What happens if a supplier goes quiet
Raise it on the order rather than waiting. An unanswered booking can be rebroadcast to other suppliers who can still make your date, at the price you already paid — and your money stays held the whole time.
Silence is a state, not a mood
A booking that has not been acknowledged is visible to us as clearly as it is to you. If a supplier has not moved an order forward and your event is approaching, say so on the order. That is the signal that starts everything below; it does not commit you to cancelling and it does not put you in dispute with anyone.
The booking can be offered to someone else
An unanswered order can be broadcast as a replacement request to other suppliers in the same category who can reach your address and still meet your date. They take over the original booking exactly as it stands — the same work, the same total, the same protected payment. Nobody can use it to reprice your event: a replacement offer that does not match the original amount is refused outright.
- You start it from the order — it is your decision, not something that happens to your booking without you.
- The original supplier cannot bid on their own replacement.
- Only one replacement can ever be accepted, so two suppliers can never both think the job is theirs.
- You are not charged again. The money you already paid moves with the booking.
- It can be used once per order, so use it when the silence is real rather than as a first nudge.
Your money does not move while this is happening
A rebroadcast booking stays funded and held. Release still needs either your confirmation that the work was delivered, or the release window passing with no issue raised — and an open issue pauses that window rather than letting it run out underneath you.
If nobody can take it
Sometimes there is no supplier who can reach your suburb on your date at short notice. That is the moment to raise an issue rather than to keep waiting: it puts the order in front of a person who can decide the financial outcome, with the messages and timeline as the record.
What helps
Keep the conversation on the order. A phone call that goes unanswered leaves nothing behind; a message on the booking is timestamped, visible to both sides, and is the first thing anyone reviewing the order will read.