Music Tuition - AIBU

I am a different kind of tutor. I usually increase my fees at the same time each year and always give my parents several weeks notice of increase, even if it is just by a couple of pounds.
I would only slap on a big increase like this if several years had gone by and would explain why - how many years it had been, cost of living etc. I would be ESPECIALLY careful to give plenty of notice if this was the case!

Disappointing but I see you're not the least surprised. I hope you feel a little better for trying.

Typo. I missed out the word wouldn't.

I wouldn't personally rise prices at this short notice.

Completely my fault - terrible typo for that particular post!

It's still not blackmail though. No one is forcing anyone to do anything.

I've had tutors raise prices for my own children weeks before exams and to be honest I've just paid, as in my case I realised we'd been getting a bargain before the price rise. Maybe the same as essentially true for the OP. I was a bit unimpressed but made a decision based on what I could afford. If it had been unaffordable, I'd have found a new tutor within my budget.

My thinking
Yanbu to be annoyed anyway

VAT?

I wouldn’t be happy about this either but it does sound important to continue considering one of your children wants to make this a career, could you cut back elsewhere to afford it?

I said "blackmail of sorts".

Do you have kids who have music lessons?

If my son's music teacher emailed me and said his lessons next week were going up substantially, and I couldn't afford them, then I'd have no choice but to stop the lessons and my son would be gutted. It's not fair to do that to kids, especially if they've been working hard towards something.

It's extremely unprofessional to increase prices at such short notice. I'm quite shocked you admit to doing the same.

I also tutor and wouldn't dream of moving the goal posts like this. It's just mean and unprofessional.

Obviously the lack of notice is unreasonable.

However, if you have been with them for a long time, has the price gradually gone up each year? Or (as you've said the business side hasn't been great) is it a case of the tutor realising they have been undercharging and are rectifying that?

Ideally, smaller, regular increases work better for everyone, but if it is the latter, then can you think of it as having had a bargain for the last year or two and this is a correction ?

If price hasn’t changed in years of tutoring, then it is reasonable.

The details missing here are how much you're currently paying and when the last time it went up was.

We had one teacher who went up about £1-1.50 every year, (half hour lessons) and one who wouldn't put it up for several years, then do a jump of £5. She said it was easier for people who paid cash.
On the whole the jump brought it in line with other tutors, so on average we paid less most of the time.

I agree it's very short notice but the parent is hardly being forced to pay for music lessons, unless there's more to this than the OP has mentioned.

Surely she has the choice to just walk away and not book further lessons?

Accusing a teacher of 'blackmail' or 'punishing children' because they've had to put their prices up is just nasty. They are running a private business and are entitled to run their business how they see fit. Parents are free to book lessons, or not. The teacher doesn't 'owe' the parents anything and I'm sure if it suited a parent to just walk away, they'd do exactly that (without feeling guilty).

The expectation on teachers to always put other people before their own needs is why so many school teachers are leaving in droves.

I'm a private tutor and while I personally increase my prices at this short notice, I would get rid of any client who felt entitled to try to guilt trip me into doing anything I wasn't happy with. I'm not a teacher in a school for very good reasons. I no longer have to smile and nod and do what's 'expected' to my own detriment simply because I work with children.

It depends on the level the child is at.
My more advanced students have an hour because it isn't possible to fit in everything you need in a half an hour once they reach the highest grades.
The OP's children might be quite advanced.
However it sounds like the teacher doesn't offer half an hour lessons at all which is a bit odd, unless she only takes more advanced students, because an hour is too long for young children and beginners.

I've rarely known 1 hour lessons as they're not that effective with kids.

Personally I think the teacher is being unprofessional and needs to finish the end of the school year at the agreed rate. Otherwise it's punishing kids or forcing you to pay more. Essentially blackmail of sorts!

I'd then look for another teacher. Lots of great teachers out there.

Our first piano teacher was an A Level music student age 16 who was just brilliant! Very cheap too!

I think you should talk to the teacher and say that it's not enough notice and you will struggle to find the extra money at short notice and would she consider you remaining on the old rate for a month because that's a fair amount of notice.
Then you have a month to decide what to do.

"Thankfully I only pay monthly so terms would only reflect that."

sure, but if you've had zero notice of the hike it is reasonable to ask for that notice, which should delay the price hike.

It sounds like fortnightly and 30 min lessons are not on the table.

It is worth an honest low pressure conversation with one DC, just to check whether they do love it as much as you think. Sometimes there will be more obligation behind it than you are aware of.

You would be better off splitting the lesson each week rather than alternating fortnightly. I also teach music and fortnightly lessons are often a slippery slope. It sounds like your children do practise so might be less of an issue but when I had fortnightly people when I first started 20 years ago the children rarely practised in the first week after the lesson and started practising a few days before the next lesson by which time they'd forgotten what we'd done.
There can also be problems with technique if the child doesn't have a lesson every week because they can easily reinforce technical errors over the fortnight.
A half hour lesson once a week is better than an hour every fortnight.

I really think it's not on to announce a price increase like this with immediate effect. It's a lot of money too, it's not like it's a couple of quid.
What's your period of notice for the contract with the tutor? If you have to give a month's notice or can only leave end of the term it's really outrageous that they are expecting you to pay 10 pounds a week more from now with no opportunity to give notice from your side.

I only ever put prices up at the start of September. All parents receive a letter in the middle of June with the price information for September. That means they can decide whether to continue in September or not.

I understand tutor was very prescriptive in the set up and you're probably nervous to annoy them, so they have you over a barrel, but this is new information and not reasonable notice. On some level they must understand this is not reasonable.

Is it worth asking if they would consider delaying the increase for one calendar month to make this more manageable for you? Then take stock on your next steps.

Or if you absolutely can't, resign yourselves to scraping together the money for the next 2 months, but look at it as a temporary state while you figure things out. And if you do quit this teacher, I would be tempted to do it with the same notice as they gave you!! Though this is doubtless poor advice. (However if you do have a contractual notice period, ask for them to apply this same notice period to their price increase because contracts do need to be approximately symmetrical.)

Or an hour lesson split between them both each week.

It’s totally unacceptable. My mum teaches piano and there’s no way she would do such a big increase like that.

That’s a pretty unprofessional move from the tutor, and more so if they’re very firm in the way they work.

It’s not unreasonable to discuss it with them and try and come to an arrangement that gives a transition. Whether that’s missing a week lesson with no charge sometime in the next month, or postponing the fee increase and catching it up over holiday periods if they have them, or shorter lessons.

It depends on how much they currently charge and how much it's going up to.

My DC have music lessons. One teacher charges £20, one £18 and one £17.50 per 30 minutes. I spend about £85 a week on music lessons.

They all gave me a terms notice to increase their prices which was reasonable.

What is their justification for increasing the prices so much?

I think I'd tell the teacher that you understand they want to increase the prices but doing so at such short notice is unfair and that they should complete the term at the agreed price.