Nursery nightmare

[Workingmums]

Hi
I came here to ask for advice and point of views on my current situation.
I am a single mum of a 1 and 2 years old girls, I am working part time and studying for my masters. I have enrolled my girls into nursery for the 1st time, close to our home there was a new nursery open so I decided to enroll them there. I specifically asked them to give me a mock of how the invoices will look like so I can prepare financially, I have also told them that I am yet due to start working again as I was in Mat leave I don’t know what 3 I will be in but they said that was ok as they have plenty of spaces. 2 months go by and we have no issues, afterwards where was issues with the invoices they have changed the hourly rate from £8 to £9 than £10 on 3 separate occasions I thought that was the end of it but come to the 3rd month I had another correction of the past 3 months and the month coming written in bold of a payment due by next month of around 1.5k (the issue was that they invoiced for funded hours only not for stretched for 3 months so for 6hrs 2 kids a week in nursery comes up to that amount) …. I replied back I hope this is the one and I do think this is a bit ambiguous giving that all of the sudden one of my little ones is not listening 🙉 and 6 weeks of invoices in advance I mean, be a bit sensitive I am not made of money . So i have overdrawn my account and paid the balance. I also needed to have a chat with them as this can not happen again. When I sat down to have a chat I was expecting the manager/owner but it was her daughter, snd she had her little black book with all her zeros written down letting me know that she needed to have her math right before, I told her that I know how to add 2 and 2 together I here for another concern, I have a feeling you guys are pushing this to terminate my girls placement for God knows what reason, I told her just to clear you can not do this 1.5k drop to me again my account is overdrawn I only make so much and only have little time in between to check so please make sure everything is right. Honestly i could not keep it together and I was emotional. For some reason she was to. At the end she asked me if I still want to continue with the placement… after I just paid everything… I said of course (i don't have any other choice anyway) . I emailed again today letting them know I will change one day around and the email I got back is letting me know that after the discussion on Friday they are sorry to terminate the contract with 2 weeks notice.
i am left with no money and no childcare can someone please explain is this normal practice or what is happening because I honestly just want someone to tell me that April 1st is just around the corner and this was a stupid joke . After the “recovery” period I need to go through I don’t even know If I could look at nurseries the same way ever again, I mean I specifically chose this one as It was supposed to be family run not a big corporation…
please excuse my typos

@Littlefish they are the same people and I do see them everyday and yes after billing me wrong for 3 times I should expect at lest one apology. After the 3rd time the invoices had to change again I had to call in a meeting snd have those sorted once in for all . And I did not make anyone cry, I was the one crying when I was telling her that she should be a bit more mindful this is the 3rd time I started crying after I told her that I overdrawn my account to pay for “the mistake in the invoice” the only thing that I asked her was “do you understand what 1.5k does to a normal person?” She started tearing “yes” her voice shaking… do you really think that I was that bad ?

‘Do you understand what 1.5k is to a normal person’ you said that? Yeesh. Yeah I do think it was that bad, I doubt she was even responsible

You’ve marked yourself out to be more trouble than the nursery will be prepared to deal with I’m afraid. And with two children there they’ll have to deal with you a lot. Sounds like they’ve decided it’s not worth it.

You cried at them three times?

No. The OP pointed out that she had been mis-invoiced 3 times. She then started crying.

@FanofLeaves Its her and her mother running the nursery, we speak everyday they are both responsible for that nursery they are there everyday it wasn’t anyone from admin or a person that just looked over a spreadsheet and went into a meeting as their usual part of their job hoping for the best of course I asked her do you know what a 1.5k out of nowhere in bold pay it up or we fine you does to a normal person to any person for that fact .

Possibly. Or not. OP doesn't appear to believe in punctuation so it's impossible to say.

OP, this is a new nursery. It doesn’t sound like they’ve yet got to grips with everything they need for it to run smoothly. If I were you, I’d ask for 4 weeks money back and find another care provider.

a relationship with a nursery works much better if the parent and staff work together and have a clear understanding of charges, consistent hours required, agreed behaviour management expectations and methods of communication. I hope you find somewhere that suits you better.

😁

@Regretsmorethanafew I know it’s that bad, and yes my voiceover option does not believe in punctuation 😅 . Im sorry I should’ve been more clear or sat down and write this post properly. Its pg social work starting in September

@Workingmums reading your updates have think I now understand the issue.

• You sent your 2 daughters to a newly opened nursery. They have attended for 3 months.
• The nursery messed up their invoicing and each month tried to correct it but only reaching the correct amount at this point.
• They have now asked for the full amount of under-payment to avoid a fine along with advance payment for the next six weeks.
• You had a meeting with the nursery to discuss the invoice issue and expressed your frustration/distress at getting such a large bill without apology as the error was on their end. This caused you to become upset, the nursery worker also got upset. Some mention was made of child’s behaviour but nothing warranting termination of placement.
• You have subsequently had your placement terminated but you don’t know why.

With all that said it seems that the nursery is having some teething issues with their admin. Yes they should’ve apologised and perhaps offered longer to pay given the error was theirs. It’s irrelevant why they’ve terminated your place, all you can do is ask for a refund on your advance payment and find a new nursery. Not ideal but that’s the only option you have.

This is very confusing.

Put the behavioural issues, who cried at who to one side.

What have you paid for and what have you actually received? When the invoices were corrected after the errors, and you settled the money, did you pay for sessions in advance?

You should have paid for all sessions received. If you've then paid for sessions in advance and then they've terminated, you should be due back whatever the difference is.

You need to look at your contract with them because there may be something in there about terminating under untenable circumstances and if your behaviour has been warranted to be that then you might be on a sticky wicket but I think they'd be hard pushed to keep weeks worth of advance payments in most circumstances. Asking people on the internet if you were unreasonable or not in your communication is pointless, none of us were there and none of us can gauge the way in which anyone spoke or misspoke.

The setting clearly doesn't work for your family and you've been terminated now so the behaviour stuff is largely irrelevant. Next time, work with the setting to address your child's behaviour and put a plan in place so that she can be supported to develop her social skills. They don't raise issues with parents for fun, they have enough to do!

I think you'd be better off writing out what you are saying and thinking, as it would become more clear.

All I can figure out is, if you paid 6 weeks in advance and they are ending the contract after two weeks, they owe you 4 weeks of payment.

It sounds like you all were just not a good fit. I think they felt you were minimizing your one DD's behavior and then mix that with the invoices that were messed up, they just decided to bow out.

I think both sides were also more abrupt than either think. I hope you can find them a new nursery right away.