To refuse to pay this nursery charge

[Jeronnemo]

2 children in nursery. Been really happy there. A few niggles but nothing major. This month's bill had a £40 per child charge for an activity that they only do in winter. It usually kicks in in December through to April but this time they've charged it early. The issue is that they've not actually done the activity yet. I spoke to the manager about it and she was very abrasive and came out with some absolute nonsense about why it was on the bill. She lied and expected me to just suck it up. I'm livid but the conversation is over as far as she's concerned and if I push it any further, I risk being asked to leave. Do I just write it off for the sake of peace and my blood pressure?

I don’t understand either and you saying 50 times that you have been clear, does not make it so.
I would think the payment is:
You pay in November for the activity to occur in December.
You pay in December for the activity to occur in January.
You pay in January for the activity to occur in February.

So, the only issue would be if you were made to pay in February and the activity did not occur in March. There is no issue now, at this point, unless the activity will not occur in December. Yet you have said it will occur in December, so there is no issue. It seems clear to me?

Its hard to tell if you're genuinely struggling to understand what posters are trying to explain, or being deliberately obtuse. But giving the benefit of the doubt...

You don't say what the activity is, but let's for examples sake say it's music lessons, weekly on a Monday starting from Monday 1st December. The music teacher coming in to work with the children is going to have their own terms and conditions for booking, which will include payment in advance, e.g. 2 weeks ahead of the booking. The nursery therefore need to add the payment onto the November bill for parents so they have the money to pay the music teacher mid-Nov in line with their terms and conditions. Just because you pay your nursery fees promptly and on time, not all parents do, so nursery will need to factor this in too.

You’ve paid a month in advance so you’ll finish paying a month in advance. If I was happy to pay this anyway it wouldn’t bother me. Just make sure you pay the correct amount of months.

So they charged you beg of Nov £40 for an activity that they now haven’t done in Nov

and dec bill will come next week with same £40 for the activity which hopefully they will do in Dec

is the £40 for a once a month activity or weekly and say 4 x £10

what is activity @Jeronnemo

if it is for say 4mths and you get to march and hasn’t been done 4 times if a monthly then complain if paid Nov Dec jan Feb

To be fair op, if the majority of queries about your post are for clarity about your post then you haven't been clear!

I just genuinely don't know how I can explain it any clearer.

You have been incredibly confusing here. You clearly don’t know how to explain things properly. Your op clearly states the activity starts in Dec - April. But then you say you paid in November for November. Do you understand in simple terms how you confused everyone?

Maybe it’s you who annoyed the manager because you seem to be clearly confusing and then saying she’s the one who lied

This! It will make more sense then as £40 a month for an additional activity is mad anyway.

I think you are saying that you paid on 1st of November for an activity to happen in November, but it didn't. When requesting a refund for the said activity, you were refused?
Did they explain how many times this activity would occur, so you are just paying very early for 4 activities, or are they expecting you to pay for 4, but only 3 will happen?

I guess it comes down to how much you want to keep them at that nursery.
Before they changed the rules about extra charges recently my niece went to a nursery that charged a fair amount for ‘consumables’.
My SIL queried what the consumables were and was told it was nappies, wipes, sun cream and a few other things. My niece was toilet trained and took her own suncreams and wipes because of an allergy. My SIL pointed out that they weren’t using the consumables so wouldn’t be paying the charge. She was told that it wasn’t optional and she risked losing her child’s place if she didn’t pay it. I told her to pay it because funded places/nursery funding doesn’t really cover the full amount needed and her childcare was cheaper because of the funding.
After they brought in rules about the extra charges the nursery stopped calling the charge consumables and it was for activities/art supplies, you didn’t have to pay it but if you didn’t there was a risk your child wouldn’t be able to do the cooking/art activity. My SIL thought it was awful that they would get around it by doing that instead because most would pay it without quibbling because they wouldn’t want their child to miss out.
It never affected me as I always used a childminder, however I don’t know why people would get so cross about an extra charge when through funding they were still saving loads on childcare. You have a choice if you don’t like how they’ve handled the extra charge you don’t have pay it and move them elsewhere.

If people pay at different points in the month and this was for the December activity in advance then they aren’t charging in April it works out

NOOOOOOOO. I PAY ON NOVEMBER 1ST FOR NOVEMBER. I PAY ON DECEMBER 1ST FOR DECEMBER.

That's really bad and fraudulent of them. I'd send in an email explaining that you think this is fraud and want it removing from December's bill. Otherwise you'll be contacting a solicitor. See if they change their mind as its in writing then.

That is what you do with your nursery fees.

As people keep saying to you, with the activity maybe the payment is paid in advance. So Nov = Dec.
We only have your side of the event and so far you aren't coming off great in your communication which makes me think you have misunderstood how the activity payment works this year.

Just another person joining the chorus of people misunderstanding.

To be really clear - have you paid 2x £40 extra for the month of November for services not received? So are you £80 out of pocket? If that's correct, you're right and the nursery are wrong.

If you've paid £80 for services you are going to receive, so they've just charged you a bit early, no problem.

I think when you have this many people asking for clarification you really have to accept it is you that hasn't explained it very well! Your posts aren't written with clarity.

Perhaps you won’t get charged on Dec 1st, it will be carried over?

Will the activity start this week do you know for sure?

So how many £40 payments are you expecting to make? Dec - April so 5? I think I’d probably try again if they try to charge you on the April 1st bill and remind them the first payment was taken in November so you have covered all five months

They likely have a waiting list and will just withdraw the child’s place because of ‘a break down in relationship between the parents and provider’.The OP should only do this if she doesn’t care she will lose the nursery place.

What do you mean, you think this is what I'm trying to say? It literally IS what I said.

I think you need to look at his £40 as separate to your nursery fees. You paid your November nursery fees on November 1st, also on the same day you paid the first instalment of the winter activity due to start in December. Surely it doesn’t matter when they start charging this as long as they only do it for 4 months? Just complain if they try and take a 5th £40 from you.

Really curious what the activity is.

I hear you!

This is a you issue OP. Honestly read the room!

I think you’ll find it’s your communication and explanation that is awful. You are the common denominator here. I read only your posts and I was confused from the outset as to when the activity is happening…if at all.

We pay our fees at the start of the month for the same month too eg Nov fees are due by 2nd Nov. But the activity payments are different to this as sometimes they’ll bring in an external person to run them who obviously has their own payment schedule. Eg for weekly forest school we pay a month in advance as it’s run by an external person.