AIBU to cancel appt after she moved premises at short notice and ask for my deposit back?

[fluffandfaff]

I use a dog groomer who was lovely and very local in my small village. – less than 5 minutes away, loads of parking right outside, no faff. I could drop dog off, come home for an hour, then pop back to collect. Perfect.
When I collected last time I booked my next appointment (for tomorrow, 3rd Feb) and paid a £25 deposit. I have no issue with her cancellation policy generally – 72 hours for refund minus £5 admin, after that full groom payable.

We have a personal email account we check a couple of times a week (mostly full of newsletter rubbish). Early Sunday morning (1st) I checked emails and found one from the groomer sent late Thursday evening saying she had moved premises.
New premises are about 6 miles further away, in a slightly dodgy part of a town, no parking directly outside. I’d have find somewhere to park somewhere else a way a way, in a very busy residential and industrial area and walk my nervous dog there. No chance of popping home either... I’d have to sit in the car for an hour waiting.
Worth saying: my preferred contact method is phone, which I’d selected, not email.
I messaged her on Sunday morning as soon as I saw the email, very politely, saying I’d like to cancel as travelling to the new premises is not viable, thanked her for her service and wished her luck. I also asked for my deposit back, accepting I was technically outside the 72 hours, but she had changed the terms by moving at short notice.
She replied very quickly saying she’d miss us but I was still liable to pay for the appointment, and that I’d had “plenty of time” to respond to the email (there was about 24 hours between her sending it and the start of the 72-hour window).
I replied saying I’d chosen phone contact and that less than 2 working days’ notice of a premises change didn’t feel reasonable. She then got quite rude, said I was being unreasonable, that it’s “only a 15-minute drive”, (realistically it is longer that with traffic etc and then finding parking) and that she told me at my last appointment she was moving. I genuinely don’t remember this and absolutely wouldn’t have rebooked if I’d known – I only used her because she was so local. The booking confirmation definitely still shows the old address. There were a lot of messages sent back and forwards, her saying her terms are perfectly clear and i was not getting a deposit refund and she would be invoicing for the entire appt. I told her that her t's&c's couldn't apply as SHE had moved the terms (address) outside of my control. She got quite arsey and she said she didn’t have time to argue as she’s stressed moving an entire business, then refunded me £20 and kept £5.
I mentioned it to a friend (very “don’t rock the boat” type) who said I should have just let her keep the whole deposit, but maybe argue the appt fee.
AIBU to think I was reasonable to cancel and ask for it back given she changed the location at short notice? Or should I have just sucked it up and let her keep the £25 AND paid for the rest of the appt?

As you say, she's unilaterally changed the contract terms in a significant way, so all the other parts of the contract (72h notice etc) are also invalid. If you're unsure, imagine being her trying to argue her case at the small claims court:
Her: I agreed to groom a dog on this date at this address. I gave the client 2 working days' notice of the new address.
"When did you know that the address would change and why didn't you immediately inform the client?".

My Mum's dog groomer moved too - though a few months ago - from a five-minute walk down the road to a 15-minute car journey, which my Mum can't do as she no longer drives. The groomer did give her lots of notice, however, she was similarly grumpy when my Mum said she wouldn't be using her any longer. Yours sounds very disorganised esepcially if the booking confirmation shows an old address she does not have a leg to stand on.

She said that it was 'short notice' so it didn't confuse people WHERE their next appt was and she was still working and so didn't have time.

I don't think you were unreasonable to ask for your deposit back, and I think, given the short notice she should have refunded.

However, I can't get my head round only checking your email twice a week!!

Because it’s a personal email account, not a work one, and we don’t get anything time critical through it. It’s mostly newsletters and spam, so we tend to check it a couple of times a week. I’d also selected phone as my preferred contact method, which is why I didn’t expect something urgent to come via email.

But that leaves you open to missing things that could still require a response. I check my personal email every day. That’s not business either. It may be time to learn from this experience and check your personal email more often. We’re talking a few seconds here, it’s not going to take up your whole evening.

I take the point but that still doesn’t change the issue here, which is that my preferred contact method was phone and the business changed location with very short notice. I don’t think not checking a personal email daily makes that unreasonable. Genuine question... What things are sent by email that may require urgent attention? Yours maybe different.I literally have nothing and only have an email address for signing up to things, but ask for all preferred contact by phone/text.

A week at a minimum is what the groomer should have given you notice of change of address!! She would have known around 6 weeks ago which is the average time scale that she was moving! I suspect she hoped it would be a done deal and you’d just carry on going to her as you are a regular client. I would be requesting my £5 back too!

