Daughters party Deposit

[anonqrtb]

This has (undeservingly) taken over my day and I need some perspective if I am being unreasonable, and if i'm not - what the hell can I do about it?!

Booked and paid £50 deposit for my daughters 2nd birthday party at a role play centre close by in March/April time. (Party is for end of September)

I have since decided to do something smaller at home so have emailed to cancel and have been told my deposit is non refundable.

To be clear:
At no point on either their facebook page, website or emails back and forth was it described as Non-refundable. I have triple checked everywhere, it does not state its Non-refundable.
The party is for the end of September, so over 10 weeks away. If I was cancelling like 2 weeks before I wouldn't even query it.

I am massively pissed off about it, and have explained so in my email to them. Its mainly pissing me off because it just feels like greed? They have 10 weeks to either book another party, or just open as a normal session which given its a Saturday will quickly fill slots.
Whats more annoying is this is somewhere we go often, and I would of spent way more than £50 there over the next few months. But now it's put a massive sour taste in my mouth.

Any suggestions on how I can get my money back? So far my last email has gone unanswered.

YABU - You paid a deposit and should not expect it back
YANBU - Its cheeky fuckery.

People taking 2 mins to post a response is hardly 'invested'.

Anyway, I'm glad the venue are keeping your money. They deserve it.

Wonderful! I love an over-dramatic flounce! 🤣🤣🤣 I don't think the OP was getting the answers she wanted!

What do you think a deposit is for?

I agree with others that a deposit is non refundable unless specifically noted otherwise. Sometimes it's transferable to another date as a goodwill gesture at the discretion of the company. You could ask them if this is an option if you wanted to move the party to next year.
If it was circumstances outside your control which meant the party needed to be cancelled, then they could be appealed to, but it sounds like you just changed your mind?

I have said multiple times - They will not loose out on my cancellation of my booking.

They are a business that needs income and they're entitled to rely on bookings made and deposits paid for and accounted.

You say you accept you're being unreasonable but then you're still saying they're not losing out so you don't really seem to get it.

Sorry I think you will need to take this one on the chin. I think the confusion has arisen as in recent years there has a been a growth in the 'refundable deposit' sales pitch - but the fact the word deposit has been qualified by the word 'refundable' is the hint that usually deposits are not refundable.

I have to make it clear for commissions that any deposit is non-returnable, and yes I know it's lost me business, but that's how it is.

No flounce! I geniunely just can't wrap my head around the negativity when on the grand scheme of things it geniunely doesn't matter to anyone - i dont even care that much!

Not that any of it matters - just recieved an email to say they agree, it isnt stated anywhere that it is Non-refundable and have now refunded me my deposit 😀 , I'm sure that's going to ruffle a few feathers on this post.

May the Lord open x

TBH from the beginning I was wondering why you weren't asking them to show you where exactly it was written down.

Result!

...yet people are replying like I've punched a child in the face or something?!

OMG you punched a child in the face!?! 😉

Yeah not sure why everyone is piling on you still - well I am, it's because it's MN and they love a pile on.
Hope your little one has a nice birthday whatever you do.

Well Said

Like i said, if i was cancelling last minute or even up to 4 weeks before then i wouldn't have mentioned it either way.

The thing is, you have this distinction in your head of "before X date - refundable, after X date - not", but they haven't given any time-based distinction, which would unfortunately make me assume that a person who cancels with lots of notice is in the same boat as the person who cancels the day before.

It is a bit annoying that they don't have such a policy, but that's their choice. Hope you have a nice party whatever!

The size of the venue and whether it's completely closed or not doesn't matter though - the issue is in terms of potential financial loss.

Op has now confirmed what I thought - the cost of booking the whole venue is less than cancellation of an 8 person table on a Friday night unless your "restaurant" is wetherspoons.

@1offnamechange I'm not disagreeing. I'm saying their loss would be higher than ours as they would lose out on a whole venue hire.

I understand how it works. I own 4 independents.

It's not money grabbing . It called running a business and allowing for planning and turning away other customers who might also have wanted that date. You ppl want businesses to be active and offer you a service but you don't want to factor in their costs and their procedures. Deposits are also to stop ppl booking dates and then not completing the booking because businesses would have alot of issues if everyone did this and then pulled out last minute because they can just get their money back.

They’re ten weeks out and have not incurred any costs. They could at least have offered a refund if they’re able to re-book the date.

Same...I'm an independent celebrant and I charge a 'booking fee' of one third of my ceremony fee. This is non-refundable and my Ts&Cs clearly state this.

I changed the wording from 'deposit' to 'booking fee' on the advice of my accountant who said this was much clearer for clients to understand (although 'deposit' was fine, and is still non-refundable, somehow the change of wording is more palatable 🤷‍♀️)

Love this OP clap back at the vipers 🤣

It's like a play centre for kids that's often like a little town, with a shop and a hairdressers and a vets with lots of dress up clothes and things where kids can play role play.

www.tinytownadventures.co.uk/copy-of-about

OP I'm with you, you have plenty of notice and it's clear the business wouldn't lose out by you cancelling the party. If you were within a couple of weeks of the party date then maybe they'd have more reason to not refund as they'd have planned staff and food etc accordingly but to try and keep your deposit this far out is a bit much. Glad to see they refunded you.

they have already spent time on your booking though, for you to have changed your mind… they have emailed you, they have booked the slot, they have then had to update their website so the public slots aren’t booked, they now need to change it back so they are spending more time doing that. Change any catering orders they have preemptively booked and potentially change staffing. there is no guarantee for them they they will fill the slots. I assume it’s a small business, they just can’t consume these costs because people change their minds.

What do you think a deposit is for?!

You have literally no idea that they won't miss out. For all you know, a week after you booked, a TV company called, asked to hire the venue for filming and offered £2000. Or maybe a staff member turned down a wedding invite because there was a party on. Yes I get those are unlikely but stop assuming you know they haven't missed out on anything because of your booking.

You are disagreeing though because you're saying their loss would be higher. That would only be the case if your one table spent less than £215, which on a weekend night anywhere other than a very cheap restaurant would be quite hard to do these days.

For example
£320 (a party of 8 spending £40 p/head, which tbh I still think is probably on the low side) is a lot MORE than £215 (the cost OP paid to hire out the venue)

Therefore you losing out on just ONE table would be a BIGGER FINANCIAL LOSS
than OPs party venue being closed for 2 hours.

Therefore YOUR loss would be higher.

I literally don't know how I can break it down any more than that...

You do know what a DEPOSIT is right? YABVU

This is why, when you pay a deposit, you ask for the T&Cs and cancellation policy. I know what Judge Judy would say....