is within that range.

What is reasonable for the circumstances also has to be considered. A purpose built indoor venue would be expected to be temperature controlled and so heated to a comfortable level.  A marquee in the garden in the middle of winter would not be expected to be warm and so guests should just expect to wear additional layers.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

ThumbRemote said:

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. 

I did wonder about that as the original holiday case mentioned contracts for leisure and enjoyment, useful link  

Undervalued

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

Did you (i.e being the people who had a contract with the venue) actually complain on the day, whist there was an opportunity for the venue to have put at least some of the issues right? 

Given that you clearly don't fee that £750 is enough, what amount do you feel would fairly compensate you?

Also, given that everybody there apparently suffered, are you going to share any compensation with your guests?

Generally in the UK, compensation where there is no tangible financial loss is fairly modest and it could well be that if you go to court you will get little if any more - and maybe less.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Undervalued said:

Generally in the UK, compensation where there is no tangible financial loss is fairly modest 

It's important to note that where the consumer does not derive the full benefit under the contract that is a financial loss in itself.

If you pay a plumber to fit 50m of pipe and they only fit 25m and then walk off it's easy to say they only did half the job whereas with something like this it's much harder to quantify, but with services anything the trader says or writes forms part of the contract so where a wedding venue promises you the time of your life for the big day and fails to deliver in certain aspects although they may have performed the service to a degree, the aspect missing is no different to the plumber only installing half the pipe in that you paid for something and didn't get it leading to a valid entitlement to a price reduction.

Loss of enjoyment is a more difficult area, relating to honeymooners on holiday awards have been between £321 to £1,890 in various cases, that situation being the closest example to wedding.

This articles covers holidays rather well:

https://www.dekachambers.com/2020/06/09/general-damages-in-holiday-claims-a-recap/

Undervalued

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Undervalued said:

Generally in the UK, compensation where there is no tangible financial loss is fairly modest 

It's important to note that where the consumer does not derive the full benefit under the contract that is a financial loss in itself.

If you pay a plumber to fit 50m of pipe and they only fit 25m and then walk off it's easy to say they only did half the job whereas with something like this it's much harder to quantify, but with services anything the trader says or writes forms part of the contract so where a wedding venue promises you the time of your life for the big day and fails to deliver in certain aspects although they may have performed the service to a degree, the aspect missing is no different to the plumber only installing half the pipe in that you paid for something and didn't get it leading to a valid entitlement to a price reduction.

Loss of enjoyment is a more difficult area, relating to honeymooners on holiday awards have been between £321 to £1,890 in various cases, that situation being the closest example to wedding.

This articles covers holidays rather well:

https://www.dekachambers.com/2020/06/09/general-damages-in-holiday-claims-a-recap/

Yes, but it is a bit of a stretch to extend that to a subjective matter of if the venue was acceptably warm, which seems to one of them major concerns here. I have no idea if there is a legally required temperature for social gatherings (as there is in offices say for employment purposes)? 

As your example suggests, if part of the agreed buffet was missing that would be much simpler.

I stick with my view that the OP has no guarantee that a court would award them significantly more than the offer on the table.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Undervalued said:

 if the venue was acceptably warm, which seems to one of them major concerns here ...... no guarantee that a court would award them significantly more than the offer on the table.

I do agree That's why it would be interesting to know the other issues, when there's one big issue it's easy to start picking and find other issues that would otherwise be trivial on the other hand they might be valid complaints on their own and OP just didn't fancy writing a prolonged post.