TA Question- are we obligated to our contract?

[KLC77]

I have a question. Here's the situation (sorry its so long)...

 

Originally my fiance and I were getting married in St. Lucia and had decided to have our TA also take charge of the planning of our wedding, including the welcome cocktails and day after brunch. We have since changed our destination. With the new destination I feel like we no longer need the TA to do any planning because the new resort has a comprehensive wedding package that doesn't require any "work" on our part. Also, we have decided to skip the day after brunch since the new resort is all-inclusive (the first resort was not so we were providing a meal for our guests). Also, we are not going to do a formal welcome dinner at the new resort due to the AI.

 

In addition, she has been slow to get me any information so that I have had to email the new WC myself and have gotten answers that I am still waiting for from my TA. She keeps saying the resort is slow in responding, but the WC has emailed me back no later than the next day.

 

Do you think that the change in our location and therefore our needs voids the contract we signed for the planning portion of our event? The contract lists the specific event and location. Of course she would still arrange everyone's travel, but I don't think there is a need for her to arrange anything for the wedding since with the resort change so many of our plans have had to change. I just can't see what we'd be paying her for. What do you think?

[JenniferSS]

Legally the contract would stand because you changed your mind unless there was a provision for change of mind.

 

Personally, I would try to work with your TA and come up with a meeting of the minds but remember- if she's already put in the work and arranged the components then you changed your mind and location- she should be paid for her time according to the contract.

 

I guess if you looked at it like this-

 

You work retail- the owner of the shop plans on doing a big sale/promotion for their best clients complete with a welcome reception in the evning and brunch for the early shoppers...has you re-arrange the entire store, check on pricing with multiple caterers for the reception and brunch, some of the calls were long distance as he was specific in what he wanted to be served but then he decides he just doesn't want to do it anymore and you need to cancel everything. He also decided that because he changed his mind he's also not going to pay you for your time doing that work.......

 

Of course we don't know the full details of how much work that the TA has put in.

 

Remember that if your TA does a lot of DW's and honeymoons she may be slow getting back to you with your questions as this is prime season for both!

[KLC77]

I should have said that we changed our minds because after she quoted us one price for our guests she changed that price by $200-$300 per person. Had she told us that figure in the first place we would never have decided on that resort. We would have liked to stick with the original plan, but the price increase was just too much to ask of guests. At least we thought so. Also, the only thing she has done so far is print out labels for our STD's and an insert about the travel package starting price. Which I would of course pay her for and her time for doing them. Oh, and at the first resort we had just reserved the date. No specific arrangements had been made concerning the wedding or other events we were hosting.

 

I guess I will just talk to her and voice my concerns and see what she says.

[JenniferSS]

I'd say that is probably the best bet- sometimes the TA will do a lot of work behind the scenes that our clients are not aware of- remember we're suppose to make it look easy for you! Plus it'd defeat the purpose of using a TA if we reported back every little thing- our clients would be ready to put us on their Do not Call list and some of the issues we take care of and get accomplished/fixed before our clients even knew there was a problem! No need getting the clients stressed out for no reason!!

 

Anyways I digress.....did she tell you why the price jumped up that much? Did you lock in a contract price or did she just provide a quote ? There was a time period about a month or so ago where airfares went through the roof (about 200-300 per person!) fo a week or two- it was insane!

 

She should be very willing to work things out- and may even tell you that she hadn't done much else so don't worry about it! Just be open and honest and let her know that you value the work she did and still plan on using her services but would like to renegotiate the contract to reflect your new venue, ask for input on what she thinks is fair and go from there!

 

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[KLC77]

Thanks for the feedback Jennifer. We spoke today and she has done some things that I never even thought of... like long distance phone calls. Oops! Never even crossed my mind. So, we are going to talk more and hopefully we will continue to work together.

[JenniferSS]

Glad to help out!

 

It always work best to keep the lines of communication open- I'm sure she appreciates it!

 

 

TA Jennifer