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?

You obviously have lots of time to spare, if you think this is reasonable.

The groomer took the Ops payment without telling her about the change, thus not giving her the option to not make an appointment.
By making a major change of premises, the groomer is changing the terms of her contract with the Op. 6 miles IS a major change. Imagine if the Op was reliant on a lift or public transport?
The groomer emailed the Op, despite knowing that phone was the preferred method of communication.
The groomer gave the Op only a few days notice, when she must have known about the change for some time.

Hmmm, I am a bit on the fence, but more leaning towards being on your side @fluffandfaff (Probably 65% on your side, 35% on hers...) As many posters have said, the notice she gave you wasn't much. I don't check my emails every day, but probably on 3 or 4 days of the week. Unless I am expecting an email, an update on something, or a delivery of an item I've ordered off Ebay, Amazon, Etsy etc... As a few others have said on here, I am not glued to my phone or laptop, so could easily have not seen an email (that I wasn't expecting) for 2 or 3 days, especially if it had gone into the 'junk' folder.

You need to cut her loose now, and find another dog groomer, that's if you can find one any closer than an extra 6 miles away. (I am assuming it was maybe 1-2 miles away, and now it's 7-8 or so?) I don't think that's very far, but then again, I live in a small rural village in the Shires, with nothing here except a pub, a small parish hall, and a church. Even the nearest shop is 4 miles away. So 7-8 miles would be nothing to me. Bit awkward/no good if the new location is in a rough area though, where you can't even park outside the place, and have to walk 5 minutes or so to where she is. (Not sure why you would need to sit in the car waiting for an hour though...)

Time to find someone else to groom your dog. This relationship is badly soured now, and she very likely won't want you/your dog back anyway. I would think very carefully before slagging her off on Facebook though. It rarely ends well when people do this 'public shaming' on Facebook. I'm afraid I always think less of someone who does this, and find it a classless thing to do. JMO.

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I can only assume that the reason for an email stating the changes were probably due to the volume of customers, an email sent to many recipients is common in business.

It's not her fault you don't check emails often.

She said that she had mentioned the move to you at the last appointment, you couldn't remember if she did so she might have told you.

It's 6 miles away, yes the previous premises were easier for you but it's not her fault you don't want to drive 6 miles, have to park, can't nip home etc.

Hope you find another dog groomer closer by for you.

I think she has a cheek. I would probably forget the fiver but leave a negative review. I hate it that she thinks a 15-minute drive is no bother to you. How does she even know you drive or that you don’t have a tight schedule on that day. I imagine you’re one of many who no longer require her services after the move and she hadn’t anticipated losing her client base.

Agreed. Tell her that under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 she cannot make a unilateral and significant change to the terms of the contract (ie the location) without giving you a chance to cancel (a proper chance - she can't use the fact you didn't check your emails quickly enough to get out of the giving you back the deposit). Say that you expect your deposit back, or you will be seeking legal advice.

Hopefully that will work.

My husband runs a business but instead of dogs, children are dropped off for an hour then picked up by their parents. If he moved 6 miles away to somewhere without parking I bet he would lose clients.

I check my emails daily, but mostly to mark the junk ins as read and leave the important ones as unread until I have time to read, process and action them. Rarely on the same day that the email is sent.

The Groomer gave 24 hours notice before the cancellation kicked in - it’s entirely viable that someone might not respond in that time. Presumably they would have had the same view if the OP had replied a day earlier but still in the 72 hour non cancellation window.

If my groomer moved that far, I couldn’t make the appointment - I sometimes walk the dog if I don’t have the car, and I always return home to work during their appt, and so can’t be sat in my car for 1.5hrs driving there and back and waiting for the dog to be done.

I assume the groomer wasn’t clear where they were moving to the OP as the OP was immediately clear they can’t do that venue, so wouldn’t have paid the deposit at her last appointment.

OP has very valid reasons to cancel, and was right I ask for her deposit back.

