NC for this as it's probably outing. DH is owed three months' worth of tuition fees for private instrumental lessons by parents of a child he taught. They have always been rubbish at paying on time and I'm cross with him that he didn't charge them in advance (which is standard practice anyway) but he was too nice to refuse to stop teaching the child until they'd paid. Child stopped lessons in January and now parents are refusing to pay.
Their reason is that child was learning a piece for his GCSE exam that turned out not to be suitable. DH sent the piece to the school teacher in Nov and got no feedback that it wasn't suitable until the end of Jan. Parents are now saying that it was DH's fault child had to learn new piece and it was stressful for them. It is definitely not the instrumental teacher's responsibility to check what's being submitted - GCSE stuff is entirely the school's responsibility (they're the ones who know what the exam board wants) and it's their mistake. In any case, child had four months of tuition (and three years previously) which has helped them to get better at the instrument.
If they don't pay we're going to have to get the union involved and then probably small claims court - we cannot afford to lose this money and I'm amazed they're trying to not pay it. They never complained once before - it's a bit like eating at a restaurant, leaving without paying, then four months later saying that they weren't happy with the meal! I'm due to have a baby any day now and the stress over this hanging over us is keeping me awake at night. I lost a family member last week too and we just really don't need this.
DH had to send an 'official' letter giving them one last chance to pay, and their response was the first time we'd heard that they weren't happy and were refusing - they've basically said 'if you want to send us to the lawyers then bring it on'. I'm considering writing to them separately in a less formal way to appeal to their better nature and ask them to please reconsider before it gets to that because it's just not fair to not pay him! WIBU to do this or should I just leave it to the union legal dept? I tend to always see the best in people and some of me thinks that they must be nice people really and surely nobody could be this unreasonable?!