Wedding venue problems

A question about : Wedding venue problems

Hi (reposting as I think I posted in the wrong place previously - sorry!)

Newbie to these boards to please bear with me!!

My fiance and I booked a wedding venue in May this year, we paid Ј5000 upfront - at the time I loved the venue and the owners were very pushy at getting us to enter into an agreement. We are due to get married in July next year and although, I know this is a long way off, I wanted to start getting things organised. We had no receipt and we have never signed anything as we paid by card over the phone. However, the money has been taken out our account as it is shown on card statements (not credit card unfortunately).

Anyway, I have spent 2 months trying to get hold of them (by phone and email) as we had no receipt of the money paid and finally have and they have turned round and told me that they have no record of us and have no paper work etc etc. I am fuming and I have had it and dont want to get married there. Their attitude has been very rude and no aplogies have been made for this - just an email telling me to supply them with full names, addresses, date of wedding and what was agreed with the manager.

Since being unable to contact them I have read some horrendous reviews and I really dont want to get married there, I am so scared that my wedding will be ruined. I am fuming but we have paid an extortionate amount of money and I have no idea whether we could get it back. We cannot afford to lose that money but I dont wish to pay it to incompetent people who have no record of us, I could not rely on them to get the rest of the day right.

Has anyone got any advice, I am already totally wrecked with this and dont know where to start.

Best answers:

