Nightmare customers

[nightmarecustomers]

I do dog home boarding. I'm allowed 4 dogs a night. I took a booking 20 months ago, for a lady who has 3 dogs. She's just cancelled, 10 days before they are due to check in. She ended her text telling with :
"I'll definitely like to use your services again in the future. Take care xx"
As if I would EVER take a booking from her again.
Do people not see how unreasonable they are?

Anyone have similar tales?

if 10 days notice is too short notice for you, maybe you need to implement a non refundable deposit / cancellation fee at the time of booking that will cover at least some of your losses if you can’t fill the cancelled slot? The customer probably thinks she is giving you reasonable notice of 10 days that she no longer requires pet care if her plans have changed, I appreciate that from your point of view that this may be considered short notice.

Do you not have T&C stating what part of fee is refundable depending on date of cancellation?

It's inevitable that people will want to cancel. If your holiday was cancelled for good reason (illness, accommodation becoming unavailable, etc) would you still put your dogs into boarding? But you would expect to lose your deposit or even your entire boarding fee, (and you would add that to your travel insurance claim).

I suppose it depends why she’s cancelled but maybe you need a non refundable deposit system or similar to protect yourself a bit from being screwed over at short notice. I understand the frustration though.

I don't take deposits. I know I could, but the number of people who cancel is minuscule. It was more the fact that she thought that I would entertain booking her dogs in again, after she did that. Absolutely no way will I deal with her again. And she won't find anyone else, because most boarders can only take 2 dogs.

While that's immensely frustrating, I don't think that's my definition of a nightmare customer. She's presumably complying with your booking terms? If she's allowed to cancel with short notice, then you need to change your t&cs. But I agree, I wouldn't accept a booking from her again!

I think anything like this needs to have a deposit and cancellation fee, clearly explained and a copy sent on to your customers. You can set the scale of deposits, and fees yourself, plus a waiver if for example someone’s pet dies between booking and start date. 20 months in advance is a heck of a long time to pre book, even if you are busy.
You can lay out what specific things you want to, such as your policy on inoculated pets, fleas, worms, any transmittable illnesses that you would need to know about, and even advise boarders to consider taking out their own insurance if required. It’s the sort of thing most responsible pet owners would look for if choosing a boarding stay for their pets. Hope you get sorted, that’s not really a customer you are going to welcome again.

Why is this unreasonable? 10 days is more than adequate notice for most businesses, I imagine and there is nothing in your policies to suggest otherwise. You are obviously free to never take bookings from her again but I don't see how she is at fault here.

I think you're being unreasonable. As I said, if you have to postpone your holiday for any reason, why would you not cancel the boarding? Anyone else could find themself in the same position. Are you going to cease doing business with everyone who cancels?

If you're not going to operate a "payment in full if you cancel with less that x weeks notice" policy, then you could accept a booking for her if she pays in advance with the money not returnable if she cancels less than a month in advance.

I appreciate you're annoyed but "And she won't find anyone else, because most boarders can only take 2 dogs" is just plain nasty.

I get that's really frustrating but she might be an excellent customer normally, who's just had a sudden bereavement or broken their leg, or their holiday company has gone bust or their house move has fallen through. If this is the only time it's happened I think you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.

That said she may be a flakey customer, and it doesn't bode well that she didn't offer you partial payment. It just seems a bit of a leap from a single cancellation.

I think 10 days notice is actually plenty of time. She's letting you know that she has no criticisms of your service. It's on you if you don't take deposits. I think you're being unreasonable and she is far from a nightmare customer!

And no, it's not me!

YANBU to be very annoyed and I wouldn't take any future bookings from this woman either without upfront payment.

However, if you're not taking deposits etc, you are leaving yourself open to this type of behavior. You are very lucky that it doesnt happen more often to be honest.

I use kennels rather than a boarder for my dog but I have to pay as follows:

50% deposit to reserve the space.
50% remaining on drop off or no boarding.

If I cancel with less than 3 weeks notice, I lose my deposit.
If I cancel with more than 3 weeks notice, I get my refund back, minus a £30 admin fee.

They've introduced this in the last year or so due to so many people messing them around.

If it is a minuscule amount that cancel, you just have to accept it. Cancellation should be saved for emergencies, but some ppl do not have that mentality. You can give her the benefit of the doubt, that something unavoidable came up, because it an happen to anyone and she may not want to divulge why.

YABU. It is very standard for services to allow cancellation up to 2 or three days prior to the booking (hair dressers etc). Accommodation, eg B&Bs and hotels can often be cancelled without charge 7 days prior to the booking. You have chosen not to have a deadline to cancel in your t&c’s and you don’t ask for a deposit. You have left yourself vulnerable but it is not really the customer’s fault.

The customer’s plans have changed (which happens) so of course she will request to cancel. Refusing to accept her booking in the future would be highly unprofessional.

Why exactly is she unreasonable? And why wouldn't you do business with her again?

Assuming someone's holiday falls through, why would they still board their dog?

The fault is on your for not having appropriate terms and conditions to deal with this. As other have said, you need to start taking deposits and make sure your terms give a clear cancellation period. This isn't a nightmare customer.

If I were you, I would accept her booking next time. Might be a one off cancellation. If she kept persistently booking & cancelling then i would then not take further booking.

You’ve had a very OTT reaction OP! Hopefully this is just a heat of the moment thing and you rethink things tomorrow or in a few days.

As PP said, you are leaving yourself vulnerable by not taking deposits, or at least putting in a ‘X amount payable if cancelling w less than 21 days notice’. Let this be your chance to rethink how you do things.

I think it's very unreasonable to book out 3 spaces in someone's diary, for 20 months, and then cancel 10 days before. It is too late now to fill those spaces.

I'm not short of customers, so there's no way I will take any bookings from her again when I can deal with people who are more reliable.

She's not ill. She has decided to take her dogs on the holiday with her.

I appreciate you're annoyed but "And she won't find anyone else, because most boarders can only take 2 dogs" is just plain nasty

It's a fact! She probably doesn't realise, but will find out the hard way.

She probably doesn't realise, but will find out the hard way.

😬 why are you so vicious? This is part of running a business, you are the one who has not implemented any processes to mitigate this. You could have easily gotten some form of payment for this booking if you had set things up differently, you’ve actively chosen not to ‘because the number of people who cancel is so miniscule’. If it’s so miniscule, it shouldn’t wind you up this much.

Be professional, take a booking deposit and specify in your terms and conditions your cancellation policy.

Sounds like she did the right thing in cancelling you if this is how you react. If I was to consider putting my dog somewhere and came across a post like this that boarder would not be somewhere I considered.

It's annoying, but you do sound really quite unprofessional. You need to protect yourself against this kind of thing, it's so easy to set up and is better for yourself and your customer.

That's not a nightmare customer IMO, just someone cancelling and being nice about it.

This one's on you.

As a business owner, it's your responsibility to account for circumstances like this and protect yourself with non-refundable deposits and strict cancellation policies. The customer has done nothing wrong. You have. If you don't want situations like this to occur, it's up to you to implement policies to prevent things like this happening and leaving you with no recourse.

It's what you signed up for when you decided to run a business. If you don't want those policies in place, you have to be OK with things like this happening.

Minuscule deposit or not take a deposit, even if it’s not much it will force people to actually give it a little thought.

Well I think it's you whose found out the hard way that you should be taking deposits.