Final Bill from Venue

You could cancel the credit card so nothing could be billed further on it. And if you are able to send a check and write on it that this is offered as payment in full while accompanied with a letter about what has happened, that might work well. But do you have a good estimate of the final bill?

You could say that they have not properly edited the bill but you have included the edited version (that you were finding issues about) and that you are sending the check to satisfy that edited bill as that final amount due.

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I have a decent estimate but not exact. She sent us a bill but instead of $175x3 for an appetizer we had, she input $375x3 so she needed to fix that and then was going to remove the bar set up fee and liquor tax since we had some big issues with the bartender. So i could just do the math on that and subtract what she has for the bar stuff.

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I think it would be quite fair to say you have tried to contact them for the revised bill and since they had not come forth with it in a timeliness presented in the contract that you are incorporating the corrections based on your discussions with them. Make a copy of the letter and check and have a friend see what you have done and have that person send it.

You probably wouldn't need all that level but it shows you have done your best to satisfy the bill.

As to the laws, there might be fair practice laws but there probably is not much in law to address timely billing. And with what you shared, there is nothing clearly underhanded going on -- especially if they have seemed to operate fairly and treat you well.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't know where you are, but I think Michael is right. Make sure to keep a record of all the contact you've have and what happened. Try to either record phone conversations (you might need to inform them depending on where you live) for your records or to communicate through email.

Everyone else has great advice too, I want to add one thing: I'm assuming you have the money to pay the bill now, right? Pop it in a savings account if needed so you're not surprised 6 months later. I wouldn't try to get out of paying it, so what the others said is a great way of paying what you think you owe with a note about the confusion and the lack of a proper bill.

I would also cancel the card so they don’t try to charge some random fees and stuff and then just have documentation about all the times you tried to reach out to pay

The reason I suggest to pay with the check is several reasons. First that you agree you owe that amount. Also, that you have paid them diligently. They may also accept it as final payment rather than trying to extract out more money. If they were wanting to overcharge, it is harder for them to do that once you have done the payment as described.

So I’m actually going through something similar but on the front end. Our next payment to our venue is due today, and we still haven’t received any instructions from them on how to actually make the payment, despite our repeatedly reaching out. I wouldn’t panic too much as long as you have your many attempts in writing, phone logs, etc. Late fees and all of that are put in by the company, and only a super sketchy company would try to penalize you when it’s their payment system that’s down. I would, however, continue to be persistent about contacting them. May brings peak wedding system, so they might just be super behind and prioritizing the weddings that are coming up instead of the ones that already happened.

I wouldn’t panic, it’s only been a week! And like you said, there was a holiday in there too. Venue event coordinators are (unfortunately) notoriously unorganized and slow. We ran into the same issues with ours. I eventually just mailed them a check for what I calculated was the final total, and when she received it, it must have lit a fire under her butt because she emailed me that day.
I would email her today and let her know you have dropped a check for the final payment in the mail; and if she has any questions, issues, etc. she can get ahold of you.

You can go there in person or cancel the card. Keep documentation of you trying to reach out to them. You can write out a check for your your payment that way you still have documentation

Go to the venue and do not leave till it’s straightened out or send a letter certified mail explaining the situation which they will have to sign for which then that will become your leverage in things go south.