About being charged for missed appointment?

[Buttercupdaisies]

For several months I’ve had a weekly appointment somewhere. This week, I had to go into hospital as am 33 weeks pregnant and had an injury (all was fine.) I rang up and explained and apologised.

They have just charged my card the full amount. I suspect a lot or people will say I am BU but I don’t feel great about it, tbh. Just wondered what the consensus was.

The only time I’d expect goodwill is if it was a health emergency, but this sounds more like a routine appointment
It* *was a medical emergency wasn't it? She said she is 33 weeks pregnant and she had an accident and had to go to hospital.

As someone who has an appointment based small business I would not have charged you for this appointment. If I were you I wouldn’t go back, the loss of one appointment would be more than offset by how much you have already spent with them and how much would have in the future. Loyalty works both ways, I very much appreciate my regulars so would always give a bit of leeway to my t&cs for emergencies.

Well, funnily enough, when they didn’t answer I didn’t decide to sit in the hospital car park trying again and again and again, I decided it might be better to go in and be checked out.

I don’t mind YABU, but people deciding that my actions are in some way to blame must be mad. Do you seriously think that I should have delayed going into the appointment in order to speak to someone in person? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way!

If that was the case she wouldn't have had the appt booked anyway...

No I agree with you and wouldn't go back. They have had hundreds of pounds from you over the last few months and they should have waived the charge as a goodwill gesture. If you had only been once or twice that would have been different but there should have been some discretion about whether or not to apply the charge.

As a music teacher, I can understand where they are coming from - this week four out of twenty four after school music lessons were cancelled, and obviously I could not do without a sixth of that part of my income. That said, I help where I can for people that don't take the biscuit, e.g. a half term lesson instead for the child who had a hospital appointment (they are in remission from cancer). But I can't always help because I also have bills to pay.

It's fine to be miffed but essentially they will be reliant on that 30 quid, no massage therapists I know are rolling in cash. From the other side I have to cancel appointments a lot at short notice due to chronic health issues, it's just one of those things, but I wouldn't want someone struggling to pay their bills because of it.

Except that lots of people think this and lie about emergencies to avoid fees...

No of course not @Buttercupdaisies!

I do think it's really odd that you haven't rung them to speak to them about being charged though. That's what I would have done.

You're not to blame OP. You had an emergency. But they're not to blame either and this is their policy.

I agree it's a bit weird of them not to extend kindness as a one off. But then again maybe they're struggling right now and can't.

So fair enough, they have their £30, they have no obligation to me. But then I also have no obligation to make any more appointments. I will contact them but only to ask them to remove my card details from file, which is reasonable.

I think this is the right approach. They have lost a loyal customer, thinking you will just keep going back.

Let us know what they say when you ask them to remove your card details. Can they keep them without your consent? Seems dodgy.

Yes, @Clymene , and you’ve been quite vocal about expressing my ‘oddness’ throughout this thread, and I have to admit I am a bit sick of it by now.

I don’t mind being unreasonable. In a way it makes no difference because I’m not going to be challenging the £30. Has it occurred to you that I’m still feeling extremely sick and shaken, I have a toddler to deal with, I’m heavily pregnant and it is hot, and you repeatedly going on about how odd I am because I am not having a conversation about an appointment I will never go back to is really rather irritating.

If they are struggling perhaps they should be more careful not to lose regular customers.

You don't have to buy an advance ticket for a fixed time. There are always other options.

But this is an online discussion forum. And you posed a question. People are free to respond.

You’ve decided you’re offended and not going to return to them again. Fine. It’s your choice. It’s not what lots of people would do. And that’s fine too. This is a discussion that you’ve started about if they were right to charge, and of course people discuss the circumstances of you not going to the appointment and also how you are dealing with it.

Are you someone who doesn’t like discussing things and who would find a conversation about them charging you really difficult? Is it that above all, you want to avoid that? I know some people would feel like that. They will sacrifice the £30 (which you say you will do …you won’t raise the charge) and say nothing, but inwardly be really cross.

Will you ring or email to ask them to remove your card from their database?

If they then ask you why you want to do that, will you then tell them? What if it turns out they didn’t get your message or are happy to rebook you or refund you? Will you then reconsider? Is it that you want them to come to you about it, or is it that it’s annoyed you so much that nothing is going to change your mind and you’re never going to set foot in there again. Again, I know some people do react like this to things that annoy them…they decide they will back-off and nothing will change their mind.

