To have charged them full price?

[LollingGo]

I work as a PT and I am very overbooked, with a long waiting list. As such, I do charge a premium for my services, £40 per hour. I recently had a space become available and offered it to a client from my waiting list. They accepted and we booked several sessions in over July.

On what was meant to be our first session, lasting an hour an a half (£60), I received a phone call 15 minutes after the lesson was due to start. The client was very apologetic and informed me that she was having some personal issues and would therefore need to cancel. Since the cancellation, she has been reliable and has arrived at all booked in sessions.

I have just sent my invoices for July, and she queried the £60 charge for the cancelled session. I explained to her that, unfortunately, I need at least a few hours notice so I have an opportunity to find an alternative client for the session. As she had cancelled 15 minutes after the session time had started, she needed to be charged. She is now very upset. She has said she thinks it is quite harsh for me to charge the full amount and shows a lack of understanding. She has said she no longer wishes to have PT with me.

AIBU to think she should be paying full price and I have done nothing wrong? This is my livelihood and how I pay my bills and support my family.

Of course your not being unreasonable. She is deluded if she thinks you shouldn't charge her.

As long as you have explained from the outside that there will be a cancellation charge for missed sessions less than say 24 hours notice.

You set out your Ts&Cs ahead of time. If people choose to assume that they don’t apply to them that’s their problem not yours.

You've done nothing wrong and it makes sense but I would get everyone to pay in advance and make your cancellation policy clear (eg 48 hrs) to avoid this, what if she just didn't pay? And avoids upset and wrangles. My PT only takes lock bookings so I pay for 10 in advance and then schedule times, if I miss a session it's deducted from my credit. TBH I feel bad missing any even with a weeks notice as she's held that slot for me

You're not unreasonable but it needs to be spelled out ahead of time.

'Personal issues' is a bullshit excuse if she managed to tell you within 15 minutes of the start of the lesson.

She might think it's unfair but that's your income - it puts food on your table.

I bet if she was off work sick she'd expect to be paid. You wouldn't.

Definitely not unreasonable, she didn't ring to cancel until halfway through. It's disappointing and frustrating for her but unfortunately it's your livelihood as you say. Sounds like you don't need her business particularly so try and forget and move on

Not unreasonable.

She thinks she can leave you waiting and then cancel, and hey-ho whatevs. She's an idiot.

As long as you told her this rule when you made the booking, assuming you did just refer her back to that page on your website or screenshot that part of the convo and text or email or to her to remind her that she agreed to that rule.

Surely it's in your contract and needs no explanation?

Obviously if she just doesn't turn up with no notice then she has to pay. Notifying you after the session has already started counts as a no-show.

Not unreasonable. I couldn’t make mine due to injury. No messing about just I’m case I might be better, I asked to reschedule with days notice.

As long as you made your terms and conditions clear beforehand, YANBU to charge her - surely she would have known that that would be the consequence of cancelling anyway so it’s a bit much for her to be complaining about it after the fact!

Did you tell her when she booked? I mean you shouldn't have to but if you did you can just refer them to your terms and conditions. If you're feeling generous maybe just charge her half but frankly she should have just paid the whole invoice. You have a massive waiting list so you don't need her.

Well, normally a cancellation fee isn’t the entire cost of the appointment. So I do think charging £60 is cheeky. I also think you didn’t disclose the fact you would charge full price for any missed sessions, otherwise she wouldn’t have queried the charge on her invoice. So you should really fully disclose your cancellation policy and fees, and consider it not being 100%.

I think you were unreasonable not to tell her at the time that you would be charging her full price. She's upset, because it's come as a surprise. Even if it was in your T&C, by not bringing it up, she would have assumed you'd done her a kindness and decided not to enforce it. So she feels deceived, having built a working relationship with you and for this to happen.

You're not wrong to charge, but I think you could have managed her expectations much better.

With that said, I'm surprised you invoice in arrears. Most people I know who provide services like PT get paid upfront (mainly because of flakey clients).

My cancellation policy is lessons cancelled within 24 hours will be charged the full fee, unless exceptional circumstances at my discretion. The reasoning for the last part is, I have had genuine exceptional circumstances, such as the death of family member. She didn't mention any part of my policy when we spoke anyway, she just said she found it very unfair and uncaring.

This is normal practice. She'd no doubt be charged full price if she cancelled any sort of lesson/session whether it's PT, music lesson, driving lesson etc after it's started!

You blocked out your time for her session so you would lost money for your busy time
She gave you no notice
Not even 24 hours

So yes she should be charged
Make sure you're T&Cs on website state that
It's not unusual to charge a cancellation fee if less than 48 hours notice but more than 24 hours notice but to charge the full rate if no notice or less than 24 hours

Sometimes and it's only at your discretion, a provider would waive the fee if for eg it was a death in the family or A&E hospital admission but other than that nope..

Oh well you've lost a customer - so it's up to you if you waive half the fee this time to keep her or just stick to your T&Cs

YANBU

Is your cancellation policy clear? If not I’d make sure all of your clients are reminded of Your terms and not give it another thought.

My PT charges 100% cancellation if it's less than 24 hours notice, it's normal and I've had to suck it up twice when I had work get in the way. Stick to your guns OP.

She thinks it's unfair that she should be out of pocket £60 but she needs to consider it is unfair if you are out of pocket £60.

YANBU as you effectively couldn’t work for that session but any PT I’ve used I’ve always paid in advance, I’m surprised you don’t do this.

Not unreasonable at all.

For me it would be not cancelling until after the star time that would be the problem

Was she really not able to send any kind of message any earlier?

I don't know what a normal cancellation policy would be but if she'd signed up to yours she can't really complain

Did she tell you what the personal reasons were? The only personal reason I'd accept for cancelling 15 minutes AFTER the start is "sorry I've only just woken in hospital after a serious accident" unconsciousness is the only excuse for not texting prior. But if it was like a miscarriage then I can understand her "uncaring" statement