Pinning down wedding service refunds
“HOW much of this deposit will you refund if the wedding doesn’t go ahead as planned?”
Those words are seldom uttered by newly engaged couples or their proud parents, when they’re putting their wedding plans into action by paying deposits to secure wedding venues, photographers and caterers and the like.
Which is a pity, because 10-15% of planned weddings don’t go ahead, either not at all, or not as originally planned, resulting in booking cancellations.
And that’s when, for the first time, the couple discovers what the service provider had in mind when they asked for the payment of a deposit.
In many cases, they’re told “the deposit is non-refundable”, or “we’ll only refund, minus a handling fee, if we get another booking for that day.” Sometimes that’s in the contract; often it’s not.
When a Cape Town woman – who asked not to be named – booked her November 2015 wedding at Babylonstoren estate last August, paying a R38 000 deposit, the cancellation terms weren’t discussed in person or via e-mail, she says.
When she decided to call the wedding off in February, she called the estate to cancel and that’s when she was told her deposit was non-refundable unless the date could be resold, in which case a cancellation fee of 25% would apply and the balance would be refunded.
Here’s the thing: the Consumer Protection Act, which has been in force for more than four years now, makes blanket “non-refundable deposit” policies illegal.
Consumers may cancel an advance booking of any kind and get a refund of what they’ve paid, minus a “reasonable” cancellation fee.
Given that “reasonable” is open to widely varying interpretation, the supplier should spell out their policy in detail to whoever is paying – in writing, in the form of a sliding scale of refunds, from 100% to zero – to avoid unpleasant cancellation disputes.
“It can be particularly difficult for vendors to prove monetary loss for missed opportunity,” says Ombudsman for Consumer Goods and Services, Neville Melville. “But they need to show how they calculated a fair charge for their losses.”
In other words, that cancelation fee can’t be thumb-sucked.
Ultimately, the greater the likelihood of the venue or caterer being able to find a booking to replace the cancelled one, the bigger the refund should be.
“The prospects of the venue being able to rebook are better if it is a multipurpose venue or a popular time of year. “In contrast, it is unlikely to be possible to offload a winter wedding in a remote location,” Melville says.
“It’s necessary to find a fair balance between the competing interests of the venue and of the booking party.”
I put all this to Babylonstoren, suggesting that as the booking was cancelled six months after it was made, a refund of at least 50% was due. General manager Terry de Waal’s response was as unexpected as it was impressive. “We agree fully with you and will do as you recommend,” she said. In fact, she went one better, undertaking to refund the full R38 000 deposit.
“We’ve had so few cancellations that we haven’t really formulated a proper cancellation policy, but the guidelines you suggest seem sensible, she said.
Great stuff.