Wedding Band/Small Claims Court

baldshin

Hey folks,

Long story short, we've had to postpone our "big" wedding to next year, but are going ahead with a small wedding on the same date this year. We had booked a band and paid a deposit. When we contacted the band about the change of plan, we asked if they would be willing to play a smaller/shorter set to our smaller group, and they flat out said no, it's all or nothing.

So, we requested a refund of our deposit, which they have refused. We've trawled through the email correspondence when booking, the band's website and their T&Cs(which were only sent after paying the deposit, and nowhere is there reference to the deposit being non refundable.

I wanted to make a small claims court application in relation to this, but it seems this can't be done without having a postal address for the band, and I'm pretty sure they won't give one! Any ideas how to get around this? I've checked for their business name but it doesn't appear to be registered. If I ask for a VAT receipt for the deposit, should this have their address? (Though based on there being no results of them registered as a business, I have a feeling they're avoiding the tax man).

Any help appreciated!

whippet

It seems you are trying to amend the actual agreement ... I’m not sure you’d be entitled to the return of a deposit.

A deposit is usually a way of committing both parties to a certain date and service .. if they are prepared to provide the agreed service and you don’t want it anymore they may be entitled to retain the booking deposit

baldshin

whippet wrote: »

It seems you are trying to amend the actual agreement ... I’m not sure you’d be entitled to the return of a deposit.

A deposit is usually a way of committing both parties to a certain date and service .. if they are prepared to provide the agreed service and you don’t want it anymore they may be entitled to retain the booking deposit

Thanks for your reply. I agree to some extent, but we actually didn't even get that far to fully discuss with them, as they have been dismissive right away. We may have been willing to pay them the full amount even for less work, but they didn't engage. The lack of any terms relating to the deposit has me thinking they have no right to keep it unless providing us up to that value of a service.

We've since booked a different band for next year who clearly display their terms of the deposit and what percentage is retained depending on cancellations, which is fair enough.

Grolschevik

baldshin wrote: »

We may have been willing to pay them the full amount even for less work, but they didn't engage. .

Would it have been the same:
-Set list,
- Number of band members,
- Venue (both geographic location and room/facilities)?

Claw Hammer

baldshin wrote: »

We may have been willing to pay them the full amount even for less work, but they didn't engage. .

You never put that to them.
Ask for a VAT receipt and they might panic. Get a friend to contact them about another gig ad keep it going until more information about them comes out. Get phone nos email addresses etc, home addresses and vehicle reg nos.

baldshin

Grolschevik wrote: »

Would it have been the same:
-Set list,
- Number of band members,
- Venue (both geographic location and room/facilities)?

Only thing for sure that would be different would be the venue, which would now be in the home town of the band, as opposed to 90 minutes away.

baldshin

Claw Hammer wrote: »

You never put that to them.
Ask for a VAT receipt and they might panic. Get a friend to contact them about another gig ad keep it going until more information about them comes out. Get phone nos email addresses etc, home addresses and vehicle reg nos.

You're right, we never got the chance to put it to them as they shot us down so fast! Will try to do more digging to get contact details for small claims court.

Grolschevik

baldshin wrote: »

Only thing for sure that would be different would be the venue, which would now be in the home town of the band, as opposed to 90 minutes away.

Maybe the new venue wasn't suitable in terms of size, layout, stage area, loading in/out facilities, power outlets, insurance, or personal relationship to the band members. Home town or not, it was a material change to what they agreed to.

[Edit: of course, it may just have been an excuse to weasel out of your date, keep your deposit, and book another wedding for that date. However, that doesn't mean that they couldn't argue that the suitability of the new venue was the determining factor]