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Lesson Payments (All Teachers)
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Mark’s right. Don’t book her in until payment is received! Although to be honest, don’t book her in regardless…! She sounds like a waste of time and will always have an excuse at the ready.
Dealing with something similar myself at the moment and not sure what to do (how many more chances can I give?!) she had a couple of false starts/cancellations (not late ones though) due to life’s mishaps, then she started asking for backing tracks without upfront payment (I only send further backing track resources once a month’s payment has been made) then she kept arriving with cash just for that lesson, or just cancelling in good time meaning that the slot was just left vacant if I didn’t get someone else in. I had a chat to her about it and how I need someone to be able to commit due to the nature of my business, etc etc, and she said she understood and was sorry for being so inconvenient, then made a promise to get stuck in as of last week. Sure enough, she paid for 4 lessons upfront and then turned up last week. But before starting, she said she wasn’t going to come to the next 3 lessons due to wanting to finish her dissertation first. I awkwardly accepted.. but said I couldn’t guarantee her the same slot as I need to fill it with someone regular.. but that I would do my best as she has now paid upfront. And the most hilarious part of this is that, after saying she understood why it’s inconvenient, kept saying “oh but I will practice, I’ll do all my warm ups and keep going over these songs daily” and I’m thinking… that’s really not the point?! It’s difficult as she is a nice person, so I’m not really sure what to do. I think if she cancels again I’ll just say she’s not ready to commit. It’s so annoying when they don’t actually owe but then they don’t stick to their arrangement.
Meanwhile, I have Dave who is on his last chance (!), for doing something very similar to the above. And he’s always full of long stories, long excuses, long explanations… and I’m there trying to get him off the phone because I don’t have the time to hear it… just get on with it, or don’t! He is also lovely and we get on so well… and the worst part is, he is self-employed too!!! I have even ironically been giving him advice about how to manage his business and have set hours, make sure people don’t take advantage… funny that!
It’s all very well dishing out the advice, but it seems I’m now being too soft..
Oh and Kat’s right about payment. I wouldn’t want to book someone in until this was sorted anyway – far too awkward having the money problem in the way of going forward!! But then would I want to book them anyway?
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I’ve just called her and it’s gone to answerphone (I had a feeling that would happen!) so I’ve left a message. She was paying a week in advance – I’ve taken off the advance lesson fee so that she only owes 2 lessons worth. Reason being she owes money is because she forgot to bring cash the last time I saw her, and then the last lesson was cancelled on the same day.
I’m seriously considering going to a pay monthly scheme as too many people have done this to me – I can still take cash in lessons but making it more worthwhile for students to pay by the month. I need to be stricter with my policy though!
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