please any help with 5day driving course

a7x4369

hello!

sorry this is going to be long but really need to explain completely so i can hopefully get the best answers and also if im in the wrong place please can it be moved to the correct place, thanks



i booked myself to do a 5day driving course and payed all fees apart from practical test fee my first day was monday 23rd september.

i have a 3 year old daughter and she woke up not very well on monday morning, i attended and completed the first day of the course.

later on in the evening my little girl ended up falling asleep on me on the sofa so i carried her up to bed and when i put her down she woke up and immediately got very upset and appeared to be really struggling to breathe!

i rushed back down stairs with her and my partner rushed us to the hospital she was seen straight away by both nurse and doctor, we were then sent home with some medication for her.

she went to bed but was up every half hour through the night so none of us had gotten any sleep.

tuesday morning we got up ready for me to go for my second day on the driving course and upon arriving at the course she got extremely upset as she knew i would be leaving her, to which she started struggling really bad again with her breathing.

i took her inside the course centre with me so i could speak to the tutor to see if i could possibly postpone the course, he told me he doubted it he would have to phone head office but i could take her home and he would phone me when he had spoken to head office.

he phoned me later on that afternoon and told me they wouldn't allow me to postpone it but i could come in the next day and finish the course with them helping me to make up the hours lost the following week.

i was happy that i could still go back and finish the course after missing a day so felt relieved about the situation that i wasn't going to miss out.

later last night..

she started struggling again, but worse than the first day and she was going blue, so again we immediately got her to a&e where she once again had multiple tests and we were then told she would have to spend the night for observation, given more medication and she had tests done all through the night so once again we were up all night.

we wer finally discharged at 10am this morning..i needed to be at the course for 8.45 am..

i have no contact information for the centre im at only a number for the head office.

now i have missed 2 days and there is no way i can leave her while she is still unwell, but i cannot afford to lose the £826 i have already payed

i have the discharge notes from the hospital to show we had spent the night.

what are my chances of getting my money back? i dont expect it all back but a good chunk of it as i have only been able to attend one day.

i know this is not the companies fault but i also dont consider it mine. i didnt plan for this to happen on the one week i book to be away from her, just my luck!

any help/advice would be brilliant also whether i have any rights as i havnt received what i have payed for?

tinkerbell28

Well you haven't received what you paid for because you aren't turning up. For whatever reason. Not for failure to provide what was agreed. If there is a breach of contract here, it's from your side.

They even tried to help you out with rescheduling and squeezing hours elsewhere.

So by just not showing up, and it being so short notice, they can't fill those spots, so they will have significant provable losses.

The driving instructors will be losing money hand over fist, if they were to refund you.

I don't fancy your chances of getting a lot back tbh.

bargainbetty

You can apply to them for a partial refund or a rescheduled course with details of your daughter's illness. They may offer something, but without seeing the terms of the booking agreement, I suspect that they do not have to. Most courses have a cancellation period and a point where things become non-refundable because, as Tinkerbell notes, they can't resell the space.

You are within your rights to ask, but bear in mind they may well be within their rights to refuse. It isn't their fault that you didn't turn up.

a7x4369

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

Well you haven't received what you paid for because you aren't turning up. For whatever reason. Not for failure to provide what was agreed. If there is a breach of contract here, it's from your side.

They even tried to help you out with rescheduling and squeezing hours elsewhere.

So by just not showing up, and it being so short notice, they can't fill those spots, so they will have significant provable losses.

The driving instructors will be losing money hand over fist, if they were to refund you.

I don't fancy your chances of getting a lot back tbh.

they wouldnt reschedule all they offered was for me to make 4 hours up i should be there from 9-5 each day..and its not a case of just not turning up i went on tuesday morning but couldnt stay because of how poorly she was and today i havnt even had the chance of getting there on time as i spent the night in hospital with her if i had a contact number i would have phoned to inform them i couldnt come today for such reasons i am the only person that has parental responsibilities for my daughter my partner is not her father i was the only one that could stay with her and as iv said..i didnt plan on this happening i wouldnt have paid out £826 if i knew i wouldnt be able to make it

ThumbRemote

a7x4369 wrote: »

they wouldnt reschedule all they offered was for me to make 4 hours up i should be there from 9-5 each day..and its not a case of just not turning up i went on tuesday morning but couldnt stay because of how poorly she was and today i havnt even had the chance of getting there on time as i spent the night in hospital with her if i had a contact number i would have phoned to inform them i couldnt come today for such reasons i am the only person that has parental responsibilities for my daughter my partner is not her father i was the only one that could stay with her and as iv said..i didnt plan on this happening i wouldnt have paid out £826 if i knew i wouldnt be able to make it

While the illness obviously isn't your fault, it's not the driving centre's either. They have done nothing wrong, and so legally they don't have to lose the money you've already given them. After all, they still have the instructors wages to pay, and all the other costs.

Really you only have two choices for the rest of the week: find someone to look after your daughter and take the two remaining days, or lose the money. That might seem harsh, but it's the facts.

tinkerbell28

a7x4369 wrote: »

they wouldnt reschedule all they offered was for me to make 4 hours up i should be there from 9-5 each day..and its not a case of just not turning up i went on tuesday morning but couldnt stay because of how poorly she was and today i havnt even had the chance of getting there on time as i spent the night in hospital with her if i had a contact number i would have phoned to inform them i couldnt come today for such reasons i am the only person that has parental responsibilities for my daughter my partner is not her father i was the only one that could stay with her and as iv said..i didnt plan on this happening i wouldnt have paid out £826 if i knew i wouldnt be able to make it

I know you did not plan it. But either way you look at it, you haven't turned up. They aren't the ones failing to provide to the agreed booking. It's you not showing up, whatever the reason.

So they agreed to squeeze in the hours from Tuesday you missed. Which was understanding of them, as the driving instructor would be idle all Tuesday afternoon. As they wouldn't get a booking at that short notice. Which means they would have lost hours, due to having to make up the paid ones some other time as well.

Today you just haven't shown up. No contact. Exceptional reasons or not, that is the reality. So a whole day idle, which they can't just "fill".

So presuming you want to do the same for Thursday and Friday, unless they can mitigate some of their losses and fill the spaces, I don't see how you'll be getting any of your money back.

I would negotiate nicely for rescheduling, not completely ignore them by not phoning.