Nursery settling in session disaster.

[Blendedmum101]

My 18 month old had her first nursery settling in session today. It was booked for 3 hrs. When we arrived the lady said we had the wrong day, I double checked my email and we were definitely booked in for today. She went away and came back a few mins later and said no problem come in. She started to fill some stuff out on a tablet and asked a few questions gave us a tour (we’d already had this) and then said she had to go in now… this was after 30 mins. It was pretty chaotic and clear they weren’t expecting us. My daughter is supposed to be settled in by Thursday next week where I will be in full time work. We haven’t been sent the app which apparently is needed to pay for the sessions, and to put info about my daughters likes and dislikes etc in time for her other sessions and I wasn’t overly impressed when we were there. A small boy was crying the entire time and they seemed pretty busy and unable to tend to him. I don’t want to be too harsh on them as I was only there for a snippet of the day. I checked the reviews again when I came home and there was a recent one (not there when I initially enquired) and it was pretty bad it said they’d made last minute changes which the parents weren’t happy about and that a lot of staff had left because of it. I then checked my ad for a childminder which I hadn’t bothered with since organising all the nursery stuff as it worked out there is one literally on my street and she has space and really nice and I feel so much better about it. I’ve emailed the nursery and said we won’t be moving forwards with things but I’m worried they are going to charge me money etc I had paid £100 registration fee I don’t care if I lose that but I don’t want to pay anymore money to them.. I haven’t signed a contract or been sent any details even on how much I’m supposed to pay each month.. they seem unorganised but I don’t want to be penalised. Is that unreasonable not to expect to have to pay them anything more?

If you have not signed a contract, they can't pursue you for any payment. Sounds like you have made the right decision

Nevermind then not knowing you were coming, which freaks me out from a safeguarding perspective, but the poor wee fella crying without any attention or comfort is wicked. You are so right to move on. I can't see that they've any claim on you, OP. You've had no service.

With no contract they can't ask for you for any form of payment - I think I would still ask for the deposit to be refunded given you won't be registering or using any of the service they provide - but as you say, not the end of the world if they are unable to return it to you. Sounds like you have a really good solution.

If you haven't signed a contract that's fine. If the childminder works out well then this can be hugely beneficial. When school starts, the working parents who used a nursery are often floundering to find wraparound especially if the school offer before/after is full/inadequate/non-existent but the ones who used a childminder are often able to keep the child going to the childminder for wraparound care.

Shocked you even considered a nursery, no contract with them so just go ahead with childminder.

Small update…

I emailed the nursery to explain we wouldn’t be moving forwards with things. I mentioned that it was chaotic and that the appointment was supposed to be 3 hours.

she said she has sent a typo and it was supposed to be 10-11 not 10-1. Regardless when we arrived the lady said we had the wrong day and was not expecting us.

The little boy crying was picked up a couple of times whilst I was there but was always put back down again quite quickly (whilst still crying) because they needed to do other things so wasn’t completely ignored but I still think that could have been dealt with way better. I didn't mention this in the email.

The email did ask how they can make it right, but I’ve already found what I feel is a much better alternative so I will leave it a few days and then ask for the £100 back!

Thanks for all the comments, it’s much appreciated