Cancellation policy complaint

[JemimaFox]

Hi everyone,

Just had a £56 booking cancel with 1hr30mins notice.
She said she wasn't feeling well and could therefore not make it.
It was booked and pre paid by her husband, she's a new client.
We send text reminders which says that the cancellation policy is 24hrs and on our website under our terms and conditions it states that a 50% fee would be charged if we don't have 24hrs notice.

To be honest we very rarely charge as we are unable to as don't take deposits. And I always feel so bad !

Anyway, her husband just phoned to ask for a refund as I had taken the 50% from his pre paid credit.
When I explained that 1hr30mins is not enough notice and explained our policy he started shouting.
He said that he will be taking me to court and that he'll win easily.
He said she received her text at 12 yesterday and her appointment today was at 10:30 so he wasn't given a 24hr window to contact us.
I explained that the texts are sent as a good will reminder and they shouldn't be relied on. I said that should we have been told yesterday at any time then we wouldn't have charged her.
He basically just said he'd see me in court.

I'm so sick of this job sometimes! Threats from clients and just generally being rude.
I have just managed to fill part of the space so unsure if to give them back the money now or stand my ground?

I did send the texts a bit later than usual yesterday and kicked myself, so weird that then a problem arised because of it!

What do you guys think?

 

[BannerPenguin]

It happens in every industry to be honest with ya. He won't go to court as it will cost him £25 minimum any way plus the time and hassle. Just getting arsey. You really need an automated system to send 2/3 day prior to an appointment as that gives adequate cancellation time for them and you. I'm sure you'd want them to cancel 2 or 3 days before if they know they can't make it rather than being reminded 24hrs before and then cancelling

In this case though, I'd stand your ground based on the husbands behaviour.

 

[JemimaFox]

It happens in every industry to be honest with ya. He won't go to court as it will cost him £25 minimum any way plus the time and hassle. Just getting arsey. You really need an automated system to send 2/3 day prior to an appointment as that gives adequate cancellation time for them and you. I'm sure you'd want them to cancel 2 or 3 days before if they know they can't make it rather than being reminded 24hrs before and then cancelling

In this case though, I'd stand your ground based on the husbands behaviour.

Thank you for your response.

We actually do send them 2 days before except for the Tuesday texts as that would need to be done on a Sunday. The automated ones don't work for us as we need to shorten the messages manually.

When I came in on Monday morning and sent what I thought were the Tuesday texts at 8am I just went into auto pilot and sent Wednesdays. Didn't realise the Tuesday ones hadn't been sent until around midday and sent them then.
So typical that he brought this up the one time I made a mistake!

 

[JemmaBeauty]

Oh no poor you, that's so horrible! I think many people don't realise the impact of no shows and last minute cancellations, no matter what the reason for them not turning up.

I've only ever had one person argue a deposit (which funnily enough was also someones husband!) ....we compromised and I gave him half the deposit back
Like you I find it very awkward, but I was honest and explained that it wasn't something I enjoyed doing, but was absolutely necessary for my business to keep running.

I have my cancellation policy very clear at the top of my bookings page on my website. I also have a line that says "if you don't agree with all terms and conditions please do not make a booking". They then receive an automatic email with their booking details on and in bold block capitals it states the cancellation policy. Like you they also receive an email AND text reminder 48 hours before appointment which again states the policy. It may seem like overkill but it means that they can't really argue it.

Hope you don't hear from the guy again!

 

[rachelizabeth]

Remember you have to describe it as a 'booking fee' not a 'deposit' because even if he did bother to take you to court he could possibly get the money back since a deposit is a down payment on a service that hasn't yet been carried out, and if it never gets carried out then it's refundable. However with a 'booking fee' you are charging for the action of booking the appointment, so they have paid for a completed service (which is booking in an appointment) and therefore can't be refunded.

Doubt he will bother over £25 anyway, he just sounds wound up! Some clients will just never respect the fact that you need to earn a living

 

[KrisKross]

He said she received her text at 12 yesterday and her appointment today was at 10:30 so he wasn't given a 24hr window to contact us.

What do you guys think?

Regardless of when you sent the reminder text, they STILL only gave you 1hr 30mins notice.

Ignore him, he's bluffing.

 

[AcidPerm]

Remember you have to describe it as a 'booking fee' not a 'deposit' because even if he did bother to take you to court he could possibly get the money back since a deposit is a down payment on a service that hasn't yet been carried out, and if it never gets carried out then it's refundable.

That's not quite correct.
When he paid the deposit he entered into a contract with you to attend for a treatment at a specific time/date and to agree to pay the balance after the treatment had been carried out.
Assuming you notified him of your 24hr cancellation policy prior to accepting the booking, then they have not complied with your terms of business (less than 24 hrs notice) and you can keep the deposit.

It's irrelevant whether you sent a reminder text as you're not obliged to do so and therefore, the delay in sending out the reminder text is a red herring, in this case.

 

[rachelizabeth]

That's not quite correct.
When he paid the deposit he entered into a contract with you to attend for a treatment at a specific time/date and to agree to pay the balance after the treatment had been carried out.
Assuming you notified him of your 24hr cancellation policy prior to accepting the booking, then they have not complied with your terms of business (less than 24 hrs notice) and you can keep the deposit.

It's irrelevant whether you sent a reminder text as you're not obliged to do so and therefore, the delay in sending out the reminder text is a red herring, in this case.

