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My business does custom work and we have non refundable deposits.

I am very sorry if something bad happened to you and you no longer need your custom apparel. I cannot sell it to anyone else. I have already spent hundreds of dollars in creating it, even if they are not finished - wholesale goods with 40% restocking charges, artist’s time, administrative costs, etc.

This is WHY there is a deposit...to protect the business should there be an unexpected cancellation.

Please remember the business is STILL going to lose money even if they kept the deposit. They are losing the expect profit from the transaction. The deposit is (hopefully) only covering the costs. Had these jokers not made the reservation and then cancelled it, some other customer would have been served that night and they would have made the profit off them. They LOST that profit they would have otherwise had.

So, in this case, the business owner got screwed out of the deposit that covered unretrievable costs AND the profit they would have made by serving someone else that night.

I’d be pissed too.

The restaurant is not in the health insurance business. Anyone who can afford to eat at the restaurant can afford to lose the deposit and eat baked beans that night.
I paid my property tax last month using a physical check which I deposited In a USPS mailbox on a non-holiday Monday, the tax was due on Thursday. The tax official just billed me for a late fee, on the basis that the envelope with the check arrived with no postmark date. So one branch of the government, the USPS, failed to put a postmark on my letter, and another branch of government gives me a fine for the mistake of the USPS. If I told them I was in the hospital I guarantee they would tell me to pound sand.

The deposit, in this instance, was not a percentage of the expected bill, it seemingly also included the profit. The way I read it the deposit was the same as what the restaurant was charging for the full service. i.e. the deposit that was later charged as a cancellation fee was $250, and the cost if they had made it to the restaurant and had the meal was $125/person - or $250 for the two of them.

The restaurant has a point, though she expressed it poorly, and the amount of the cancellation fee was ridiculous.

The deposit was a 100% in full charge, and if was such a hot restaurant, they could have seated someone elae for more than double profit, since they’d only be serving food once.

If they accept payment from a card with trip cancellation insurance, they run the risk of such insurance being used—without an accompanying right to berate the customer.