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Daughters Wedding Reception Was a disaster !! Carus Green in Kendal


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Our daughter got married and had her reception at our local golf club.

The venue seemed perfect until the actual day.

 

The photographs at the venue where restricted due to the golf.

What and where we could have photos taken was not allowed on the day.

 

We had 26 children on a very hot day banned from leaving the venue as they may upset the golfers. None of this was told us at any meetings.

 

When the food was served they served the back tables and the top table the last.

The pate was a sloppy mess

The food was cold - the roast beef was dry and the turkey was chewy.

 

The functions manager screeched in my face over the table plan not being right.

- turned out that a table of 12 guests had not liked the table they had been given so swapped tables. Which I had not been told.

 

She was not in control at many points during the service.

We had 106 sit down guests and only 3 people working and serving the food.

 

We have been charged for 20 bottles of red/white wine

but 4 tables never got any wine?

they can't account for where these went.

 

On the top table where I was sat we had 1 bottle of red

- 2 bottles of rose which was for the bride and groom as I only drink white.

 

The food would have been perfect if it was hot but over 10 of our guests have complained.

 

The Toast - myself and the grooms father were given 1 glass of prosecco between the 2 of us.

When I asked for a glass the functions manager snapped at me for the second time.

 

The meal took so long to be served my brother who is a diabetic had a hypo and was taken ill in the toilet.

It ended up he had to go home as he was to ill to continue.

 

During the service the Function Manager approached me again to say that there were 3 people with no meals and why??

 

 

I had emailed her the 3 meals the night before as I was unable to get her by phone as she was in a meeting.

She had not read her emails.

She was again rude to me.

 

When serving the prosecco to one of the tables they had been buying their own prosecco.

She refused them 10 glasses as she said they already had it.

Even though it was their own bottle.

 

The FM

- approached me after the cake was cut to say she was so sorry but she had inadvertently cut the top tier.

 

 

She has since lied to her boss and said that there was no arrangement in place for the top tier not to be cut.

 

 

But the meeting the night before we went through it with her.

She cut up 3 tiers of cake and denied that we asked her not to.

 

 

When we collected the cake in the morning it was wrapped in foil all stuck together and cannot be given to guests at all. Its just a mushed up mess.

 

At the evening recption the FM had a run in with my cousin over the fact he has brought his own alcohol into the building.

 

 

I asked her to leave him to me and I would get him to leave.

But she wouldn't leave it for me to sort the situation and ended up in confrontation with him.

 

 

He has a volatile temper and if not handled properly he can become aggressive.

I managed to calm the situation, in which he handed over the alcohol and left the reception.

 

 

She has however told her boss that I condoned the situation and did little to help.

This is a downright lie and what I managed to do was get a person to leave the reception without any trouble.

 

Our evening buffet

- I asked for a buffet for only 60 people knowing my family and having had over 20 years experience in functions.

 

 

The FM was against a buffet for only 60 people.

She did not give me a choice.

 

 

The buffet was served at 8.30 only 2 hours after the main meals had finihed.

People were just not hungry.

 

 

By 9pm she was clearing the food.

Some of the guests asked to take some of the buffet home and we said yes.

When they tried to take the food the FM told them to leave it as it was being taken away.

 

 

There was at least 30-40% of food being taken away.

Trays of sausage rolls, quiches, pork pies, salad etc.

 

I tried on several occasions to calm the FM down and she just snapped at me.

She was just not in control.

 

The upshot of all this is we are so unhappy with the service. The food etc.

We have asked that we are compensated for the top tier to be replaced as they cut it.

They have said no.

 

 

We asked for a refund of the food that we lsot due to wastage

- after telling her we only wanted a buffet for 60 people and not 100. They have said no.

 

They undercharged us by 10 bottles of Merlot

- but which tables got it as many of our guests said they had no wine.

 

 

They also claim that they undercharged us by 11 glasses of prosecco.

In 7 days the bill has risen by £159.49.

 

Having already paid £3060 we still owe for the evening buffet of £732 and the £159.49.

We have explained our unhappiness with the venue and the functions manager but the owner doesn't want to know.

He has refferred the matter his solicitor to pursue it in the small claims court.

 

We are prepared to go to court but doesn anyone have any avice for us?

