This is news in Britain

[Martinus]

Party invoice: Boy sent bill for birthday no-show

A five-year-old boy has been billed for failing to attend a friend's birthday party - resulting in legal action.

Alex Nash, from Cornwall, was invited to the party just before Christmas.

An invoice for £15.95 was sent by his schoolfriend's mother Julie Lawrence, who said Alex's non-attendance left her out of pocket and his parents had her details to tell her he was not going.

Alex's father Derek said he had been told he would be taken to the small claims court for refusing to pay.

'Understand she's upset'

Alex's parents, from Torpoint, had accepted an invitation to the party at a dry ski slope in Plymouth, Devon, just before Christmas.

However, they realised their son was double-booked and due to spend time with his grandparents, which he did.

His parents said they had no contact information for Ms Lawrence at that time.

They found the invoice in a brown envelope in his schoolbag last week.

The invoice lists a "Party No Show" fee
Mr Nash said: "It was a proper invoice with full official details and even her bank details on it.

"I can understand that she's upset about losing money. The money isn't the issue, it's the way she went about trying to get the money from me.

"She didn't treat me like a human being, she treated me like a child and that I should do what she says."

In a short statement, Ms Lawrence said: "All details were on the party invite. They had every detail needed to contact me."

Mr Nash said he had been told he was being taken to the small claims court because he was refusing to pay.

The unwritten rules of children's parties?

Birthday boy/girl must be given preference for starting activity. Small guests pushing past should be restrained by attending adults
Party bags or gifts for each attending child - the children will always remember "that party" when they didn't get one
If you don't RSVP don't think you can just turn up. And if you do, don't expect a party bag (see above)
Avoid party talk around the parents of the uninvited
Host child MUST win at least one round of pass the parcel. Sweets within each layer for everyone else
Children must be given 15 minutes at the buffet before adults are allowed to hoover up the cocktail sausages

This is not the Onion. This is BBC.

I don't know whom I loathe more. The bitch who sent the invoice. The asshole who went with it to the media. Or the media for actually running this non-story.

My hatred for everyone involved burns like a million of suns.

[Eddie Teach]

Frivolous law suits deserve to be laughed at and derided by the general public.

[Caliga]

Mart:  Relax.  It's just a fluff piece dude.

[dps]

I don't know whom I loathe more. The bitch who sent the invoice. The asshole who went with it to the media. Or the media for actually running this non-story.

Depends on which media outlet runs it.  If it was just a dinky little newspaper in a small town where nothing much happens, it might be the biggest news of the month, but the BBC doesn't need to run it, unless maybe it was part of a larger story on frivolous lawsuits.

[celedhring]

BBC has a really deep national network, don't see what's shocking of them running it. As said, this kind of frivolous shit needs to be exposed and laughed at, so it doesn't become too common.

[Sheilbh]

It's trending globally now.

Well done BBC. Also all of my office were talking about it today.

[Josquius]

The BBC does a lot of funny fluff pieces too.
The way they have presented this isn't the best though, what with the sad picture of the father and son. Its like something from The Sun.

[Ed Anger]

 

[Gups]

Novel ways of being a wanker will always make news.

[mongers]

Novel ways of being a wanker will always make news.

Yeah, I'm surprised more of my posts here, don't make it into the mainstream media. 

[Syt]

One of my sisters had the story in her Facebook feed.

Right under this:

[Norgy]

Massive fart alert?

[Martinus]

I preferred when Clickhole asked a similar question: