AIBU to not want to pay in full?

[Lincspeeps]

DD is in before and after-school childcare in a small place near Peterborough. We used them for DS for three years and DD has been there for five years. Never had any problems with them and have got to know staff very well.

Last week we had a call to say that due to an admin oversight our cheques from May and July 2018 have never been banked (total of £580) and as they are almost 9 and 11 months old they need replacements as the bank won't take them.

We hadn't realised they hadn't been banked and, being honest, that money is no longer available. Obviously an error on their part and on ours. We have offered to pay them £100 per month but they want it all or they won't accommodate DS after Easter.

AIBU to not want to pay it all out. We would have to go into overdrafts to find the lump sum and would be charged. As it's a dual error I don't think £100 per month for six months is unreasonable....is it?

[bbcessex]

OP - had the nursery lost the cheques?

Did you incur a charge for cancelling them?

I think you’ve been more than reasonable to be honest

[lottiegarbanzo]

This thread is sanctimony-tastic.

[BlueJag]

You been having free childcare. Do your best to pay them even if it mean an overdraft.

[2rachtint]

I think your offer is totally reasonable!

I had my bank's home insurance and randomly they stopped taking the direct debit. I didn't notice until many months later when they sent me a final demand for the money (no previous comms of any kind) - when I called them I offered a payment plan which they said no to but suggested I complain higher up which I did and they wiped it. I was more than happy to pay but didn't have a spare few hundred at that time of the month.

A payment plan is a fair and good solution to their error.

[swingofthings]

Let's hope they accept the arrangement. The reason why they will be insistent will be for auditing purposes, an accounting exercise, it won't be personal or them being difficult for the sake of it.

Really you were both negligent. Some posters said you paid, but you didn't. Writing a cheque is not paying. Having the money coming out of your account is. There are a number of reasons why a cheque can be rejected. I had one rejected recently because of a basic error most wouldn't have noticed.

You have to take responsibility for not managing your budget better. What if it had been the other way around and somehow they had cashed the cheque twice?

[Purpletigers]

You should pay it now . Overdraft , credit card if necessary. They will have bills to pay too .

[Cheby]

YANBU. A payment plan is perfectly sensible. It’s what they would get in small
Claims court anyway.

[givemesteel]

It doesn't matter what we randoms on the internet think is reasonable or not, the nursery are not accepting a payment plan (reasonable on my opinion) so you either need to pay them or risk your credit rating being messed up for the sake of £500 as well as not having any childcare.

Use your overdraft or get a credit card, or if you know anyone who can lend it to you borrow it from them instead and pay back in £100 installments.

You sound like you need some better financial management strategies, do you have text alerts that tell you in/outgoings?

[flowery]

” don't think my 'upped' offer of £150 x 4 is unreasonable for a business I have given so much to.

Other obviously have differing views and I respect that.”

Ultimately the only person whose view is relevant about whether your offer is reasonable is the business owner/decision maker. Either they’ll accept it or they won’t, and if they won’t you’ll have a decision to make about your DC childcare.

[Starch]

Yes they will accept a payment plan to get the money if there’s no other option. They just won’t provide the OP with childcare in that case.

Hopefully the increased offer will make the difference.

[Numptysod]

At end of day, they got cheques they didn’t bank them, they’re falut tbh.

[RavenLG]

OP, I don't think you're totally unreasonable asking for a payment plan, and your suggestion is sensible. However, I do hope this will make you more aware of your incomings and outgoings, as not noticing 2 fairly substantial cheques haven't gone out is a bit irresponsible.

It seems that MN is full of people who do regular bank reconciliations how nice to see we're a nation of accountants.
On the other hand, it's clear not checking your bank and having a clue what is going in / out is very damaging and people often end up in situations worse than the OP here. This is why we are a nation of debt. It's not about tallying up every single penny, but it's about being financially responsible. Comments like this is why more finance/budgeting needs to be taught in schools.

[Lincspeeps]

UPDATE: Business owner has been on and apologised for their error. The person who did the banking last year has left the organisation and I am not the only parent affected.

