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

Just to add OP, my PT had two kids herself and sometimes we both rearranged due to kids. No biggie. Club t&c’s were you needed to give 24 hours to rearrange or lose the session and those are the rules I followed.

I mention it because of all the posters implying that he’s wildly unreasonable to expect you to carry on on an ongoing basis.

I agree. It’s basic manners to mention that you won’t be continuing when the block comes to the end, gives them the opportunity to advertise the slot rather than just have income stop.

"Renewal time" says it all. You don't need to renew.

Lots of people work with coaches on an ongoing basis. Goals change, people progress or they need the accountability to maintain things if they’ve achieved what they want to. I’ve been with my PT for 2.5 years and we have progressed so much, why would I stop?

Christ. The comments on this thread have infuriated me on your behalf OP.

Firstly, if OP is such a poor client why did this PT not drop her as a client?

Instead not only did he keep her on, he’s reprimanding her for not booking more classes, which suggests he seems put out that she dropped him.

Secondly, PT sessions should not infinitely run. If you have a goal in mind, you usually do achieve it with the right PT. At the very least, you develop the form and knowledge to be able to complete the exercises yourself and figure out your own routine. So it doesn’t sound like his PT was good at his job and was not delivering results.

He doesn’t even sound pleasant to be around, considering OP said their sessions have become uncomfortable.

So I’m fully on your side OP, get a new PT in the future should you need one.

I think you’ve been v generous to apologise: you did nothing wrong. His contract terms didn’t require notice.

Were you expecting him to keep a space for you until September?

It's that time of year where a lot of people will start being flaky with personal trainers (and other similar professions) and messing them about.

By asking to take a break, maybe he's thinking (or you've suggested?) That he needs to keep space for you without payment. That obviously wouldn't be reasonable.

I'm a tutor and my cancellations go up massively in this last half term and then over the summer too. I have T and Cs in place to protect myself but I still get a lot of people expecting exceptions and causing me stress.

Is it possible you're the 10th person to have now renewed this week and he's just a bit fed up? Not your fault personally but a possible explanation?

Yes, DC being ill can’t be helped, you don’t have your partner there or childcare and you complied with the contract terms by paying for the unused sessions.

It’s nonetheless understandable for the PT to find short-notice cancellations annoying. His choice whether it was enough for him to end the contract - and he chose to continue.

You're right, saying sorry doesn't pay the bills. However, the op paying for the sessions she cancelled does pay the bills.

Or maybe he doesn't have the necessary skillset to be self employed.

If he's selling blocks of training sessions, then the sensible thing to do is to ask the person a couple of weeks before the block ends if they plan on continuing and if so, to get a deposit/payment to secure that. Any class I've attended or my dc have attended, has taken that approach. Very presumptuous of him to assume the op would just continue.

Well I spent half the first page of posts thinking you were talking about a physiotherapist, followed by a brief moment of thinking maybe you meant private tutor, before finally realising it’s personal trainer (I hope), so your unreasonable for not spelling things out for people like me who have never had any reason to know about personal trainers! (said in jest, before anyone takes offence)

There are actually similarities though, and I’ve been a private tutor so I’m going to continue with that. He’s being massively unreasonable to complain about you cancelling last minute when you’re still paying him. I’ve been cancelled on plenty of times, life happens, I’m still getting paid so why would I care? If he wasn’t so unreasonable about that I’d have said you should have given him more notice of taking a break. Not that you are in any way obliged to, just that since you clearly knew well in advance that you’d be doing this, and the information would obviously have been useful to him, it would have been nice to give him that information. Since he’s a dick about getting paid for doing nothing though I don’t think he deserves any niceties from you so just walk away, and go back to the gym you prefer. You’ve done nothing wrong, and he doesn’t seem to understand how a client/trainer (or tutor) relationship works.

This is incredible. It’s not relevant to him whether you have small ill children or not. And if every client expected him to be this “flexible” his income would really suffer. Saying sorry does not pay his bills, and I would imagine that he has already built in time for going to the supermarket, doing his own workout etc. Seriously over-entitled attitude.

I meant I'd forfeit what I'd paid in advance, as you did.

I still think that if you aren't going to continue an arrangement it's courteous to give as much notice as possible, but he should put that in his terms and conditions really. As I said, it's month at my gym, and they put the terms and conditions in place.

I disagree with this.

Firstly, it's irrelevant about the sick child, as the PT has already been paid and it's only the OP that looses out.

Secondly, if the OP paid in blocks then that's what the OP paid for and got. No need to renew the block if they didn't want to. And also, if you're not renewing, then the PT might not be as motivated and bothered.

How many PTs really expect their clients to continue month on month ad infinitum by the way?

I've worked with my PT for about 7 years. He has clients he's trained for over 10 years. He's an exceptional human being though.

I'd never treat him the way you have treated yours @filionj, nor talk about him the way you do.