Ok, so this is a long story so I plan to try and break it down and nutshell it.
My issue is not with my sons nursery it’s with their parent company - who are a large business with multiple nurseries nationally.
My son started in April on this year and I signed up to pay via direct debit.
May rolls around - no payment taken via direct debit. I alert the nursery. And I am told someone from the head office finance team will get in touch. I make payment via card online and hear nothing.
June rolls around - again No direct debit taken, I alert the nursery and explain no one has been in touch and I pay online via card and hear nothing.
August - end of I might add - I get a call from the nursery saying all my direct debits have been cancelled and they’ve received no card payments.
After a little / lot of digging, I am told that they have not “collected” the card payments and they are pending. They then cancel them and ask me to pay via BACS.
I go to the branch, and pay via BACS, only to receive a letter some 7 days later stating that their bank refused to accept the payment.
We are now at last Monday 02/09. I work in an extremely strict environment 12 hour shifts 4 days on 4 days off and receive an email from the head office asking that I pay September fees in cash directly to the nursery. This was done on Thursday. I let head office know and asked them how they wanted me to pay the rest of the balance.
Friday at 4.40pm I received an email from head office stating that they wouldn’t allow my son to return to nursery unless the full amount was paid. This left me with 20ish minutes in the standard working week to get this resolved.
I’ve paid online via card today and got receipts via email (more than I got last time) so this should mean my son is allowed to return to nursery.
Am I right to be annoyed at the lack of competence in head office that lead to this? I must have called and emailed 15-20 times telling them I wanted to pay?! I’ve not once refused to pay and this “removing my son from childcare” had never ever been mentioned despite my constant chasing of them!
I’m a first time mum so brutal honesty if I’m being over the top here, please?!