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The best thing that can happen here is that they take you to court. It will be much cheaper then you taking them to court and not only can you put in a defence but also if you think that they owe you more money than the amount which you have not paid them, you can put in a counterclaim.

 

The problem here, of course is to assess the value of your claim. You are not only talking here about items which were not properly billed, but you are talking also about the spoiling of a very special occasion which – hopefully will be a one-off.

 

Because of this difficulty of assessing the "special" or enhanced value, you need to go about this very methodically, make sure that eventually you are able to show that you are being very reasonable and even modest about what you think your loss of value was, set it out in great detail and have it supported by as much evidence as possible.

 

If they do issue a claim then come here and we will try to help you with your next step.

 

In the meantime you need to make as much preparation as possible.

While everything is fresh in your mind and in the minds of your guests, you need to get them as far as they can and as far as they are willing, to set out – completely independently – and in as much factual detail as possible, what their own experience of the event was. In particular, the people who didn't have wine who didn't have correct tables et cetera should set it all out. The more statements you can get the better. Of course, this may damage the experience even more of many of your guests because they will have wanted to go away having had a good time and then not find themselves later on helping you prepare legal documents. You will have to do try and encourage the goodwill of your guests.

 

I have always found that the best witness statements are made when you go around an interview the witnesses yourself and help them through the statements. This doesn't mean that you put words in their mouth but you will be able to ask them all sorts of questions which they would not have thought of otherwise. This is because that you will have an overview of the entire situation.

 

You probably won't be up to get around to all of the guests – but you should try to get to a good sample of each category of the guests – the ones with the wine problem, the ones with the table problem, et cetera. It is also very important that you speak to the ones with the children who were allowed out because of disgruntled golfers. I think that this is a very important point in something which is meant to be a big family occasion.

 

I would suggest that you also get their terms and conditions and go through those very carefully and see what they say about everything.

 

And if you fancy a bit of skulduggery, I would implement the advice in our customer services guide and then get on the telephone to them and try to discuss what has happened and to discuss your complaints with them. You may well find that you will get some extremely interesting admissions and also a fair indication of the kind of attitude that they have to it all – and this will help you if it goes to court.

 

You should start preparing straightaway so you have got a complete and detailed file on it all which when put together tells the whole story. Don't allow your guests to say that they will give you a statement later or in a week or two. This is the way that it never happens. I'm afraid that you may need to make yourself a little unpopular by pushing them for help on this.

 

Next, you need to start detailing your losses.

 

Your to be talking about your actual losses – things that you paid for but which were provided.

 

Things which you were obliged to pay for even though you didn't need them, such as 100 meals instead of 60 meals,

 

Expenses to which you have been put in order to try and remedy any of these problems

 

Any other expenses – such as your diabetic brother having to go home et cetera

 

And then you need to think very carefully about the loss of the special value to you – the loss of enjoyment, the loss of occasion.

 

If you can start to express some of these things in a statement – in particular, loss of enjoyment and loss of occasion – loss of special value, then we can help you set it out in a way which provides a reasonably compelling argument to the court.

 

One thing which will help you here is if your guests in the statements are prepared to talk not only about the difficulties which they faced during the event, but the loss of enjoyment which they themselves suffered and maybe also their empathy with you as being the host and organiser an important function.

 

I think that you need to get all of this together so that you can calculate what you think is a reasonable figure which represents compensation and justice for you. Let us know what it is and we can give you an idea as to whether we think you are being excessive. Don't forget, that you can attract the sympathy of the judge but on the other hand if the judge thinks that you are simply going for a money grab, then he could lose sympathy with you and start to have sympathy for the function providers.

 

Who are they anyway?

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Thank you that is very helpful.

 

 

I have already got statements from two of our guests ho were refused wine.

 

 

I am going through all the admin and contract that was signrf before the new FM took over.

 

I never thought about the upset this caused us and our daughter.

 

The Venue is the Carus Green in Kendal owned by Graham Curtin.

http://www.carusgreen.co.uk/

 

When I hear from his solicitor I shall be in tough.

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You will need far more than to statements if you want to show that there has been an overwhelming loss of enjoyment/occasion which is deserving of compensation.

 

If there were 60 guests, then I think you would need to show that at least 20 or 30 were affected by this. If there were 26 children, then surely there must have been at least 15 or 16 sets of parents. If their children were allowed out – and it was a nice day – then I would imagine that they would be livid and they would be very pleased to help you. However, you will need to check the terms conditions to see if there were any restriction on where guests or their children could go in the club.

