Party invoice: Boy sent bill for birthday no-show

AtticusFinch · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:37

It's more of a Daily Mail story in terms of journalistic integrity and underlying factual relevance to the wider-world than something fit for the front-page fo the BBC News Website. It is however hilarious and I pity the poor child that has that woman for a mother...

cheesyboy · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:37

atpbx said:
You cant be invoiced for a service you have not invited to provide or indicated you wish to attend.

I could invite all of MUFC for an all expenses paid buffet lunch and then when nobody showed up send them invoices for 10k each otherwise.

Stupid woman.

They HAD indicated they would be attending "Alex's parents, from Torpoint, had accepted an invitation to the party at a dry ski slope"

It's still stupid to send the invoice, but they were certainly rude not to provide notice (this was a planned event - time with grandparents - not a sudden illness)

mattyg · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:38

She's sent it because she was left out of pocket.

No she wasn't. Unless she was charging the kids an admission fee she didn't lose out on anything.

EDIT: just spotted a similar post further up.

We had a big event a few years ago that got cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately it would have taken a week to issue refunds. (even to the people who paid cash 30 sec before it was cancelled)

The amount of people who told us they needed that money back or they couldn't feed their kids that night/ get the train home.

I mean what were these people going to do if it had gone ahead.

Stupid people

randal · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:38

I wonder if she gives family members monthly 1-2-1s and yearly appraisals, or service reviews for her domestic suppliers.

I'd imagine she also does a wash up with her hubby post-coitus, with a lessons learned report.

The Dread Pirate · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:43

atpbx said:
You cant be invoiced for a service you have not invited to provide or indicated you wish to attend.

They'd already RSVP'd indicating the child would attend but they didn't cancel after figuring out he was going to be at his grandparents that day.

IMHO

Woman is in the right wanting her money back but she'd gone about it in the wrong way and could've handled it much better. However the Dad in question is a complete Muppet though making this small spat between parents a national news story & I won't be surprised when he loses the small claims court case as he's clearly in the wrong here, although I pity his son who's probably going to have the **** ripped out of him at school because of his dads foolishness!

mattyg · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:48

The Dread Pirate said:
They'd already RSVP'd indicating the child would attend but they didn't cancel after figuring out he was going to be at his grandparents that day.

IMHO

Woman is in the right wanting her money back but she'd gone about it in the wrong way and could've handled it much better. However the Dad in question is a complete Muppet though making this small spat between parents a national news story & I won't be surprised when he loses the small claims court case as he's clearly in the wrong here, although I pity his son who's probably going to have the **** ripped out of him at school because of his dads foolishness!

What normally happens is kids fall out. leading to the "Grown ups" falling out. Then the kids make up and become best friends and making it awkward for the "Grown ups" forever.

cheesyboy · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:48

mattyg said:
She's sent it because she was left out of pocket.

No she wasn't. Unless she was charging the kids an admission fee she didn't lose out on anything.

EDIT: just spotted a similar post further up.

We had a big event a few years ago that got cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately it would have taken a week to issue refunds. (even to the people who paid cash 30 sec before it was cancelled)

The amount of people who told us they needed that money back or they couldn't feed their kids that night/ get the train home.

I mean what were these people going to do if it had gone ahead.

Stupid people

Because of them not giving notice of not attending, they had a party of, say, 9 kids when they paid for a party of 10. What value do you place on the loss of enjoyment for a lower attendance? Probably the cost of booking the place.

Plus, If they'd given notice, the party holders could have invited a replacement, or perhaps requested a refund.

It's still a bit petty to issue the invoice, of course.

gambitt · 19 Jan 2015 at 13:58

I find flakiness extremely rude. I can see she was just trying to "stick it to them" but a I think a comical letter ridiculing their lack of social decency sprinkled with sarcasm would have sufficed.

dowie · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:19

While the invoice complete with meaningless invoice number is retarded the other parents are out of order. You don't RSVP then simply not show up... that woman is presumably out of pocket thanks to booking for x people at the ski slope... while it is a bit petty to quibble over £15 they ought to have offered to pay her.

