Weddingsbysaffron

The owner of Weddings by Saffron (https://www.weddingsbysaffron.com/), worked at Diamant Estate in Paarl as their function coordinator with whom my husband and I spoke to arrange our wedding day for 29 October 2022. I hired her company to do our flowers and décor on our wedding day and paid the deposit of R15 000 on 5 April 2022. After paying the deposit, we tried scheduling an appointment with her on 26 April 2022 to talk about the flowers and décor ideas but she was not available. She told me that she will come back to me ASAP with a day that will work for her but she never did. We then messaged her on 10 May 2022 asking her to send us a quote as we sent her ideas via email. She never responded. On 12 May 2022, we messaged her asking again when we can meet up to finalize the flowers and décor. She relied on 13 May 2022 saying that she does not work at Diamant Estate anymore and will not be taking on any new flower work, she is sorry if she disappointed us and wished us well for our wedding day. She also informed us that it was not her choice to no longer work at Diamant Estate. We then realized that we paid her R15 000 as a deposit and she needed to pay it back. On 2 June 2022, we messaged Marinda asking her to pay the deposit back. She then replied and asked why we want to cancel her services and then abruptly said that she will talk to us the next day. We told her that she specifically informed us that she will not be taking on any new work as she no longer works at Diamant Estate. We attached our banking details and asked her to pay the money over ASAP as we need it for our new flower and décor vendor. Between 2 June 2022 and 8 June 2022, we kept messaging her asking her to pay us back but there was no response from her side. On 9 June 2022, we messaged her stating that we are very upset that the money has not yet been transferred to our account and that we are assuming she used it for personal reasons as to why would she not make the payment immediately. She blocked us from her work number so we sent her an email stating that she broke her contract with us and needs to pay our deposit back. She informed us that she used OUR money to buy new tables, serviettes, and runners for her company and the wedding season ahead. We stated to her that under the Consumers Protection Act, the deposit still belongs to the client and no matter what she cannot use that money for business expenses/personal expenses. Until this day, we have only received R1 000 on 1 November 2022.