 

I don't think that only two statements is especially helpful for the kind of compensation you might be looking for. If there are simply two guests who are prepared to say that they were refused wine, then you might be looking at less than £50. Hardly worth defending. You need to put together a substantial and solid case in order to defend against the outstanding unpaid money and also to build a counterclaim against them

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Make sure that you download a copy of this document http://www.carusgreen.co.uk/Carus_Wedding_screen.pdf

 

I notice on page 3, they have pictures of the open ground/Park which I would take is being a fair indication that they are available and accessible to your wedding guests. Also, in particular, I see that on page 3 there is a picture of a young child walking outside – and I would say that that is pretty compelling evidence that children are welcome to go outside when the weather is right for it. Download a copy – just in case it gets changed.

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  • 1 month later...

Today I received the court forms served on us by the Venue we used.

The papers say how we have failed to pay the final amount due for our daughters wedding.

 

 

It goes onto say we (as in the CG) were then informed by email that no futher payment would be paid as they had a numbrr of issues with the wedding.

 

 

I as in the owner investigated these claims with my staff and found them to be groundless.

I consider this to be callous retrospective attempt to attempt to avoid paying for a wedding delivered in good faith, and so would to claim our money,

 

 

I a full email trail and my solicitor has also tried to request a payment t but to no avail. I have 28 days to respond.

 

I have already gathered 20 letters of complaints including emails. I also hav an eye witness statements regrading the children being shouted at and being told to get back insode.

 

I just have to get on with writing everything up on the form. Is it right I can have the case heard locally rather than in Northampton. Just need sme pointers to what I can put on the form. At this point could I counterclaim?

 

Thanks

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Okay. Don't worry. We will help you.

Please acknowledge the claim straightaway. I can't quite remember whether you do this on a form or whether you do it online. It is probably online. Acknowledge the claim and say that you intend to defend. This will give you 28 days before you have to do file the defence. Calculate the return date for filing the defence and let us know what it is. We should make sure that the defence is filed two or three days before the return date to make sure that everything is comfortable and that there are no errors.

 

We will help you put in a defence and also a counterclaim if you want.

 

Second thing, please scan the documents that you have received and post them up here in PDF format. It is much better that we see the originals.

 

Thirdly, can you please start putting together a list of all the ways in which you consider their contractual breaches have affected you. Don't turn this into a narrative. Simply put it down in a bullet pointed list and post it on this thread. I first suggested that you should do this on 1 August so you have had a month to get underway and I hope you have started. If not, then get cracking on it and get it sorted out within the next four or five days. You may well find that talking to some of the other people affected will help to jog your memory about it all. It is important to get the list together so that we can then start to think about the value of the breaches to you and this will help us to figure out what counterclaim if any to bring.

 

Yes, the case will be heard in your local court – firstly because you are the defendant – and anyway because you are a private individual and you are being sued by a business.

 

I suggest that you let us help you prepare everything here before eventually filing with the court. Don't start putting in defence or a counterclaim without having cleared it all with us. I expect that what we will help you produce will be very different to what you might do on your own.

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It has just dawned on me that you are the parent and in fact that this was your daughter's wedding. This really means that claims for any special losses – meaning in this case, loss of enjoyment loss of the occasion et cetera, should really be made by the (un)happy couple. This shouldn't pose any problem but you will have to add them as part 20 defendants/counter defendants to the claim. This can be done after you have filed the defence. It may be an idea also to write to the other side once you have filed your initial defence in order to warn them that this may be getting rather larger than they had anticipated. You will be adding part 20 defendants and also it may be that you will be calling witnesses unless they are prepared to agree the statements. On the basis that you win, then the reasonable costs of travel for each of the witnesses will be claimable.

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Sorry but either they can't be read or else they don't contain the correct information.

 

You can get a scanner from PCWorld for about £50 - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/printers-scanners-and-ink/scanners/canon-canoscan-lide-120-flatbed-scanner-10029719-pdt.html . It will last you for years

 

If you want to do this, you will need to get one. Photos really don't work.

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Uploads unapproved..please remove all identifiable details and repost.

 

Andy

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I am sorry Bank Fodder I didn't realise that the photos would not be acceptable. I managed to get into my husbands office and use the scanner there I hop these are acceptable.