She says she is more than happy to accept 4 x £150 and says her manager should have accepted the offer of 6 x £100 when offered as it was their mistake.

All's well that ends well. I will keep a closer eye on my financial outgoings in the future! Thanks for all who contributed to this discussion, even those of you who were extremely sanctimonious ;-0

[oh4forkssake]

Good result OP

[MissConductUS]

It seems that MN is full of people who do regular bank reconciliations how nice to see we're a nation of accountants.

It's not like you have to do them manually with a quill pen and green eye shade. It's quite quick and easy with some software. I track it in Quicken, which will download my transactions from my bank, so minimal effort. Not doing so might mean missing a bank error or fraudulent withdrawal.

My daughter's rowing association takes months to cash her registration checks. It drives me batty.

[cstaff]

Great result OP. I am sure you are relieved.

[StealthPolarBear]

Glad it's been resolved.
To all those people saying how come you were so rich you didn't notice and now you're skint? Have you come across the concept of people's circumstances changing?

[havingtochangeusernameagain]

Glad they've agreed to a payment plan - pity they didn't offer a reduction given it was their error, not yours. But anyway, maybe you could suggest to them that you set up a standing order in future. Cheques seems like a high maintenance way to pay - both for you having to write them and them having to cash them.

[PandaBlue]

Glad to hear the owner is much more reasonable than some posters on here!

[Urgh2019]

I used to pay DDs nursery electronically using Busy Bee vouchers.
I got a threatening letter saying I hadn’t paid for 6 months.
I had. The business has changed email addresses but hadn’t changed it with busy bee so hadn’t had notification.
This was part of a large chain of nurseries with a finance office. It took weeks to sort out. They also tried to remove DD whilst it was being sorted out.
These are businesses making a lot of money, they need to act like it sometimes.

[Rockmysocks]

I'm just gobsmacked so many people commented that she didn't notice an extra 500 odd.... It wasn't ever that in any one month, it was 2 or 3 cheques not cashed so either half or third of the total. A much smaller amount to be extra and very easy for it to go unnoticed.

Glad it's sorted out OP.

[Pinkyyy]

I'd like to see all the posters who have berated the OP put themselves into debt to pay a lump sum, just to rectify someone else's mistake. Glad it's sorted OP.

[aspoonfulofyourownmedicine]

I don't think the OP is being unreasonable either. She's offered to pay the money owed, in instalments and I don't think it's all her fault, if at all.

I can't honestly say that I would notice money not going out of my account and I'm usually skint. This is because I get paid monthly on 2 different days from 3 different jobs, plus commission on another day from my other job, the my DH gets paid weekly for one employment and monthly from another employment, so there's always cash moving around the account. I have in the past failed to notice a failed DD for a gas account, but thought nothing of it as a DD was coming out for the same company - I hadn't realised it wasn't a dual fuel payment. And I've also not noticed an ongoing issue with NT membership not being taken properly, until I got a letter saying they'd been unable to take a direct debit for 3 months.......

[PurplePenguins]

Have they definitely not cashed the cheques? I had a debt letter saying similar but they had cashed the cheques and I proved it it was an admin error. They had the receipt but hadn't put it on the system. As it's their error too, I think YABR.

[Relaxitsonlyababy]

Wow. I can’t no believe how rude people are being. It’s not like she said she wasn’t gonna pay just that she needed a bit of a compromise - maybe circumstances ahve since changed given it was 9 & 11 months ago. Is there proof it’s her cheque missing and not someone else’s? It’s a pretty epic admin error. she’s used this nursery / childcare option for what 5yrs+ And never had an issue. As a gesture of goodwill I’d be accepting the payment plan. I guatentee there’s people owing far more And being far leas reasonable.

We have a separate bills account. Which is backed up by an overdraft but I don’t flick through it to see what’s been in and outX we always add extra and it once took us 5months to notice British Gas he changed our DD amount. I can see how it was missed especially if there’s been a change in circumstance.