To postpone a tutoring session due to late payment (still not received)

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I have a parent who agreed to paying four tutoring sessions in advance as a block in order to get a discounted price - more of a discount than I originally wanted to give but anyway.
I sent her terms and conditions saying your regular slot is yours only after payment is received and to please send payment at least 24 hours before the session.
She was late with her first payment - around midnight after multiple reminders but it was a holiday season so I figured she was genuinely busy.
She used up the last of four sessions last Wednesday and Thursday I sent her a reminder regarding payment and a reminder that her son should sent completed work I set - I mark, grade and plan the next session accordingly.
She saw message, sent the work but no payment. I reminded her this afternoon and she's just told me she was out, will send it later and what time is tmrws session.
I've responded I will need to postpone due to late payment. Am I being unreasonable?

You’re running a business and your payment terms should be respected
if parents can’t do that, YANBU AT ALL

YANBU. I hope you can afford to hold firm. She seemingly doesn't respect your time, or you.

i think it’s good to set a firm boundary. If you went ahead with no payment, then she’ll just keep pushing. This will make her realise that you won’t put up with being messed around and hopefully get her act together in future.

Not at all unreasonable. It sounds like she's incredibly flaky and you would be required to chase her before each session so not a complete loss if she doesn't pay and you no longer tutor her child.

Yanbu, do you request payment at least a working day in advance? The problem is at such short notice you are unlikely to fill the space so the bigger loss is yours. Maybe you need to request payment for a whole block in advance of the first session.

No, messers like this can mess up lots of things for you regarding proffits etc

I usually ask for half a term's fees altogether up front before starting the first session.

You are not being unreasonable at all.

But surely the discounted price only applies when your clients PAY for multiple sessions up front, not just because they have agreed to book them?

This parent may decide not to book any more as you are now being strict about payment, so you may end up putting this down to experience, but going forward don't discount unless they are parting with money and it's in your bank account

I have asked for four sessions payment in one go - so that's usually a month's worth. She did tell me via phone before we began that she had no issues paying up front.
I do require that this block of payment is made at least 24hours before that first session

The only thing you’ve done wrong is not demanding payment before now.

FFS, She was out? She can’t make a quick payment from her phone? Its 2026!!!

She’s an absolute piss taker. I’d fill the slot with someone else who pays on time without multiple reminders!

That's what I was thinking! It takes 2mins to make a payment - esp if it's a previous recipient of payment.
And please don't tell me you've been out since Thursday afternoon lol

I've received a very angry response from her - see below. Just to clarify I was not expecting payment 4 days in advance - I sent her a reminder 4 days in advance so that she would have ample time to make payment before the session.

'I am really disappoint with the behabiour.
Lesson is tomorrow and you will receive money this night in advance of four sesdions.
Don,t you think Thursday was too early.
I trust you to send 4 lessons money in advance.
Once you said I can,t do now I have small child and my husband is not home , can ee change the time I understand and said yes but you don,t understand my issues.
May be some one else has done wrong but it is not me.
Please don't make this eith me as I am already struggling with some other issues.
You have to till me in advance that you need 4 days before next 4 lessons payment.'

I think I could do without the hassle of this woman now.

Walk away from it. People like this aren't worth the money you earn from them as you're so stressed over it. DH and I run our own business and our "pain in the arse" radars for clients are rarely wrong.

Tell her not to pay you for the block and to find someone else. What a stupid message she sent. I can hardly make head or tail of it.

That message is barely intelligible. I would probably decide I was no longer prepared to deal with them. Your terms and conditions were clear - if she has 'issues' or didn't understand them then that's her problem.

So she was paying you for another block of x4 sessions to get a discount but you needed full payment before you agreed to do session 1 of 4 @MoneyMakingTipsWelcome ?

Has she actually paid now?

If you have someone who can fill the slot/s I'd cut this one loose.

Out of interest I assume that message was a c+p, is English not their first language? Any chance something has been lost in translation? (IE she hasn't realised / read the T&C that payment needs to be made at least 24 hours in advance of 1st session?)

She sounds batshit and this situation is not going to improve. I would just send a short reply that the current arrangement isn’t working

Her point was that I requested payment in advance and her view is that if she makes payment by midnight the day before a session than that is advance enough.
Her other rant is that during the Easter holidays -when nurseries are closed - I had to ask if we could hold the session at 5pm instead of 3pm as I wanted my partner to clock off work to watch over toddler whilst I ran the session. She believes she was understanding over this and therefore I should be understanding of her not having paid already...and ignored my reminder.

To be fair I could have been clearer in regards to payment needing to be 24hours in advance and not just stating advance - I had mistakenly thought I'd put that in writing - but I'd sent her two reminders about payment and she had ignored both messages.
Also I initially just said I'd have to postpone the session - not cancel - just because I hadn't prepared for the session as I hadn't heard from her but that is what resulted in the crazy message. A simple, "sorry, I had seen your messages and just hadn't got round to sending payment, understand we may need to do session another day this week, that's fine" would have been enough to resolve the issue but to throw all sorts of other stuff at me, frankly im not sure it's worth the money.
I can make almost double the 4 sessions payment in one day of supply work...well before tax and deductions anyway.

Who pays at midnight? Surely you have the money 24 hours before the lesson or you don't. You don't have the time to check at midnight!

I use booking software so all payments are up front. I don’t show up without having received payment. Been stung too many times by late payers etc and by being too ‘kind’ and ‘understanding’.

Cut her loose - do not be tempted to give her a second chance - she will be hassle. You will pick up another tutee (sp?!). GCSE’s, SAT’s, A levels etc are all coming up. I’d just say ‘thanks for your message. I don’t think we’re a good fit for each other. It takes me time to plan for each session and I cannot afford to wait until the evening before for payment. My t&c’s are quite clear’. And then block,

It sounds like this parent doesn't have English as their first language, as that message did not read well at all!

Personally, I do accept payment the day before the first session. But I would not expect that to be at midnight!

The parent does sound unreliable though, so perhaps find a different student?

Life's too short to deal with dickheads.

Unless you are desperately in need of the money, dump her.

The big perk of being self-employed is that you only have to work with nice people.