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.

To be honest, the worst kind of customer is the one who is aggrieved and just stops coming, but who isn’t prepared to say what has annoyed them or talk about the issues.

In my view, it’s cowardly to just walk away from a business you’ve been involved with without saying something. If you’re annoyed OP, then tell them. You haven’t actually given them a chance to refund you. You don’t know if they will or won’t as you haven’t asked. You’ve decided this leaves a nasty taste in your mouth….but they might think the same as you haven’t given them any info.

Fine if you end up not going, but surely it would be good to speak to the, and have a conversation. Don’t you feel you want to explain and apologise for not being there, but also for them to understand why you weren’t there? Don’t you feel you’d like them to understand, rather than just think you were rude? Don’t you want to give them a chance to refund or rebook you and to continue going for appointments with a sense of goodwill? All of that is possible.

This being offended but remaining silent and not communicating and then walking away…what does it achieve? So many useful and good relationships at work and in all other areas of life are needed needlessly because people won’t communicate. Such a shame.

I’d definitely complain to them about keeping your bank card details on file and charging your account, if you hadn’t authorised this. They’re definitely not allowed to do this.

I would also tell them that because of this I’m going to go somewhere else from now on.

Did you give consent for her to charge your card?
I wouldn't be happy having my card details on record
What if you wanted to use another card?
As you are a regular client, I think they could have charged £15 as a goodwill gesture, it's not as if you forgot to turn up, it was an emergency.

As you're not going to be going back, I think you should phone them and tell them why. That due to an accident in work, it was an accident, not something that you schedule or plan, you went to A&E and it is that reason why you missed your appointment.
Their cancellation policy has tainted your good opinion of their business and you won't be returning as there doesn't appear to be any sort of leeway in how it gets applied.

If you do that, it gives them the opportunity to possibly make some sort of goodwill gesture (or not) and it lets them know that a good repeat client is about to walk out their door. A good clown might go for a massage one month and then go for a massage and a facial another or a manicure or other treatments. They've just waved that money bye-bye.

I agree. I’d also be very unhappy about an unauthorised being made to my card and would be contacting the bank to reverse it. It’s highly unethical.

Unauthorised charge.

I said that you're not "the business owner". Try reading the post.

If you can stand losing money in your business that of course is a decision you're free to make if you're not confident about getting new clients.

I take payment 24 hours in advance and occasionally exercise discretion if clients cancel at short notice - but I'm under no obligation to do so. I'm not prepared to end up with slots I can't fill unless it's a very long standing client with a genuine emergency.

Why does the OP owe it to the business to explain her annoyance? They apparently don't owe her any favours despite being a regular customer.

No, these days you often have to buy two single fare tickets that are for a specific train and you can only change if you pay in advance (with sufficient notice) or it’s the train company’s fault. Otherwise you need to buy a new ticket.

Quite likely in OP rings and explains they will refund the money or re-book….and the positive relationship they’ve had can continue. However, by refusing to communicate, OP will never know. Daft to just walk away. And particularly daft to feel the business is totally at fault for what has happened.

Communication smooths the way. Customers communicating helps businesses understand why a Cancellation happened. They might be more flexible then. But zero communication means they have zero idea why the customer didn’t come.

How many businesses must wonder why a repeat customer suddenly stoped coming? It would be so helpful to them to know.

@WombatChocolate it’s a weekly massage, not some sort of test of character. It is supposed to be an experience that is relaxing and enjoyable and de stressing. Irrespective of who is right or wrong, I’m been left a bit miffed and so I don’t plan on returning. I really don’t think that is cowardly, just pragmatic. There is no point throwing money and time, both of which I sadly don’t have unlimited amounts of, on an experience I won’t enjoy because apparently I need to build my character, or something!

I am not thrilled re the card and it was actually not the one I was going to use - from the joint account rather than my personal one, it is not a big deal or anything but another annoyance. Best just to cancel that card and get a new one though.

Cancelling the card won’t always prevent charges going through as it depends how a payment is set up. Just contact the company and ask them to remove all of your personal details including your card from their records.

Think that's short-sighted unless he gets a lot of cancellations.

It's not that hard to find another hairdresser

Thanks @TheSnowyOwl , I’ll do that. I take it they legally have to oblige re data protection?

