DD's old nursery are avoiding giving me back my deposit

[spagblog]

My DD attended a well known chain of nurseries from Sept 02 to Sept 04. I withdrew her as I had just had DS and couldn't afford to keep her there. I asked them to keep the deposit in so that when she got her nursery vouchers we could still have her place. However we then moved to Norwich and I requested our deposit (£70) be returned to us.
However, it is now almost 9 months and 5 chasing up phonecalls later and still no money.
Whenever I call I get different answers. They say that they have no paperwork to show I paid a deposit, they say that it has been requested from head office, they say that the person I need to speak to isn't there and she will call me back...never does...

What ought I do now?

go straight to head office. write them a formal letter telling them if you dont receive the deposit within x no of days you will go to lea (or whoever regualtes nurseries - would check that first lol). also try to find your own proof of deposit being paid if poss (bank statements showing cheque being cashed?)

We paid cash, and I can't remember getting a receipt...If I did I don't have it now.
I just called again and the lady wouldn't give me head office details and said she would look into it again and call me back this afternoon - heard that one before.

what chain is it? if you can find the details of another one of theirs online call them and ask for head office details. i hope you got her name as i would be putting in a complaint about this ridiculous behaviour

I'd be tempted to ring the nursery back and say in a nice cheery voice "I'm just calling to let you know that you don't need to call me back this afternoon. I've found the head office's details on the internet and I'm sure they'll look into it for me." The owner may well pay up quickly just to keep head office out of it. I'm guessing that it's standard procedure for the chain to take a deposit before registering a child. If you have proof that your child was there then it means that you must have paid up.

I will give her the benefit of the doubt and wait until 5pm. I guess I need to try and find out the head office details

Guess what...She didn't phone me back AGAIN!
Have called Head office (found number on internet) and they said that they will get an area manager to call me...hmmm

Result!
Two days of calling up and calmly telling them that we will unfortunately have to take it to small claims court and BINGO! Deposit going to be returned!
Yeehaw!

Good to hear it. How annoying. Grr!