To not give 24 hours notice to cancel an appointment

[n3f5]

Children are ill, cancelled appointment with only 1 hour's notice.

I don't expect my money back at all.

Got told off for not giving 24 hours notice because they'd like to offer the slot to someone else - meaning they'd get double money for the same hour!

Really not a huge problem, just canvassing opinions.

I’d go back and say “Yes, I’ve told my son to give me 24 hours’ notice next time he’s planning to be sick! He is SO inconsiderate.” Maybe a passive-aggressive smiley face.

What is the cancellation policy for you to get a refund?

Clearly you’d still have had to have paid if you had given 24 hours’ cancellation notice.

Your trainer is clearly not very bright. He is in no worse position than he would have been had you turned up.

I’d look for a new one. Mine gives a refund if notice is 24 hours or more. She always tells me thank you and she’ll enjoy the hour off if I have to cancel last minute.

They probably just don't have DC yet and don't get it

If the conditions are that if you give 24 hours notice, you don't pay he's perfectly entitled to refill the slot with someone who will. Otherwise he'll lose income. If less than 24 hours notice you pay regardless as the time is too short to offer the slot to someone else and it's unfair to expect he loses income as a result.

You have no idea how many other clients have given short notice and still expected not to pay. I'm my line of work (not dissimilar) people often give very short notice and expect not to pay. It's frustrating when it's your sole household income and you are relying on clients being regular.

What part of “I don’t expect my money back” do you think he’s struggling to understand?

Not everybody makes this clear when they send a cancellation note.

Perhaps an appropriate response would be "So sorry, but I didn't know my children were coming down with anything until this morning, so I couldn't give more notice. I'm not expecting any refund. However if more notice would have enabled you to offer the slot to someone else, can I assume that I won't need to pay for my session on 23rd as I've already told you I can't make it?"

Id ignore it and take my business elsewhere in the future. The cancellation policy is to cover their loss. If they are able to fill the slot then they haven’t had a loss.

Just dodgy greedy CF’rs

I don't think you were remotely in the wrong, OP, but I do feel a bit of sympathy with the PT. I'm guessing they feel stressed by the fact that a lot of customers might (unreasonably) expect a refund in those circumstances.

That would make them feel defensive, anticipating that you might be resentful about having to pay for the cancelled slot. And defensiveness makes people ratty and irritable.

The PT might also have people on a waiting list, clamouring for a spot.

Small business people who are too emotionally caught up in pleasing customers end up getting stressed, which has the paradoxical effect that they are worse, not better, at customer relations

I don't have kids and I certainly wouldn't tell a client who booked with me that they should have told me sooner so I could book someone else.

I'm lucky if they don't try to tell me I'm a bad person because I won't give them a refund even though they didn't cancel or tell me they weren't showing up at all.

But did he say he would have kept your money AND offered it to someone else? I know you don't expect it back but in his head (in the perfect land where you don't know how small child throw a wrench into the best laid plans) he d prefer to not charge you and offer it to someone else.
If he did mean to charge both of you I would find a new PT, that's outrageous

Agreed. You don’t have to be a parent to show some empathy and understanding.

OP, of course YANBU and I get it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Even a “joke” like that can change how you feel about someone.

Did you read my OP?

I can appreciate this. Thank you.

If you had given them 24-hour notice, would they not have refunded you? They’re not refunding you BECAUSE you didn’t give advance notice. I don’t think it’s about getting paid twice at all.

Yes I did. I'm saying if you've not made it clear you expected to pay he probably thought you wouldn't. It happens a lot. I get clients cancelling with less than an hour's notice until I point out to them that they will still need to pay and suddenly they become available again.

I pay in advance, so he's already got the money

Imagine you are the parent on the waiting list and could have used that hour for your kid.

yes he still gets paid but sometimes you can’t do anything meaningful in that hour. I’m self employed and travel to clients homes. I wouldn’t have time to nip back to my house and get on with something. Yes you can’t help that your kid is ill and you know the T&C so are paying for the time you’ve cancelled but the person may have needs that you do t know about.

I get clients to pay in advance too. However, it doesn't stop them trying to subtract it from the following invoice or expecting to simply rearrange at short notice (so taking up 2 hours instead of 1). I always appreciate it when people explicitly say they understand my T&C and are happy to pay for the hour they've cancelled. It avoids any confusion and saves me the awkward text letting them know the time will still have to be paid.

It's not friendly, it's passive aggressive.

There are times DS hasn't been well and I've had to cancel things like music or sports lessons with less than 24 hours notice. Sometimes you have to see if they're up to it.

What I usually do is say I appreciate it's less than 24 hours notice and payment will still be made. Just disarms the situation and let's them know where they stand.

If they still then came back saying they need more than 24 hours I think I would feel the need to point out again that payment will be/has been made and in future I'll try and give as much notice as possible. Just to have the last word.

I've never quibbled, in fact I would say he's up in terms of cash paid/services offered