WWYD - Update

spring_time

I have posted before about having trouble with some of the students I tutor.  A few of my students are excellent, communicate with me regularly, and keep all their appointments.  There are a few other students who constantly cancel on me.

There is one particular girl whose mom hired me around Christmas time.  She was supposed to meet with me weekly.  The girl was very involved in a soccer team, so often called the day before to either reschedule or cancel.  I told the mom that I needed more dedication as I counted on her daughter to meet with me for both scheduling and income.  The mom told me that soccer would be ending soon, and they would have a more regular schedule.  

Soccer ended and that regular schedule last about two weeks until the daughter joined the track team.  Same thing started happening with cancellations.  She would always put me off and say she would contact me on Sunday about the next week.  On Mondays, I would need to contact them, we would set up a day and time, and they would cancel.  I stopped contacting them, and they stopped contacting me.  That was two months ago.

It is finals and students are coming out of the woodwork.  Sure enough, the mom calls me and asks me to tutor this week and next.  I was supposed to meet with her daughter today at 3.  I just checked my email (3:15) and there is a message that the daughter will not be coming today.  She will see me next week.  I worked my day around this girl.  I am furious!

WWYD:

1. Cut off my nose to spite my face, and tell her we are done.  I will not be able to meet with her daughter next week.

2. Send the mom an email explaining that I am disappointed and that I worked my day around her daughter, but I will see them next week.

3. Send the mom an email explaining that I am disappointed and that I worked my day around her daughter. Since this has become a pattern, if she wants me to meet with her daughter next week, she will need me to pay for this week's missed lesson and next week's lesson.

a. Would you require her to pay for the entire missed lesson, or half?

b. Would require advance payment?

Right now, I am tempted to go with #1. My mom says I should go with #3.

ETA: I have learned after this year that I need cancellation policy.  I guess I relied on common courtesy.  I understand 1 or 2 cancellations, but I have had a major issue with students/parents stringing me along this year, even after addressing it with them.  What would you consider a reasonable policy?

UPDATE: I sent her a message saying I was disappointed I was unable to meet her daughter this week.  I told her that I had rearranged my schedule to make sure I was prepared for today's lesson.  I also said, since this has been a chronic problem, I will need next week's payment in advance.  She responded that the cancellation was unavoidable, thanks for helping her daughter the last few months, and she will not need to be tutored next week.  I am itching to respond, "What about all the other cancellations?" but I am going to take the high road. Either she is ashamed (as she should be), or they weren't really committed to next week's lesson anyway.  I am just glad to be done with them, and have learned from my own mistakes this year.

irishgrl317

I'd go with 1, because I bet if you go with 3, they will end up setting up a time and bailing on you again. Then, you end up clearing your schedule twice and never getting paid.

carlab44

I think 24 hour cancellation policy is reasonable. That seems to be standard with most appointments.

If you haven't mentioned a policy before, I'm not sure I would ask her to pay for this week's lesson. But I would do #2, then add in that if they want to keep the appointment next week they need to pay in advance and give 24 hours of cancellation or forfeit their payment.

Spin313

Why is #1 cutting off your nose to spite your face...? If they frequently cancel and don't pay you any kind of fee for it, I don't understand why it would bad to say "you aren't respectful of my time and this isn't working out."

magentawarped

I'd just end it. Their priorities are obviously screwed up, and you're the one getting jerked around. In the future, 24 hour notice policy.

JeffandLeslie

When I tutored it was a 24 hour cancelation policy. If you canceled with less notice you paid the lesson fee. All lessons were paid in advance so it was just losing a lesson basically.

Hollylb3

#1.

spring_time

Spin313 said:

Why is #1 cutting off your nose to spite your face...? If they frequently cancel and don't pay you any kind of fee for it, I don't understand why it would bad to say "you aren't respectful of my time and this isn't working out."

It is because I have the potential to earn a little more money before the summer when I don't have any students.

carlab44, I think you are right. Since I haven't mentioned a cancellation policy before, I don't think I can say they need to pay me for this week.  I am just so angry because it is a pattern with them. 

I think I might require next week's lesson be paid in advance without an option of a refund.  They might be more inclined to actually attend.  With most people, I think 24 hours is reasonable. However, this family has just been so extremely disrespectful of my time, I feel like they have lost that courtesy.  They always have the option of declining and then I am left with option #1.  Which is fine. 

notkateanymore

I would do #3 and say your new cancellation policy has gone into effect and you will be 24hrs notice or they will be charged.

spring_time

A question for those with a 24 hour cancellation policy.  Do you have a limit on those cancellations before you drop a client?  I have another family who usually gave me a 24 hour cancellation, but it was one week on, two weeks off, etc. I never knew from week to week if I would be meeting with them.  Is it reasonable to limit cancellations to a certain number of times a semester? Or should I just roll with it?

In both of these instances, I have addressed the cancellations with the parents and even offered to stop and come back when their schedules stabilized.  They have all assured me that they wanted to continue with the tutoring, but their actions showed otherwise.

carlab44

spring_time said:

Spin313 said:

Why is #1 cutting off your nose to spite your face...? If they frequently cancel and don't pay you any kind of fee for it, I don't understand why it would bad to say "you aren't respectful of my time and this isn't working out."

It is because I have the potential to earn a little more money before the summer when I don't have any students.

carlab44, I think you are right. Since I haven't mentioned a cancellation policy before, I don't think I can say they need to pay me for this week.  I am just so angry because it is a pattern with them. 

