My PT is annoyed I haven't given notice...

Just don't make pointless, irrelevant comments and I will 😊

Give it a rest.

You can't enforce a notice period in this sort of scenario. You pay for a block, and it's then entirely up to the customer if they pay for another block. If you want more certainty you need to set it up as a monthly direct debit, take at least a month in advance and require a notice period.

It's down to business model (and getting some legal advice which people simply don't want to pay for - well more fool them).

Also why are people saying it's courteous to let him know? I don't tell my hairdresser if I decide to go elsewhere, or get my car serviced at a different garage to last year. They are providing a service which customers take or leave. People have a very weird attitude on here, it's so beholden to business!

Which was the OP saying her gym wasn't busy at that time (and therefore the PT is unlikely to be deluged with other clients). The busyness of your gym in that context is irrelevant. You can say it but I can also point that out, if that's okay with you.

But they’re the customers. Businesses are supposed to want to encourage customers to use their services.

That would also have been extremely unprofessional of him and be bad for business. The normal thing to do would be to give her first dips if she wanted to continue. Obviously if she didn't want continue, she would no longer have any entitlement to the slot in the future but I expect she would realise that.

I was just responding to a specific comment, if that's OK with you.

Well, I guess the flipside is that some people would get annoyed if he suddenly booked somebody else in the slot they'd had for months and said "oh well, there's no contract here".

Everything I type now sounds snarky! Would JRTFT have been less snarky for you? 🙄

I didn't know what PT was either, first of all thought it might be, 'piano teacher', googled and found some really odd things, then I worked it out when I saw 'gym' mentioned. I don't think it is a common acronym, have only ever seen it on here which has many of its own 'Mumsnet abbreviations'.

What's that got to do with anything what happens in your gym?

Thanks! No meed to snark 🙄

As has been explained about half a dozen times on the thread,@Oldwmn, it's a personal trainer.

What's a PT?

He seems to have confused personal training with a personal relationship. OP is not his friend!

My gym is actually quite busy then - men and women.

The responses on this thread are ridiculous.

OP is not in a romantic relationship with him, she pays him. She is not obligated to manage his cash flow for him.

His behaviour is high unprofessional. Presumably he is coming into a quiet time of year and he is frustrated. He is taking his frustration out on OP. This is not on.

I am also in the fitness industry. One of the most important rules of any business is understanding that you are not entitled to anybody's business or money no matter what your previous working arrangement or history is. Clients have to work to earn their money, it's up to them how they spend it.

If a client cancels with you it's perfectly fine to think f**k them while you paint on a smile, thank them for their hard work so far and congratulate them on their progress. Even if they leave for a competitor you do that and you do your best to mean it. Then you reflect on why and if, it's appropriate you ask them and appreciate them taking the time.

In this situation the PT could use the opportunity to reflect on his own booking and cancellation processes. Really he should have an automatic alert set up when someone is within 10 days of their block ending to see if they are renewing. It's his responsibility to fill his own hours, he is self employed. If he had reacted differently to OP there would have been an opportunity for a conversation for another solution; perhaps doing less over the summer, selling a bundle or even prepaying for September to keep her place. Because of his huffy, immature and unprofessional response he's lost a client and is out of pocket.

As for the debates about whether OP is BU cancelling and paying, they are so idiotic I'm not even going there.

It’s possibly not about you but his commitment to the gym….

the one I knew was told to hang around the gym (at no cost to the gym) ‘in case’ a new client walked in, and thus could be immediately introduced to the PT.

the set up was the gym had a contract PT who sub contracted other PT’s to hinself. they were required to pay him rent (which actually covered his rent to the gym) and were not allowed to PT at any other gyms.

so the one I knew would drop her daughter at school and head to the gym. She would do her own workout and then ‘hang around’ until her appointment came in. When that appointment cancelled, she felt the day wasted.. having said that, several times I told her to ditch the guy she was sub contracting to because he wasn’t handling tax correctly and she didn’t have a head for business anyhow.

in more recent times she had clients not turn up or not pay, and as times are tight, gym membership is the first thing people drop.

so my guess your PT has become used to your regular payments and you have thrown him off guard. The one I knew took things like this very personally..

Every so often i come across a mumsnet thread where I feel like a lot of posters must be sniffing glue and this is one of them. You did nothing wrong OP.

It’s business not personal. He sounds unprofessional.

I think there are!

I'm also self employed and realise people end without notice. l always send them a warm message wishing them well and inviting them to return if they wish in the future. Some of them do even years later. I would never return to a service provider who was rude to me or pressured me.

It's the nature of being self employed that cash flow is uncertain but in return you are your own boss and manage your own time which is wonderful.

And you clearly don't understand what constitutes a contract. That is, unless you are simply referring to the block she booked and he provided. The contract does not extend beyond the number of sessions in the block, meaning the op has no obligation to continue and the PT has no obligation to continue once the block is complete.

I'm not engaging with you any further.

Now who’s being patronising?! 😆

I love it when posters loftily announce their exit from a thread/discussion in the mistaken belief that anyone gives a shit.

That you pay in blocks doesn't make your lack of consideration for someone else, who is relying on income, any better.
How would you feel if you were told at the end of the month in a job that you had lost it with no prior warning? I bet you wouldn't be happy.

Well if he’s selling set numbers if sessions, but is relying on the assumption that the same people will just keep on buying more and more sessions forever, more fool him. That’s not an effective way to run a business.

Comparing it to being sacked from a job with no warning is disingenuous. The PT knows the block was coming to an end. He just assumed OP would book another block. If you’re going to compare it to a job, this is the equivalent of taking on a month-long contract role and not even thinking to ask if they were planning on renewing your contract for another month.

The bottom line is that technically OP has done nothing wrong. The PT likely showed irritation because he assumed she would be carrying on and hadn’t anticipated the drop in income. Maybe he’s had a few clients do the same and he’s under financial pressure. Let’s face it, a PT is a luxury for most (albeit a very valuable one imo), so in times where the cost of living is rising, they are likely to be one of the first costs to be cut.

I would try to be gracious but firm under the circumstances. I wouldn’t inflame the situation by entering in any kind of response other than to reiterate you won’t be continuing after the end of the block. Just chalk it down to experience, move
back to your preferred gym and enjoy your summer!