teacher always late

[FGSdontblameme]

A friend and I participate in a sport.
A

[FGSdontblameme]

Sorry. Stupid phone.

My mate and I play a sport and we've just started sharing a private lesson.
A new teacher has arrived on the scene and was keen to get going and offered us a discount price.

The lesson is 1 hour but she's always 10 minutes late.

Yesterday I approached her and suggested she might like to change the timings because it was obviously tricky for her at the suggested time.

She declined, saying that it was the weather that had delayed her, last week it was a poorly child, the week before a faulty car.

She can't run our lesson over because the next person (paying full price) turns up straight after us.

More a case of what would you do? She's a lovely person but seems rather stressed and anxious. I feel she thinks, because we're not paying the full rate, we should suck up 10 mins a week.

Opinions gratefully received.

[PurpleDaisies]

That's not on. I'm a private tutor and very occasionally I get stuck in traffic and will overrun for however long I was delayed by. Once I couldn't stay so came early the next week. Tell the teacher that you're unhappy she's been late consistently and unless that changes you'll stop using her.

[whois]

Meh she sounds a bit shit - she's giving you 17% less lesson time.

Be upfront, say over the course of the last x weeks she has been late and you she's missed x mins of lesson. Please can we arrange a time for an extended session to make up the time.

[MaisyMooMoo]

Does she turn up in her pyjamas?

Sorry, wrong thread.

[DrGoogleWillSeeYouNow]

You've brought it to her attention so hopefully she'll buck her ideas up.

Doesn't matter that she's giving you a discount, you're paying an agreed price for an agreed amount of time.

If it carries on, you could either ask her when is convenient for her to make up the missed time, or suggest she gives you your 7th lesson for free.

[howabout]

As others have said put your foot down or you will always be the clients she can get away with short changing. You are doing her a favour as she needs the business - it was a discounted price for you or an hour not getting paid.

[SuburbanRhonda]

I wonder why she is arranging back to back lessons if she knows she is often late?

She should allow say 15 minutes in between so she can run over to give you your full time but not impact on the next client.

[Gobbolino6]

If it continues, I'd find a different teacher, and I'd tell her why. If you're paying for an hour, you should get an hour.

[FGSdontblameme]

Thanks for the comments.

I thought by offering to change the time she would realise that we'd noticed her poor timekeeping.

I feel really bad, I've soon been there with poorly kids, a crappy car etc.
She's not even a brilliant teacher.
I'm going to be strong and assertive next week and suggest she gives us a an extra 30 mins at a designated time.

[MrsUltra]

Or rearrange the time so you are not the first client - then she can be late for that one instead...

[kissmethere]

My driving instructor dos this and I told him I was changing. He was never on time and I feltike I was being ripped off.
It's too often so tell her. The discount means nothing really if you're not getting your money's worth.

[ArcheryAnnie]

I understand delays, too, but it's reasonable of you to say that whatever time she turns up at, that's when your hour lesson starts, even if she has other appointments lined up. Those other appointments aren't your concern. If she's 10 mins late, then the next person will have to wait 10 mins, too. And so on - and she will finish ten mins late.

If she ends up inconveniencing her entire client base by 10 mins, and not just short-changing you, then she may realise there's a problem she has to fix.

[NewYearSameMe]

How much discount do you get? If the discount is about the same percentage as the time lost then you could point out that you are effectively paying full-price per minute for something that she had agreed would be discounted.

How long will your discount run for? If you are only getting x number of lessons at a discount then I think it would be fair to tell her that you will not be willing to pay full price in the future for lessons that are short of the time they should be.

Is there a reason why you can't ask her to start at 10 mins to the hour (e.g. does the room/court/whatever need to be book on the hour)? If she teaches you from, say, 9.50 to 10.50 and her next client is at 11.00, then she has a few minutes to play with if she is running late for you. Plus you can ask her to do three of the lessons from 9.50 to 11.00 to make up for the half hour that you have lost so far.

[scarlets]

You've warned her. If it happens next time, finish. Don't pay for any more lessons and don't recommend her to friends.

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

Have you both paid in advance?

[FGSdontblameme]

I think she works in 3 different locations and our appointment is the first one at our place that day.

Even when she has been on time she's come screeching into the car park at the allocated time and still needs to park, get the stuff out of the car and walk to the space.

She can't do earlier because of commitments elsewhere, can't do later because of the full paying client then has to whizz back to do pick up.

My friend feels we should jack it. Her normal rate is £25 per hour and we're paying £20 between two.

[DustOffYourHighestHopes]

Doesn't matter about the discounted price, or the lateness. Fact is: life's too short for rubbish teachers.

[CandOdad]

I would point out that over the course of six lessons she owes you a free hour. If she happy with that and you feel you benefit from 50 minutes rather than 60 then that seems a decent compromise.

[NewYearSameMe]

Can you find a better teacher? I would resent even a more deeply discounted rate than that if the teacher wasn't all that good. Plus, that's only a 20% discount if you get the full time, if she's generally 10 minutes late then you're almost paying full rate on those lessons. Even on her best day she is not ready and waiting to start bang on time as you say she just gets to venue at start time, so it's not likely to get any better.

[rookiemere]

Do you get anything from the classes, is she a good teacher when she's there?
Actually doesn't really matter. She gave you the discounted rate to get you on as clients, then can't get there on time - very unprofessional.

[RubbleBubble00]

If she's not great then bin her, timekeeping is just secondary reason

[FGSdontblameme]

She's not a great teacher.
But others locally charge £45 per hour so she is cheap.

[sparechange]

Do you need an hour of tuition?
Maybe suggest to her that you are happy to have a 45 min lesson for £15 if that still gives you enough tuition time?

[FGSdontblameme]

Actually that's a great idea.
We could get there 15 minutes early and warm up then she could join us without any resentment either side. Thank you.

[CombineBananaFister]

If she's not a good teacher then it doesn't matter how cheapo she's is, you're not going to get much out of it in the long run whereas less lessons with someone more expensive you might learn more. It's a false economy in the long run