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?

Tell her she can post on FB if she likes. She knew the terms and conditions. It's her problem, not yours.

You are right. Every day I see PTs waiting for clients to turn up in parks who just don't bother as it's wet/cold.

I speak to them occasionally and they have to pay and use their time being ready for someone.

I remember Joe Wicks saying it was a regular occurrence when he was a PT and it really got him down.

I would however, give leeway as a one off and say that it is a one off.

Good luck!

💯 agree with this. I would refund her the full remaining fee including her cancellation and remind her that is she is in breach of the formal T&Cs she signed up for, that this is a goodwill gesture and if any negative feedback is left about you in response to HER breach of contract you will be seeking legal redress. She won’t. She will be pissy that she’s been dumped. She will remain unfit and probably secretly embarrassed by her behaviour.

if you are very cross and have the time and inclination and happy to deal with her, then I wouldn’t refund the cancelled session either, just dump her and refund the remaining sessions. See what she does.

My son forgot to see his maths tutor last week. Each session is £70. His mistake and I paid the tutor as I was not under any expectation I would get a refund. If this woman persists in trying to blackmail you over reviews, tell her you will contact the police. I would take this opportunity to review your terms and conditions. I would ask new clients to sign a contract that contains your notice period, agreed payment methods, how to end the service without penalty, expected behaviour etc. Since you are then holding onto your clients names and addresses, please register with the ICO as a data controller. This all prevents a customer trying to weasle on the deal. As you mention, you are self employed and dependent on this income. You can protect yourself in terms of your business by having a signed and dated document with both you and your client agreeing to the service terms.

I'd leave her to post an angry message on Facebook. Most people understand that you have bills to pay and can't afford last minute cancellations. If it were a long term client you could be more flexible but with a new client, if you backdown now, she could end up trying it on often.

She has already budgeted that money so whether or not she uses the service! You wouldn’t get a refund on cinema tickets.

Yes, it's a luxury for which she has committed to paying a premium price. She had to miss out on enjoying the luxury on this occasion, but it's hardly left her in dire straits - it's not like it's her weekly family food shop that's been lost/stolen/ruined and that she now can't afford to replace.

@enchantedsquirrelwood Exactly! They are two completely different scenarios.

She is trying to blackmail you. Stick to the Ts&Cs. Block her from your own business social media pages so that she cannot damage you there. If she posts on the community FB page ask the moderator to remove the post on the grounds of defamation. Explain to the moderator that she has agreed to a legal contract which she is now reneging on and has tried to blackmail you by threatening to damage your reputation on the FB forum. Don’t engage with bullying. Post Covid many people are refusing to take any responsibility for themselves or their lives. You are not unreasonable. My husband muddled two appointments and missed a checkup at the dentist. Dentist is a friend. We’ve been with her for years. She charged my husband £74 for the missed appointment- double the cost of the checkup. It was a hard lesson but I have no issue with it. The fault was ours. She is free to charge punitive fines for missed appointments.

OP, YAB completely reasonable. I see an osteopath regularly. I have occasionally had to cancel at the last minute for child-related reasons, and I have never once suggested he should give me a refund. It's just bad luck when that happens.

Thats my cancellation policy too. I know some people who do what I do who ask for payment 48 hours before your session if you pay each time, and will not see you if this is not done. Shes bonkers.

You seem to be one of the reasonable people on this thread.
I would schedule another session as you rightly said .
a client with a sick child is not her fault and I wouldn't fell on to take money for a session that you haven't provided a service for .
being a personal training business I think you should be flexible on this instance plus you can even mention to your client that you will charge next time .

Which this one is already doing.

I think the responses say it all with overwhelming support for your cancellation policy
Let her name and shame you not that she will be able to shame you as you did nothing wrong.
Going forward with such a difficult client maybe difficult.

I wouldn’t refund and the threat would result in me cancelling the contract and all future sessions and refunding those.

If she posts negatively ignore it. You’ve got a waiting list - you’ve got a decent client base and are covered. Any replies will draw attention to the post.

Do you work? If you got there and your boss said sorry we’ve got no work today so you won’t be paid you be ok with that?

Your contract is very standard- every PT I’ve had has had the same t&c regarding cancellations. If she was a client you’ve had for years I’d probably give her some grace but she just started- you don’t want to set this trend. I feel for parents and their kids getting sick, I’m one of them. But also when I make commitments/ appointments I’m prepared to either pay the penalty or not make the commitment

It’ll be fine because mortgage companies are happy with half if you’ve had a bad month!

I'm SE
With new clients in this situation I would also charge
With long standing clients who i know wouldn't take the piss i don't charge
I get all sorts. Some people insist on paying anyway and i had a new one the other week who i was really pushed to fit in in the first place and cancelled without paying. I told them i would book the next session on receipt of payment.... never heard from them again.

They don’t deduct it! They make money off that because you pay it back over a longer period and they make more money off you. But it’s great to know there are people out there that are more than happy to turn up at work and be sent home without payment, thank god for employment law keeping you protected.

I voted YABU by mistake.

She should have read the T&Cs.

Ok do u have children ? You are allowed to phone into work to say your child's not well . Aren't you . All am saying is the trainer can be flexible and reschedule
you cannot predict when a child's going to be sick
£60 too much to forego but I suppose if the trainer had written these in the agreement
then I would think twice before I join

I think you need to refund her her whole payment and “sack” her as a client.

Your terms are standard. I pay my PT for a block of 10 sessions in advance and he also has that 24 hour notice of cancellation rule. It’s perfectly reasonable.

If she rants about you on FB you can respond that you explain the terms and conditions and this client cancelled with only 6 hours notice.

I'd tell her the contract had been terminated and let her find another PT. It's a bit rich paying someone £60 an hour for something that's not a necessity and then trying to plead poverty

You're not being unreasonable. This is a pretty common policy for independent service providers.

There will always be unreasonable people (insert other terms for them here), but if you aren't doing so already I would start verbally reviewing this and other vital parts of the T&C with new clients when they first schedule in addition to providing them in paperwork, or otherwise highlighting them directly (in the body of a short email for example). If you have a website, make sure the policy is very clearly, very obviously stated there as well.

You're missing one vital fact, that if OP is sick or cancels, they offer an alternative time to compensate, the client doesn't lose a single penny!

It really isn't comparable is it? As the OP can't fill that slot with six hours notice.

🙄