To claim or not to claim, that is the question.

[Spirits High]

I've got an issue at the moment with a non paying client. They had originally booked the dj service for March this year, signed the booking form and paid the NRBF back in June of last year.

When I tried to contact them 4 weeks before the Wedding to book in the pre wedding meeting I had no replies to emails, voicemail messages etc and really struggled to get hold of them. The venue they 'were' due to get married at is one of my regulars so I called them and checked out if they were having problems to be told "they cancelled in January!"

I have since gone down the road of sending final invoices, overdue invoices, emailing and more voicemails but still no contact. I've used the company debt guard in the past and had good results so tried them again. They duly sent the solicitors letter stating further action will be carried out if this isn't paid etc etc. The dated period on that have now elapsed and I need to decide if I'm going to take court action or not.

Cost involved are outstanding invoice £300, cost to got to court on this are £109 of which £70 can be added to the debtors bill. The original letter cost £2 so not really a big issue but as there's been no contact at all I'm thinking they'll just ignore the court paperwork too. This could mean that I'll get a judgement in my favour but no actual money back.


Over to you!

[rth_discos]

So no service was actually carried out, as the wedding was cancelled.

If you do take them to court, and they start posting negatively about you on social media/review sites, how will you feel? Will it have been worth it?

Sadly, I feel it may be best to walk away.

You've had the deposit - it may be hard to justify why you are due further money when no service was actually performed, despite what your terms and conditions state. In fact, depending on your terms and conditions, the couple may be due their deposit back if your terms aren't worded correctly.

Not the answer you were looking for, but I'd recommend walking away sadly.

[Spirits High]

So no service was actually carried out, as the wedding was cancelled.

If you do take them to court, and they start posting negatively about you on social media/review sites, how will you feel? Will it have been worth it?

Unfortunately nowadays that is an issue

You've had the deposit - it may be hard to justify why you are due further money when no service was actually performed, despite what your terms and conditions state. In fact, depending on your terms and conditions, the couple may be due their deposit back if your terms aren't worded correctly.

It's a Non refundable booking fee that was paid and the T&C's are good as I've taken a previous client (higher amount) to court with the same ones and won my case.

The annoying thing is the complete lack of contact, manners cost nothing but unfortunately this looks like it's going to be written off.

[rth_discos]

It's a Non refundable booking fee that was paid and the T&C's are good as I've taken a previous client (higher amount) to court with the same ones and won my case.

I've always thought that was the case, but recently it's been highlighted that without a cooling off period stated in your terms and conditions, you may find it hard to enforce the "non-refundable", as the cooling off period then defaults to 1 year and 14 days.

Source: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/co...-youve-bought/

The annoying thing is the complete lack of contact, manners cost nothing but unfortunately this looks like it's going to be written off.

Absolutely - I totally feel for you on this one. Of course, it's wrong that you've been screwed over - mainly because you've been unable to rebook that date, so you are at a loss.

But with social media, things aren't really on our side these days. We just have to hope we don't get too many of these clients, and when they do appear, sadly, have to bow to their requirements to save a greater headache/waste of time/bad reviews.

[Spirits High]

I've always thought that was the case, but recently it's been highlighted that without a cooling off period stated in your terms and conditions, you may find it hard to enforce the "non-refundable", as the cooling off period then defaults to 1 year and 14 days.

Source: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/co...-youve-bought/

Got that one covered by this:

"PLEASE NOTE: This contract is not subject to a 'cooling-off period' by virtue of s28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and therefore in the event of cancellation of the engagement by the Client, a cancellation fee will be made on the following basis:"

I was advised to put this in by someone who has great experience in the "law" game.

[rth_discos]

Got that one covered by this:

"PLEASE NOTE: This contract is not subject to a 'cooling-off period' by virtue of s28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and therefore in the event of cancellation of the engagement by the Client, a cancellation fee will be made on the following basis:"

I was advised to put this in by someone who has great experience in the "law" game.

Perfect - many don't have this! You've been well advised

[Imagine]

Got that one covered by this:

"PLEASE NOTE: This contract is not subject to a 'cooling-off period' by virtue of s28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and therefore in the event of cancellation of the engagement by the Client, a cancellation fee will be made on the following basis:"

I was advised to put this in by someone who has great experience in the "law" game.

Tee-hee

I've got this one in my contract as well

As to the original post - I'm with Gavin in that I think I'd probably walk away.
In this day and age of easily being able to escalate things on Social Media and the like - is your business reputation really worth the hassle.

I had a similar one in the past. Took it as far as judgement (by default because they never responded to anything), but didn't go any further because it just wasn't going to get anything back.