I think I might require next week's lesson be paid in advance without an option of a refund.  They might be more inclined to actually attend.  With most people, I think 24 hours is reasonable. However, this family has just been so extremely disrespectful of my time, I feel like they have lost that courtesy.  They always have the option of declining and then I am left with option #1.  Which is fine. 

I think this is more than fair. And I'm sure you will - but I'd be very specific about why you are requiring the non-refundable payment up front. They should know how disrespectful they have been.

Aussie45

I'd go with #3. I would tell her that you changed your policy and now you require payment in advance. If they don't pay in X amount of time, their time slot is not held. If they don't give 24 hours notice, they don't get a refund. This way, you still get money even if they cancel on you. To be honest, you probably should've started this policy months ago. I would do it for any clients that you have a problem with.

ToastieSimons

letranger said:

Cancellation less then three days results in full pay. make them sign a contract. 

but what happens if the kid is legitimately sick?

lets say kid wakes up with the stomach bug or even in the middle of the night.  I wouldn't want him at my house and would happily cancel.

I would be inclined to say 3 days notice and I will try to reschedule.  If you cancel with 24 hours notice no rescheduling.  After 2 missed sessions in a row you will require prepayment to schedule the next session.  If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice then full payment for time is required.

And then you could go case by case.  If it's a family that never misses a session and calls first thing that the kid is sick then i would be hesistant to charge them, but it protects you incase of chronic cancellers.

spring_time

Aussie45 said:

I'd go with #3. I would tell her that you changed your policy and now you require payment in advance. If they don't pay in X amount of time, their time slot is not held. If they don't give 24 hours notice, they don't get a refund. This way, you still get money even if they cancel on you. To be honest, you probably should've started this policy months ago. I would do it for any clients that you have a problem with.

I know. The clients I had a problem with kind of dropped off two months ago, so I haven't needed one in awhile.  However, due to finals, my flakier students (and their parents) are suddenly panicking. I was naive enough to think, since they contacted me out of the blue, and it was only two sessions, that they could manage to keep the appointments.  

That is the beauty of the teaching profession, though. We start with a new slate each year, and you better believe there will be a policy in place with a signed contract in September.  It was my first year tutoring, and a learning experience.

spring_time

ToastieSimons said:

letranger said:

Cancellation less then three days results in full pay. make them sign a contract. 

but what happens if the kid is legitimately sick?

lets say kid wakes up with the stomach bug or even in the middle of the night.  I wouldn't want him at my house and would happily cancel.

I would be inclined to say 3 days notice and I will try to reschedule.  If you cancel with 24 hours notice no rescheduling.  After 2 missed sessions in a row you will require prepayment to schedule the next session.  If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice then full payment for time is required.

And then you could go case by case.  If it's a family that never misses a session and calls first thing that the kid is sick then i would be hesistant to charge them, but it protects you incase of chronic cancellers.

This seems more than fair.

Thank you for all the excellent responses.

Aussie45

spring_time said:

ToastieSimons said:

I would be inclined to say 3 days notice and I will try to reschedule.  If you cancel with 24 hours notice no rescheduling.  After 2 missed sessions in a row you will require prepayment to schedule the next session.  If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice then full payment for time is required.

This seems more than fair.

Thank you for all the excellent responses.

I would go ahead and implement this for this particular student though. This girl has already proven herself to be untrustworthy so I would call the mom and explain that you are implementing this effective immediately and if you don't get the prepayment then she's not scheduled and if they don't cancel 24 hrs prior then there's no refund. She's wasted a lot of your time and that's not fair to you

spring_time

Aussie45 said:

spring_time said:

ToastieSimons said:

I would be inclined to say 3 days notice and I will try to reschedule.  If you cancel with 24 hours notice no rescheduling.  After 2 missed sessions in a row you will require prepayment to schedule the next session.  If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice then full payment for time is required.

This seems more than fair.

Thank you for all the excellent responses.

I would go ahead and implement this for this particular student though. This girl has already proven herself to be untrustworthy so I would call the mom and explain that you are implementing this effective immediately and if you don't get the prepayment then she's not scheduled and if they don't cancel 24 hrs prior then there's no refund. She's wasted a lot of your time and that's not fair to you

Thank you. I ended up telling her that she needs to make a non-refundable payment in advance.  She has lost any chance at a grace period.  She hasn't let me know yet whether or not I will be seeing her daughter next week.

The part that really gets me about all of this, is it is not the students canceling. I would expect this sort of behavior from high school students.  It is their parents who are doing all the canceling on their child's behalf.  I have found that the students who communicate with me directly, rarely cancel.  They have taken control of their education.  It is the students whose moms do all the communication that bail. They are also the ones who seem to be doing worse in school.  It is an interesting correlation.

Aussie45

spring_time said:

The part that really gets me about all of this, is it is not the students canceling. I would expect this sort of behavior from high school students.  It is their parents who are doing all the canceling on their child's behalf.  I have found that the students who communicate with me directly, rarely cancel.  They have taken control of their education.  It is the students whose moms do all the communication that bail. They are also the ones who seem to be doing worse in school.  It is an interesting correlation.

This is what my roommate was like after I moved up except she was in college. FFS your not in mommy's house anymore, grow up and learn how to do shit on your own. It seems like parents who do stuff like that are just setting their kids up to fail. It was hilariously sad to watch because she had her bills paid, her rent paid, her school paid, and then she went abroad. Not that any of those things automatically makes her a self-entitled brat, but her attitude? 8-|