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Play centre threatens to name and shame parents who 'didn’t pay for kids’ party'

Last modified on Friday 24 February 2023

The owners of the play centre have written a lengthy rant on social media where they claim they've been left £93 short after hosting a party

A play centre left frustrated after parents turned up to a child's birthday party with 6 extra guests and refused to pay for them has threatened to name and shame them.

The Play Factory in Skelton, North Yorkshire has even threatened to release CCTV footage of the parents, in a lengthy Facebook rant.

Posting on social media, the business explained it had been left £93 short after the incident, and had appealed to the parents from Redcar to come back and fully pay the bill.

'Still waiting for the money'

According to the play centre, the party had been booked for 10 kids and the family covered the cost of just 10 children when they made the booking for a £15.50 per head disco party, with a £30 deposit being paid on booking.

Despite this, the parents turned up with 16 children on the day, so the play centre arranged additional spaces for them with food and drinks.

The business said they told the family that they could pay for the extra costs at the end of the party, however the bill was never paid.

The centre claims it has contacted the family multiple times via email and phone, and explained it had all the payments and booking receipts it needed on its system as well as the times they were read and opened.

'We’ve actually operated at a loss for this party'

Posting on its Facebook page in desperation, the business wrote: 'Please everyone remember we’re a small business, with many many overheads.

'We’ve actually operated at a loss for this party.

'You wouldn’t walk out of a restaurant without paying a £93 bill, so why is it okay to do it to us! We’ve made every effort to get payment and given multiple chances, but it’s clear we won’t get it… so thought we would share this chapter in the story. The next chapter will include rhyming names, and cctv!'

While the play centre normally requires its full party payments to be settled 7 days prior to the event, with extras paid for on the day, the business claims it tries to be flexible for unexpected attendees as it recognises sometimes it can't be helped.

The business also says it can be flexible in terms of extra payments, since it realises many may not be able to afford to cover an extra 6 guests immediately during these hard times.

'Six extra showed up on the day'

'But then six extra showed up on the day and they insisted they’d paid the week before for 16 not 10.

'We left them to enjoy the party and said we’d contact them during the week to sort it, checked all records etc and everything was for 10 including the payment on their bank statement.

'We’ve made contact various times over the past two weeks, on the day they had said they weren’t paying it, and then had offered to pay 50% which we declined as full payment was needed.

'Multiple calls and emails later then agreed to pay for five extra (so £77.50 instead of £93) which we agreed, but that was a week ago now, three payment links have been sent in that period that have a 48 hour expiry on them and still nothing.'

The owners said the children enjoyed unlimited juice and slush, a disco, party food, candy floss and party bags.

'Sounds like you've been more than fair'

Many parents left sympathetic comments on the business's Facebook post, with one user writing:

'Sounds like you’ve been more than fair. Name and shame away!'

'I hope they do the right thing and pay! Isn't exactly a small amount of money owed,' said another.

A third wrote: 'This is absolutely disgusting, hopefully you get the money rightfully owed to you!'

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