How To Pay For Room Hire At A Community Centre

If you ever hire a room at a community centre in Wyndham to run a class or hold a function, here's how to make payment:

1. Take your Bond and Hire Fee Payment Slip to Council's offices at the Civic Centre on Princes Hwy
2. Make payment
3. Get a receipt
4. Take the receipt to the community centre on the day of your class/function 
5. The community centre gives you the key to the room

I didn't know any of this when I booked a room at Tarneit CLC to run workshops.

The Bond and Hire Fee Payment Slip said -
"Please pay this invoice before you event. With your receipt of payment make arrangements to pick up the key from the Tarneit Centre Coordinator on xxxx xxxx [phone number].

The Bond will be returned via cheque to the hirer mentioned below after the key is returned."

Right at the bottom of the slip was this note -

"Cheques should be marked Not Negotiable and made payable to Wyndham City Council. For payments, go to the Wyndham City Council Civic Centre, 45 Princes Hwy, Werribee."

For some reason, that last sentence escaped my notice and I happily sent off my cheque.

Today (2 weeks after sending out the cheque and waiting in vain for a receipt), I rang Council to ask if a receipt was on its way.

The third person I was put through to very tersely told me that they don't send out receipts any more as they receive hundreds of cheques every day. If I want a receipt, I have to go to the Civic Centre and make payment in person.

Thankfully, this is the first and last time I have to do this.

The kind and flexible staff at Tarneit CLC has offered me a more business-friendly alternative: she will send me an invoice at the end of every month of workshops and I can pay them off by BPAY.