<prompt> Human: My fiance and I booked a venue in July of 2017 for September 2018. The deposit was 500 and we went ahead and put an extra 500 down so that we wouldnt have to worry about it in September. In early January, we decided we were going to elope instead; I professionally e-mailed the owner of the venue, told him we were very sorry for the inconvenience, and told him he could mail the deposit and extra payment to our address. He responded and said Ok, thanks for letting me know, the check will be out this week. We gave it a few weeks before e-mailing him again. I e-mailed him 2 more times after, and he never responded. My fiance called him early March, he told us he was sorry and that we would have the check within a week... Gave it two weeks, same story, he was sorry, still no check. We both called him today, and he ignored both of our calls. It has been almost 3 months since we originally told him we would no longer need his venue. Our contract states that if we cancel any time before 90 days of the event, we would receive a prorated amount of our deposit. I think our only option at this point is to take him to small claims court. Has anybody ever had an issue like this? Ohio, USA  <response>: Approx. 15 months prior to dateYou cancelled approx 6 months after contractHe owes you 915s of your depositNever give more than the required deposit, if you think giving some stranger an extra 500 is safer than putting it in your savings account or under your mattress you are wrong.Good luck getting your money back, even if you win in court. 