• I would start by arranging a face to face meeting with the manager of the venue. Take your bank statements to the venue and ask for a full refund as they have messed you around. I would also ring your bank and explain the situation to them. They maybe abe to help.
  Good luck...by the way Ј5000 is a MASSIVE desposit to pay :-(
• ...especially with no recipt or paperwork
  you need a meeting asap with as much proof as you can gather together however I would go in with the idea that you want your booking, not that you want to cancel.
  If you go in saying you want to cancel and you have no proof you paid anything then I can only see you being out of pocket as the end result
• If they've taken money from you it is their responsability to provide a receipt. You have a statement showing who the money has been paid to, so suggest they get their finger out and sort it!!
• Yes they have taken the money, the thing that gets me is that they are not willing to apologise or admit to doing anything wrong, they are just requesting all the information and details of what we booked, including our names, addresses, how much we paid and for what I dont even know if they have booked the date of our wedding to someone else. I am so angry that I really can't even think of having our wedding there - particularly as the reviews I have read since having all these problems have been horrific!
  Karen, yes we know that is a HUGE deposit, but it was a pay upfront scheme to save money and it has paid for everything. We are by no means well off but that was OHs savings. The thing that gets me the most is that the manager has been avoiding my calls and emails for 2 months now and now he has got someone else to email me for all the information. I am fuming - it seems like we have picked the wrong person to have a disagreement with though as everyone has told me he is arrogant and money grabbing. Wish I knew all this before we booked. I feel like my day has been ruined already and there is no way out. :-(
• Have you been to talk to them face to face and shown them proof that the payment went through? Mistakes happen and maybe the proof would sort it.
• Thanks fir the reply, no we havent met them as the manager has been avoiding my calls and emails and apparently is 'too busy'. The only time i have heard from this is yesterday, after 6 weeks of ringing, to say they have no record of us. Yes, I understand mistakes do happen but not to apologise and avoid the issue is what is the problem. I just cannot go through with having the wedding with them, I have lost all faith in them and would be so worried that more will go wrong. We have printed off the bank statements and it says their venue in black and white so I dont see how they can deny they have the money but I also dont know if we can get it back.
• Sorry but if I had been trying to contact a place that I had given Ј5000 to for 6 weeks, id have paid em a visit with my receipts and asked them what the hecks going on.
  Go and see them today or tomorrow and don't leave until its sorted.
  If if given someone Ј5000, if be camping out on their doorstep!!!
• I don't know anything about this sort of thing so please take my advice with a pinch of salt, but i'd think about having a chat with trading standards too
• This happened to a couple i was working with last year, they paid the deposit which was a large sum and left it at that, the wedding co-ordinator in the hotel said everthing was booked and they need not worry about anything until closer to the date.....
  they had to send invites out early as alot of the guests were coming from overseas and rang up to book rooms only to find that the hotel did not have a wedding booked on that date for mr and miss x but mr and miss z.
  the couple rang the hotel and finally found out after about 50 phone calls and numerous visits that the in hotel wedding co-ordinator who had since left had not put the wedding date onto the computer and therfore had booked the date out to another couple.
  luckily they had took out wedding insurance and it covered the deposit and booked a venue elsewhere , i now insist that all couples i work with have wedding insurance !
  also the so called wedding co-ordinator was a youngish girl who used to be the receptionist and took on the role as a wedding co-ordinator with no training or experiance in co-ordinating weddings.
  my advice would be to go to the hotel with the proof you have of the maoney being taken from your account and demand a refund if they wont do this contact trading standards , also get wedding insurance asap from Ј49
  hope it works out for you
• Has she given you a receipt yet? You do need some acknowledgement that they have accepted your money.
  If it is not on their books, I am sure trading standards would want to inform the Inland Revenue.
• Call into the CAB tomorrow and speak to somebody there. Hopefully they will point you on the right track Good luck!
• Bloodyhell what a mess!!
  Seriously, if I were you, I would want to cancel too.
  There is NO way, if they can't even sort the booking and desposit out properly, that I'd leave my wedding day in their hands.
  Keep hounding them. Ring up twice a day if you have to.
  Tell them that you will be back on X day (what day can you get back there?) and you either want the booking sorted and a receipt, or a full refund, going back on your card, that same day in front of your eyes.
  I'm quite sure that they wouldn't miss Ј5K slipping into their account!
  Who did the payment go to anyway? What does it show as on your bank statement?
• Hi Beks,
  You poor thing, sounds like you're being put through the wringer there and to be honest, these people sound as dodgy as the day is long. What venue is it - may I ask?
  A good friend of mine had a similar issue last month with her supplier in Sydney. They thought that because she didn't have a lot of money, she would be screwed and would not be able to afford to take legal action if they didn't comply with their original agreement.
  We sent out a letter to the company similar to the one I have put below.
  In her case, it worked - the hint that she had access to legal representation without need to pay (family) was enough to prod them into action. Her 'phantom brother' has been very handy! lol)
  You could try it and see if it works for you?
  Whatever you choose to do, make sure you get copies of the contract, make sure when you do that THEY have signed it as well. It's always a good idea to try to do as much as you can via email and letters - this provides a 'paper trail' that can be followed in the event that these people are as dodgy as they seem to be and try to scarper with your cash.
  If you are speaking to them via phone and they tell you that they'll send something via mail to you WRITE IT DOWN! Then ask them to email you the details of what they're sending as you're 'sure to forget', blame it on 'BridalBrain' if you must, but get their agreement to email you.
  Keep a log of all of the calls you make to them, and calls you receive from them.
  If you speak to someone at the venue and they take a message for you - always ask for that persons name so you can log it down.
  Wishing you the very best of luck with this.
  Kel.
  x
  7th September 20009
  Venue Name
  Managers Name
  Address
  Address
  Suburb, County, Postcode
  Dear __________,
  It was such a pleasure to meet with you this weekend and discuss the wedding plans, we cannot wait for Mr___________ to return so we may finalise the details and get the planning underway.
  Upon our return, we realised that we had not been supplied with a receipt from your company for the deposit of £5,000 we made some six weeks ago and were wondering if you would supply one at your earliest convenience?
  Normally this would not be an issue, however, my brother is assisting me with the finances and, being a solicitor, he's been hounding me solidy for a week about this receipt business. At my brothers request I have attached a copy of our bank statement showing payment to your company as proof of our deposit, if you require a notorised copy, my brothers firm is happy to oblige.
  We also seem to have missed out on receiving our copy of the contract, agreements of service and the wedding planning booklets that were going to be sent out to us by your business partner. We would appreciate you being able to send them to us by the end of the week as we are trying to get everything sorted with our insurance.
  Looking forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
  Regards
  Your Name Here.
  CC: NAME OF A LAW FIRM IN YOUR AREA
• Thanks everyone for your replies, it has really helped to get other peoples perspective on this. I have made my mind up now and there is no way I can entrust my wedding day to peeople who are inept and just don't seem to give a damn. Since having all these problems and speaking to friends, I have been warned about the owner of this property and found a lot of damning reviews on the internet, particularly with reference to him not delivering his promises and pushing hard for the sale and then not bothering - how true has this been in my case.
  This venue is in Kent but until it is all sorted, I wont publish the name but once it is sorted (hopefully) then I will publish the name. If anyone is planning on getting married in east Kent, let me know so you can avoid it at all costs - dont make my mistake and be fooled!
  The payment shows on the statement as going to the venues name so not a personal account which would have been more worrying. The only other thing, is that yesterday we were asked to email the venues main email address as apparently I had emailed his 'personal email' and hers which is why I had no response???? But when I checked online there is no email address available, it is all filling in forms and they will email you back. When I filled in the online application for wedding appt it went straight to his blackberry and he called me within 5 minutes - funny how it changes once he has the money! All it would have taken at the beginning was for him to reply and say 'im sorry but ive lost your info, can you fill it in again?' then all would be okay, not just ignore me! Because there is no email address available I am going to have to email her first in order to get the email address of the venue. Bizarre!
  At the moment, I dont think they are doubting that I have paid and when we turned up yesterday she presumed we were just going to fill in the forms again but still get no receipt, but my faith is gone and their arrogance is unbelievable. The good thing is that it was a weekday wedding so if we do get our money back, we should have fewer problems finding another venue. Right, thats enough waffling from me, got to get things rolling!!
• Trading standards or Consumer direct should help you out.
• I booked for some bowling once. Left my card details as a deposit then discovered they'd taken the full amount out. Got on to card fraud and got my money back that way. A free game of bowling, and a big apology. Trading standards is also a good one to approach.