Deposits are a good way for companies to ensure payment from their customers — they serve both as a bond and commitment from the customer for an investment of the service provider's time, and provide additional funds for the company as well.

Now, the not-so-good thing about deposits is, if let's say, a company takes a certain sum of money from you as downpayment and decides to close shop without delivering on the services promised in return for your payment.

Enter For You Wedding Services.

A post by one Firdaus Jan exemplifies the pitfalls of the concept of a deposit.

Here it is:

The gist of it is as follows.

- Couple hires For You for their wedding, happening in a month's time.

- Previously agreed in writing to cough up an 80 per cent downpayment to the company ahead of his wedding.

- Two weeks ago, met the boss of For You with his assistant and paid a sum of S$9,100, taking the total he had paid to the company to S$14,000.

- Now, the boss and his assistant are both uncontactable.

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And their anger is palpable.

"To Idham Salehuddien (the boss), you think you are smart & good with your words. You can't run & hide for the rest of your freaking disgusting life. I had worked so hard to save up for my wedding. It took me years to save up, but you happily took my $14k and run. You have given me & my family a hard time, because of your heartless actions. Now we need to find alternatives & I need to find more money to engage new vendors, all within a month!"

And this couple is not the only one.

Now, even if this was an isolated case, this would still be empirically bad.

But the sad thing is, it definitely wasn't an isolated case.

On For You's Facebook page, there are multiple one-star reviews, as well as those calling the owner a scammer on his own Facebook page.

With one even warning him he couldn't run from Kifarah, which is a similar concept to karma.

Company sends letter to customers left in the lurch

In response to the outrage, it seems For You has sent a message to those affected by the fiasco.

Not to suggest a potential repayment structure, but rather to suggest other wedding services the affected couples can approach.

"May peace be upon you, respected future bride and groom,

As the representative for For You Wedding Pte Ltd, I duly apologise because of the company’s financial constraints because of lack of funds after years of being in the wedding industry.

We are in this state because of our suppliers who have raised their costs since December last year. Other problems include weddings that are done but payments have been delayed and also other problems that we have no control over. We also stopped receiving funds after many couples cancelled their packages with us after a viral post about us went around social media in Feb this year.

Our company has not been receiving funds for us to go through with the services that we have promised.

I apologise with a heavy heart that we may not be able to go through with your wedding because our company has limited funds.

We have tried our best to obtain loans from SME-approved(?) banks but failed to get it due to several reasons given by the banks.

I am saddened by the tragedy that has happened to our company.

Here are some companies that can help you:"

Here are the companies they recommended.

We have tried contacting For You Wedding Services Pte Ltd, but their number seems to have been cancelled.

Top photos via For You Wedding Services FB page