Andy Orch I don't know how to delete the postings. I didnt realise I was doing anything wrong. It has taken me sometime to get the scans done/

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I removed the scans, mainly because you have left all the identifiers in place so that people can see who you are and other personal details.

 

You should redact scans so that it doesn't show those personal details.

 

Secondly, although you have reproduce five pages here, you have left out the most important page which is the details of their claim. It is essential that we see that and it is that which we are asking for.

 

Thirdly, we have asked you to put them up in PDF format – not JPEG because PDF files far easier to deal with.

 

Finally, why don't you just get a scanner and then you won't have to bother your husband about this. I can almost guarantee you that this won't be the last time that you have to scan documents for us – and in fact there may be quite a bit of scanning to do by the end of this matter.

 

It will make life easier for everyone – you, us, and your husband if you simply get a scanner. You will find it very easy to use after a couple of goes

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I'm sure this is going to be frustrating for you, but believe me – it is frustrating for us.

You still haven't included at least one of the pages of the material that you have received from the court because we don't see any details of the claim which has been made against you.

 

Secondly, although you have converted the files to PDF, they are in multiple pages and also not necessarily in the correct order. This means that we have to open each file separately and also sort them into the correct order for you.

 

I hope you won't take it amiss when I say that we help you for free and the advice we give you may eventually be worth quite a lot of money if you had to pay for it. In return, we ask you to treat this as if you were paying for the advice and that means that you do everything you can to reduce the costs such as presenting documents carefully and correctly – completely and in the right order.

 

At the moment, we are having our work cut out simply to get the right information from you.

 

I have taken the five pages which you have scanned up so far and I have assembled them into a single file so that you can see. I have also arrange them into what I believe is the correct order however, the file is incomplete.

 

Please will you re-post a complete collection of the documents that you have received, in PDF format, in a single file, and in the correct order. As a guide, you should consider letting us see the documents in the way that you would wish to receive them yourself if somebody was passing them to you

wedding.pdf

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Particulars of Claim (N1) in post #14

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Thank you. I see that the missing page was posted at the same time as I was posting my last message.

 

I've added the N1 to the file and you can see it here.

 

I now realise you have paid a cheque for the money which has been claimed but you then put a stop on it so that it has bounced.

 

I'm afraid that this makes things rather more complicated because under English law, an action on a bounced cheque is almost automatically going to win and there are very few defences available to you – and on the facts that you have given, I don't see that any of those defences apply to your situation.

 

It would have been much better simply to have refused to pay the money in the first place. You can Google on "cheque actions" or "suing on a bounced cheque" to get an idea about it all.

 

I think that if you had explained about the bounced cheque in your original post, then our advice would have been rather different and in fact I think that I would have advised you to remove the stop from the cheque and then simply to pursue your own claim if you felt that you had a case.

 

However, you did stop the cheque and they have started the case against you so I'm afraid that you may well be liable for their claim fee, regardless of what you decide to do.

 

Rather than waste the claim fee completely, you could go ahead and defend the action and put in a counterclaim. This would save you the hassle of having to start up your own action and pay your own claim fee later on.

 

I'm assuming that you have now acknowledged the claim – I'm not sure that you have told us this so far.

 

How are you doing on gathering the evidence I have suggested and also assessing the value of your claim? I haven't noticed that you have given us any feedback on this.

 

You may feel that it is all a bit complicated but the result here is that you are almost certainly to lose on the principal claim in respect of the bounced cheque – simply because that is the law in this country. However, if you can produce the evidence and a convincing assessment of your losses then you have an extremely good chance of succeeding in a counterclaim which would mean that you would get your money back. It seems a bit ridiculous but technically speaking you would lose the money that you withheld on the cheque in the principal claim – but then get it back in the counterclaim. The only unfortunate thing is that they would probably be a deduction for the claim fee. You may also be required to forfeit the hearing fee although if the judge is really convinced that the claimants have behaved badly that your counterclaim is very justified, I can imagine that the judge might decide that they should pay the hearing fee – but you shouldn't bank on this.

 

I think that you now need to make a decision as to whether or not to put your hands up to the claim and walk away from it, or where the you feel that the evidence that you can put together to support your complaints is so strong, and that your assessment of your losses is so solid that it is worth your while to continue with the counterclaim. If you can support what you have told us about the situation so far, then you have a very high chance of success.

