To ask for my money back?

[roseswade]

So I booked a make-up artist last year for my wedding in 2022. Paid a ‘non-refundable’ deposit. Communication was great at the beginning but after contacting multiple times to arrange my trial, I haven’t heard anything back.

I have since found out that this MUA has done the same thing to a lot of brides. She has taken deposits and hasn’t been communicating with them / is said to be cherry picking which weddings she turns up to. Apparently she was great up until around 12 months ago when she suddenly stopped turning up to weddings / wouldn’t reply to people properly but is still taking bookings and deposits.

She has deleted her Google Business profile so that the bad reviews don’t show up and also deletes any negative reviews on social media.

After commenting many times on her social media to say that I was being ignored over email and phone, I finally had a response from her PA (which she didn’t have before) to say they’d been so busy and they’d look at my emails (some of which I sent back in March of this year). Completely understand this has been a crazy year for weddings but a quick email acknowledgment wouldn’t go amiss.

Anyway, AIBU to try and get my deposit back and cancel her? Is this something I can even do? It was apparently non refundable but how can I be sure she’ll turn up on my wedding day if I can’t get hold of her?
Should I swallow the deposit money?

I'm not a lawyer but I did see something on a legal thing that non-refundable only really sticks if they have costs to cover before the service is provided eg purchasing ingredients for a cake, carrying out your make up trial so using products etc.

I'd send a letter before action and threaten small claims court. It's a shitty way to run a business. And I've seen people start FB groups after shitty companies rip them off so they can't delete the negative publicity.

Start a paper trail so you have evidence.

What a shitty thing to do when your already anxious about other things.

How much was your deposit and how did you pay? I think you have very little chance of recovering your money so probably best cutting your losses and finding someone else. Better that than giving her more money and then wondering if she will show on the day.

@AJ1425 deposit was £100 and I paid via BACS as this is what most places ask for annoyingly.

I feel like I’m probably not going to get the money back and I don’t it could be a lot worse and be in the thousands, it’s just frustrating when £100 could go towards something else. But I guess we live and learn!

@TimeForTeaAndG ah that’s interesting! She was actually charging separately for the trial (which most MUA seem to do) so I’ve only paid the initial deposit.

@finished31 I’ve started screenshotting every message and have kept a folder with all of my unanswered emails. It’s very frustrating but I feel fortunate that I’ve found this out while I’ve still got time to find someone else! I just wish I could get my money back