Hi ladies & gents - I desperately need some help!!
My partner and I booked our wedding venue last May after receiving a quotation that was within our budget.
I had contacted them via email asking for a full quote for their
services based on 30 people attending, as we were on a tight budget and
would like to know upfront whether we could afford their services.
The owner emailed me a full quote of prices of services they provide and totalled them at the bottom of the email.
Based on this quote we booked the venue and paid a £500 non-refundable deposit.
We have since made adjustments to the services we want and communication has predominantly been via email. Each time the adjustment has been agreed with the same lady who supplied the original quote.
We recently had a disagreement regarding the tasting of the wedding
breakfast meal, as we did not enjoy the food initially provided (lamb,
beef and fish) and requested a second tasting of a chicken dish and a
vegetarian dish (as she knew my sister's family was vegetarian and we didn't eat lamb!). After
several mentions and requests via email, she bluntly said no, unless we
wanted to pay for it. We booked a date to come in and then they declined
doing the tasting on that date because they were providing a Valentines
menu (despite the meeting being the 15th Feb) and they would have
customers in for that menu only.
On the day, there wasn't a customer in sight and the chef was wandering
around doing odd jobs. She also refused to let us do a mock up table in
the room we would be using for the wedding breakfast and we were put in the bar room upstairs.
This was fine, it was more the way in which it was communicated.
They also tried to tell us that their prices had gone up since our
original quote, which we counteracted with the fact it wasn't fair to
increase them now given that we had booked them based on the quotation
originally provided and that they had known we would be getting married
in April 2013. The owner was very frosty all through our discussions on
the day and it was apparent that she was not happy about the things we
were asking to amend, even though in the beginning they were open to
anything we wanted to have or change.
She finished the meeting by advising she would be emailing me a revised
quote, still based on the initial quote per person, later in the day. When I
received her email, at the bottom she advised that in addition to the
above there would be an additional 20% VAT to pay.
Not once has VAT been brought up before this and I can prove this by the
email chain I have saved. I have looked through their Terms &
Conditions and also the receipt we received for our £500 deposit and
there is no mention that prices quoted are not inclusive of VAT.
I am so worried now as we are less than 10 weeks away from the wedding
and I think the only reason VAT has been brought up now is the
disagreement and the fact we are trying to keep within our budget by
possibly sacrificing unneeded services with them and this is a way for
her to get more money from us under the heading of "VAT".
I have another meeting with the owner this Saturday and I would like to go armed with my rights to fair pricing/breach of contract etc.
We have never signed a contract but I have reviewed their website & all documentation they've ever sent us and nothing states that these costs were not inclusive of VAT.
I am at my wits end & don't know what to do. We can't afford an additional £445 this close to the wedding!
I would appreciate any help or guidance anyone can offer.
Many thanks
Bobbie x