I thought it was a bit of a grey area though and can be argued... does consumer law and cooling off period apply to deposits? I know I was told that with deposits it always has to be 'fair' whatever that means, so you may not be able to take 50% of a treatment cost, just a small percentage or enough to cover your losses?

 

[daydreams01]

If you fully made him aware of your terms and conditions when he made the booking then let him try and take you to court. My guess is he won't bother and if he did, he prob won't win as you were just abiding by your policy which is clearly advertised. If it is a regular that you value as a client, i would be inclined to honour the appt another time rather than lose the client as anytime I have tried to enforced a charge for 'those clients' that have done it one too many times, they never come back. However if it's one you can do without then stick to your guns!

 

[Cathi44]

If the cancellation was based on her 'not feeling well' then the appointment reminder and 24hour cancellation policy are irrelevant. Stick to your guns. He's a bully. And probably just p***ed off that he'd prepaid a nice treat for his wife and she's blown it.... he's taking it out on you. I get sick of these types and timewasters who are disrespectful of your own time, money and business.

 

[Nemo]

We enforce our cancellation policy 99.9% of the time and if we lose a client because of it then so be it. The only time I don't enforce it is if I can cover the appointment with someone else. I have been very strict since day one.

 

[redlottie13]

We enforce our cancellation policy 99.9% of the time and if we lose a client because of it then so be it. The only time I don't enforce it is if I can cover the appointment with someone else. I have been very strict since day one.

I know this is an old post but if you don't mind I'm bumping it.

Myself and team have had nothing but grief over deposits anyone would think I've just asked them to do something inappropriate!!

Can I ask what you would do if something beyond their control happened? Such as a death or accident?

Feeling sick or forgot, I implement it always! Yep I lose clients too, the way I see it though is if they cancel last minute. I don't want them! X

 

[Freelancetrainer]

It’s a tricky one. If I had a client who has not shown up in the past or given reasonable notice of cancellation, I’d be inclined to want to follow through with the charge. However, if it was a first time, I’d try to reschedule them and point out that ordinarily they would have lost their deposit or been charged a fee but that since it’s a first time, you are willing to waive and this and politely point out that a 2nd occurrence sadly will enforce a charge. That way you’re being seen as reasonable and understanding. Especially in the case of illness. After all if a person is genuinely unwell and had been looking forward to their appointment, i imagine that would be upsetting enough for them without them being charged for something that’s out of their control. 24hr notice won’t necessarily be possible if a person has woken up ill. Plus, we are all human and all forget and make mistakes. There will be a time when we make a mistake and will require our clients to be reasonable and understanding. Such as double booking or wrong date or running late etc. Business is about relationships. Building positive relationships. If a client has a poor relationship with you then neither they or you will want to continue that relationship anyway. So I’d rather try maintain a positive two way relationship. If she was genuinely ill (and you’ve no way of knowing that) and it was a treat from her husband, I can imagine they would both have already been feeling pretty lousy and upset about it already and I’m guessing that’s why he got fiery. They’d be looking for some understanding. Unfortunately, he or she will probably never return now and will possibly bad mouth your business to god knows how many people. I’m just not sure that by enforcing such a strict policy in that way, does a lot of good for the business. That all said, the policy exists and you’re not wrong to enforce it.

 

[TheDuchess]

One of my clients has a big (35 staff) physiotherapy business across 3 sites and she told me that the first month they introduced a "no exceptions" charge for no shows and last minute cancellations they took £2k. After that, there was no going back. She said that they took the time to explain carefully to staff and clients and it had gone very smoothly.

After that, I started to make a note of how many on the day reschedules I was getting, as well as no shows and last minute cancellations. Then I did the maths. I was horrified. I explained to my clients during their treatment that I was losing money to no shows and would be introducing a deposit system. Everyone was really supportive, including my last minute no shows offenders!

Now we try and take a 50% deposit against appointments of more than £30. We require 24 hours notice unless we are able to resell the appointment time. When we book a client same day, we always say "what luck, we've had a cancellation" and then thank our client for enabling us to return a retained deposit. This reinforces the message to our clients.

You're better off without clients who treat you disrespectfully.

 

[redlottie13]

One of my clients has a big (35 staff) physiotherapy business across 3 sites and she told me that the first month they introduced a "no exceptions" charge for no shows and last minute cancellations they took £2k. After that, there was no going back. She said that they took the time to explain carefully to staff and clients and it had gone very smoothly.

After that, I started to make a note of how many on the day reschedules I was getting, as well as no shows and last minute cancellations. Then I did the maths. I was horrified. I explained to my clients during their treatment that I was losing money to no shows and would be introducing a deposit system. Everyone was really supportive, including my last minute no shows offenders!

Now we try and take a 50% deposit against appointments of more than £30. We require 24 hours notice unless we are able to resell the appointment time. When we book a client same day, we always say "what luck, we've had a cancellation" and then thank our client for enabling us to return a retained deposit. This reinforces the message to our clients.

You're better off without clients who treat you disrespectfully.

We introduced it for Jan, no one is very happy! I'm worried but your example has given me faith!

Thank you x

 

[RD Beauty]

I take a 50%booking fee on all my appointments now it’s none refundable. Works brilliantly at the moment

 

[Mstango]

I usually take a £10 non refundable booking fee and then the rest of the balance on the day and add another £10 on if they rebook again.