To charge her twice

[Redchairglitter]

I’m a beautician and during a lash appointment my client said she felt sick which resulted in a severe panic attack. She tried but we couldn’t finish. There’s about half an hour to go. She paid in full. When she rebooks to finish them off should I charge her for the extra time?

Charge her half? It wasn’t op’s fault the customer fell ill.

Depends how much you care about your reputation. For the sake of half an hour, I’d not quibble over this.

No because she paid in full and surely you can finish them off in around 30 min now?
Can’t you just squeeze her in somewhere? I would. Seems mean to charge her again if this is a one off and she isn’t usually a piss taker.

I'm pretty sure this is a reverse.

You’ll loose a lot more than half an hour if you charge her twice. You’ll damage your reputation.

For a regular client I’d probably squeeze them in for free as goodwill.

I really hate reverse threads

People struggle to understand that your can’t sell you time twice. It’s like a holiday cottage or anything else involving time. You can only sell each week once. You can only sell each appointment once.

I'm going to go against the grain and say it is fair to charge for the extra time (although not materials if that is a significant cost).

When I have had a vomiting bug and had to cancel a wax at short notice I have still paid in full for the missed appointment 🤷‍♀️

She might not come back again though.

As a regular and a one off incident I wouldn’t charge her. If it happens again then yes.

You are totally justified for charging her a second time. The second charge probably won’t even cover the half hour she made you lose. She should understand.

Quite possibly. I don’t know a single beauty therapist who willingly refer to themselves as “beautician”.

You could charge her but IMO you'd be a fool if you did.

I’ve been with my lash tech for years and I wouldn’t go again if she charged me for this. You build up a good relationship with your technicians and she has loyalty and lots of recommendations from me and this would put me right off her. I would tip at the end though.

If it's just one-off 1/2 hour labour, I wouldn't charge for it in this instance as a show of good will. It's nice for a business to be understanding of people with additional obstacles like health issues, old age or small children.

If it's only going to take 1/2 hr to finish, then I'd suck it up as a good will gesture. However, if it's going to take longer, as you have to start all over again, then I would charge but maybe give some sort of discount. She couldn't help being ill but you do have a business to run. Some sort of compromise is in order, especially as it's a regular customer.

Is this a reverse? If not then no - don’t charge for completing the job.

I wouldn’t charge a client who had a panic attack twice. I would have more compassion for that person.

Yes, charge her for it.

Unless you're so busy that literally every time slot every single day is filled I wouldn't charge to finish the job. As others have pointed out this is more of a client retention situation.

I'd do as andfinallyhereweare noted-make the appt, finish the work, decline payment. IF it cost you supplies maybe accept a little money to cover that but not the full amount.

Reputations are so hard to make and easily lost, why create ill will over 30 minutes work?

edit to add that when I worked retail the phrase I used on difficult customers when I gave in to their insane demands was 'this one time I'm going to let you have this for this price but this is a one-time only. As I rang them up I'd make sure to explain clearly the company policy on whatever they wanted changed to their will, so next time they knew not to try it. It worked very well, satisfied customers and I wasn't making them defensive.

People get angry when they're defensive, that's not going to increase profits!

I’d perhaps compromise and explain that you do need to charge her for taking up two appointment slots but as a gesture of good will the second will be discounted (e.g half price). I’d weigh up what it costs to lose her as a customer or for her to moan to others. You’re right though - she should be paying for both appointments as her having to cut her visit short is nothing to do with you!