Kids Netball club - pay annually or termly?

michaels · 22 January 2018 at 2:46PM

My daughter tried out for the local netball club, she was offered a place and told we needed to pay £120 for the next two terms plus £15 registration and that we should note that the training time might change during the summer term.

I sent a payment for £75 (£15 plus £60 for the first term) and an email to the treasurer who had sent the message saying that DD1 has many other activities and that we would pay for the second term as long as it was not moved to a time that she could not make.

I got a very snotty reply saying that was not how the club worked and that I had to pay for the whole year.

So I replied that I was happy to pay for the whole year but wanted to check that if they changed the time to one that my daughter could not do (for example she is doing an outside school Latin course one evening that leads to a gcse and has been paid for the whole year) then I would hope to get a refund.

Today I have had a reply saying they will send the money back to me as a cheque and that my daughter is not welcome at the training and should not turn up. Given the whole exchange has been via email my DW was hoping to go with DD1 to the training this evening and talk to the team coach rather than the treasurer who I have been failing to interact with and see what the odds of the training actually changing were and what would happen if it did change to an impossible time.

I am now left wondering is it me? It just seems patently unreasonably to say you have to pay for two terms even if the timing in term 2 is changed to one that is not possible but perhaps that is normal for kids activities. Out kids do loads of other activities and we have not had anything similar before.

kazwookie · 22 January 2018 at 2:49PM

I would be inclinded to tell them to get stuffed, and find another club for your daughter.

pinkshoes · 22 January 2018 at 2:56PM

Are there any other clubs in the area?

Do you have the number of the coach?

Sounds like a rather cliquey club to me, and perhaps worth avoiding...

On the other hand, £10/month is quite cheap for a club!

mrschaucer · 22 January 2018 at 3:02PM

Print out the email exchanges to take with her ...

Malthusian · 22 January 2018 at 3:30PM

You don't just invent a new payment option just for yourself, and then make a bank transfer without asking whether they would accept payment on those terms. To say "We don't want to commit to paying for two terms, can we pay £75 for one term?" is perfectly fine. To just send £75 and say "this is for the first term only" is not.

Even if the club decided to alter its rules and let you pay for only one term, you would have expected to pay more than £75 to reflect the additional risk to the club. If you could pay £75 and £60 later, no-one would pay £135 upfront.

So not only did you send them an unsolicited payment for a service they've chosen not to offer, but even if they did want to offer it you've underpaid them.

Doing a bank transfer was especially irritating - if you'd sent a cheque they could have simply destroyed it, but by making a bank transfer they will feel obliged to obtain your bank details and make a bank transfer themselves.

Move on and let your daughter find a more flexible club. Let your wife handle any future transactions on her behalf.

As per Pinkshoes the club sounds extremely cheap. If the club and its sessions / coaching are any good, £135 would probably have been good value even if your daughter had only been able to attend for one term.

michaels · 22 January 2018 at 3:41PM

Malthusian wrote: »

You don't just invent a new payment option just for yourself, and then make a bank transfer without asking whether they would accept payment on those terms. To say "We don't want to commit to paying for two terms, can we pay £75 for one term?" is perfectly fine. To just send £75 and say "this is for the first term only" is not.

Even if the club decided to alter its rules and let you pay for only one term, you would have expected to pay more than £75 to reflect the additional risk to the club. If you could pay £75 and £60 later, no-one would pay £135 upfront.

So not only did you send them an unsolicited payment for a service they've chosen not to offer, but even if they did want to offer it you've underpaid them.

Doing a bank transfer was especially irritating - if you'd sent a cheque they could have simply destroyed it, but by making a bank transfer they will feel obliged to obtain your bank details and make a bank transfer themselves.

Move on and let your daughter find a more flexible club. Let your wife handle any future transactions on her behalf.

As per Pinkshoes the club sounds extremely cheap. If the club and its sessions / coaching are any good, £135 would probably have been good value even if your daughter had only been able to attend for one term.