AND if the groomer knew at the last appointment, why did she only tell OP the address 4 days before the appointment?

I’m on your side with this OP, but in my job we
put out job offers by email with a 48 hours acceptance deadline - would you check your email more regularly if you knew you were expecting something important? We no longer communicate by phone because people lie 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree with you OP. You are not in the wrong here.

However, I’d cut her a bit of slack if she’s had to move suddenly due to an unexpected relationship breakdown or something horrible like that. I’m not saying you should though! Just saying that I might. And I guess you probably aren’t familiar with the reason anyway, otherwise it would be in your post.

I’m amazed at so many people having important emails! Most of mine is junk or order acknowledgements etc. nothing that’s actually critical. And if I do know something critical is anticipated I.e when I wasn’t waiting on an email confirmation for surgery, documents relating to insurance claim etc then I check it daily. I think she picked a day to send the email and unfortunately for you it was only 24hrs before your cancellation period. It would annoy me about the £5 but don’t think your in the wrong at all

That's not the point. At all. Nobody cares when you check your email, it's the most irrelevant thing in the thread.

YANBU and I don't know why people think when they personally check their emails has anything to do with it. You didn't ask to be contacted by email, you stipulated phone contact. She changed the terms and the cancellation policy should have been void on those terms.

Tbh, when people move, they nearly always know months in advance. An email just before your apt is sloppy. She's not running her business very well imo.. Her anger and fighting the odds with you is also bad business practice as you, despite not using her anymore, would never recommend her in the future to anyone you know.
Hope you find another groomer ok.

If a business is going to ignore customers’ contact preferences, why ask? And if they ignore that, what else will they ignore? Even if I was going to keep using the service that would make me think twice because it means she isn’t up to date on my/my dog’s needs.

No reason OP needs to become a slave to her email, as some (myself included) are. Just don’t give out your email again @fluffandfaff

She is being utterly ridiculous and is clearly in breach of her contract, but I think the outcome you got is as far as I’d take it.

How is ‘we send formal documents in writing’ anything like ‘I’ve specified the dog groomer contact me on the phone’?

She broke the t&Cs by changing the venue. Say you will go to trading standards I'd she doesn't refund in full

You cannot possibly claim with absolute certainty that ‘Most people check their (personal) email every day or actually multiple times a day’.

You may do, a lot of other may do as well. But many don’t.

i for one don’t, im on work email all day. There is nothing in my personal email that is at that level of communication need.
also if a customer says that their preferred channel is phone, then the business has a duty to use that as the primary contact for updates or changes. They do not have a leg to stand on if they don’t follow customer instructions.

Professionally, I always err on the side of caution, that not all emails are read. If it's important, you pick up the phone.

I would state to her you are not paying for the entire appointment, that if she doesn't deposit your deposit back into your account/send you a cheque, you will contact Small Claims. See what she says then. I bet she backs down.

She was in the wrong but I'd still just write off the £5 and forget about it.

"preconceived notions" 😂

What, like expecting the appointment to be at the place you booked it to be at?? 🤔😂

She should have phoned and offered you the opportunity to cancel. Quite possibly you might not have read the email at all and turned up at the old place.

But according to the groomer she knew she was moving at the OP's previous appointment because she claims to have told the OP about it then so it wasn't a last minute decision to move at all.

Our family hairdresser/salon owner relocated to new premises about 8 miles away - largely because of the increasing rent for the premises.

She mentioned it very clearly for months and months in advance. She was of the opinion that she would be delighted if a lot of her regulars did decide to move with her, but she didn't expect them to, as she had moved away.

Every appointment made, she would say e.g. "So this will be your last/last but one appointment here before we move premises"; or for those who had decided to follow her, "So this will be at our new premises in X-town - is that OK? Do you know how to find it?"

That's how an honourable, well-run business does this. And yes, we have all moved with her. It's less convenient to get to the new place, but she's a great hairdresser, lovely person and charges very fair rates, so it was a no-brainer for us (I appreciate it's different for those who don't drive).