I know i missed my exercise class but so what?

[notacooldad]

I pay in advance for my Pilates class. It is £30 a session
You can cancel the class as long as you give 24hrs notice, if not you lose out.
Quite reasonablely you can't be more than 5 mins late.
On Thursday I had an appointment before my class which over ran significantly, on top of that I encountered three lots of temporary lights and traffic has backed up.
By the time I got to the car park I was 10 mins late. There was no point rushing, I'm late, I've missed out. There isn't a reception where I could have explained this to, just the instructor doing her thing with the group.
I went home.
I got an email which was,imo , quite snotty, telling me i should have let them know if i wasn't going to turn up so they could have given that place to someone on the waiting list.

My feeling is I've paid for that space, whether I was there or not.

If they gave it to someone else they would have had £30 from them as ' as a place has become available '
I wouldn't have got my money back as it clearly says no refunds if you are late or a no show.
Therefore, I feel like the sharp tone of the email is a bit ridiculous. The company hasn't lost out and as far as I can imagine, most people want to turn up and don't deliberately miss classes once they've paid for them.

What do others think?

What's all this apology rubbish. If you pay and don't turn up its no biggie, they got their money. No need to apologise.

I'd personally look for another class, the person who emailed you is a little uptight or someone in the class moaning is. Either way its not the right environ for a pilates class.

Why is it frustrating? As long as they don't expect a refund I'm not sure why you care? Genuine question.

Eh? She arrived 10 mins late. She had plenty of time from then to send an email to explain why she didn't make it to the class. Then, after the class when the instructor went to send out her emails to the no-shows, she would have seen the OP's apology and not included her in the email.

I'm baffled that so many people would just give no reason for missing a meeting. Try that with a childminder or a music teacher like I said and see what happens.

£30 for a class?? christ almighty, I pay £7 for one hour yoga class.
If you've paid in advance she's a cheek to moan the space could have went to someone else

That’s ridiculous, you’ve paid for the slot and they’ve received the same funds they would have if you’d attended. I have never thought you apologise for missing something I’ve already paid for, last minute things come up and you can’t always attend.

This actually happens to me frequently as I attend a number of paid for sessions/activities with my daughter and no one has ever followed up to say I should have let them know! Sometimes the providers will offer incentives to cancel if you know in advance so that they can try to fill the space with someone else (eg you can attend another session on a different day that is convenient for you). Otherwise you just lose out your own money and session — so it’s your own loss, why would you need to apologise!?

I’m in agreement with others that £30/session is also very expensive, and I also think the 5 minute rule is bizarre. I’ve been in a number of yoga/pilates classes and it’s really not a big deal if someone turns up late and quietly rolls out a mat in the back of the room. Sounds like this Pilates teacher is on some sort of power trip — I use Pilates/yoga for exercise and stress management, I couldn’t enjoy such an uptight class with so many rules!

This. They want their cake and to eat it, it seems.

My husband often struggles to get into gym classes because wealthy members book loads up then “just take the hit” when they can’t make it. It’s unfair.

In OPs case just reply saying you were in the can en route before you were delayed.

They wanted an email before she was late so they could have given her the spot away. She was presumably busy with the appointment and then driving in the run up to the moment she was late so not sure how she could have emailed them. They weren’t bothered about knowing after the fact why she wasn’t there

I find it a bit cheeky of them. If you have already paid upfront it's not like they missed out on any money, and perhaps had an easier session as one less person.

People suggesting they could have filled the place would then mean they got double the money, so maybe if you think of it from a business perspective and making a profit (on an already expensive class) it makes sense they would want to know.

I would have pre-empted that email by sending one myself at the time explaining what had happened and apologising

The email was sent before I got home and got my self sorted. I was going to phone up. I only love 5 mins away so thought I'd get home and get organised

I don’t get the vaguest whiff that this op will be doing any apologising soon 🤣
Why do you assume that? I've got a class tomorrow lunch time, I'll see the instructor then and explain in person.

You started a thread two weeks ago about starting Pilates and said
There's a deal on a 3 month membership that we are interested in and this is for 2 classes a week
puts a different slant on the issue wouldn’tt you say oo?
No because my friends went to that one. I tried the deal but the timings don't suit me so I've gone to one that is in the opposite direction.

Point is still the same where ever I have gone because all policies are similar at the different companies.

I'm a Pilates teacher, it's frustrating when someone doesn't turn up and doesn't let us know. An email out of courtesy is polite to apologise for your absence.

I didn't deliberately not turn up though. It would have been rude to try and go to a class that had already started. I didn't get chance to send an email, well I was going to do it when I got home but I think they use be auto generated once the class starts and they've marked people present or absent.

What would have happened if you had tried to go to the class or banged on the doors
It's big modern glass windows so people would have seen me
I've seen people been turned away before now. I didn't want to be rude and interrupt the class to say sorry, I've had a bit of a nightmare morning.

I would have emailed as I’m neurotic about being late/missing appointments etc
. There was no reason to suspect i would be late. Three lots of temp. road works were in place. Two of them weren't in place the previous afternoon when I was on my way home from work. I'm not sure about the other one because it was near my appointment.

