Wraparound school curriculum late fee charge

[TheUmpire]

I posted the below as an answer to someone else's question (regards the actual cost of after school care), but am now I'm wondering what people think about the additional charge for a late payment?

It's £6 for an early morning start at my kid's school, but what ticks me is the £9 extra charge if you pay after a certain time. I was verbally told by the office that as long as I booked seven days in advance I would not have to pay the additional charge, so yesterday paid online £6 at 11am for a morning that starts eleven days later. I was then informed I'd have to pay the additional £9 (fine) because I booked this after 10.30, and the rules are that the week holiday coming up meant I'm affectively paying with less than a week to go and 10.30am was the cut off (when I read the small print it does give the cut off date). Grrr. To claw back my cash I've decided to make zero contributions for the total of £9 when they start asking my kid to bring in gifts for this and that.

Well, no. You said it is clear in the terms and conditions that you missed the cut off date so had to pay the extra charge, office staff won’t be in work the holiday week which is why the cut off date is earlier. Of course you CAN not contribute ( depends what for) but it seems a bit petty when the fault isn’t the schools but yours.

Think I didn't make myself clear - I'm talking about the actual amount of charge. It's just £6 for the session but £9 for a bit of admin!

And it's not petty when you are very poor, by the way.

I think that is quite punitive. I can book in same day for both of my children’s school (in two different ones). For one, cancellation is 48 hours notice but you can transfer bookings morning of, for the other it’s a strict 24 hours notice or you get charged. A week’s notice to book in is quite inflexible and if you missed it by a few minutes they’re being a bit unreasonable in my mind.

That's a lot! Ours charge £1 extra for short notice bookings and I have no issue with that. I would have an issue with £9!!

Thank you. Can you tell me which school that is, or at least which region it is in?