They're not going to pay me back, are they?

[BlueKarou]

Sort of a WWYD and sort of a mini rant...

DS (aged 2) went to nursery for one morning a week. I paid for each month in advance. He was only in term time, so obviously no nursery in August. He then missed the first week back as we were on a family holiday. I told nursery this in advance and they adjusted the invoice so I was only billed for 1/2 a session as per their policies etc.

We came home from holiday and he went to nursery as usual the following week. Nothing out of the ordinary was said at drop off. Then, that Friday evening I get a call from the nursery to say the're closing as of 7pm that same day. Financial reasons were stated, and I was asked to email the nursery manager with my bank details to arrange a refund. She said she would call me the following Monday evening to sort it all out.

No call came. I gave her a couple of days, then emailed to chase. No response. I've emailed again today with the amount I'm owed and suggesting we don't need to wait for a call, could she do the refund and let me know when I can come in to collect my son's learning journal.

I know I should have chased quicker and more often - the call to say they were closing was on the 14th Sept - but I've been trying to sort out getting kiddo in to a new place and stupidly hoped they would just pay me back.

I'm not going to see my money, am I?

Oh, rotten luck. If your DS was in for one morning a week and you pay a month in advance, and he attended till 14 September, I'm assuming you've only lost the payment on two mornings? Perhaps they're closed due to insolvency and you are a minor creditor in the greater scheme of things? I wouldn't beat yourself up over the chasing thing. You can only get so much done.

Yeah, it's not as bad as it would have been had he been going full time. They owe me £50 (which is a lot for me, but isn't enough to justify threatening legal action.)

I have just googled the nursery to see if I could find anything about them and have discovered there was an unannounced Ofsted inspection at the beginning of September where they were rated as Inadequate, the Actions doc was published on the 20th saying no action to be taken as the registered person had resigned, so I'm a little suspicious about their reasoning now; was it really financial, or did they just say 'fuck it' and throw the towel in before they lost customers. The Ofsted report suggests they only had 12 kids on the books, and if one of those was my son and his 1/2 day per week, it probably stands to reason that they weren't making enough money to keep going, let alone improve their rating.

Hopefully the next place I send him won't end quite so suddenly and with half a month's fees. I want to up his hours in the new year, but now I'm going to be more wary of sort of thing. Not that there's anything I can do to prevent it happening again - I need him to be in some form of childcare.

I sympathise! And £50 is definitely a hit for most people. I'm just glad for you it wasn't more!