 

Seeing as the claim has already been issued and you are already liable for the claim fee in any event, then you probably have very little to lose by continuing to defend the claim and bring your counterclaim.

wedding.pdf

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I am so sorry.

I did think I had mentioned the cheque.

I did not know that my husband had written and paid by cheque until a couple of days later when he told me he had settled.

 

 

We had a argument on the Sunday after he got so drunk at the wedding and had ignored me all day.

 

 

Sounds ridiculous I know.

We barely spoke for 2 days

we had a house full of family and i5 was stupid I know now.

 

 

I am gutted due to this mistake

the venue will get away with it,

 

 

Since the wedding they have now sacked the Function Manager.

The owner obviously knows he has a water tight case against us.

I never thought that it would end like this.

 

 

I am going to continue

I do feel it may be a waste of time and money.

 

 

However taking him to court even if I win or not will inconvenience him and not look good for him.

Our town is very small and word spreads quickly.

 

Thanks for all your help and I do apologies for not knowing the difference between a jpeg & a PDF.

Its so long since I worked in a office you forget these things,

 

Cheers. for your help.

the next time I get paid I will give a donation for the help I have had.

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As far as donations go, please don't start thinking of making any donation unless you get some kind of result. Especially if money is tight, you don't want to start causing problems for yourself.

 

As you appear to have decided to continue, I have to ask you again

how you acknowledge the claim?

How are you progressing with witness statements?

How are you progressing with assessing the value of your claim?

 

Also, is your daughter on board with this? Or are you basically doing this on your own? Return date for the defence – 28 days after the issue the claim?

 

Also, how do you know that the Function Manager has been sacked? Is it simply that he/she has left what you have some inside information.

 

In terms of wasting your money, in my view the claim fee is already lost because they are suing the bounced cheque. Also at risk is a hearing fee and possibly costs of travel and associated expenses of the claimant's witnesses who might have to travel to court. I don't know what this all amounts to but I suppose it's not a huge amount of money. On the other hand, if you get a judgement against you and I suppose it will rankle even more having to pay this money out.

 

On the other hand, on the basis of what you have told us then it sounds to me as if you have a pretty good chance of success on a counterclaim but what that will add up to in terms of money is essentially for a judge to decide – and so far we haven't seen any figures from you to try and make an educated guess.

 

I would still get a scanner if I were you. This is much more important than any kind of donation. When is the return date for the defence?

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We have responded to the court online and have been given 28 days to prepare my defence.

 

 

We have had almost got the 20 people's complaints

my daughter & her husband have to finish there's of.

We have photo's of the cake before it was cut and afterwards plus the destroyed cake decorations.

 

When it comes to the claim

we have so far come up with the value of the cake £280,

 

 

The bucks fizz should have been charged at £2.00 per glass

but they did not serve bucks fizz

they served prosecco at £20 per bottle we were overcharged by £140,

 

 

The buffet wastage at £397,

10 children's meals that were served cold, burnt and inedible £99.50.

 

 

Adult meals that were served cold,, tough turkey, sloppy pate 22 x £18.99, £417.78.

 

 

As for the hurt, upset etc I don't know how to put a figure on it?

 

 

We are still very upset over the day and frustrated that the owner won't admit mistakes were made.

 

We have had feedback back from the parents of the kids that were ordered back inside and to stay off the course.

 

 

They have messaged me on Facebook so we need them to actually write it for us.

 

 

With the wedding taking over the house we had packed away our main computer.

What we hadn't realised was the printer has a scanner & fax.

So we have set that up now.

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Please will you email us on our admin email address and provide your contact details. Email please

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  • 3 months later...

I'm sorry but you seem to be cluttering this thread up with other matters relating to Council tax.

 

I'm deleting your last post and I be grateful if you could bring us up to date briefly and just concentrating on the facts.

 

If you have another issue with Council tax elsewhere then please will you start new thread for that.

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I do apologies for cluttering the thread up. I thought I was explaining how the owner of the C.G was presuming we wuld have bailiffs after us. That felt like an insult. Thanks for your help, I won't be back to cag I really don't like your attitude.

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Well I'm sorry you feel this way. I hope that we have been of some help to you – if you need any further help then you know to come back to us.

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