We wanted to have a Karaoke party for my daughters birthday. We searched the internet and WiseGuys Discos came up as a company that did Karaoke parties in our area. I spoke to them on the phone and they said that they were able to supply a DJ with a karaoke system on the date we wanted. I filled in their contract which stated that they would supply a karaoke party and stipulated (as they asked) the types of songs the children wanted to sing. We paid them 160. On the day of the party the DJ rang up to check the location. My wife mentioned how much my daughter was looking forward to her Karaoke party and that we had 15 children (and their parents) aged 11 -13 coming along. He replied: "If you want a Karaoke party then I am the wrong guy - I just do discos". He had no Karaoke equipment, just a the usual DJ stuff. I tried ringing Wiseguys Disco on all their phone numbers, and emailed them. No reply. The DJ turned up and all he could do was play songs at a lower volume so the children could sing over the top. He only had one microphone (his other one did not work) and no lyrics or backing tracks. The children were very disappointed as they had been rehearsing all week and had brought karaoke files (i.e. backing tracks with the lyric files for use on a karaoke system).
I rang Wiseguys the following day and emailed them again. No response. I eventually got through to a lady who said she was very surprised that this had happened and that I need to speak to Lee Reynolds who was the manager. She said he would call back. He didn't. I called the following day. No response, and the next day, and the next day. On the following Friday I got through to Lee on his mobile. He said that in the contract he had the right to change DJ if the original one was not available. I said that he did not supply me with the service I have paid for. He sent me a copy of the contract, I said that he did not notify of his decision to change the party and give me the opportunity to cancel. Eventually he offered a small discount off my next booking with them - which was essentially worthless as I would never use them again. I contacted Trading Standards and they were very helpful and clarified my legal rights, and how I should proceed. Even though I was entitled to a full refund and some damages, I asked for only half of my money back - 80.
Eventually after another week of emails and calls and a threat of legal action Lee offered me 40 refund. If this had been offered before going to Trading Standards (and all the time I had had to spend trying to contact them), I would have accepted this. In fact they and got back to me in the first week with an even smaller offer and, perhaps, an apology, then I would have been happy. However, by this point this issue had taken so much of my time and so many phone calls that I still felt a sharing of the total cost i.e. 80 was fair. After another week of emails I called again and spoke to a lady who worked with Lee. We discussed the problem in some detail, and what had happened since, and after some time she agreed that they would refund us 80.
Weeks went by and no money was refunded. I emailed them - no response. I emailed again - no response. So I called again and spoke to Lee. He said that the lady had no authority to agree a refund so the most he could do was 50 - take it or leave it. I sent an email to them listing my grievances and the communications that occurred, and told them that would take legal action if they did not respond. They did not respond.
At this point I decided that I had been messed around by them for long enough. Trading Standards suggested that I used the UK Govt small claims online process at: www.moneyclaim.gov.uk
I submitted my claim with Money Claim for the full refund plus costs (160 25). They sent the legal claim to Wiseguys Discos by registered post. Wiseguys did not contest the claim within the 14 days. I then applied for a court judgement. The judgement was made in my favour and Wiseguys were notified of the judgement, and that immediate payment of the charge (now 185) was required by the court.
Of course they did not pay.
They are now going to have to pay a full refund, plus initial court costs, plus the costs of retrieving the money (i.e. through a covenant, or bailiffs) of an extra 75. In total this will be 260, when they could have just spoken to me in the first week, apologised and offered a 20 refund. Even better they could have let me know beforehand and avoided and costs at all, as if we had known we could have hired the equipment ourselves separately.
I urge you to heed this warning. Wiseguys Discos (or Clarkes Entertainment, or Childrens Party Cabin) are not a company you should have anything to do with.
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