20/08/2026
📢 IMPORTANT UPDATE – BOOKING, DEPOSIT & DATE CHANGE POLICY
I’ve always tried to be as flexible and understanding as possible with my customers. If somebody has a problem or needs to move a date, I normally do everything I can to help.
But I’ve realised that I also need to be fair to myself, my team, and all the other customers who have booked work with us.
When we agree a start date for a project, that time is reserved specifically for that customer. Depending on the size of the job, that could mean several days or even several weeks blocked out in our diary.
We plan our workload around those dates. We may turn down other work, move enquiries to later dates, organise materials and arrange who will be working on each job.
So when a confirmed job is cancelled, delayed or moved at short notice — especially when the dates are changed more than once — it has a much bigger effect than simply changing something in a calendar.
It can leave members of our team without work that had already been planned for them, and it can also affect several other customers afterwards.
We are a small business. Myself and my team work hard and rely on having a consistent, properly organised workload. This is our livelihood and our income, just like anybody else going to work every day.
For that reason, Fantastic Finishing is introducing a clearer booking and deposit policy going forward.
🔹 A booking deposit will be required to secure agreed dates.
🔹 Dates will only be considered secured once the deposit has been received and the booking has been confirmed.
🔹 If you need to change your agreed start date, we ask for at least 14 days’ notice wherever reasonably possible.
🔹 Where sufficient notice is given, we will always try to accommodate a change, subject to our availability.
🔹 Repeated changes, cancellations or short-notice postponements may result in reasonable costs being deducted from the deposit where Fantastic Finishing has suffered a genuine financial loss.
🔹 Any amount retained will be reasonable and proportionate to the loss suffered and handled in accordance with applicable UK consumer law.
🔹 Most importantly, postponing your project does not automatically postpone our diary with it.
If your project is delayed and the original dates can no longer be used, a new start date will be offered based on our next available space.
That could unfortunately mean waiting several weeks if other customers have since been booked in.
We completely understand that unexpected things happen. Materials can be delayed, another trade can run behind, family emergencies happen and sometimes circumstances are genuinely outside anyone’s control.
We will always try to be reasonable.
But flexibility has to work both ways.
We cannot continually rearrange other customers who have kept their agreed dates, nor can we repeatedly leave members of our team without planned work because somebody else’s project has been moved.
This policy is not about making money from deposits or penalising customers.
It is about protecting our working time, protecting our income, protecting a small local business, and being fair to the customers who honour their agreed dates.
I’ve probably been too flexible with this in the past because I genuinely try to help everybody wherever I can. But constantly reorganising weeks of work behind the scenes creates a level of pressure that customers don't always see.
I want to concentrate on what we do best — turning up when we say we will, doing the job properly and leaving customers happy with the finished result.
All I ask in return is that our time and confirmed bookings are treated with the same respect. 🤝
Thank you to everyone who understands and continues to support our small business. ❤️
Fantastic Finishing
Built with Pride. Finished to Perfection. 🛠️
