Had to cancel hairdressers appt because I tested positive... they are trying to charge me

[MyWeddingFund]

Had a hairdressers appointment for today. Had symptoms yesterday and test which came back positive. I phoned the hairdressers to let them know I had tested positive and would not be attending and would call to rearrange when feeling better as didn't know when that would be I didn't want to rearrange right now. They told me because it is short notice...I have to pay half the price of the service. Fair enough if I had to just cancelled but there is no way I can go

I think more business could benefit from a cancellation fee.
They'd all need to charge it or they'd lose customers.
My Dentist charges €70 for missed appointments or late cancellations. I was shocked ATT when I had to pay it but I never cancelled at short notice again.

This is wrong!! This is why salons should just take a deposit and worst case scenario you loose that, not £50 odd pound. Hope you feel better soon xx

The end of the day, what are they going to do if you don’t pay? They won’t take you to small claims for something that is likely to be under £100. On the flip side, you’ll never be able to go back. Up to you.

I think they’re wrong. I wouldn’t pay, and I wouldn’t go back.

I would have thought most people could only afford to pay for services they actually received.

What if OP pays then can’t afford a haircut for another 6 months? It can’t be that unusual.

@PanamaPattie

You entered into a contract to get your hair done. You cancelled with short notice and so you haven't given the hairdresser enough time to fill your slot. Not your fault of course, but most hairdressers are self employed and during these interesting times, many hairdressers are barely making a living. Pay up - you are lucky you weren't charged the full price.

Why do people talk such mince?

OP the “contract” is now illegal to perform, you do not owe them any funds.

Go to a new salon.

I wonder if people would be happy for their vets to start charging for cancelled appointments . Cat gone walk abouts, tough that'll be £40 please. Dog gotten better overnight, tough pay up. Very much doubt it yet our industry has a high number of cancelled appointments due to the above among other reasons yet I don't know a single vet who charges for missed appointments.
No way I'd be paying and I'd be finding a new hair stylist. Mumsnet is weird about hairdressers and childminders, they're the only professions where it's deemed to be acceptable to pay for services not received. I don't know of any other self employed professions where people expect to be paid for not providing a service .
Oh and all the small salon owners I know were more than compensated for the time they had to remain closed.

And self employed people are the only people that are expected to make themselves available to work, but be okay with not getting paid because the person that's paying them didn't bother to show up.

I think if you had symptoms then you should have cancelled immediately. If you've taken a test and had it returned, it's clear to them that you've known about this for some days and could have rearranged. Lots of hairdressers have that kind of policy but I think it depends on how well they can afford to have empty appointments as to whether they enforce it.

Maybe if you had only started with symptoms today then they would have been more understanding.

@ThisIsntMeHonestGuv

And self employed people are the only people that are expected to make themselves available to work, but be okay with not getting paid because the person that's paying them didn't bother to show up.

The op didn’t ‘not bother to show up’, she has a potentially fatal virus that means it is illegal for her to leave her house.

It's really lovely to see how many mumsnetters would be willing to forego their wages if their boss wasn't able to come into work due to covid.

That's the obvious conclusion, if they think that self employed people should do that, isn't it?

The op didn’t ‘not bother to show up’, she has a potentially fatal virus that means it is illegal for her to leave her house

Maybe you haven't read the rest of the thread, but I have. That's not the only scenario mentioned here.

@ThisIsntMeHonestGuv

The op didn’t ‘not bother to show up’, she has a potentially fatal virus that means it is illegal for her to leave her house

Maybe you haven't read the rest of the thread, but I have. That's not the only scenario mentioned here.

No it’s not. But I was talking about the OP.

And I wasn't.

It also depends on the type of establishment. My local hairdresser is not that expensive (£17 for a cut, £40 for colour) but I could be waiting 20 minutes for my appointment sometimes. In exchange for the hit and miss customer service, there isn’t a cancellation policy.

It’s force majeure. Would they be paying you for your inconvenience if they had cancelled in the same situation? I once put that question to a dentist who kept cancelling DH’s appointments and yet himself had a very draconian cancellations policy. You could always ask them the same...

If you haven’t given them your card details then they can’t make you pay. I have never ever given a deposit for a hair appointment and won’t because of these circumstances.

I guess it’s the difference between a salon that rents chairs and those that employs people.

If you had received a negative result, would you have still kept your appointment despite being unwell?

Just say you'll go in and have your appointment instead.
I am genuinely impressed you got symptoms and managed to get a test and results back all within 24 hours though. I thought there was massive delays. Glad things have improved

Tell them you’re not going to pay for nothing and if they insist on it, you will come in to get your hair done. I bet they won’t charge you then.

Sounds like an early Christmas miracle that you managed to get test results in under 24 hours!

I agree with @BrightSunshineDay
What if you had some work planned in your house, new bathroom for instance costing 7k and had to tell the builders that they couldn’t do the work as you were isolating...I don’t think you would appreciate them asking for 50%! I’ve never heard of a hairdressers having a cancellation fee and I’ve been to a lot over the years. I have also worked self-employed and had this happen to me and never charged people who cancelled at short notice. Being self-employed has positives and negatives and unfortunately, this is one of those negatives. Just my opinion. However, if they had a cancellation policy that you clearly agreed to, that is different.

Don’t go back and don’t pay. You shouldn’t have to pay for being ill.

Unless you signed a contract they can’t make you pay anything. Tell them you’ll keep the appointment and I should think they will cancel it themselves.

@MyWeddingFund

Had a hairdressers appointment for today. Had symptoms yesterday and test which came back positive. I phoned the hairdressers to let them know I had tested positive and would not be attending and would call to rearrange when feeling better as didn't know when that would be I didn't want to rearrange right now. They told me because it is short notice...I have to pay half the price of the service. Fair enough if I had to just cancelled but there is no way I can go

fuck em’ go elsewhere