To be honest, the fact that you are taking offence and getting irritated with posters on this thread, suggests you aren’t all that tolerant or able to accept differing views to your own. Yes, you had a medical emergency (and we are all really glad you’re okay) but there is also the other side to this, of someone losing out on part of their livelihood and the fact that even if you don’t do this regularly and have genuine reasons, it happens frequently and often people so t have good reasons. You seem to struggle to see it from their point of view too. Most people can see 2 sides to a story. Things are nuanced. There often isn’t a straight forward right and wrong.

@WombatChocolate but what is annoying (and I accept that at half six in the evening of a very hot day I am grumpy!) is that you in particular are answering a completely different question to the one posed.

I am not ‘offended’. But I don’t wish to go back.

I may have decided not to go back because I didn’t like the music they played, the perfume, the price was too high, literally any reason at all. It is not something I feel I have to justify to be honest. I don’t want to. End of story.

You keep coming back with long, long posts about how wrong this is, and it isn’t because it is up to me. If I go somewhere and I’m not thrilled with the service or food or whatever I don’t complain, but I just don’t go back or use them again or whatever. And that’s wrong, apparently. Sigh.

Anyway … you are very entrenched in the view I should continue to spend money on something I don’t want to, and I am afraid I am equally entrenched in the view that I don’t wish to do this

This is the key point, here.

If you were unreliable that's one thing. But if you're a loyal client then making you pay for an appointment you didn't have is shit customer service.

If I were in your shoes, OP I'd be voting with my feet.

Yes indeed - apparently this makes me both spiteful and odd!

Never mind, it is nearly bedtime!

If you would be happy for your boss to give you a couple of hours notice that he wasn't going to give you any work to do, and so you weren't going to get paid that day, then yanbu.

Fine. Of course you should and will do what you want.

It does seem though, that the reason you’re not returning IS because of what happened with the charging. You’ve been a repeat customer who presumably has been happy. It isn’t the music or any other reason why you’re not returning. It is because they have charged you. But there is a good possibility that if they understand what happened to you and you speak to them, they will reverse that decision. But I guess you don’t give second chances or an opportunity for someone to rectify what you see as their error. It is your right of course. But it strikes me as a shame, if you’ve used a service for a long period. This hasn’t happened after your first session with them and you might decide it’s something that can be easily sorted out and the business relationship you have continues. But no. In your eyes they have done wrong and that’s the end of it. They are blanked. You’ve moved on.

Yes, I agree that all of us go to shops or use a service which we don’t return to because we don’t especially like an aspect of it. That’s usual. This however is a personalised service and someone you’ve been going to for over a year. To not return or give any indication of why is like never calling the tutor again, that your child has attended weekly for 2 years, or not re-booking your personal trainer who you’ve exercised with on a 1-2-1 basis for years. In these situations, the silence does strike me as a bit odd. But it is your choice and you’ve decided and in your mind moved on. I know some people do that with friendships too….someone does something that annoys them (they probably don’t even realise they have done it) and they block them on FB, delete their contact details and never call them again. It’s just ended and they’ve moved on. I find it interesting that people do this.

Anyway, you’ll be glad to know that’s all from me. I like MN because we get to discuss all kinds of things and share differences of opinion with lots of people and get a chance to see how other people think. It’s all interesting, as this thread has been too.

I wish you a smooth last stage of your pregnancy and much joy with your baby.

Don't worry - Mumsnet is full of arseholes these days who enjoy being nasty about everything

That’s not remotely comparable - and it happens all the time to people on zero hours contracts, which is basically what being self employed boils down to.

How not?

A self-employed person relies on the people making the bookings to pay them. If they don't, they have no income. An employee relies on their boss to pay them. If they don't, they have no income.

Most people are not on zero hour contracts, and don't have this issue. But if op is in this situation then I clearly said she inbu.

@WombatChocolate the reason has been well outlined. Whether I return or not is not the question, I really can’t keep repeating myself to you. I have not asked MN if I should go back, because that’s a personal decision. I don’t feel comfortable. I’m not going to spend £30 a week somewhere I don’t feel comfortable to stop the endless walls of text from you.

Thanks @Lemieux3 and others. I don’t mind YABU but as I’ve said I do mind personal remarks about me.

Agree with you on this. A hospital trip because of pregnancy concerns in the third trimester is no joke.

Last year I had to cancel a private dental appt last minute as I was having a miscarriage. They were lovely, no change (despite being their T&C's) and I have obviously kept going there as a patient subsequently.

Some flex for medical emergencies is not an unreasonable ask.