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

I don’t like the sound of your PT 🤣

I am self employed, in a training environment (not PT) private clients I am usually on a day rate as the training is by the day.
Cancelling a Pt with around 2 hours notice is poor on your end, has your pt ever canceled on you? as a trainer in a different field its annoying when people cancel last minute or turn up late and expect you to suck it up.

if you have decided that it isn't working then have a chat and tell them what the issue is, resolve it amicably before cutting ties.

I told my Pt we needed to work harder as it was getting stale so after leg day I can hardly walk today told him that was perfect lets keep it up I suspect tomorrow I will feel worse and he will laugh when he sees me in the gym tomorrow 😂

As a regular PT user, 9am is the slot I would absolutely choose if it was available.

Short notice cancellations can't be helped and yanbu there at all, if your child is sick what can you do?!

But I do also think that as you had been going for a year the decent thing would have been to give a bit of notice. Technically you aren't wrong but it would have been a considerate thing to do.

You're not going to be able to see PT clients who would have scheduled a slot if you weren't scheduled in it. It's also just a schedule load issue as most people will schedule a specific number of work hours per week and day, not unlimited.

But he may not have had someone who wanted that slot. It's perfectly possible that he's just frustrated as a human that he planned to be there and you cancelled. Most people don't appreciate being cancelled on, money aside - you probably wouldn't continue with a PT who repeatedly cancelled last minute even if they refunded you so you weren't out of pocket after all.

Regardless it sounds like his communication about this all was poor as a professional. Sometimes clients just aren't as courteous or considerate as we'd like them to be for various reasons and learning when and how to address it (and when to let it go) is a skill.

Re not renewing: it sounds like you were under no contractual or financial obligation to give him notice, but it would have been courteous for you to do so. As a professional he should have just let your lack of courtesy go and thanked you for your business instead of saying something.

Cancelling short notice: I know multiple personal service providers who will drop clients or restrict when they can schedule for repeated cancellations, even if they pay for the sessions anyways. Partly this is because one of the things that clients and prospective clients consider when choosing someone like a PT is how easy or difficult it is to schedule with them (especially at convenient times), so while you cancelling last minute doesn't directly cost them that session revenue it does mean that other clients who could have really benefitted from/appreciated that slot weren't able to use it.The other big thing with PTs is that clients getting results and making progress is important to them (from a business perspective and because they usually do have a passion for it) and inconsistency can get in the way of that.

Reply to what? What does his message actually say?

I pay for my PT sessions in blocks of 10. In week 7 my trainer asks if I want to do another block. I would think that, that is quite normal especially as illness and injury will often disrupt these things. My position is slightly different though because my PT emails all his clients at the weekend and asks them for their availability for the next week. This part always strikes me as a crazy way to run a business and so labour intensive. However, it works for me during school hols as I just tell him that I am not available rather than cancelling sessions.

It's not nice sitting in a freezing car park in winter because someone has cancelled a lesson at short notice, when I'm already in the car driving there for example. No, I wouldn't have been doing something else because that should have been tutoring time, but it's still not pleasant when people cancel like that at short notice and you have to hang around somewhere waiting, admittedly being paid to wait, as you point out, but it's still not pleasant and it shows that the client has little consideration for the tutor. If people start doing that too often I end the lessons and get someone else in instead.

As for your second point. Here I was pointing out that probably the reason he was annoyed /irritated was to do with the logistics rather than what the OP implied which was that he was taking her money for the cancelled lesson AND wanting to fit someone else into her cancelled slot so he could get double the money and that her cancelling short notice meant he couldn't fit someone else in to the slot.

Lots of people hard of understanding today, or just arguing for the sake of it. He’s self employed, that’s not your problem. It’s not your responsibility to manage his income, cashflow
or customer base.

He has a choice of taking block bookings, and no contracts, or regular monthly payments with a notice period. He’s chosen his way of doing business. You’ve paid for previous blocks, and have now decided you don’t want to pay for the next block.

He’s got a cheek to say anything other than “have a great summer, and hopefully see you in September!”

The cancelling is irrelevant. If you were cancelling late and not paying him then that would be bad. But you are still using one of your prepaid slots so he’s not losing out financially. He’s not cut out to be self employed

I'm a music teacher, and despite sending out T's and C's with every invoice, people still do not give the required notice. It's like I don't matter because I'm not a big company. Really annoying. A few weeks notice that a regular spot will not be continuing would have been helpful to the PT. But more fool them for not stipulating the notice period on the bills.

If you’d seen my later message, I realised that she was not expecting not to pay for the sessions cancelled at short notice and I retracted my comments on that point.

I do still think if you’ve been renewing block by block it would be courteous, at least, to let him know. And yes I probably would tell the vet, if only to get the medical history transferred! Hairdresser etc - depends on the relationship but in these circs yes I probably would, again out of courtesy, even if it was because I was unhappy about something.

Is there a reason why you didn’t give him notice? Clearly you don’t HAVE to but isn’t it a nice thing to do if you know in advance you’re not going to continue. It would help him out to know. Especially if you’ve been working together for a while and get on with them. Unless there was an issue and I thought it would be awkward, I would give them the heads up.

You're incredible. Well ridiculous really. How can someone on a parenting website not understand that you can't predict a child will be ill the next day. She's not demanding he be flexible as he didn't reschedule her appointments and she didn't ask him to. He got paid and she lost out.

Would you announce in advance when you change vets? Hairdressers? Dentists? Plumbers? Cafes?

He is the entitled one and a poor businessman, alienating her future custom and potential recommendations.

Ignore the goaders OP. Plenty mra/incels on this thread to decry a woman and stick up for a man. Very transparent. Don't do them the courtesy of replying. You did nowt wrong.

I have a PT who is a single Mum of two, she understands.

Agreed!

It would never occur to me that someone would expect me to be tied in with this sort of arrangement. You pay for the block, you use up those sessions or get to the end of that block and then if you want to carry on you pay again, and if you don't, you don't.

I'd also say what you said in this thread - that you don't like the gym he uses and want to switch back to your old one so you'll do your own thing in future.

They won’t understand. PT’s are very funny about this sort of thing.

So @filionj the PT remiinded you that renewal time was approaching and at that point you said you wouldn't be renewing over the summer and he replied that in future you needed to give him more notice than that, is that right? So more notice than when the renewal reminder is given? Bonkers.

FWIW DS is a sports coach and PT. He loves it when a customer cancels at short notice and still pays - he can do his own training, or do some CPD, or chat to other people at the gym, or do his shopping, or come and see me if its a day when I'm not working, or just sit and have a coffee if he's up to date with his paperwork. No need to feel guilty on your part 🙂

I think it’s the PT who lacks an understanding of being self-employed.

In what way do you think they have bought “you” instead of your time?

They are clients, not your friends. And by the way, you can’t “fire” clients - you never hired them. It’s the other way around.