AIBU to charge a cancellation fee

[NeedToChangeMyLightBulb]

I tutor a child for maths.
He is almost 2 school years behind where he should be, really shy and I feel like I am needed.
Family moved (they rent), out of the blue in August. Gave me a weeks notice. New house takes me over an hour to drive to but they begged me to keep on tutoring the child as we have a good rapport and responds well to me. Compromised with extra 30 mins on the lesson to make it worthwhile but fortnightly not weekly- family also offered me petrol money as I am driving for 2.5 hrs usually.

Now the problems:
-no petrol money has ever materialised
-they cancel me the night before (less than 12hrs in advance) or a few hours the same day before the lesson allllllll the time

Interested to find out if other people who pay for similar lessons usually would pay a cancellation fee of say, 50% if less than 24hrs warning??
Would I BU??

They cancelled a bit before they moved, but this month they’ve cancelled 4 times!! I had earmarked the money, but worse than that, I feel taken advantage of.

Would I BU or are they BU?

They're taking the piss, OP. Stop letting them do this to you.

No contract but verbally stated need for at least 24hrs when cancelling in our first meeting.

No contract no deal then really.

You can ask for a cancellation fee but if they refuse to pay it, you wouldn't even get it as far as court.

Much better to ditch them as other people have suggested.

Not looking to take them to court!
Gosh, it’s a couple of hours of tutoring, nothing substantial enough for court!

You need to stop letting them take a dump on you like this.
tell them you can't tutor their kid anymore, as they've let you down too often.

I'll bet you anything the kid is refusing the tutoring, and whining, crying and moaning, so they cancel at the last minute.

OP you say you need the money but you're losing out on money thanks to this. You're willing to accept £5 for 2.5hours of travel, that won't even cover the fuel, never mind what you're losing by spending this time driving instead of tutoring someone else. They're taking you for a mug

Wasn’t it one if the movie moguls who said a verbal contract is not worth the paper its written on? If you aren’t going to sack them then draw up a written contract for you both to sign with cancellation notice and charges clearly spelt out, and get paid monthly in advance.

Child is lovely, always draws me pictures and writes little notes at the end of their homework sheets- def nothing to do with them not wanting me
Think parents are just really disorganised (and selfish)

Perhaps advertise locally. Travelling for 2 hours is not very good and the fact you are willing to do this is showing your client you either don’t have much work or don’t value your time, unless you charge for your travel time as well as petrol. Up your professionalism op. Also because of their track record get paid in advance. Invoice them for 10 lessons up front. Common practice for private lessons.

Don’t feel blackmailed into it because you’re helping the child. You need to be paid.

Sack them off and find new, closer, clients.

You have to put the thoughts of the lovely child out of your head and put your business hat on.

Have you any idea how valuable your time is as a maths tutor? You’re being paid for 1.5hrs but tutoring is taking 4 hours of your time. I’d be telling them to either drive to me, pay me for 4hrs work or find a new tutor.

Can’t come to me as the mum doesn’t drive (dad at work)
Have tried to think of alternatives but haven’t found a solution

2.5 hours driving for a tutoring session is mad. Tell them you can no longer tutor him due to the distance and vut your losses, fi d another student to take his space and start off with a contract stating that 50% of fee needs to be paid if cancelled within 24 hours.

Its a shame for the kid and for you if you enjoy teaching him, but at the end of the day you are running a business and need the money on a regular basis.

Solution is you get local reliable students. They can look for another tutor/mug.

OP it seems that you're not taking these comments on board and making excuses for everything. You've become emotionally invested in educating him and that's why you're allowing yourself to be treated this way and you'll probably continue to do so.

This is ridiculous!

No I’m not making excuses, just explaining why they can’t come to me??

Ridiculous???

Agree with PP, 4hours out the house to only be paid for 1.5 hours time is ridiculous.
Either they pay you 50% your normal rate for travel time or you sack them off and find local pupils. A cute drawing won't pay the bills, and they clearly don't value you or they'd hsve paid up what you agreed re your petrol / given you decent notice. IMO you've let then take advantage for too long and you really should quit now. Asking £5 for 2.5 hours travel including petrol is really undervaluing yourself

Charge them for the term up front.

Sorted.

You're explaining everything away though which is just excusing it. People have told you that you need to stop working for this family and you want to continue because the child draws you pictures.

When DS started to learn an instrument, before he started, the tutor sent a 1 page sheet with his fees, plus:

Cancellations - I will need to charge half the lesson cost for 1 days’ notice cancellation or full charge for same day cancellation. I hope you appreciate my need to do this.

Simple as that - and really, fair enough. He's reserving time in his diary. I have therefore on 1 or 2 occasions paid him for a full lesson even though we were unable to attend (eg illness etc). On other occasions I've made sure that I gave more than a week's notice of the need to cancel so that I didn't have to pay.

I don't think you can do anything about this month, unless you send a ranty message about how they have particularly messed you around more than usual and request the payment of equivalent to a lesson. But from 1st January onwards you need to put it in writing and get a simple contract with them.

Is there any reason they can't use public transport? Not being arsey, just asking.

I have a feeling that because you're doing this because you're kind, you're not viewing it as a business transaction.

Off topic, even though it was mostly wasted on me, I had a lovely, kind Maths tutor and she's essentially the reason I passed that exam.

No
I was explaining why I don’t feel that what someone said about it being an excuse for cancelling me- it’s not
I was explaining they can’t travel to me- they just can’t
I was just explaining

I haven’t excused the undervaluing etc comments so it has made me look at this with fresh eyes

It's a tricky one. I work for myself as well as being employed, and charging cancellation fees could make people not come back. And they are unlikely to come in for their next session if they don't want to pay for a missed one! Sometimes you have to suck it up for the sake of maintaining income longer term.
BUT all the travelling as well? Are you making any profit at all here?
Time for you to do the maths, OP!

Logistically it wouldn’t work for them to get public transport- 2 trains and a bus
The mum also has a long term illness that flairs up- if I go there when she’s ill, the nan has always been with the kids so sessions still run
Plus my house is tiddly, she would have to sit in the same room with the other kids
It would be a nightmare

I think pp are right, I’m too emotional about it- not really business minded and I feel they have taken advantage of that