Late collection fees.

[3ddisfun]

Dd1 and Dd2 attend the local secondary school and Dd3 is in afternoon nursery in a local primary. It is an unusual situation where the principal of the secondary is an executive head of the primary too.
On Tuesday it was the secondary parents evening. I booked slots to end some 35 minutes before Dd3 after-school club pick up time.
She probably attends on average once a month so is not a regular attendee but we always arrive some 10 minutes before pick up.
So Dd3 was in after-school club to enable me to concentrate on the older girls parents evening as dh was working away.
So despite having the first appointments possible we were delayed and ended up being 3 minutes late for pick up.
We have been charged £5.00 for this.
Aibu to have hoped that given my explanation and apology that this fee should have been waived.
I could understand if this was a common problem but it is the only time I have been late.
So AIBU to be disappointed and should I just pay the invoice or complain.

Charge them for the appointment being late.

I am,sorely tempted but it is hard as I don't want to cause any bad feeling as we are at the start of a relationship with the school for Dd3 but I am cross that they won't waive it.

Not sure what complaining to them will do. Don't see why it should be waived tbh, you were late, you get charged. If they started waiving fees for any excuse they would have to waive everyone's.

Why should it be waived?
You were late.
Yes, it weren't your fault, but you were still late.
Do you think it should be waved just because he's also the head of the primary?

You were late
They charged you a being late fee
Not really sure what your argument is

Perhaps you could have left the parents' evening in time to pick up your other child, and arranged an alternative appointment to see the teacher. Which they should oblige with as they were running late, and you couldn't wait for them as you had to pick your other child up

YANBU. Ridiculous to charge you when you were delayed by the school and for such a short time. They should have used their discretion. Write a letter or email of complaint to the head teacher. Don't let this lie. Too many petty bureaucrats bullying parents these days.

Everyone who is late will have a reason. It's immaterial really. You were late. There's a fee. It's only a fiver. I really don't see the issue.

The people doing childcare are not going to get paid extra if it overruns. I think it's fair enough to say you need to pick up your child and go get them.

So the people who have had to care for the child, what should they do?
It all has a knock on effect.
They probably won't be paid.
Every parent has a reason why they are late and shouldn't be charged

The settings we have used have all had a nominal late collection fee. We have occasionally and exceptionally collected late, but have never been charged the late collection.

Did you ring ahead to say you'd be late? Or is it all on the same site?

You say she attends only rarely so you probably haven't built up enough of a relationship with them for them to know that you're reliable - if you go once a month then you've been late maybe 10% of the time, whereas when I was late we had probably been on time more than a hundred times.

What will they do if you don't pay it?

I wouldn't be paying that fee. Also is it £5 for a minute late and still £5 for an hour late? Three minutes is a short enough time to be out on a watch too.

You were late and have been charged a late fee. Yes you should pay it.

Every late parent has a reason for being late. The after school club can't make arbitrary decisions about which reasons are better than others. Even though we all know some reasons are more valid than others, they open up a huge can of worms if they attempt to decide who pays a fee and who doesn't.

You were late it doesn't matter why. Having worked in a nursery it impacts on ratios and staffing when a child isn't collected on time.

You were late and it's only a fiver. I've seen much more exhorbitant fees.

It's not like you had stopped to help at an accident or been mugged and unavoidably delayed. You could have left earlier but you didn't want to do that and ran the risk of being late, which on this occasion didn't go your way and you have incurred a fine.

You need to suck it up I'm afraid.

Everyone has an excuse though
You were late, so you have to pay the fee
The people who have to stay behind with children who are not collected on time have families and lives too
They may have their own children to collect from childcare or have to catch buses or trains
It doesn't matter to them that you were at parents evening

AtHomeDadGlos

What will they do if you don't pay it?

Sorry, posted too soon
What will they do?
Exclude ops child is what they will do

You being late has upset someone else's day, maybe when you didn't turn up they phoned ahead to cancel their plans, as they did not know when you would get there, some childcare professionals have kids too - they may be pushed late by your actions.

And I think you will find it IS a common problem (not necessarily caused by you, I understand you saying it is not something that would normally happen) - but some parents will take a mile if given an inch... one minute late becomes 5 or 10 or half an hour... Charging you for your 3 minutes helps to stop that happening right from the off.

There is an across the board late charge because parents (Not you op personally) seem to think being a 'bit late' = anything between 2 minutes and 20 minutes. They also think staff have nothing better to do than wait for them cos it's such a pleasure to care for little Kylie. They never consider staff have families to get home to or appointments of their own and by the time little Kylie leaves and they can lock up and leave they are late too.

Just pay it and next time make another appointment with teacher stating your reasons. If they are running late then they will oblige you.

I agree with you OP. There is no need for the late fee, those three minutes did not cost them any money, you are not a repeat offender and it wasn't your fault.

I used to run a nursery. We had late fees but would never have applied it in such a case. They were intended to a) dissuade people who were regularly 10, 20, 30 mins late and b) to cover the actual costs of staff having to stay back to cover same.

Three mins? That's totaly just within the bounds of your watch being off.

I'm all for late fees but feel like 5 or 10 mins is a more reasonable cut off.

Well ultimately it is the staffs loss. When I do use it I normally collect 10 to 15 minutes early so they get to go home early. In future I might leave it later.

I accept that I probably should have rescheduled but than I will have to use childcare or be distracted by youngest child.
However it was looking like I would just make it but traffic was worse than expected.
I didn't ring as it would have delayed me further.

would you be complaining if the schools weren't connected?
You were late, Staff have to go.
Every parent has an excuse.
If they let you off then what about the next parent who was only 3 minutes late? Or the next who was only 4 minutes late?
You do realise that the actual staff you're complaining about don't make the rules up