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?

I'd probably have gone to the appointment and then not bothered to use her again. I get that it's inconvenient as a regular thing but as a one off it isn't that much of a big deal.
I also don't get the only checking emails once a week thing. I don't get an awful lot of emails unless I buy something online but I do a quick check twice a day to see what's new. If I couldn't be bothered to check I wouldn't give people the email address then they'd have to ring or text instead.

As explained it was required on the registration form for my dog. I have been using her for 3 or 4 years and never has she sent an email before. All booking confirmations etc have been via text. If she hasn't got the facilities to give us an option of preferred contact then why ask?

I’m obviously in the minority but it wouldn’t have entered my head to cancel this appointment for the sake of a 6 mile journey and a bit of inconvenience.
I’m not usually one to shy away from confrontation if I think I’m right, but assuming the appointment wasn’t at the dead of night and you wouldn’t be hanging around in the dark, I would have just kept it (and not booked another) if only to save myself the inconvenience of having to find another groomer at short notice and the hassle of getting my deposit back.

As a guess because 3~4 years ago, she had this great idea to start sending regularly emails either info about her business, tips and whatnot.
She didn’t get around it 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Not unusual at all.

She might also have noticed that most people say ‘texts’ re confirmation of appointment. So stuck with that.

Out of curiosity, did she send you a confirmation text for the appointment? Did it have anything about the new location? Or is it normally just a reminder 24h before?

Mass texting is also possible from a proper CRM (even copy pasting from an Excel doc). If you offer clients the opportunity to express contact preferences, it’s best practice to honour it. If you can’t, or don’t want to, don’t offer that. And if you then don’t adhere to those preferences, don’t act like a brat when people don’t receive your messages.

I think the answer is quite simple.

If her terms are such that you have to give her 72 hours (3 days) notice of a cancellation, then she also has to give you at least 3 days notice of any changes which might cause you to want to cancel. [See Note 1 below]

As your appointment was for some time on Tues 03 Feb, your deadline for cancelling - according to her own terms - was the same time on Sat 31 Jan.

In order to give you 72 hours (3 days notice) of the change of venue to allow you to decide whether or not you want to cancel within her own deadline, she should have informed you of the change of venue no later than the same time on Wednesday 28 January.

By only letting you know late on Thursday she had left it too late to notify you of the change of venue to allow you to decide whether to cancel within 72 hours, and was therefore in breach of contract herself.

I'd go back to her.

Note 1 - Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a cancellation term in a contract can be held to be unfair - and therfore unenforceable - if it doesn't apply equally to both parties. The law won't allow a consumer contract to be one sided and to be weighted against the consumer

Note 2 - I'm not a lawyer and I'm not giving legal advice

This is obviously false. I receive texts from the nail tech, hairdresser, aesthetician, private dentist, dog walker, window cleaner, mechanic… All of them small businesses, all of them able to manage data correctly. It’s a legal requirement to have basic data protection processes in place. A business that can’t do that isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.

How is op being told about the change 24 hours before the cancellation period ‘on time’??

Completely her fault that she had a short notice cancellation.

You cancelled as soon as you became aware of the new venue. Has she told you at any time prior to that, it seems clear thet you would have either not made the appt in the first place, or cancelled it as soon as you heard about the move. You never had any intention of attending an appt in town X, and ahe can only hold herself responsible that she assumed you would

We don’t all need to be the same 🤷🏻‍♀️ I check one personal email a couple of times a week, and another possibly twice a month. If someone needs an urgent answer to something they can phone me.

Except many people/businesses don’t work that way.

like I have a few products on repeat subscription. They send me an email a few days before in case I want to reschedule/skip that month etc… if I check my email 2 a week, I’d miss the timeframe for that email and would receive something I didn’t want. My fault though isn’t it?

Ringing someine is becoming less and less of a thing, let alone for companies. You might not like it. I dint particularly either. But it is one of those things we all to do with.

Bloody hell @fluffandfaff you've got the patience of a saint dealing with some of these responses.

The fixation on my inbox feels like missing the point rather spectacularly.

She sounds as though she been on a good thing with her expensive prices and cosy customer base.

She did not contact you by phone so she is on the wrong.You are entitled to your money back.

Find another dog groomer near to you

They could have texted or sent a what's app though. That's what my hairdresser does if she wants to change my appointment. She would never send an email and just expect me to pick it up.
She also told me several months previously when she moved salons and reminded me again before I made my next appointment making sure I was still happy to move with her.Surely that's the least anyone should expect.

But you are absolutely right!