RESTAURANT BOOKING CANCELLED - DEPOSIT TAKEN FROM BANK

[Aweekoffwork]

We booked a Valentine’s meal at Miller & Carter but, about four days beforehand, cancelled (because of the high cost which was not made clear on the website).

They have taken £20 deposit from my Bank and it’s impossible to get through to them to ask them to refund. I’m sure in the small print it might say non-refundable deposit but has anyone else had a similar experience?

They are definitely non-refundable. Sorry, OP, you've lost that money.

They won’t refund because, yes, it’s a non refundable deposit.

Thank yoooooo

These are their terms and conditions

You cancelled, deposit forfeit.

Unless you can show the information was egregiously misleading no comeback.

That's shocking that the deposit was completely non-refundable.

That’s what a deposit is for.

It's unusual for it to be non refundable - if sufficient notice is given.

They may enforce the deposit more rigidly on Valentine's Day and other popular times.
I presume it also depends on what reason was given. If it was because it's too expensive that's something that probably should have been established before going ahead and booking.
Some places won't refund a deposit but will move it to book a different night - I don't know if this place would do that (and it may be more affordable on a non-special day)?

You had a lucky escape. Miller and Carter is a Berni Inn with pretensions.

Surely the validity of the small print is contingent on the price being clear, though? If you can document the issues with the price I’d keep complaining and do a chargeback.

Not for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or New Year's Eve. Those are make or break for restaurants.

deposits are usually un refundable

Their meals are usually £50pp so would expect to pay around £100 + for set menu

what was the cost @Aweekoffwork and did you not ask /check before booking

If you d manage to contact them, you could ask if they would be willing to transfer the £20 to another book and go on a day. That’s probably the best you are going to get from them.

They are not usually unrefundable. In our experience they usually have a cancellation period , if they didn’t we’d book elsewhere . Any good restaurant has a waitlist.

The whole point of a deposit is that you lose your money if you change your mind

How much was it OP and how did they advertise it? What wasn’t clear?

Thank you for replies.

it would have been £50 per head plus drinks. I only found out this after talking to a work colleague. On the website there were just two options: Set Menu or Valentine’s Menu with no details of what the menus consisted of (I probably should have spent longer looking on the website 🙄 coz it would’ve been somewhere)

I’m just writing it off 😅 but thanks for your help 😄

Just curious here - did they take the deposit at the time of booking? Or after you cancelled? If they took the deposit when you booked then I think that’s fair enough. But if they took it after you cancelled that seems a bit iffy to me.

@mrschocolatte I’ll check ☺️

The bank won’t do that if it says the deposit was non-refundable.

Very common to have a non refundable fee for people who cancel on premium dates like Valentine’s Day.

£50 a head plus drinks sounds pretty standard for a valentines set menu … presumably 3 courses, inc steak.

Yeah, this.
The last one I went to was filthy and overpriced.
It's no better than a beefeater or frankie and bennys

If the restaurant advertised the meal at a different price when it took the deposit or made it seem as if you could order from the normal menu (as it seemed from the OP), it should be refundable as the terms have changed. But from the subsequent posts it sounds that OP made the reservation aware that she hadn’t read far enough to know the price, so of course, she won’t have a hope of getting the deposit back.