refusal to refund?

[sowaddayasay]

hope you can give me some advice! I booked a children's party a few days ago, well in advance for a day in August. On the phone I was told that , if I need to cancel, I should tell them 30 days in advance, in writing.

So now our circumstances have changed and I need to cancel. I called and the young woman on the phone said "You can't have a refund, you can only reschedule" I said that the terms and conditions on the back of the doc they sent say that you must write to them 30 days in advance. She told me to email the manager.

Looking back at the terms and conditions, it also says that the manager reserves the right to refuse an application or cancel or terminate any booking without bound to give any reason. The heading for that clause is "Refusal of cancellation of booking by manager". Is that legal? We have given £113 deposit! The terms say that they would keep £20 cancellation fee anyway, which I think is a bit much for sending us a letter but can they really keep our deposit?

It's making me feel a bit sick...

thanks in advance

AFAIK, yes they can keep a deposit.
They might be prepared to return it if they can relet it, which I'm sure they could as it's far in advance. What kind of party was it?

A children's party in a soft play area...she didn't mention on the phone they might refuse to and it's almost well over the time they require to cancel. Mind you, they haven't officialy said no yet, I was alarmed by the person on the phone saying we'd have to rebook. Thanks agent.

Did you have a copy of the t&c when you booked??

no, I was send the terms and conditions with the invites. On the phone she only said that I should inform them in advance and that they would keep £20 admin fee. Definitely no indication they may refuse.

I was sent

actually, the £113 is not a deposit, it's the minimum fee (for 10 children). So, they would still keep 20 but the rest is fee.

Bump