I am currently in the process of organizing my wedding. I booked a company to take care of the chair covers and things like that and once they took my money they pretty much stopped contact even though I sent several emails with enquiries about the booking.

This company sent me their terms and conditions and a booking form a couple of weeks ago as my fiancee rang up and told them how we felt about their company.

For around 2 months I have been asking for my deposit back and they are now refusing on the grounds of 'It says in the terms and conditions that the deposit is non-refundable'

I wasn't shown the terms and conditions before securing the booking so I wanted to know where I stand before opening up a civil court case as the deposit was £75 and we're already scraping the barrel to pay for the wedding as we want it to be a great day.

We now have to go and find another company to do the work and not getting the deposit back will largely affect the quality we can afford.

hi,
dont know were you will stand getting your money deposit, but try Vikkie Mcguinness,Sapphire bespoke events you will find her on facebook. highly recommended x

Hey, thanks. I have just emailed them! Thanks again.

Any company worth anything would be happier to give you your money back rather than lose you as a customer. Just say, that you are prepared to openly discuss their treatment of you within wedding forums and other people in the area and they will hopefully refund you in order to prevent any bad press.

Good luck with your wedding.

Trust me they don't care. I was recommended them by the hotel so I said to them that I would be passing my comments onto the wedding co ordinator who recommended them and they emailed back saying that they are appalled with my attitude....

top company. I think not.

Have opened a civil court case as they are refusing to return my deposit which at no point was called 'non-refundable' and claiming it is for admin fees. So ironic considering they ignored all my correspondence until I mentioned a refund.

Check out the Unfair Terms in Contracts Act, basically your contract was formed when you paid your deposit, they only sent you the additional Ts&Cs later, which means that they aren't worth the paper they're written on (unless you were, or reasonably should have been, aware of them).

I'll dig out the exact section if you really need it.

I thought that was the case but wasn't totally sure. Studied business law in college and we briefly touched upon this but I just didn't know if I was thinking about the right thing.

I briefly touched upon my law lecturer in college and we were both thinking the right thing.....probably why I paid so much attention

Its not a good idea to pay a deposit without an exchange of contract but it had happened. I think you need to show that they were in breach of the contract before taking them to the Small Claims Court. You may have to justify why you did not enquire about a refundable deposit if you chose not to proceed with the contract. Ultimately you could win the case if you say they put this clause in the Terms and Conditions which you received after you signed the contract - making the contract void. But then why did you not ask for these T&C beforehand - the result could be either way in the court.
Also, you have persistently communicated with them over a period of time and they failed to acknowledge this - is this a possible clause of 'breach of contract'? Was there any statements of communications where they responded to you within a certain amount of time?
There are various act to cover services and goods - Citizens Advice Bureau would guide you through the Small Claims Court paperwork as I think you could have a case of Breach of Contract.

Agree with ponytail check facts with cab or trading standards before paying small claims court fee. Problem you have is that failure to respond to emails is not a breach of contract.I have no doubt that their defence will be that they have every intention of providing the service and by definition the service/contract would only be capable of being provided on your wedding day.
At very least you need to send a 7 day recorded delivery letter requesting return of deposit. If you paid by credit card contact provider

It's a bit late now because I started the claim last night haha. Oh well. My understanding was that it is the companies duty to provide a copy of the terms and conditions before I pay anything and then if they had sent me some and I chose not to read them then that would be a different story.

It's not even like I signed the booking form with the terms and conditions on when they actually sent me it, 5 months after booking.

I'm not trying to prove a breach of contract, I'm trying to prove that because I was not given the opportunity to read the t's and c's that I can not be expected to be bound by them as they could just add in some without my notice.

My understanding is that each party needs to have access to a copy of these. So they don't have a leg to stand on really. Just annoys me because we're already just about getting through and the way they've spoken to me gets on my nerves too.

As soon as they took the money that was it. Such a joke.

Strange but true a business does not have to issue Terms and Conditions to customers/clients.
A verbal contract is binding and your greater problem will be if the company demands the full cost of the order.
Please do speak to the CAB.

I take deposits for my disco's and for wedding cars aswell we do this for a number of reasons mostly because it's classed as a binding contract between two parties. the only time the deposit would not be returned, is if the original booking were to be cancelled with less than 14 days before the event. if you look into the legalities of terms and conditions on any such contract you will find that unless they have been notarised they aren't worth the paper they are written on.they also have to be sent out with the original contract before anything is signed and any deposit given. sad they choose to act like this and tarnish your plans.

It is, I've studied business for years and am in my final year in a degree in business and pr and I have to say I'm disgusted at the way they do business, not just the way they've treated me.

I assume if I win the civil case I can post their name on here which I plan to do on both counts.

I've found another company called sapphire events based in wallasey who seem to be a lot better and I will be recommending that brook meadow don't recommend the original company I went with. If anyone wants to know the name whilst I can't post it feel free to pm me.