Rroff · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:23

dowie said:
While the invoice complete with meaningless invoice number is retarded the other parents are out of order. You don't RSVP then simply not show up... that woman is presumably out of pocket thanks to booking for x people at the ski slope... while it is a bit petty to quibble over £15 they ought to have offered to pay her.

Honestly if I was booking something like that for a child's birthday I'd pretty much anticipate 1-2 no shows as a matter of course (welcome to the human race :S) and budget for it appropriately - cost of throwing a proper party and all.

Still for something organised like that a pretty poor show to not even let them know their excuses seem a bit feeble at best.

MeatLoaf · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:28

Without an address shes got no chance of starting court action. And the school cant give it out because of data protection

Housey · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:28

Astonishing, but having had the misfortune to share time with the school run mum brigade, I can well understand it. Hormonal car wrecks the lot of em!

Kronos · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:32

The BBC News channel has just confirmed that it is a shadow of it's former self as this story, with reporter sent hot foot down to Cornwall, was reported about 5 minutes ago between the story of Boco Haran raiding into the Cameroon and last night being the coldest night in places this winter in the UK.

How sad is that?

Buckeyed · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:32

cheesyboy said:
Because of them not giving notice of not attending, they had a party of, say, 9 kids when they paid for a party of 10. What value do you place on the loss of enjoyment for a lower attendance? Probably the cost of booking the place.

Plus, If they'd given notice, the party holders could have invited a replacement, or perhaps requested a refund.

It's still a bit petty to issue the invoice, of course.

Indeed, but I am sure for loss of enjoyment claims there needs to be some sort of contract in place.

I think it's fairly common to expect a certain amount of kids not to actually turn up for the party - We normally increase the invite list by 10% to ensure we do not have this issue (this has backfired in the past.)

cheesyboy · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:34

Buckeyed said:
Indeed, but I am sure for loss of enjoyment claims there needs to be some sort of contract in place.

Oh yes. I'm not arguing there's any legal merit to it: just correcting the post suggesting there was no loss caused by their actions (of not notifying non-attendance).

Woden · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:35

dowie said:
While the invoice complete with meaningless invoice number is retarded the other parents are out of order. You don't RSVP then simply not show up... that woman is presumably out of pocket thanks to booking for x people at the ski slope... while it is a bit petty to quibble over £15 they ought to have offered to pay her.

No one was out of pocket. She would have been charged for the place weather the child was there or not. So her costs haven't changed. Unless she was charging the other parents admission.

Since there is an invoice I assume there is also a signed contract detailing the no-show fee?

AtreuS · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:39

I wonder if she is all sorted with HMRC seeing as she is giving out invoices... sounds like she does this a lot... i hope she is paying tax on the profits

dowie · 19 Jan 2015 at 14:42

Woden said:
No one was out of pocket. She would have been charged for the place weather the child was there or not. So her costs haven't changed. Unless she was charging the other parents admission.

Since there is an invoice I assume there is also a signed contract detailing the no-show fee?

If they'd called her after RSVPing to tell her they couldn't go then she might not have had to book/pay for that place.

She's paid for a child who agreed to come then just didn't turn up on the day. I'd call paying for someone who doesn't show up being left out of pocket... as they could have cancelled.

mrk · 19 Jan 2015 at 16:03

It's amusing to imagine what a children's party invitation seeking to create a contract might say: "I, the 'first party', hereinafter referred to as the 'birthday boy', cordially invite you the 'second party', hereinafter referred to as 'my best friend', to the party of 'the first party'.

arknor · 19 Jan 2015 at 16:08

She's sent it because she was left out of pocket.

No she wasn't. Unless she was charging the kids an admission fee she didn't lose out on anything.

Well let's think of it this way.
You ask your kids friends how many will be attending the birthday outing.
you get 20 replies back.
You book an event for 20 places.
1 doesn't turn up after indicating that he would.

you now wasted money on 1 space and are out of pocket.

to seek the money back over a birthday party place just seems petty though and I do wonder how many people will want to attend in future after hearing this.