My client is expecting a free appointment to replace the original one as they arrived 16min late and received an abbreviated service

[BobsinWatkins2022]

I have a client who attended for their appointment 16min late.
I did still see them and explained that I could do what I can in the time remaining. Their other option would have been to reschedule. The client still wanted to be seen and agreed to abbreviated service. I still charged the full fee, which they paid.
Few days later the client called up the reception and complained about receiving a shorter appointment and thus not benefiting from the full service. They went on to demand another appointment free of charge to replace the original one, which was shortened.
I obviously feel this is very inappropriate and do not feel that I now owe them a whole other appointment free of charge, but want to know what others think?

Nope. They were given the option of rescheduling. How good a client is it?

They are nutty

They were late - not even a late cancellation that you could potentially have filled

Absolutely not. They arrived late, had they arrived on time they would have had the benefit of a full appointment.

If you want to keep them I suppose you could offer them half an appointment for free?

But really I think they are being unreasonable to ask for anything.

What are your T&Cs? I assume it's a bit like my psychiatrist where, if I'm late, that's too bad and I lose that part of the session. If he's late, he makes the time up to me.

Oh good one. If they'd have been going for a train they'd have missed it! The cheek of some people

I’d say no and find other clients tbh

No. If you're late, you have to have a shorter appointment at full cost.

You offered to reschedule and they declined.

That is entirely dependent on how good a client they are and how much of a return you will make or lose on not have them. It is a business. That is what the decision needs to be based on.

They were late and you gave them the choice. They can't choose one service then change their mind once they've received it.

That's ridiculous, just drop them an email, reminding them that that was their session, and they were late so naturally it was curtailed.

Write them an abbreviated response to tell them to fu of

Dear client. The time slot you paid for was 1-2pm. I was available to you for entirety of this time slot and charged accordingly... if you couldn't be arsed to turn up for the start that's your problem not mine....

Nope, nope and nope again. Veering into CF territory. You gave them the options, they chose their preferred one. And of course, they were late!

You owe them nothing.

The lateness was their fault, not yours.

Do you have an agreement that your clients sign when onboarding to the effect that shortened or missed appointments will be charged the full amount unless the client has informed you at least 24 hours in advance? If you don't, you should have.

Not a hope! On your bike Missus!

No. You were generous offering to reschedule tbh.

Absolutely not. You give cheeky fuckers like this an inch, they take a mile.

Well I guess it depends on how much keeping them as a client matters?

If it's consultancy work or selling a service and you could get a big contract and regular income from I'd offer a 15 minute zoom or something to finish selling my product.

If it's a service which they pay for by the hour and there's no regular income to be gained from meeting them in the middle then no!

I'm guessing it's the second though because I doubt anyone running their own business would be so rigid and risk losing a big client!

Hahaha. So THEY were late and they expect a 3/4 session AND another whole session for free. So they expect to GAIN out of them being late. That's hilarious 😂

It really depends on what it is and how flexible you expect clients to be.
I used to regularly wait 20 minutes over the start of my appointment to get my nails done.
I was 15 minutes late once (traffic, I kept going to her even though I'd moved an hour away) and she was really rude to me about it. That was the last time I went to her. She lost a regular customer in a fairly unpopular time slot.
Is she worth keeping on side?