Nursery deposit dilema

[cp2009]

DS1 leaves nursery in August and we recently contacted them to confirm his departure date and enquire when we would receive our deposit back.

We have since received an email saying that despite us paying a large deposit and registration fee for DS2 when he started nursery last year, they have made an error and mistakenly gave us a credit 8 months ago and that our account is now in arrears.

We did receive a credit, but assumed that this was correct as I'd continued to pay childcare vouchers while I was on mat leave with DS2 and DS1 was doing reduced hours at nursery.

Rather than giving us back the deposit for DS1 they are now suggesting that they should will keep this to use as a deposit for DS2 and are asking us to pay an additional registration fee.

I don't think we should have to pay. The accounting error was made on their part 8 months ago. We have not knowingly taken a credit we weren't due.

What do we do now?

I would query why you need to pay an additional fee for DS2 if you have already paid one. I'm a bit confused about the post, if your account is in arrears are they asking you to make up the difference?

I'm assuming that you have gone through all the hours / payments etc and agree that it was incorrect, I think you should pay up. If they are asking you to pay arrears I think you should do, you owe the money. I kept a track of all my payments to make sure that I wasn't in arrears, but I'm a bit of geek and do this with all bills.

If you need to pay a deposit for DS2, why shouldn't they use any cash left from DS1 deposit, seems sensible.

I would ask for a full statement of your account, and cross reference it to your childcare voucher payments.

I do agree that it seems sensible for one deposit to be carried forward for your DS2's registration.

Sorry for not being very clear - I'm confused myself!

I don't agree with them. They have never mentioned our account was in arrears until we asked about a deposit being returned. I truely haven't accepted a credit that I knew I wasn't due. We are pretty dilligent with paying our dues and even picked them up on an invoice where they undercharged us in May to ensure we paid the correct amount.

They have never given us sight of any statement until this point. We have paid every deposit and monthly bill that we have been charged for and at times were overpaying due to childcare vouchers.

They are only now saying they undercharged us in error 8 months ago.
I don't agree that we were undercharged and I also am not sure whether we should have to foot the bill for their error (if any really exists).

Go though the statement line by line, check it to your voucher statements and other payments and see if you have underpaid, agree that with the nursery.

If you have underpaid, I think you should pay up, even though it was an error on their part you have received the care for your children.