Do you think this rescheduling charge is fair?

[PapaStinky]

I have piano lessons at £30 per hour. I consider myself an extremely reliable student in that I turn up on time to all lessons and promptly pay my invoices. Only once in the past year I had to ask to reschedule as one of my kids was poorly.

This week I've had a tummy bug and felt too unwell to attend my lesson. I mailed the teacher and was told it was £2 to reschedule a lesson. I replied I was unhappy about the charge as I was genuinely unwell and had given as much notice as I could that I couldn't attend. I know £2 won't break the bank and I understand it must be frustrating if other students wanted to reschedule repeatedly. But surely for something like illness this could be overlooked or in fact admin time spent on this kind of thing should be built into the rate?

Have been really happy with my teacher up till now but the tone of the email wasn't very nice. I know I shouldn't take it personally but it has pissed me off.

Am I right to be feeling this way or should I accept they are running a business and get over it?

Doesn't sound like you've been an arse and ruined the relationship unless you have said something to your teacher about all this.

IF you have, then just go round next time with a plant/wine/chocs if you can afford it and say that the bug made you feel rotten and grumpy. If she's a great teacher, this is worth saving.

Teacher probably wasn't even that annoyed with you as such, she probably gets messed around a lot by others.

Hope you are feeling better now

Unless you’ve said anything to her, I wouldn’t worry. The teachers I know are very thick skinned.

It’s standard for any private tutors to charge the full lesson cost if not cancelled within 24 or 48 hours, as other posters have correctly pointed out.

£2 is generous and it’s the first time I’ve heard of anything like this. She’s self employed and probably used to being messed around. I’d imagine it was a standard email with a professional tone? At the height of illness season, so many private lessons are cancelled. My own teacher was out of pocket to rent his studio for the week when he had 14 cancellations in one week last December when there were a lot of bugs going around. Plus most private teachers don’t get paid during school holidays etc when they often have no option but to close due to their students being away or having other commitments. That’s usually why the charge is £30ish, not to cover student illness.

If you have been snarky, maybe an apology is in order to keep the good relationship going.