Posted on 01/19/2015 9:47:19 AM PST by bgill
A five-year-old was billed for failing to attend a friend's birthday party - resulting in threats of legal action.
Alex Nash, from Cornwall, was invited to the party just before Christmas.
An invoice for £15.95 was sent by his schoolfriend's mother Julie Lawrence, who said Alex's non-attendance left her out of pocket and his parents had her details to tell her he was not going.
Alex's father Derek said he had been told he would be taken to the small claims court for refusing to pay.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The invoice number is 1432. That's a lot of no-shows in his first five years. Poor kid. How many will mama have sent out by the time he's 45, lol?
Not a great idea for Mom to make an issue of this in the internet age.
So this is a situation where the parents paid for a certain number of children at an event and then could not get their money back for the one kid didn’t show up. So this makes a little more sense to me if the mother clearly told everyone she was paying based on attendance. But still, it seems like a lot of bad publicity for the mother, not to mention humiliation for the kid, over GBP 15.
I am in receipt of your invoice #1432.
Please find enclosed my invoice to you for an invoice reading fee of £15.95, payable upon receipt.
Thank you for your prompt attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
RansomOttawa
Since the catering was priced "per head", it was a couple of hundred extra dollars. I didn't have to give the final count to the caterers until the day BEFORE our wedding, so a last minute phone call or email would have been appreciated.
But, we didn't send them a bill.
This makes me feel much better, knowing that the US doesn’t have exclusive rights to legal idiocy.
I don't understand this (seemingly) more and more common phenomenon; to be thought of highly enough to have been invited to (arguably) the most important day in a couple's life, accepting the honor of the invitation, then deciding, no, I think I would rather Simonize my cat that day than show up.
I don't get that thinking at all...
The Mommy from Hell.
Your caterer made "extra" money by not having to serve as many people and the people who didn't show up lost out on a "free meal" (not to mention the celebration of your wedding ... or the birthday party in question).
But you -- and the mother of the birthday boy -- did not suffer a "loss". Sure you would have paid less to the caterer if you knew ahead of time ... but absent a contract that guaranteed attendance I don't think this is actionable.
At one point, I agreed to host — and pay for — a local breakfast for my college alumni association. About 20 people RSVP’d that they would come but only about 10 actually showed up. None of the no-shows bothered to change their RSVP. I was livid. I didn’t ask the association to pay me anything but it was the last time I hosted anything for them.
Makes me that that “wedding crashing” might be doing the party a favor.
My way of thinking is I would rather pay for a few no shows then not have enough for everyone if we have a crasher or two. But that’s just me.
“Want to buy tickets to my birthday party?” Little Bill asked his friend in kindergarten.
“What if I have a scheduling conflict? Will there be refunds?” asked Alex, who had a lot of extra-curricular activities with baseball, karate and such.
“No can do, partner” Little Bill answered “All the proceeds are used for the party, no leftovers”
“I’ll ask my mom”
Only in America.......
society has cheapened marriage, which is not a good sign for society
“But, we didn’t send them a bill.”
But will you invite them to your next wedding?
On one hand, the birthday parties thrown for kids these days are ridiculous. We used to just have a few kids to the house, hot dogs, cake and ice-cream, play some games. No goody bags were even given out. Things have gone nuts in the kids’ birthday competition.
On the other hand, people these days think NOTHING of honouring their commitments. People cancel at the last minute or just don’t show up at the drop of a hat. No consideration whatsoever.
My wife, now of 38 years, and I had a long time friend give us a finely wrapped empty box for a gift.
He came alone, enjoyed the superbly catered reception. He was sent a thank you card as did everyone. Although I continued to work, have lunches and coffee breaks with him, we never discussed it.
Yes, He knew that I knew.
It was a great wedding and reception but caused 4-5 divorces! ;^}, ;^}, ;^}
LOL, I was going to post that they have dropped off our "invitation list" for future events, but decided that was a bit "catty".
However, I didn't think about "our next wedding". The truth is, we are planning to renew our vows on a future anniversary, and have already chosen the venue. But, the guest list will be pretty short, due to the logistics.
That poor kid is going to be lonely for the rest of his birthdays. People are now going to avoid parties thrown by his mother since the story is all over now.
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