Retrospective Childcare Charge Advice

DaBla27

Hi,

apologies if this is not the right thread and if not please feel free to point me in the right direction. I am really looking for some advice on where I stand and where I could potentially turn to.

In May 2015 my daughter started nursery where we indicated that on the two days she attends, we would like her to have breakfast as part of the service. On our monthly invoices the bill states "Full Day Fee" and to us this includes breakfast provision. Fast forward to yesterday and they have told us that they have not actually been billing us for those breakfasts and are now demanding a £450 fee from us. This to me is a massive oversight on their behalf and feels like we are getting punished for this. I appreciate that my daughter has had the service but clearly no full audit has taken place hence the reason it has taken over 2 years to uncover this.

Another issue is that we agreed with the nursery to cut down 1 of her days to a half day. There was a date given in an email that stated that she would start her half days from early October. I took my daughter in on what I thought was her last full day and questioned the half day scenario which I thought was starting the week after. I was then told that we were actually paid up and her half days started in early November. We questioned this a number of times but continued to put her in for those full days on their advice and were continually told she was paid up until November. So then yesterday they turned to us to say that actually she wasn't paid up for those dates and now demanding another £160 from us.

In both cases I feel we are getting punished for a massive mis management issue on their behalf. We have done everything by the book, paying our invoices and taking their advice and now we are paying for their poor management.

For the record I have asked if we could come to an alternative solution as I am absolutely not happy about paying the whole fee. I have said that I didn't want to pay for the half day mix up and in terms of the breakfasts have offered to split the difference.

They are a private nursing establishment. I am awaiting advice from the Care Inspectorate but thought I would turn to MSE for any advice.

Sorry for the long post but your feedback would be very helpful.

marliepanda

What were the prices quoted to you when you first signed up to the nursery? What does your contract state the price is.

if you saw a price for a full day and then added breakfast, and the price was never added, then thats on you also. Did you never ask them if breakfast was included in the full day fee. It wouldnt usually, as many will have a full day without breakfast so a standard full day fee wouldnt include it.

[Deleted User]

DaBla27 wrote: »

In both cases I feel we are getting punished for a massive mis management issue on their behalf.

You're not being punished, You've been rewarded with an interest free loan.

You would be punished if they added an additional fee, due to their error.

I appreciate it may be annoying, but it's in no way a punishment.

DaBla27

I would need to look back for the initial price as I don't know it off hand and the prices have increased on a number of occasions since then.

How would I know that a "Full Day" did or didn't include breakfast? It didn't state it either way however what we did do was agree with them (confirmed yesterday on the initial documentation) that we wanted breakfast included. We would have no indication that this wasn't being charged for.

Imagine you had a 30 day full trial with a gym and at the end they wanted to retrospectively charge you for using the swimming pool but the use of this to you was assumed inclusive in the deal as it didnt state whether it did or didn't? Would you complain?

hollydays

Could you speak to one of the othe mums and ask what their invoice shows.

As already said , it is an unfortunate oversight but you’ll have to pay it.
Perhaps ask if you could come up with a payment plan.
I think you are looking for a get out that doesn’t exist.
If the prices had increased several times I would expect there would be a sign or an email to this effect or you’d have questioned it?If you are unhappy with the nursery you are free to move .

Its the same advice that would be given by the legally trained people on here to anyone who’d accrued a genuine charge and had been billed late.

DaBla27

marliepanda wrote: »

Did you never ask them if breakfast was included in the full day fee. It wouldnt usually, as many will have a full day without breakfast so a standard full day fee wouldnt include it.

Yes we inidicated from day one that we wanted breakfasts included. How would we know that breakfast wouldn't usually be included in the full day fee?? We don't happen to send our children to multiple child care services to compare and contrast their billing process.

DaBla27

hollydays wrote: »

Could you speak to one of the othe mums and ask what their invoice shows.

I could ask one of the other Mum's but then I should't have to be the one asking to see other invoices to make sure I am being charged correctly. Surely that's for the service to get right from the beginning.

hollydays wrote: »

If the prices had increased several times I would expect there would be a sign or an email to this effect or you’d have questioned it?If you are unhappy with the nursery you are free to move.

There is has always been communication regarding any increases in fees and obviously we have increased our payments to cover these costs.

I really need to see the contract, which I am not convinced will exist and if it doesn't I am not sure what situation that will put us in.

hollydays

“
I could ask one of the other Mum's but then I should't have to be the one asking to see other invoices to make sure I am being charged correctly. Surely that's for the service to get right from the beginning.”

Don’t ask them then .

DaBla27

hollydays wrote: »

“
I could ask one of the other Mum's but then I should't have to be the one asking to see other invoices to make sure I am being charged correctly. Surely that's for the service to get right from the beginning.”

Don’t ask them then .

Ok I could ask them now and their invoice might say Full Day and then have an additional Breakfast Fee on it. But then I would only know that if I asked now due to this whole fiasco. I would have really needed to know this right from the beginning surely?? It's a mute point.

tykesi

No it's not, it's a moot point

unholyangel

It will depend on what was agreed and how it was agreed.

Once a contract is formed, it is binding on both parties and neither can change the agreement without the others agreement to the changes. They cannot retrospectively change the terms.

So if you perhaps discussed your needs, then they came back saying it will be £x, they cannot now try to change that to £y. However it will depend on exactly what was discussed/agreed.

Although you should keep in mind that the nursery could well give you notice to terminate the contract (providing they allow you to do the same - a contract needs to be equally binding so it wouldnt be fair if just 1 party can dissolve the contract at their discretion). Good nurseries can be hard to find so if yours is a good one (with the kids at least) you might want to pay even if they agreed the lower price when entering the contract.