She was being unreasonable; she also minimised when you specified your impact “only a 15-minute drive” - I specify my impact; not you. She changed the base of the agreement by changing her location, she didn't used your preferred contact method. She should return your deposit.

She knows she is on the wrong as she wouldn't of refunded anything if she was right, keeping the other £5 is petty but she probably needs it if this is how she treats her loyal customers.

You are not being unreasonable. But you got back everything except £5, so I'd just not think about it again.

She was unprofessional and should never have been rude to you. If she'd wanted to keep you as a client, she should have offered to come outside to collect your dog so you could drop off and drive off, if there's no parking. or offered you a discount for the inconvenience. She won't stay in business if she treats all her old customers this way.

If you paid by card contact the bank. If you paid by cash, id go for last appointment.
Sge is completely unreasonable.

It does change it though

She sent an email giving you time to cancel within her terms of "acceptable"

Because you decide your email aren't worth checking every day (most people check them multiple times a day and some even have them to their phone so pick them up immediently) you missed an important email and didn't reply for FOUR days

I'm on her side. She gave you chance, you not knowing was your own fault

I think @StrangerThingsHappenRoundTheTwist may groom dogs for a living 😂. Don’t give it another thought OP. Cannot stand arsey service providers, why do they think customers will continue with them? Given her attitude, would you want her continuing to groom your DDog? I wouldn’t let her near mine, has shown herself as unpleasant and angry- why would you think she is different with animals AND unsupervised!

Also, I’m in awe of your email management strategy. About 90% of mine is junk marketing I may do what you do for a while, sounds ideal to me!

Think she was unreasonable to keep the £5 and definitely for giving you so much grief and I would be leaving a review saying as much.

I think overall you are in the right to ask for the deposit back.

I think getting hung up on your “preferred contact” being phone is a non starter- it’s preferred, not the only means by which she may contact you, otherwise why provide an email address at all?

However I think by moving premises so shortly before the event, she has to give you reasonable time to confirm if you still want the appointment or not. She’s in effect changed the terms of your contract, or tried to do so, and so morally and possibly legally (but don’t quote me on that as not sure!) she should really be flexible on cancellation time - and could be seen as having cancelled the contract herself. Depends on whether the venue is seen as core element of your agreement I think.

However, I wouldn’t get hung up on the £5 and would leave it there as not worth the hassle.

If the expectation is now that clients must monitor inboxes constantly in case a business relocates overnight, that feels a bit unreasonable to me. Especially when phone was my stated contact preference. The issue isn’t how often I check my email, it’s that the business changed a fundamental part of the agreement (location) with very short notice and didn’t use my stated preferred contact method. If she’d phoned or texted, I’d have responded immediately. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect urgent changes to be communicated appropriately, and in the manor in which she was asked to contact me.

Nope, in your shoes I’d argue that she’s changed a fundamental part of the contract terms without checking that you agree to those changes so the contract becomes voidable.

Therefore, she has to refund you.

She’s obviously hoping most people will simply cave.

PS - she may be getting this stroppy because she’s had lots of people cancel due to venue, and not have anticipated that. If she’s moved location to find a cheaper rent and now is losing business she may be getting panicky

This is ridiculous
She will have had plenty of notice for moving as she will have had to give notice herself on her premises
Stick to your guns

What utter bollocks.

Her terms changed. Any other business would give a 14 day cooling off period for someone to change their mind. Not one working day.

The move can’t has been planned and as a small business most of the reasons for that lack of planning are highly stressful. I’d imagine she’s really going through it right now.

it was right that you were refunded - the fight and update was probably related to the stress she’s going though- not ideal but it’s done now, I wouldn’t give it a seconds thought

Op just in relation to your checking email every few days, do you not have any accounts you manage online such as utilities?

If you do, they will email you with changes to any direct debits. If you’re unhappy with the amount, you do need to act fast on those, otherwise it can be too late to change the instruction with bank.

That’s not how a contract works in English law.

In contract law, the general rule is that silence or a lack of response to an email does not constitute acceptance of an agreement.

Sending an email notifying of a change is simply advisory and you cannot take a lack of reply as agreeing to the revised terms.

The contract was confirmed when the client paid a £5 deposit.

Now that a significant change to the contract has been made by the service provider, (by moving the premises some distance away) unless the other party makes it clear that they agree to this change, then the contract is no longer valid.

In fact, the client could sue for damages for breach of contract!