Music Tuition - AIBU

[PiriPiriMenopause]

DC have been having lessons with the same music tutor for years. All great, no issues. This week I get a very (unexpected and out of character) formal letter informing me that prices are being increased, which I completely understand, by £10 per hour. Tutor is excellent, absolute top of their game, has done incredible stuff for DC and they love their lessons. One DC is planning on making a career of it after feeling so inspired and encouraged by it all. Subject choices have all revolved around tutor.

However, I’ve been given absolutely no advanced warning and this change is taking place from tomorrow. Plenty of communication opportunity to have been pre-warned.

It’s an extra £100 a month now and I’ve simply not got the finances this week, and will possibly really struggle to find the extra in future as things are just financially at crisis point just now.

Tutor is a very decent but equally very black and white kind of person. There’s no room for leniency with various aspects. “My way or the highway” which is all fair enough. Finding another one would be difficult. Stopping one DC is a possibility but it would very likely cause great upset.

AIBU to feel as annoyed as I do about how little notification I’ve been given and pressured into making a decision about what to do before tomorrow?

It’s a shame 30 min lessons aren’t available because it would have been a good option!

I think you should talk to the teacher and say that it's not enough notice and you will struggle to find the extra money at short notice and would she consider you remaining on the old rate for a month because that's a fair amount of notice.
Then you have a month to decide what to do.

I've rarely known 1 hour lessons as they're not that effective with kids.

Personally I think the teacher is being unprofessional and needs to finish the end of the school year at the agreed rate. Otherwise it's punishing kids or forcing you to pay more. Essentially blackmail of sorts!

I'd then look for another teacher. Lots of great teachers out there.

Our first piano teacher was an A Level music student age 16 who was just brilliant! Very cheap too!

It depends on the level the child is at.
My more advanced students have an hour because it isn't possible to fit in everything you need in a half an hour once they reach the highest grades.
The OP's children might be quite advanced.
However it sounds like the teacher doesn't offer half an hour lessons at all which is a bit odd, unless she only takes more advanced students, because an hour is too long for young children and beginners.

I agree it's very short notice but the parent is hardly being forced to pay for music lessons, unless there's more to this than the OP has mentioned.

Surely she has the choice to just walk away and not book further lessons?

Accusing a teacher of 'blackmail' or 'punishing children' because they've had to put their prices up is just nasty. They are running a private business and are entitled to run their business how they see fit. Parents are free to book lessons, or not. The teacher doesn't 'owe' the parents anything and I'm sure if it suited a parent to just walk away, they'd do exactly that (without feeling guilty).

The expectation on teachers to always put other people before their own needs is why so many school teachers are leaving in droves.

I'm a private tutor and while I personally increase my prices at this short notice, I would get rid of any client who felt entitled to try to guilt trip me into doing anything I wasn't happy with. I'm not a teacher in a school for very good reasons. I no longer have to smile and nod and do what's 'expected' to my own detriment simply because I work with children.

The details missing here are how much you're currently paying and when the last time it went up was.

We had one teacher who went up about £1-1.50 every year, (half hour lessons) and one who wouldn't put it up for several years, then do a jump of £5. She said it was easier for people who paid cash.
On the whole the jump brought it in line with other tutors, so on average we paid less most of the time.

If price hasn’t changed in years of tutoring, then it is reasonable.

Obviously the lack of notice is unreasonable.

However, if you have been with them for a long time, has the price gradually gone up each year? Or (as you've said the business side hasn't been great) is it a case of the tutor realising they have been undercharging and are rectifying that?

Ideally, smaller, regular increases work better for everyone, but if it is the latter, then can you think of it as having had a bargain for the last year or two and this is a correction ?

I said "blackmail of sorts".

Do you have kids who have music lessons?

If my son's music teacher emailed me and said his lessons next week were going up substantially, and I couldn't afford them, then I'd have no choice but to stop the lessons and my son would be gutted. It's not fair to do that to kids, especially if they've been working hard towards something.

It's extremely unprofessional to increase prices at such short notice. I'm quite shocked you admit to doing the same.

I also tutor and wouldn't dream of moving the goal posts like this. It's just mean and unprofessional.

I wouldn’t be happy about this either but it does sound important to continue considering one of your children wants to make this a career, could you cut back elsewhere to afford it?

VAT?

My thinking
Yanbu to be annoyed anyway

Typo. I missed out the word wouldn't.

I wouldn't personally rise prices at this short notice.

Completely my fault - terrible typo for that particular post!

It's still not blackmail though. No one is forcing anyone to do anything.

I've had tutors raise prices for my own children weeks before exams and to be honest I've just paid, as in my case I realised we'd been getting a bargain before the price rise. Maybe the same as essentially true for the OP. I was a bit unimpressed but made a decision based on what I could afford. If it had been unaffordable, I'd have found a new tutor within my budget.

Well disappointingly enough it was like having a conversation with a brick wall. No room for any negotiation with lesson length or frequency and refuses to allow any kind of compromise even temporarily! I did think it may be as such.

Anyway, this is about DC and what they get out of it and thankfully DM come to the rescue has kindly offered to help out so they can carry on.

Bitter taste left from the unprofessional way this has been handled to say the least!

Disappointing but I see you're not the least surprised. I hope you feel a little better for trying.

I am a different kind of tutor. I usually increase my fees at the same time each year and always give my parents several weeks notice of increase, even if it is just by a couple of pounds.
I would only slap on a big increase like this if several years had gone by and would explain why - how many years it had been, cost of living etc. I would be ESPECIALLY careful to give plenty of notice if this was the case!