Angry and demanding a refund !

[LolaRosieBoo]

I am a self-employed PT, very well known in my area, have been doing so for 10 years and as such I am expensive (£60 per session). A few years ago, I had to change my T&Cs so that sessions were paid for monthly in advance and sessions cancelled on the day would still be charged.

Before I implemented this policy, people would cancel their sessions with extremely short notice - on the day of - and sometimes only an hour beforehand. I’d also had people just not turn up! This was costing me both time and money, and this income supports my family.

Last month a new client started, she paid upfront and I sent the T&Cs. She cancelled her session yesterday (6 hours before it was due to start), saying her child was sick so she couldn’t make it. I wished her child to feel better and said I would see her next week. This morning, I’ve had a message saying ‘please deduct yesterdays session from next months invoice’. I replied saying that as per the T&Cs, I cannot give her a refund as she cancelled with less than a days notice, making it very difficult for me to recoup that money by finding someone else to fill her space.

She has now sent me a very angry text message demanding a refund or she will post about me on our local Facebook community board. She has accused me of being unethical, as people (especially those with children) will sometimes need to cancel at short notice and she cannot afford to spend £60 for nothing. I replied that this is my income and how I support my family, and I equally cannot afford to not be paid when it’s very short notice with no possibility of me finding someone else.

AIBU?

Could you not reschedule her session, so you keep the money and she gets it rearranged for another time?

I am fully booked with a waiting list, so it would mean doing PT at inconvenient times (such as the weekends, when I spend time with my children).

How do you know that? They may have taken time off work for the session, suffering a loss in income

Some people! If everyone knew what being self employed was like they would understand. If I was you my response would be some making along the lines of I do not feel that we would be an ideal team to help you with your fitness journey. I’m unable to deduct your charge for (date) session however I feel we should maybe cancel future session due to me not being as time flexible as you would need.

No as the time it would be rescheduled to would be another £60 OP could be making. It’s time & money.

£60/hr full-time…

????

Yes? What are you trying to point out here?

That's not her hourly wage. It's $60/hour gross revenue and then she pays all of the business's expenses out of that because she's self-employed.

FWIW, I had a very similar policy when I worked as a psychotherapist. It's crucial to offering a professional (ie financially and emotionally sustainable) service.
But I did allow people to rearrange the session, within a week or so (otherwise people will try to stockpile, which is not in the spirit of the thing). Would something like that work for you?
Anyway, stick to your guns, I say.

‘I’m sorry you are so angry about this. You signed clear terms and conditions, which I hold each client to as a matter of course and respect. Should you post defamatory comments about me online, please be aware there are libel and slander laws that prevent you from maliciously bad mouthing me in a way that impacts my income.’

Her logic is flawed. £60 spent is £60 gone. Wether it’s spent on nothing or a PT season is irrelevant. She’s being totally unreasonable.

For any service, I might expect a small discount if it included materials that were not used, but clearly not in your case.

I think your completely right, this is your livelihood and most companies have these policies even hairdressers beauty salons, time is money. If it was a long term client who had not missed a session and she had a sick child I might make an allowance then. So if she had been with you 6 months to a year then you could say the policy is x but as a long term commited client I will waiver the fee just this once. She had the policy and that's the rules stand your ground x

I would graciously bend the rules to release her from the contract without notice.

She agreed to your terms. She is cheeky messaging you telling you to deduct it from next month as if she’s the business owner. She’s instructing you and that would immediately get my back up. You did the right thing in reminding her of her prior agreement to your terms. Now that she’s begun with the threats, one to one sessions in future will be unpleasantly uncomfortable. Why would either of you want the tension? I’d tell her 1) while she’s entitled to review your services, she agreed to your terms and therefore you’ll need to publicly address any claim that suggest your terms were unfair; 2) that unfortunately the dynamic needed for PT to be optimal is no longer as you’d like it to be so you’ll refund her payments for all future sessions as that’s best for both parties.

You either have terms and conditions or you don’t.

I agree with you. If you give an inch, too many take a mile. If you allow rescheduling, you will have people cancelling whenever and then expecting you to "fit them in" at another time. That isn't sustainable long-term or you'll end up having clients at 10 p.m. or 5 a.m. If you have a cleint who has been great for a long time and they have an emergency, I would give a grace, once. But any client a month or three in duration is just hoping to push you into following their rules and abandoning your rules.

I would write her and tell her threats do not work and as such, you cannot, in good conscience, keep her as a client. If you keep her, she will be primed and looking for a reason to discredit/ruin you.

Tell her you will refund all remaining sessions (apart from the short notice one) as you won't be able to work with her. How dare she.

Your point being?

Point being that it’s a wildly expensive fee and when op cancels, they offer only a refund, no compensation for the time someone may have taken off work (doesn’t work weekends) yet expects full payment when a customer cancels. It’s hypocritical. Were a customer to be offered a goodwill gesture when op cancels, fine, but op doesn’t.

What are you on about? It's not hypocritical because the two parties aren't in equivocal positions in the relationship.

This is a common cancellation policy for private practice physios, psychologists, etc. and was clearly stated up front. If the client doesn't like it, they get to go elsewhere. What they don't get to do is throw a tantrum when that the provider does exactly what the policy both parties agreed to says would happen.

YANBU. I’m also a SE PT. I would refund her the rest of the block and terminate the contract. The relationship has already broken down with her threats. Forget the SM reviews as she will just make herself look stupid and entitled.

I tend to give new clients a one-off late cancellation but then remind them of my T&Cs and charge them next time. With longer term clients I occasionally sway the charge if they are regular and usually reliable.

Do you get clients to actually sign the T&Cs? Handy to counter post if you did, and should start doing if you don’t.

That’s not the same thing. If I take a day off for my kids I don’t expect to get paid. I expected to end up worse off. Because my kids.

Why should the OP be worse off because someone else’s kids are sick. If the OPs kids get sick and she cancels she doesn’t still get paid. Your suggestion means the service provider loses every time.

Are you joking?