Swimming lessons

[Flowerpowerr1]

My 4.5 year old started swimming lessons beginning of September, he really enjoyed it at first then after a while he started to dislike it because he didn’t like wearing the goggles and he didn’t enjoy learning to swim after a few months I had to keep nagging and persuading him to go. He started to hate his lessons and even cried a lot of times but I still persevered as I wanted him to learn.
In the end I decided it was not for him and I could no longer force him, I paid for the Autumn term till Xmas 23. He only went to 2 lessons and didn’t go for the rest of the term as I couldn’t get him to go.
So I get a invoice from his swimming company saying I need to pay for the next term, and I obviously haven’t paid because I didn’t intend on continuing and I said I want to cancel it because my son hasn’t been enjoying it (they know this too) because they’ve helped me get him in the pool.
They then told me I needed to give them a 4 week notice to cancel so I need to forward them £52 or DS can continue coming in for 4 more weeks! Although he can’t because he’s frightened and doesn’t want to swim!
I didn’t know about the 4 week notice as it’s not even a direct debit you just send money to their account.
I can’t be sending someone money for no reason in a cost of living crisis!
I’ve already wasted so much money with the previous term where he didn’t go in.
AMIBU??

My understanding is that if they haven't send you their terms when you joined, they can't enforce them. I don't think have the information on their website counts, they should have sent them to you directly. Are you sure you didn't tick a box somewhere?
If you don't intend to use them again, just tell them that and see what happens.

Personally, I wouldn't pay if the notice wasn't clearly stated in the terms (but also I would have checked the notice period with them because there is always one!). I think it's 50/50 on that one.

@minipie
How they work is they send you an invoice for the new term just 1 week before the current terms comes to end and they give you approx 5 days to pay it to their account.

I just can't wrap my head around someone thinking they don't even need to tell the person running the lessons your child won't be returning, that is such a rude attitude

@Bearbookagainandagain Nope I’ve checked they’ve never directly sent it to me and I didn’t tick any boxes I just signed up by email they send me an invoice to pay and told me information like the start date and end date for that term.
I agree I don’t think it’s fair to pay for a service I’m not using also I’ve already wasted so much money for not going to the other lessons, I tried to cancel last term but the manager to me I should push him and come in next week so I took him in (by force) and the week after he just wouldn’t go in. She didn’t tell me then that if I did want to cancel I’d need to give a notice or anything

If the agreement by email didn't refer to their terms and conditions or their notice period etc then they can't enforce it. However you need to review the email correspondence to see if it was clear whether you were committing to one term only or lessons until further notice. If there is nothing to suggest that you were committing to lessons until further notice then again they can't insist that this was the agreement. The fact that they have T&Cs on their website is meaningless if those T&Cs were never agreed when you committed initially to pay for the lessons.

Hmmm I'd read through their emails they first sent you- if it says something like 'you must read our t@c's' nothing you can do but worth checking.

However my main reason for responding is that they sound awful!
Your poor kid.
When he's ready take him to lessons where they play- the one I used used to have lots of fun in the water, playing games and the focus was more about water confidence than swimming.

Just because you can’t be bothered to read the terms and conditions doesn’t mean they don’t apply.

Unless they sent you the terms and conditions I don't think they can make you pay. Just having it on a website is not enough.
You could try complaining and saying they are bad lessons because they make him wear goggles. Goggles are definitely not necessary or even advised for learning to swim.
In any case what can they actually do? I don't think they would take you to court for £52?

Just don't pay it... Disappear off the earth. What are they going to do? It's too little £££ to take through small claims court.