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?

Why? She’s paid for a class - it’s not school. She doesn’t have to inform them she isn’t coming. So weird. I run classes that people pay for as a term - I couldn’t care less if people don’t turn up if they’ve already paid. It actually makes me chuckle when people message me with all sorts of in-depth reasons why they can’t come.

YANBU - it’s a business and they were very rude to you in my opinion.

I would've emailed or text when I pulled up and realised I was 10 mins late. They wouldn't have gotten the msg until after the class but it is just decent and polite to let them know.

Edit to add, I do a paid for by term class, and every week people who won't be attending let the instructor know. She's not giving money back or filling the spot.

If the email came through as soon as the class started it’s obviously auto-generated by her class booking system, so why take offence?

If the email came through as soon as the class started it’s obviously auto-generated by her class booking system, so why take offence?
I've addressed this before in the thread.
I've not taken offence.

I think I would reply and state that I had been a no- show because I had arrived 10 minutes late and, respecting their rules, had not entered the class.
I would then ask that, if in future I cancelled the class with less than 24 hours notice and they managed to fill my spot as they stated they would have done, would they be refunding my £30?

So you signed up for a 3 month trial for Pilates classes earlier in the month
but then had to cancel it because you “ended up in a complicated situation”
Maybe pre booking Pilates classes isn’t sensible for you OP.
Just because one timetable didn't end up being suitable gor me for a change in a work pattern doesn't mean that I can't go somewhere that foes work for me. Has a curveball or something unexpected never happened to you ever?

I'm loving the one I'm going to now.
This is one incident that I'm chatting about and it was the tone if the email was what I was discussing.
There is no way I would throught. that having a very routine appointment at 8 o'clock would have made me late for a 10:30 class in the same town. Most people do more than one thing in a morning!

It’s because you said she sent you a snotty email and it was ridiculous, it sounds like you've taken it personally, even if you have said that’s not the case. Did you reply in the end saying sorry for being late or anything? It’s odd that she stops her class 5 mins in to mark people as in or out so this email can send. Are you going back next week?

Did you reply in the end saying sorry for being late or anything? It’s odd that she stops her class 5 mins in to mark people as in or out so this email can send. Are you going back next week?
It's an auto generated email address that just bounces back.
I sent an email to their other email address on their face book page when I was thinking of joining this company a few weeks ago but I never got a response.
I'm at a class later on.
There isn't just one instructor, there's several and a manager who runs the operation.

I'm a little taken aback by some of the transactional attitudes in this thread. If there's a no show at my Pilates class, the instructor waits till the last minute and a bit beyond, potentially cutting short the class for everyone else. They are genuinely disappointed when someone just doesn't turn up.

And it's not possible to just slide into a Reformer class and catch up. The bed and springs need setting up to match the height and strength of the person and a proper warm up is vital.

Of course life happens and it looks like the OP was unexpectedly late. She was right to miss the class, but I think a quick email or text would have been the courteous thing to do.

Of course life happens and it looks like the OP was unexpectedly late. She was right to miss the class, but I think a quick email or text would have been the courteous thing to do.
I keep saying that the email was sent while I was sat on the car park realising there's no point going into the building as I've missed the absolute cut off. The instructor wouldn't have got a text. I have seen the instructor's, they are not on their phone before class starts, they are organising everyone or chatting to the clients.
Seriously I've said repeatedly at what point could I have sent an email? I couldn't while I was in the car and at one point i had time to make the class, i was all dressed up ready to go!

I would've emailed or text when I pulled up and realised I was 10 mins late. They wouldn't have gotten the msg until after the class but it is just decent and polite to let them know.

But surely they know after the class? By the fact that you weren’t there?

£30 for a group lesson?! This instructor is quids in! I'm clearly in the wrong line of work.

TBH, I'm with the OP. If they paid, so what? She's not asking for a refund. As for the instructor, same money, less work.

@Rulerflex
What was the “complicated” situation led you to cancel the three month package a fortnight ago?! Was it with the same company?

No, both companies are excellent and I've found an exercise type that I really enjoy.
It was as soon as I signed up with my friends, my work schedule changed and the times for the first company were quite limiting. My colleague who works a different schedule took over the membership for the three months and pays me. When I was told of this class I go to now and had no idea they were there was only a few minutes drive away, it's in a bit of an obscure place though.

The instructor's are great and it's a bloody good workout! I know it's expensive and I won't be able to keep it up for ever but it's helped with my mind and body and given me the kick start I need!

I used the word 'complicated' as last night I didn't want to get into the ins and out of work changes, whose paying what membership etc as every word you type someone picks apart and focus on something not relevant to the point of the post!!! Lol 😆

How pathetic of them. If you let them know 5 minutes into the session that you couldn’t make it, are they really going to start ringing people then and asking them to join? And if they did it would be too late for them to join as per their own policy so they’d have to then turn them away! I’m aware they didn’t know the situation before sending the email but this is why you don’t send snotty emails without all the facts. It could have been an emergency, anything could have happened to you or a family member and yet they go straight in with snotty? I’d leave

Just finished my morning class

All is good in my world! ( until the DOMS kick in, my ass and thighs were crying!)

Quite agree with you. Send an email back suggesting they review their late arrivals policy if they offense at a no show when you have already paid.
if you’ve paid I don’t see why you can’t quietly slip in the back if you’re late.

It is more of an issue if the no-show means someone who would have liked to attend loses out. In this case it is less clear-cut. OP scheduled appointments with tight timings, the inevitable UK slowdowns happened and she missed the class. It is unlikely even if the OP had advised the instructor as soon as it became apparent she wasn't going to make it, that they would have been able to notify someone who had wanted to book but couldn't as it was full. As you say, a message to the instructor apologising would have been courteous.

The snotty e-mail is probably because thoughtless people regularly do this and it can be a PITA. I remember in the past on group walks in the winter when we all meet up, it is sub-zero temperature and we are slowly getting cold waiting for some bastard that decided they found something better to do and couldn't be bothered to tell the walk leader. Of course, it doesn't take many such episodes before a "we are setting off at 10:30, if you are not there tough" stance was adopted.

Some interesting comments. Where I do Pilates you can’t slip in the back if you’re late as the door is locked. There’s an exit button from the inside for people to leave but there has to be someone at the door to let you in. They don’t have a reception. The class teacher waits at the door and lets people in. Don’t think we even get 5 minutes. Meant to be there 5-10 before it starts.

As for the price. Where I go it’s a membership which gives unlimited access to as many classes as you want per month. You can pay per session but it’s £25 for a group session. Membership is around £120 a month for as many sessions as you want. Different levels of Pilates.

They still don’t like cancellations and have talked about fines for no shows. They have an online app where you book and cancel. It says how many are waiting. As soon as someone cancels the next one the list gets a notification. Good on one respect but I got a notification fairly close to class time starting saying I’d got a place but I was too far away to get there on time so had to quickly press cancel. Not good if it comes in when driving.

And me - I pay £7.50 a session!

Why? Sometimes things happen outside of your control. A Pilates class is hardly rocket science, what’s the big deal in someone slipping in late?

Slip in the back and what? Lie on the same reformer bed as someone else?

There are generally only 6 or 8 beds in a studio and if the class is full, latecomers will need to weave in between all of the other participants to find the one unoccupied bed, and set it up correctly for themselves. Which will be disruptive to the whole class and as others have said if she hasn’t warmed up and goes straight into intense moves she runs the risk of a nasty injury.