WasIBU to think the party wasn’t going ahead?

[TruJay]

About a month ago I called the place my DS desperately wanted his birthday party at to book. Gave all details over the phone, guy said the date I wanted was available etc he then said that they were in the process of changing their website and stuff and that he wasn’t at the venue at that moment so he wasn’t in a position to fully confirm or take a deposit but he would call me the following week (when he was at the venue) to take a deposit and confirm and arrange for me to get invitations from them etc etc Ok no problem.

I never heard anything the following week so I called them, no answer. Called again, no answer. Dh an I both called the venue around 10 times in total and I drove to the venue 3 times to do everything in person, each time venue was closed.

As the party date was getting closer and we’d need to start to invite ds’s friends soon we decided there was nothing else we could do and assumed the place had closed or something, no idea really
We didn’t send out any invites and explained to an upset ds that the place had never got back to us and we couldn’t get through to them so the party wasn’t going ahead. We just thought how on earth can we invite 15 kids to a party, have them all turn up with no certainty that the party was even happening.

Fast forward to the day that the party was supposed to be we get a call from an unknown mobile number and a very angry person on the other end asking where the hell we were and that he’d got staff here as they’re expecting a party and being really aggressive down the phone!

Dh and I totally baffled by the call as apart from that initial call of “yes that date is available but I’m not at the venue right now and our website is being revamped so I can’t confirm just now but give me your number and I’ll call you next week and we’ll finalise the booking, take deposit...” that was our only contact. I really feel we did our best to confirm this party and we were met with a brick wall each time. Have we BU here? Feel gutted for DS and he so wanted this party and all along it could have gone ahead had they been contactable/venue open when their stated times said they should have been. Totally pissed off at the whole situation tbh

You enquired about the possibility of making a booking.
You did not make a booking.
The other circumstances would not be relevant in court.
They would need to show evidence that you proceeded with the booking and, as they don’t have any (because you didn’t), it wouldn’t be much of a case.

I’m always stunned when people who run their own business shout and hang up on people.
They sound very disorganised! I think I would have covered my own arse with a venue and emailed them to say I assumed the party wasn’t going ahead but you shouldn’t have to do that!

Leave feedback on their Facebook page or website. They'll love that!!

Entirely reasonable on your part, it sounds like the manager has realised they are in the shit and is panicking.

Have you a class page on Facebook? I’d be keen to warn other parents about your experience. I’d also leave a factual review on the company’s page, although they may be able to delete it.

p.s. It is amazing when businesses try to blame these cock ups on their customers. I once booked a DJ for a school disco, I phoned twice to confirm the details and asked for an email to confirm and they said oh we don't do that but it's definitely in the diary.
Day of disco arrived, no DJ, I phoned and was told it was in the diary for the day after then got a mouthful of abuse when I told them that was no good because I had 200 children arriving in an hour.

That’s exactly it, I expected that follow up call to take my deposit and confirm the amount of children coming and we also discussed whether I wanted to add an extra food package and we said we’d decide that on the confirmation call. I wanted that bloody follow up call, ds really wanted that party. Had I had that confirmation call, invites would have been straight out to friends and we’d have all been looking forward to it.

I too thought that the anger and shouting was because he was annoyed at the incompetence of whoever was supposed to follow up and the fact that they thought there was a party booked and we just hadn’t turned up which couldn’t be further than the truth. As a business you think that they’d be tracking me down for that deposit!

*further from the truth

@gamerwidow that is really crap! What happened in the end?

@TestingTestibgWonTooFree

I’ve already told some parents of a few children who were to be invited as they’re family friends so we talk regularly but yes good idea to mention to others so the same doesn’t happen to them

TruJay We had a panicked half hour of phone calls and found a parent with a PA and some lights willing to help out and DJ for us. Got it set up with seconds to spare.

YADNBU! Part of my job involves taking bookings for children’s parties. I’m having a little chuckle to myself, imagining what would happen if we assumed that everyone who enquired about a party had actually booked it. ‘How long shall we give it then? That’s the fifteenth party this month hasn’t shown up..’