If they had someone on the spot to take your place, surely they could have asked them to hold on for 4 minutes 30 seconds and then asked them in when there was no sign of you? They have a defined cut off point for admittance, so they can use it.

It's not the sort of place where there people hanging around waiting, like leisure centre as it's a place you have drive to( or at least have a very long walk to!)

Have you been late before?

No, I'm always early as I have my favourite place! I've never missed before. I have changed some of my classes which is allowed, for example I've booked a Saturday on the last weekend of March and ice changed it the Sunday.

It is a reformer class in the North West so not just a village pilates class!
Thanks for the conversation, it was just unfortunate timings and bad luck. I was the first appointment of the day at 8 o'clock but as I was about to leave i was asked to wait as the consultant wanted to talk to me, also if I'd known about the road works I would have taken a slightly different route to avoid at least one of them.
I'm disappointed I missed my class because apart from the money I was looking forward to it. I went to my appointment dressed ready for my class!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my class tomorrow. I'm a still beginner and will be aching! 😆

It is not the instructor's responsibility to chase people to get their reasons for not turning up. In the absence of an explanation, every no-show gets the same generic email.

I actually also have been a provider of services paid for in this way, by the hour with a 24-hr cancellation policy. I was not bothered at all if someone cancelled last minute as if I couldn’t fill it I could have changed for the cancellation and done nothing/less. In the end I was almost always able to fill the spot even with very short notice and then the first person was not charged, so I never received double payment for my time but I just felt this was the right thing to do. They are incredibly cheeky trying to indicate they deserve to fill the spot again AND keep your payment!!

More likely, it’s just fucking annoying when people don’t turn up to classes.

Its messing the whole organisation of the classes, esp when you try and teach something that build from one class to the next.

Much nicer to have people who are actually committed. Esp when you have a waiting list.

Enjoy your class OP, and perhaps a little line about you running late will remind the instructor not everyone is a crappy deliberate non attender. :)

Nope, especially not in this economy.

Ridiculous comment. I really don't think there are that many people who'd pay 30 quid for a Pilates class - the instructor would do well to remember this.

It's such a moot point anyway. The Op had paid. It makes not a blind bit of difference whether she turned up or not - they were greedily trying to fill a space that they'd already received the money for. If the op had emailed and they'd filled the space there's not a chance in hell they'd have offered her a refund.

Methinks if they send out rude emails regularly they won't have many customers left before long. I know I wouldn't return and would be telling everyone how snotty they were.

Yes!

Nothing worse than class planning only to turn up at the venue and the class line up has changed. It’s frustrating, but it’s one of those things too.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a business having a no refund policy even if they do fill the space last minute. A blanket policy in some cases really is required, and the fucking about with admin and refunds is just more time and money down the drain.

That might be true in your circle, but there are plenty of other people who have no bother paying £30 for a pilates class.

People have busy lives, some people have complicated circumstances or end like getting stuck in awful traffic and not make a class for fault of their own. No one like to cancel an expensive class that they voluntarily choose to do and pay for.
Texting later to apologise is nice but not needed. The instructor’s email is worded in a manner that shows disrespect for the client and disregard for the circumstances that they might have stopped them for attending as if they deliberately missed the lesson.
what is going to do next? Report the OP to OFSTED for poor attendance? She’s already been fined billed for the session 🤣🤣🤣

To those asking why it's frustrating, er I like my job teaching people! So yes, when I've spent time planning my lesson, adding in variations and progressions based on the clients I'm expecting that session, for someone to not turn up it is disappointing for me 🤷‍♀️

@PandaTime
Eh? She arrived 10 mins late. She had plenty of time from then to send an email to explain why she didn't make it to the class. Then, after the class when the instructor went to send out her emails to the no-shows, she would have seen the OP's apology and not included her in the email.
I was a bit stressed from sn unexpected consultant chst, stressed with unexpected road works and gutted when I pulled up on the car osrk to realise all my rushing was in vain.
I live a few minutes away. The email was sent within a few minutes of the class starting, it's auto generated. The email was in my inbox before I got through my front door looking at the timings!
There is no one to phone.

I'm sure most people wouldn't sit on a carpark writing emails when they could do that when they get home in a few minutes time.

Actually I sent an email with a query when I was looking around for classes a few weeks ago and they still haven't replied to that!

To be honest OP while I may be pissed off about it I would stay away from getting too detailed about it. I would reply to the e mail in a very simple way saying that you arrived late on this occasion due to x y and z and because of the late policy you left. I'm not one for sucking things up but think you could make your points simply without getting into the details of what they could do or not. Take the higher ground especially with such an activity 😊

£30 a session!!!! That's crazy. I agree if they aren't refunding you sod them!

There is a list of people literally waiting to pay £30 for this Pilates class.

So why are you whinging about an auto-generated email as if it was personally addressed to you?

Why does a no show need an email? They paid, they didn’t show. The instructor was paid anyway.