Primary school emails - getting a touch annoyed

[MrsHouseMouse]

Oldest DS enjoys school dinners.
I pay for his weekly lunches every Monday evening so there's a few hours from lunch to the evening when the account is minus.
I recieve 2 emails in that time stating I need to top up his account...

... in red font.

It's only been this school year. Previous years have been perfectly fine.

I'm getting a little annoyed with this!

Same. I had 2 emails and a text yesterday as he had gone 15p into the red.

Why not just do it on the Sunday? It’s an automatic response.

Pay for them on the Sunday evening instead then it won't go into minus and your problem will be solved?

For goodness sake. It's an automated email that gets sent when you go below zero. Just pay on time or don't get wound up!

This is so easily solved. Pay on Sunday. Or top up an extra £3 (or however much one dinner costs) one week, then you will be sorted forever.

Why don't you just pay on Sunday instead? It sounds irritating but it's easily solved.

I suspect whoever manages the school dinners payment process is getting a little annoyed too!

They've probably got better things to do than chase payments.

I appreciate it's probably an automated system that sends the emails to you, but I'm sure that someone sits in the office reporting on overdue dinner money accounts day in day out.

It would make your and their life easier if you paid on Sunday.

Why not just pay on the Monday morning? Meals are supposed to be paid for before being taken. Prior to electronic payments dinner money was collected each Monday morning.
At my daughters school we had to pay half termly in advance.

This.
What makes you so special that it's ok for you to take what you haven't paid for?
Go online now and pay for 1 extra meal.
You just need to remember to only pay for 4 meals in his last week at school

Why not just pay on Sunday? We also had to pay half term my in advance when Dts were in primary.

We have to pay at least 1 week in advance. Is it just the payments or are you behind with the ordering as well?

Why are you expecting the school to give you credit?

You know how much school meals cost so unless you're struggling financially, at which point you speak with the school, you should never be in the minus.

This has got to be a wind-up.

How dare school chase for money you owe 🙄

Unfortunately, there's a very good chance this is real.

I have a friend who works in a school office, and some of the things parents / carers complain about are ridiculous.

Maybe, just maybe, due to the OP’s financial situation, she doesn’t have the money on Sunday? Maybe she gets money each week on a Monday? Maybe she doesn’t actually have a choice but to top it up on Monday evening?

Of course that doesn’t mean that the school will stop sending automatic emails but posters shouldn’t assume that they know the OP’s life

Surely if she was that tight for money her child would be getting free school meals?

That’s some contortions you’re doing to back up a ridiculous post!
OP only has to save the cost on one lunch to stay in credit. One.

You could save up and pay one extra meal.
You could change your payment to Sun / Mon morning.
You could even just ignore? I mean, how hard is that?

My equivalent might be an automated Sparx email that tells me every Sunday morning that my child hasn’t started their homework due on Wednesday. Her routine is always to do it on Monday nights. Bizarrely, I managed to not get “a touch annoyed” by a machine generated email 😉

In previous years schools probably had fewer non payers and fewer financial problems of their own. My kid’s school is now extremely proactive about payments - partly for their own financial reasons and also because leaving it actually doesn’t do the parent any favours if they’re allowed to accumulate more debt before anyone addresses it. They aren’t sitting in the office considering your situation, it’ll be an auto generated email reminder - they’ve hardly sent bailiffs round!

Just auto direct the emails to the bin if they outrage you so much, or better yet pay earlier.

Can't imagine a scenario that would mean she can only pay on Monday evenings. Even if she gets benefits they hit the bank before the evening.

Getting money every week on a Monday and not on a Sunday, doesn’t mean that you’re tight for money?😂

I was just giving examples anyway. It could be that OP has thousands in the bank and rather pay on Monday because it’s convenient for her, who knows. My point was just that people shouldn’t act like they know the situation

But he's having lunch on Monday that isn't paid for. Obviously they will follow that up.

Just pay on Sunday - I don't understand the issue

YANBU. Why do you think the school should give something you haven't paid for
Would you go to a cafe or shop and take something and pay for it later?

They are just automated reminders either pay on time or carry on and ignore them.

If the emails are auto generated, the only way to stop it is to have the account not in arrears.

Rather than be irritated on a weekly basis, your blood pressure will thank you for paying in advance.