To refuse to pay this nursery charge

If people pay at different points in the month and this was for the December activity in advance then they aren’t charging in April it works out

I guess it comes down to how much you want to keep them at that nursery.
Before they changed the rules about extra charges recently my niece went to a nursery that charged a fair amount for ‘consumables’.
My SIL queried what the consumables were and was told it was nappies, wipes, sun cream and a few other things. My niece was toilet trained and took her own suncreams and wipes because of an allergy. My SIL pointed out that they weren’t using the consumables so wouldn’t be paying the charge. She was told that it wasn’t optional and she risked losing her child’s place if she didn’t pay it. I told her to pay it because funded places/nursery funding doesn’t really cover the full amount needed and her childcare was cheaper because of the funding.
After they brought in rules about the extra charges the nursery stopped calling the charge consumables and it was for activities/art supplies, you didn’t have to pay it but if you didn’t there was a risk your child wouldn’t be able to do the cooking/art activity. My SIL thought it was awful that they would get around it by doing that instead because most would pay it without quibbling because they wouldn’t want their child to miss out.
It never affected me as I always used a childminder, however I don’t know why people would get so cross about an extra charge when through funding they were still saving loads on childcare. You have a choice if you don’t like how they’ve handled the extra charge you don’t have pay it and move them elsewhere.

I think you are saying that you paid on 1st of November for an activity to happen in November, but it didn't. When requesting a refund for the said activity, you were refused?
Did they explain how many times this activity would occur, so you are just paying very early for 4 activities, or are they expecting you to pay for 4, but only 3 will happen?

This! It will make more sense then as £40 a month for an additional activity is mad anyway.

You have been incredibly confusing here. You clearly don’t know how to explain things properly. Your op clearly states the activity starts in Dec - April. But then you say you paid in November for November. Do you understand in simple terms how you confused everyone?

Maybe it’s you who annoyed the manager because you seem to be clearly confusing and then saying she’s the one who lied

To be fair op, if the majority of queries about your post are for clarity about your post then you haven't been clear!

So they charged you beg of Nov £40 for an activity that they now haven’t done in Nov

and dec bill will come next week with same £40 for the activity which hopefully they will do in Dec

is the £40 for a once a month activity or weekly and say 4 x £10

what is activity @Jeronnemo

if it is for say 4mths and you get to march and hasn’t been done 4 times if a monthly then complain if paid Nov Dec jan Feb

You’ve paid a month in advance so you’ll finish paying a month in advance. If I was happy to pay this anyway it wouldn’t bother me. Just make sure you pay the correct amount of months.

Its hard to tell if you're genuinely struggling to understand what posters are trying to explain, or being deliberately obtuse. But giving the benefit of the doubt...

You don't say what the activity is, but let's for examples sake say it's music lessons, weekly on a Monday starting from Monday 1st December. The music teacher coming in to work with the children is going to have their own terms and conditions for booking, which will include payment in advance, e.g. 2 weeks ahead of the booking. The nursery therefore need to add the payment onto the November bill for parents so they have the money to pay the music teacher mid-Nov in line with their terms and conditions. Just because you pay your nursery fees promptly and on time, not all parents do, so nursery will need to factor this in too.

I don’t understand either and you saying 50 times that you have been clear, does not make it so.
I would think the payment is:
You pay in November for the activity to occur in December.
You pay in December for the activity to occur in January.
You pay in January for the activity to occur in February.

So, the only issue would be if you were made to pay in February and the activity did not occur in March. There is no issue now, at this point, unless the activity will not occur in December. Yet you have said it will occur in December, so there is no issue. It seems clear to me?

Everyone : you're not being clear

OP: I have explained everything perfectly clearly. You are all stupid.

OP it's clear to you because you know the situation but I can assure it's not clear to anyone else.

No one is misunderstanding the situation your explanation throughout has been anything but clear and you're ignoring posters who ask relevant questions.

You obviously don't believe you're in any way unreasonable so I really do not understand why you bothered asking

Is it a pre booked activity, that needs paying at time of booking, then I wouldn’t have an issue paying in advance.

Just tell Us what the activity is.

Ok, so what exactly was the lie about not going the activity in November or being able to have a refund?

Has she insinuated that they will be keeping the money and not using it for the kids activity at some point? If she has, thats a strange interaction from a business owner

So what if they start doing the activity in December? Why not wait and see if that happens first?

But as others have said, if you do the activity for 4 months and pay Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb but the activity runs in March then that is fine. You are paying for the activity in advance..no one is lying to you.
Perhaps previous years you have paid the month it happened but maybe this year it has changed. You seem very adamant you are right, but I am wondering if this was explained by the manager to you but you wouldn't accept this change. Especially because you need to be aware you are now starting to come across as rude in response to posters and if you spoke like that to the nursery manager like this then it is going to cause bad feelings.

Well without knowing what she said about it we haven't a clue if her reasoning makes sense. If they intended to do the activity and couldn't for some reason then it makes sense to charge in advance as the activity was presumably going to happen when they sent out the bill.

Also you're coming across very abruptly, people are trying to help and understand but your posts are very unclear so I do wonder if your conversation with the staff was a misunderstanding.

YANBU but I’m afraid I’d just pay up for a quiet life - why cause upset with the people looking after your child. It’s annoying I agree.

What was the lie that you feel so aggrieved about?

If the activity takes place with a monthly cost in Dec/Jan/Feb/March you will likely be charged for it in Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb because presumably it requires sourcing materials in advance, or paying an invoice in advance to a third party to deliver a service.

You're going to need to get over it because virtually everything for your kids is going to be paid in advance of them actually doing it - swimming lessons, music lessons, scouts, school trips, school dinners...