Mobile Disco Double Booking

[andy-hughes]

I run a successful mobile disco, and get my bookings via a couple of agencies.

When I apply for a booking, I do that by text, and when it is confirmed, I exchange e-mails with the client confirming the date, fee, location, times and invite the client to send a play list, and contact me with any queries by mail or phone, quoting both mail and mobile number.

I was booked for last night, my last contact with the client was by mail in early October confirming my attendance as agreed.

I sent a text to confirm I was en route, but signed it 'Andy the DJ', and not as I usually do,
'Andy's Vintage Disco'

When I arrived, there was another mobile disco set up in place.

I phoned my client who advised me that she had been trying to contact me for weeks to confirm, and her son had also tried to contact me, and that I had not replied to mobile messages or e-mails. She said she advised if she did not hear, she would book elsewhere - and was clearly as good as her word.

I advised that I had received no calls or e-mails from her, and I had texted my departure, to which she replied, she assumed that was from the 'new' DJ she had booked.

I asked which number she had been calling, and she quoted my mobile, with one digit incorrect, which explains the lack of response.

She got very distressed, advising that she was seventy-two - booking the disco for her daughter, and it had been a very fraught experience for her, and she began to get upset, so I left it there.

I am thinking - since she obviously had my correct mobile number, and my e-mail, since we exchanged messages via both media - did she simply get a cheaper quote, which does happen, although never to me before.

Then I think she could have simply rung and said the party was off, I would be none the wiser, so why risk me turning up, which I did, and possibly causing a scene, which I did not, would anyone go to that trouble when they could simply cancel?

But my actual question is - since we have an agreed contract, and I lost the money for the gig, together with the four other potential gigs I turned down on the basis that I was booked, and I took my gear there and back for nothing - should I pursue my fee, or part of it, or simply put it down to experience, and maintain closer contact with clients in future, the lesson learned.

Any input as to how I stand legally - or how anyone thinks I should I proceed, if at all, would be appreciated.

[pixie374]

I would take non-refundable deposits in future... Personally, I probably wouldn't ask her for payment and put it down to experience, just because I would be a bit annoyed if I suggested it and she said no.
Easier to just learn for the future.
Sanmac, many posts here could be considered 'advertising' from music links, to Amazon, to clothes sites. Nobody knows who has shares in what... if Andy is trying to do that and not even posted a link... that would be fairly ineffective. So don't worry too much.

[andy-hughes]

sanmac - // Ummmm, if he or, anyone else for that matter, was asking a general question about their business why include the name? If you Google "Andy's Vintage Disco", you get at least seven links/connections to his business, and to me that is advertising. //

Then it's a good job that my fellow Moderators and the Editorial Team don't share your personal animosity, shoehorned once again into making an invalid complaint.

If you think I am transgressing Site Rules, feel free to report me, I am as bound by them as everyone else.

Put up or ....