As someone who owns an appointment based business, I would not have charged you in this case.

you are a regular & it was an emergency

it might be an automated thing, could be worth asking them

From your point of view you are thinking it's one session missed for a good reason but if they didn't charge for cancelled appointments, there would likely be many more cancellations for good reasons that they would have to pay for

Yes, you can make a 'right of erasure' request to remove your details there is guidance on the Information Commissioner's Office website.

Isn’t it just manners to explain to the business why you were a no-show? She’s been a regular customer for years and to suddenly go silent is quite simply odd.

The computer payment system might automatically charge for pre-booked appointments. That’s pretty common. It might also be usual for this business to refund, be flexible and re book etc etc. But how can OP know if she doesn’t contact them?

Better outcomes are usually possible with a short conversation. Being annoyed and silently sulking removes any possibility of working things through and resolving issues. In my mind, grown-ups communicate to resolve things or to at least try. Being silent and critical and resentful isn’t a mature approach to a grievance which can often be easily sorted.

If OP rings, apologises for not turning up and explains why and politely asks if there’s any chance of a refund or re-booking the appointment, and they seem totally inflexible or disinterested, then if she feels uncomfortable and wants to walk away, then fine. But to simply walk away with no communication….well it’s jumping the gun really.

Imagine if the business were to post on MN? All they could say is yet another client simply failed to turn up with no communication. Of course P knows why this happened…but the business doesn’t unless OP tells them

@WombatChocolate for someone so passionate about communication it is most strange you aren’t reading my posts.

Exactly

If I have to cancel a session in an emergency (I've only had to do it once) the client's following session is non chargeable. The cancellation policy works both ways.

If it’s a small business with no opportunity to fill the appointment I can understand you being charged. They are at work twiddling their thumbs and could have had another client. Running a small business is tough and you have to remember that it’s that person’s income. In reality the reason for the cancellation is irrelevant to the owner, as a number of cancellations in a week soon start to impact on their income. It doesn’t matter how good the reasons are they are still running a business.. It’s frustrating to still have to pay but you have to see it as a simple business decision that will be outlined in their terms and conditions.

Ah speak to them op. I get you, I had similar with a hair appointment that id paid a hefty deposit for (my dog died that morning really suddenly). Tried speaking to the receptionist to beg who was very much tough shit, its in the terms, no point in me asking her to check if anything can be done etc.

Just before I decided to leave a shitty review online I popped in and saw the owner who had no idea what had happened and was really sympathetic and rebooked me in and threw in a free hair treatment that's normally £20 extra and her beautician who overheard it all gave me a voucher for a free facial 😃

Seems they knew they could either bin off one customer, or have that customer tell all her mates about the salon and go back have spent about £1k in there in the past 2 years

It depends on the nature of the appointment. If it's the sort of thing where there's a large demand for one-off appointments being made at short notice, and the service provider is readily able to fill their diary, such that with a few days notice they can fill your slot, then the ts&cs should allow free cancellation with sufficient notice. There's lots of things that wouldn't work for, eg ongoing tutorials, music lessons or therapies where you have a specific weekly slot that can't be filled by someone else even if you give notice. In those cases it's perfectly reasonable for the ts&cs to say that your slot is your slot and you pay for it whether or not you have it.

Pretty sure I've read all yr posts and havnt seen you've tried to contact them about this. I think yanbu.
Maybe ring and have a chat and say you won't be coming back if they charge as you've been a great customer and were intending to continue but if they're not prepared 2 flex just this once that's that.

Sounds like you've been getting a roasting on here really glad everything's OK for you xx

Oh well….your choice.

Good beauticians who do a massage aren’t always easy to find, but if you’re happy to be offended and walk away without any attempt to sort it out to your own satisfaction, you’re free to walk away.

I guess I remain surprised by this attitude of being willing to go to the effort of finding a new provider of a service and doing almost anything to avoid having a conversation about something you’re not happy about, rather than simply ringing and probably getting it resolved within 2 minutes odd.

Life is full of people doing things which cause little annoyances. Trying to see it from their point of view, being prepared to resolve things rather than just walking away, always seems worth it to me. But I know some people won’t tolerate anything they don’t like or have any sense of why it might have happened, and are quick to walk away. Hey ho!