Q: Can our wedding venue ignore us and go silent on our refund request?
We canceled our wedding venue weeks ago. They promised to discuss our refund upon their business opening up as they could not issue refunds while being closed. Their business has since been opened and they ignore emails, don't show up for scheduled calls, and have now gone silent. We feel they were holding off and lying to us about a discussion they never intended to have with us about a refund. The contract says we can get a refund within three months of canceling. We contacted them about cancelling within that time frame. From reviews online, they are ignoring other folks as well. We feel we need to take legal action at this point just to get a response from them.
A: Based on the information in your question it appears clear that the venue is unwilling to refund your money voluntarily. You should contact an attorney that practices consumer law and provide them with your contract and the facts of your situation. If there is a strong case that the venue is acting in bad faith or deceptively, and if the venue is financially viable, a consumer law attorney may be willing to represent you at limited cost to you.
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A: The only way that you have any chance of getting your money back is going to be to file a lawsuit. However, no one can tell you about the solvency of this "wedding venue". Depending on the contract and other facts, you may have a complaint under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, which would all you to collect triple damges plus attorney fees. During this pandemic, you have a choice of either seeing your attorney in person or by way of a secure state of the art Zoom Video Conference. So you don’t have to be restricted by geography any more in terms of choosing an attorney. You can “Meet” your attorney online for an initial strategy session from the comfort of your own home. Through mail, e-mail and electronic filing almost everything can be done without leaving your home, for most types of cases. Pick the best attorney you can find and remember one rule: a good attorney is generally never cheap, and a cheap attorney is generally never good so don't choose based on price.
1 user found this answer helpful
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