Please help - moral dilemma

[LadyLucksalot]

I am an online tutor. The terms of my lesson agreement are that if I cancel the lesson with less than 24 hours' notice there is no charge for the lesson. If the student cancels it with less than 24 hours' notice, I charge the full fee.

This hasn't been an issue until now.

I turned up for the one hour lesson on time and waited, no reply. They didn't show up. After a bit, I get a message from the parents to say there is no internet access for the student so no lesson.

I said that as per the terms etc. etc. I would still have to charge for the hour. They are refusing to pay as the student was not at fault. Of course there was no fault, but I am still down a lesson.

Here's my dilemma. The student who is refusing to pay is best friends with another one of my students. If I lose the first student, there will be bad blood and the other will probably withdraw (parents are very close).

What do I do?

Also, I had Internet issues myself a few weeks ago and didn't charge them.

I'd remove the middle paragraph as you sound like you're apologising for being firm. But the rest sounds spot on.

The tone of that sounds very spikey. I’d say

I understand that internet issues are not the student’s fault, however the sessions has been booked and with cancellation at such a late stage I am unable to offer it to another client and therefore is chargeable as per my T&Cs.

As a gesture of goodwill I am willing to reschedule the session on this occasion. My availability is XYZ. Any future late cancellations will be charged for.

And then send an email to all your students/families reminding them of the T&Cs.

Btw saying you won’t charge if cancelled with less than 24 hours notice is weird because presumably you wouldn’t charge if it was over 24 hours either? In which case your policy should be that in the unlikely event you need to cancel any session to due to an unavoidable reason there will be no charge. Students can reschedule up to 24 hours beforehand with no charge, after that it will be charged in full

@LadyLucksalot you’re not at all in the wrong but your message sounds rude

You need something much more polite.

You're all right. It was really rude. This is not who I am. I'm just so cross about the whole thing.

Thank you.

Came on to suggest rescheduling (if you have capacity) on this occasion, on the understanding that any further cancellations would be chargeable.

Maybe adding a line to the policy re internet outages such as 'cancellation policy includes connectivity issues on the part of student'.

Could you move towards payment in advance?

I prefer @ClockHolly 's wording if you need the business. Include tweaked policy in attachment.

Two options I could see working for you.

Firstly, change your terms and conditions to say that as a gesture of goodwill, in the event of internet problems a free reschedule will be offered as long as the client contacts you before start time of lesson (or you could make it within first 2 or 5 minutes of lesson) to notify you of the problem.

The reschedule needs to take place within a stipulated timeframe (e.g. one week). This is so it doesn’t cannabalise future business.

I think you’d also need to stipulate that in the event of this occurring more than a certain number of times/on a regular basis (stipulate what you want by that), then it will be withdrawn.

Secondly, I’d also think about insisting on payment up front, and offering term or block blockings.

not a ‘moral dilemma’.

client is U.

@ClockHolly wording is good

could you ask them to pay in advance and say no refunds to prevent this from happening?

Student and family are being totally unreasonable.

You might ask an AI program to write the email and ask it to use a kind tone that won't offend and see what you get.

Have you sent that off? If you haven't then I think you should mention the previous missed lesson

I haven't sent it off yet. I'll send it tomorrow with ClockHolly's style.

Can't believe I'm agonising over this on my Saturday evening while they're totally oblivious and thinking I'm the unreasonable one for asking for the money. 😒

You need to cut each their lesson by 5 minutes each time you have a lesson with them until you've reclaimed that hour 😈

I'm joking (sort of)

"The terms of my lesson agreement are that if I cancel the lesson with less than 24 hours' notice there is no charge for the lesson. If the student cancels it with less than 24 hours' notice, I charge the full fee."

"I turned up for the one hour lesson on time and waited, no reply. They didn't show up. After a bit, I get a message from the parents to say there is no internet access for the student so no lesson."

There are several factors to be considered.

Whether you state it or not, whether you cancel with 1 minute's notice or with 1 month's notice, it is not that "there is no charge", it is that you will obviously not get paid.

You want to have the freedom to cancel whenever you have to, without any penalty, but you expect to be paid if the student has to cancel. That is one sided flexibility.

You didn't turn up anywhere - you started an online tuition session on your computer in the comfort of your home.

If you had a problem with internet access, you would have done exactly the same thing as the parent did. Or would you have offered to pay them compensation?

The customer is always King, especially if you want the custom, which you do.

If you had agreed to regular tutoring, a fair way would be an understanding that if either party has to cancel, the session should be rescheduled.

If after a few sessions, you feel that it is not working as expected, you stop tutoring the student.

Generally, tutors are in demand and can lay down the law.

But I believe in a fair and flexible approach, knowing that one is dealing with school students who can have all sorts of reasons to cancel, including last minute. The goodwill of parents and students to this approach more than makes up for it.