To think you should pay if you cancel?

[helpagirlout17]

DP is a tutor, he is also a full time teacher and tutors after school. This means all his teaching work gets pushed back so he can earn the extra income. He isn't cheap - we are in a huge grammar area for the best schools in England and he teaches Maths and Economics.

Anyway, a lot of people just cancel and don't even offer to pay.
I mean hours before he is due to drive round or maximum around 24 hours in advance.

Now the thing is, he is fully booked, already doing 7 hours a week. Lots of enquiries always coming in and a big waiting list. The people cancelling is unfair. He wants to put a policy in place - would you find it outrageous to pay for a tutor if you had to cancel?

(As I know this comes up sometimes, he's set up as a private company and pays taxes on the income)

Yes he definitely should.
He makes it clear up front that he is busy and sort after and has a waiting list.
Cancellations must be made at least 24 hours in advance or they will be charged the full amount.
That's standard. People keep cancelling because they can, with no consequences.

Definitely put in place a cancellation policy. Something like if you cancel outside 48 hours, pay nothing, cancel 24-48 hours before pay half, cancel within 24 hours, pay full.

Adapt above depending on how quickly your DH can fill those slots from the waiting list. If it's difficult and he ends up with empty slots, then extend the cancellation period to 72 hours etc.

When DD1 had a tutor, we had to pay in advance. He was flexible to be fair around illness, but anything else, we lost the lesson.

I didn't have a problem with it.

When I was tutoring I charged termly in advance after a (paid) taster session. If you cancelled with 48 hours notice I would try to rearrange or deduct the amount from your next term's invoice. It was all written in a simple contract and parents had to sign to secure a place. I put this in place after a year of really irritating and fraudulent behaviour from some parents e.g. not paying me for 8 weeks then threatening me when I said I couldn't keep tutoring their child unless they paid the amount owned. A small minority will take liberties!

Wow. He needs to toughen up and put a strict policy in place.

I'd have expected tuition to be like every other activity - paid for in advance, half a term, or a month, at a time.

With those things e.g. music lessons, if the teacher misses a lesson, they offer a catch up lesson in the holidays, not a refund. Or there might be a credit note for the next term.

Also, if we cancel due to illness etc, it's the same - catch up later. No refund.

Definitely emphasise the waiting list. People will value him more highly if they know he's in demand and they're lucky to have secured his services.

My daughter has private singing lessons. I pay monthly, in advance, and if I cancel then I lose the money regardless of how much notice I give. I guess it is fair enough.

I thought it was normal to say you have to pay or won't get a refund if you cancel withing 24 hours before your appointment, doing that might stop people wasting your time for whatever reason

As a proper business set up with a waiting list i would most definitely set advise him to set up invoices to be sent out at the beginning of each term with payment in advance.

Put in place a cancellation policy on the invoice to advise cancellations before 48 hrs will not be refunded.

Would he pay his clients compensation if he had to cancel last minute because he couldn't make it?

If he couldn't make it then obviously the student would not be expected to pay for the lesson and given a credit or a refund. The student is not out of pocket.
It is not the same as when someone books a lesson and he holds the slot for them. They then don't turn up at short notice and he loses the lesson fee. Especially annoying when he has a waiting list and someone else could have taken the slot.

He needs a tough cancellation policy in advance. All lessons cancelled less than 48 hours in advance must be paid for. Also consider payment for a block in advance. I tutor and people pay for a block of 5 lessons in advance. Some people just want one off lessons which I can also accommodate sometimes at short notice if I have a slot available.
I used to have people mess me around but that has stopped now.

Just to add I don't make exceptions for illness. I had people phone me telling me their child was ill and I'd let them off paying and later found out the child was at the swimming pool or a birthday party (small village, word gets around).
So I then changed my terms and conditions to say that all lessons cancelled with less than 48 hours notice must be paid for irrespective of the reason.
This has reduced the number of absences significantly.
I am not totally hard-hearted though - I have waived the fee in a couple of cases where there has been a death in the family or some other serious emergency.

He should already have a cancellation policy in place. I’m a piano teacher - if I have a cancellation, I make an effort to offer a catch-up lesson but if it doesn’t work out they still have to pay. It’s my policy. Likewise, my son has guitar lessons, my daughter has a childminder and if I have to cancel I still pay. I always think of it as paying for someone’s time...even if there’s a cancellation that person has still set aside their time for you and you should pay for that time.

We don’t use a tutor, but our children’s riding instructor and the private swim tutor we used for a while both charged if we cancelled without 24hours notice. It always seemed perfectly reasonable to us, as they have committed that time and possibly turned away other business.

I would get him to put that clause into his agreement. I don’t many people would object, and in fact, I would expect it to be the case.

If it was me I would have them paying in advance at least two weeks but preferably a month so if they miss there appointment for whatever reason your DH still gets paid

Yes I think it’s only fair to pay if cancellation is in less than 48 hrs as he needs to plan/ rebook someone else etc. People will learn to respect other people’s time then.

I always paid if I cancelled our tutor unless I'd given plenty of notice.
Can he ditch the non-payers and get another tutee in their place?

I would expect there to be a cancellation policy in place. It’s quite reasonable here for 50% paid if 48-24 hrs notice given and 100% paid if under 24hrs. I think he needs to include in the policy that if he needs to cancel he will rearrange.

If he’s that in demand, I’d ask half a term in advance, and if the student has to cancel he makes a best attempt to rearrange the session that week, but no refunds.

If he has to cancel, he offers another date that week at the student’s convenience and if not possible he refunds it.

No one is repaying our extortionately expensive swimming or music lessons if our kid is sick or busy! Why should tutoring be any different.

I would say it would be better to get them to pay X amount of sessions upfront then they must give 48 hours notice to cancel a session in order to get a refund for that session or a credit for another session

If he is "in demand" and plenty on the wait list, I'd agree with PPs who say new policy, pay in advance and tutoring session booking not confirmed until paid. If lesson is cancelled for genuine emergency or illness, refund or rescheduling of session.

If he is that popular, putting in a sensible & firm will cull out the "undesirable" clients (last minute cancellers/bad payers/ generally unreliable) and leave his books filled with "good" clients.
Many business filter out business this way until they are left with a solid client base.

I'd ask people to pay in advance, or at least pay half up front. If they're unwilling he can find people who are.

Some people charge half a lesson. Maybe he could do that. My mother use to tutor a lot and people would cancel all the time. But she never asked anyone to pay. One was a disabled student in a wheelchair. Sometimes they didn’t feel up to it or was unwell so would cancel last minute. Some don’t bother to text until just as the lesson is supposed to start. I told my mother that she must charge those that don’t turn up. Especially annoying when she can’t do things until after tuition or go out for the day. And then they don’t turn up and she could’ve done those things and she’s left wondering where her students are. But she refuses to charge.

I have looked in to tutors for dc and round here it seems you pay half trembly in advance. This seems pretty fair to me. Why should the tutor be out of pocket because you decide you don’t want your lesson today? I compare it to nursery fees, you want to book the place, you have to pay for it first.

If he is so busy then get rid of those who cancel and take on new clients (with a cancellation policy in place!)

I think he needs to charge in advance and make it clear no refunds on cancellations on less than 24 hours notice. Unless perhaps in really exceptional circumstances but I wouldn't shout about this