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?

Deogratias, the parking charge was upheld precisely because it wasn't deemed to be a 'penalty' but a part of the standard charges. For example, if you asked an electrician to change a lightbulb and they quoted £100, and you accepted, you couldn't go back afterwards and complain it was too much. Taking the parking one as an example it all depends how explicit and open they are about the fees. If the nursery anywhere is taking in terms of it being a penalty then I doubt they would win a claim (assuming it went that far).

Yes, exactly. It was pretty high though and it remains hard in practice to nkow where to draw your line before perfectly valid but high charges (I being cheap at the price at £360 plus VAT an hour etc) and what isn't. (Spending part of today arguing £9k for virtually nothing might be unfair and void....... for a client).

Wtf? Why has my post been deleted?

£30 a minute is £1800 an hour!

Surely, it's a one time charge for period late. It is probably the same for 3 min or 30 min or 60 min late.

I don't think "Paul" is male. It's some lame TV show reference I believe.

You were late, and they charged you for it. Yes sometimes it's unavoidable being late, but they have life commitments too, which you held up. A member of staff cannot wait alone with a child, so that's two members of staff, and they (by the sounds of it) have charged you the rate of an hour. This might seem excessive to you, but think about how it would be for them if they weren't strict with it, and were being fucked over left right and center.

Completely agree with the nursery in this situation.

Confused....in your original post you say that you didn't think you were late. If that's correct, then why aren't you contesting the lateness claim before even getting to fees for something you claim you didn't do?

SirBoobAlot* So any "late" charge is okay however high? Would £1,000 be okay too for 3 minutes? I really doubt that OP had too much impact on "life commitments" by being three minutes late, if indeed she was late (I doubt the nursery have any evidence she was).

If the OP had signed up to a nursery where the cost of two members of staff and building for an hour was £1000, then yes, it would have been reasonable. If you don't want to pay late fees, don't be late. It's the simple.

This is one of the reasons I use a childminder rather than a nursery - getting out of work on time then negotiating a commute on London transport is stressful enough without worrying about extortionate late fees. Fortunately I can just drop my childminder a text if I am running late. She does charge for extra time if I am very late (just normal hourly rate) which I am of course more than happy to pay.

There is no practical way to avoid delayed and cancelled trains, which happen all too frequently on my line. If I was charged £90 every time I was 3 mins late I would be bankrupt!

Nurseries are quite within rights to charge late fees, but for a first offence of only 3 mins charging £90 is utterly ridiculous.

All web sites operate on the basis that if someone complains the post tends to be taken down. As moaners always win out but that's how it goes and when I advise websites I make sure they always give themselves a right in the terms to take down whatever they choose.

If the OP had signed up to a nursery where the cost of two members of staff and building for an hour was £1000, then yes, it would have been reasonable.

The cost of the staff and building wouldn't be £1,000. If the nursery charged that they would be profiteering and the contract would be infair. You can't include unfair terms in a contract in the UK.

If you don't want to pay late fees, don't be late. It's the simple.

The only way to "never be late" in some parts of the country (e.g. where I live) would be to not go to work.

Wow. I forgot to pick dd up once and didn't get charged at all! Normally picked her up just after her lunch so it was into the next session that I arrived.

Walking, did you quote your first deleted post in your second? MNHQ would then have deleted both.

There is no evidence that the cost to the nursery of being open 3 minutes late was 90 quid. That is ludicrous. I doubt it cost them anything financially at all. What it did 'cost' is inconvenience. (Though even that I find rather minimal for 3 minutes). The reason for the high charge is to act as a deterrent.

UPDATE

Thank you all so much for you comments. I've found it really interesting reading such a broad spectrum of opinions.

DH spoke to the nursery manager today (he's better than me at keeping his cool, I tend to get flustered)

The nursery have agreed to knock the charge down to £30. Apparently as we have done a lot to support the nursery over the years such as charity sponsorship, donating toys, old gardening equipment for the allotment and craft items etc. They feel this would be fair. We'll pay it across two months.

£10 a minute then.

We have a 15mins grace with our nursery. You are not charged until you hit the 15min mark and you are charged every 15min block. Common sense when most of the parents are London commuters and the train line notoriously unreliable

The nursery have agreed to knock the charge down to £30. Apparently as we have done a lot to support the nursery over the years such as charity sponsorship, donating toys, old gardening equipment for the allotment and craft items etc. They feel this would be fair. We'll pay it across two months.

So after all the support you have given them they think it is fair to charge you £30 for being three minutes late once in four years. I bet you are really glad helped their business by making all those donations over those years.

Didn't your husband ask about the 3 minutes?

Big whoop, they're knocking it down to 30. I wouldn't give them the steam off my feet.

I still think £30 is mean spirited. You were only 3 minutes late and it was a first offence. Rather officious if you ask me

We us d to charge £15 every 15 minutes then we used to have mums who would have there £30 ready because they didn't actually finished at 6 and didn't get their till 6.30 and it would make the staff late home with their children often not being collected from the baby unit down the road so we charged £5 a minute we rearly had lateness