To try and get my deposit back?

[ShadowTheHedgehog]

I was meant to be getting a treatment from someone at the beginning of the month, I paid a £50 deposit and was all booked in. We messaged back and forth the day prior to my appointment to discuss what I wanted. The next day I arrive and the other members of staff approach me and ask how they can help, I say I'm here for my appointment with X. They tell me she hasn't worked there for over a week now. I check my instagram messages and she messaged me 3 hours before my appointment to tell me she had moved, I wouldn't have had enough time to get ready and get to where she was on time. I lost my £50 deposit as I was considered a "no show" as the "space was left empty". She told me "I did post about my move on instagram" I don't really use instagram and I feel that she should have mentioned the day before as we were messaging to communicate that she had moved and not just assumed I had saw her post. The deposit was paid via bank transfer. WWYD?

That's a joke, can you do a chargeback via your bank?

I could raise a dispute. I'm with Monzo if that helps

Either she books you in for another appointment - no further deposit to be taken or....Seek to have it refunded, as she is in the wrong for not informing you directly about the change of location.
Can't remember with a bank transfer whether you can seek a refund through the bank - might be worth following up.
Last resort small claims - which will cost her more.....

So I did go to another appointment but had to pay a new deposit but she "kindly" offered for me to only pay £25 deposit. The reason I went back to her was because it was for a tattoo and she had drawn it. I wasn't sure if I'd have been able to take someone elses work to another artist

Did you book directly with her, or with the salon?

If you directly messaged her and booked in via her Instagram profile which had her new place of work as the contact details, you might struggle. Also 3 hours isn’t enough notice to have got to her new place?

She had made a post a few weeks ago to say she had moved but it wasn't in her bio so I wouldn't have known to look. i think she could have told me the night before at least instead of assuming I knew, regardless of if I had enough time to get there or not

Legally speaking, you're in the right. No reasonable person would think 'Oh, must manually check my instagram messages just in case she's randomly moved to different premises' would they? The onus is 100% on her to ensure you know that the appointment location had changed, otherwise the deposit is waived.

Honestly though, if she decides to be a dick about it it's going to be really tough to change her mind...

Yeah, exactly! I wouldnt have thought to check for that information! My friend had a tattoo done by her just a week or so before at the original location, so it was reasonable to assume she would still be there! I was also at that appointment with my friend so she could have mentioned it at that point to say she was moving as I had already spoken to her via message to arrange getting an appointment

It may have been a ... um... 'sudden' move and not exactly amicable. Who knows? The point is it's not like she had hundreds of people to contact. It was on her to ensure you knew and acknowledged the location change, and it's unreasonable for her to expect you to be psychic and proactively check messages on a random social media platform. I might have missed this, but did she have your phone number/other means to contact you? It doesn't really matter if not, because she should have already pre-decided to waive the deposit for those who didn't know - suddenly moving premises and the upheaval that goes with it is a cost of doing business that is hers alone to meet.

No, she didn't have a phone number for me. She was dealing with bookings via dm's. As I say, we were messaging back and forth the day before so she could have told me then

Be worth mentioning to her then that she could have mentioned it during the conversation you had, and it's not reasonable to expect someone to check their messages at such short notice. A sudden change in venue is both unusual and unexpected, and you would hope that goodwill would be extended considering the issue wasn't your fault.

She's basically financially penalising you for the change SHE made, which isn't on.

Thank you for the reassurance. Ive contacted my bank to see if anything can be done. It was just a bank transfer so basically like paying someone in cash so not sure if I will get anywhere

My bank have told me I cant dispute this as it was a bank transfer and not a card payment

Ask her. The appointment was booked in and dealt with. Ask her if it's reasonable to expect you to have to manually check your DMs on a social media account you don't frequently use right up until your appointment time, just to be sure she hasn't suddenly changed the location? If she doubles down, point out there's nothing in her T&Cs that states that you should have done this? (even if there randomly was, it wouldn't be enforceable anyway so I'd be interested to see what she says to this).

Finally, if she says 'non refundable means non refundable whatever the reason' that's not a lawful term anymore. Otherwise traders could take hundreds of deposits and then just not show up for work, and keep the deposits for doing fuck all. In terms of consumer laws, traders are only entitled to retain funds for direct losses and expenses incurred from work they've already done, and she has technically breached your 'contract' by changing venue. The basis of the contract would be x service at y venue for z price. ANY change to that agreement has to be agreed by BOTH parties.

Anyway start softly softly, appeal to her good nature () and slowly escalate through my post I guess... You can PM me if you want. Can't stand this sole traders who don't know shit about how to run a business.

Report her to Trading Standards. This is totally unacceptable. Was the transfer to her personally or to a firm. What a total chancer.

This is an old thread. Didn't realise.