I do agree with you in hindsight I should have queried first what would happen if they changed the training to an impossible time for the second term but I was trying to move things along to show that we were keen for DD to join rather than come back with objections.

Hence my next response that we were happy to pay for the whole year but wanted to check that there would be a refund if they changed the training time to one that was impossible. (If we booked a holiday in the school hols and the travel company came back and said they had moved the dates to the term time and that there was no refund option we would be able to complain to trading standards on unfair terms grounds).

My DD2 attends another local netball club and pays £40 per term so £60 is not noticeably cheap.

The only payment option is online via bank transfer.

gettingtheresometime · 22 January 2018 at 4:01PM

Malthusian wrote: »

You don't just invent a new payment option just for yourself, and then make a bank transfer without asking whether they would accept payment on those terms. To say "We don't want to commit to paying for two terms, can we pay £75 for one term?" is perfectly fine. To just send £75 and say "this is for the first term only" is not.

Even if the club decided to alter its rules and let you pay for only one term, you would have expected to pay more than £75 to reflect the additional risk to the club. If you could pay £75 and £60 later, no-one would pay £135 upfront.

So not only did you send them an unsolicited payment for a service they've chosen not to offer, but even if they did want to offer it you've underpaid them.

Doing a bank transfer was especially irritating - if you'd sent a cheque they could have simply destroyed it, but by making a bank transfer they will feel obliged to obtain your bank details and make a bank transfer themselves.

Move on and let your daughter find a more flexible club. Let your wife handle any future transactions on her behalf.

As per Pinkshoes the club sounds extremely cheap. If the club and its sessions / coaching are any good, £135 would probably have been good value even if your daughter had only been able to attend for one term.

I'd agree.

I also suspect it makes life a lot easier if everyone pays for the same period than if some pay for one term (in this case) whilst others pay for two.

clairec79 · 22 January 2018 at 4:32PM

TBH times may change in the summer term I would have been taking as moving by up to an hour but same day (especially if they play outside with the lighter evenings)

michaels · 22 January 2018 at 4:44PM

clairec79 wrote: »

TBH times may change in the summer term I would have been taking as moving by up to an hour but same day (especially if they play outside with the lighter evenings)

The website says:

Training Day & Time: Monday @ 6.00 - 7.30pm
Training Dates: 4/09/2017-4/12/2017 not 23/10 then 08/01/2018-19/03/2018 not 12/02/2018 summer tbc in March 2018

Which does not give anything to go on nor explain what would happen if the time changed to one that my DD could not make. I have still not received an answer to this question in my email, the response I got when I asked was that they had other girls who wanted to join who 'did want to play in the summer too'.

Sure I got it wrong by just sending payment for the first term rather than asking first but since then to treat me (and my daughter) as dirt seems a little extreme (to me).

Red-Squirrel_2 · 22 January 2018 at 4:48PM

michaels wrote: »

The website says:

Which does not give anything to go on nor explain what would happen if the time changed to one that my DD could not make. I have still not received an answer to this question in my email, the response I got when I asked was that they had other girls who wanted to join who 'did want to play in the summer too'.

Sure I got it wrong by just sending payment for the first term rather than asking first but since then to treat me (and my daughter) as dirt seems a little extreme (to me).

I don't think they are treating you like dirt, but they clearly require a commitment for both terms, and you are unable/unwilling to make that commitment so the place will go to somebody who is.

That's fair enough really, its a shame for your daughter though, I bet she'd rather do netball than Latin!

michaels · 22 January 2018 at 5:05PM

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

I don't think they are treating you like dirt, but they clearly require a commitment for both terms, and you are unable/unwilling to make that commitment so the place will go to somebody who is.

That's fair enough really, its a shame for your daughter though, I bet she'd rather do netball than Latin!

But the second term commitment is open ended, there is not even any certainty that it will be a week day or even outside of school hours....

Seems a little unfair on my daughter to say that she does not want to play in the summer just because I have queried what would happen if the training is changed to a time that she can not make.

Kids Netball club - pay annually or termly?

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