Charged £90 for being 3 minutes late to collect children from nursery

[Justastorminabcup]

3 minutes late! I thought I was on time. nobody said anything when I arrived, they just sent me an invoice in the post.

I can understand that they need a system to prevent parents regularly being late. They have a business to run and staff to pay etc, but £90!?! For three minutes! How can they think this is reasonable???

I've used this nursery for 4 years and have never been late before.

AIBU to be utterly shocked that a childcare establishment who must know that many parents struggle to be able to afford daycare for their children could feel it is acceptable to charge such a fine? Is this normal? Would other care providers do this?

I'd usually be on the nursery's side but this is ridiculous

Because she feels they have taken the piss out of her.

The bottom line is that it must be in your contract. That's it. If it's there, you signed it and should have read the detail before doing so. And if it's not there then you shouldn't pay. If 4:30 is a bit of a squeeze and you might risk being late again then I would consider paying till 4:45.

Agree with Freakonomics comment. If it's just £1 a minute for lateness then plenty of parents would think quite happily that an extra tenner to pay for being 10 mins late is fine.

Ask them If they've miscalculated

Having considered what mrst3rry said, I'm actually total onside with the nursery if this is the intended late charge. It seems that other posters have similar late charges

If its not in your contract then I might not pay it, but I suspect it is

You can't argue, 'its only 3 minutes'; how many minutes constitute late?

I agree 'loosing faith' is melodramatic

I am very much in favour of late charges, even hefty ones.

But this one is the highest I've ever heard of, and I think it is so excessive as to be unreasonable.

If you have access to lawyers, it is the sort of thing that would be worth challenge. But it could be quite a big (expensive?) fight, and I expect most people would not want to go down that route.

Our nursery had a flat £40 charge if you were late. There were then additional charges every 15 minutes you were late getting there.

I have read freakonomica and get the principle but op didn't know she was late, nothing was said at the time!

Lawyers?

You can't be serious.

squirm; other posters have stated £45 & £50, so maybe this isn't so extraordinary.OP has 2 kids so incurred 2 late fees

I wonder if OP lives in an affluent area? I live in an area, where a much lower fee would be a deterrent. But I can see that the fee needs to be in context to be effective

She did know she was late, and it doesn't need to be said at the time if it's in the contract. I pick up late once (accident on the roads) and it didn't occur to me to ask the staff about late fees, I just apologised hugely and waited for an invoice! As it happened several parents were caught in the traffic and they waived the late fees.

Keep you hair on! I only mentioned potential recourse as a possible option, not a recommended one.

I live in an affluent area, the policy is 3 red marks for lateness and then a fine. Am shocked by the amount especially since the nursery was open until 7:30pm you need to ask them why £90. If a member of staff had to stay, do they get paid £90 for 3 mins?? Did they have to feed your child? (No ), is insurance £90 for 3 mins? It's a huge amount, ask for the breakdown of the cost. Personally I think they are trying their luck. A nursery will no 'good will' isn't a good one.

I don't think staff should have to mention it at the time; or you have a scenario where parents are arguing with childcare workers (not finance staff or managers that set the contracts ) in front of the children

It is quite hefty but maybe they have had a problem with parents picking ujp late
If the session finishes as 4.30 then its possible that your child being there meant they were over the ratio and had to ask a member of staff to stay on. That member of staff may have had childcare costs to pay for late collection herself
I manage a nursery and we do charge a late collection fee but I normally don't charge if its the first time or if parents ring beforehand and explain
What annoys me is parents who turn up late and don't even apologise
But I do agree that £90 is a lot but I bet you won't do it again :)

squirm

I didn't intend to sound confrontational (I don't think I did?)
My hair is firmly on
I don't feel in any way invested, I just think its an interesting issue. Would like to hear how it concludes

It depends on the contract.

It may state a late fee of £45
Per child. There are two children so it's £90.

I actually feel for nurseries. Every day there were several kids left at our when I picked my up at closing time. In the office the manager would be calling parents to find out where they were.

Ours had a £1 per minute rule. But it didn't put people off.

I was late once because of an accident in the road. I didn't get charged as I called them from the car as soon as I knew. So they knew why and knew from the time I called that I had made an effort to get their on time.

It does sound excessive.

Wow. Paul you're being ridiculous- OP hasn't even confirmed its in the contract and if it is so what? You can type anything in a contract doesn't mean it's reasonable or enforceable.

You run a childcare setting, you have to deal with this. late parents is a disadvantage of running this type of business. And the way to deal with them is not to charge £30 a minute. At the very least word will get around and you'll be avoided by others. I think the OP has done well to get to 4 years without being late before.

LagoonaBlu: no need for tilty eyes. Your post had not appeared when I started typing my second one.

I'd feel the same about losing faith. No nursery is perfect and sticks 100% to the terms and conditions of its contract 100% of the time.

So if I'm 3 min late for the first time in 4 years and I'm still picking up within the operational hours, I wouldn't be expecting them to bill me for an extra pound, let alone 90!

I've worked in childcare so I have sympathy for the nursery position. I've spent plenty of evenings waiting for 20-30 minutes for parents, no fines and no overtime pay for us in those days!

Yes but Ackvavit most parents are not coming from home when they travel to collect their children are they. They are travelling from work which might be a distance away and sometimes there can be issues with public transport.

Our after school clubs charges £5 per 5 minute lateness. Both DH and I have to travel from work in central London to after school club in SE London and we are usually there 15 - 30 minutes earlier than the 6pm cut off to collect DC.

However DH was 5 minutes late one evening due to widespread issues with the trains and the staff charged him £5 there and then. I did feel a bit miffed that they did tbh as we are almost always so early to collect but understood that this was their policy.

However it's not always the case that parents are just sitting at home and can't be bothered collecting their kids on time.

If it's in the contract then that (sadly) is that.

OP, perhaps you can ask for half the fine to be waived on this occasion. As a one off token of good will. Especially as you have been a good customer for 4 years.

I genuinely wonder how many other parents are paying up this kind of money regularly, or if this clause in the contract is serving it's purpose and acting as a deterrent to slack time keeping.

If people aren't spotting it in, or remembering it from reading the contract, then my feeling is that the charge should be made clearer, a permanent reminder put up somewhere, or at least an annual reminder sent out.

It's not in the original contract, but came in with a fees increase about 2 years ago. It's made up from several smaller fees. I.e so much for the evening hourly rate, so much for going over your session end time, and so much for not notifying the nursery that I would be late.

It's not an affluent area, wages are far below the national average and with few care options. I guess they must have had a problem with late parents a couple of years ago.

The dcs start school in September so I'll have to be on best behaviour until then.

Will talk to the nursery manager on Monday and see if she is willing to waive some of the charge. Or at least spread the payment over a couple of months.

I'll put the legal action on hold for now