Essay 94: Join me in the fight against unfair business practices

Kids cost money. No surprise here. Feeding them. Clothing them. Educating them. One of the biggest chunks of our budget goes to pay for our daughter’s extra curricular activities.
Here is her weekly program:
Mondays: Sewing and Violin
Tuesdays: Art class every other week
Thursdays: Swim class (we just had to stop and I’ll explain why later)
Fridays: Capoeira every other week
Saturdays: Ballet

We’re glad we’re able to provide her with such great opportunities but there’s no denying that it all adds up. As a business owner myself, I always make sure that I’m very clear about the financial obligations before we enroll her into any new program and I expect to be treated as fairly and professionally as I treat my students.
Two incidents have recently happened that have left me in shock.

Incident 1: Swim class
A few weeks ago, the swim teacher sent a letter home.
Parents were informed that payments were due on the first of the month and that a late fee would apply for payments past due. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
Parents were reminded that they were responsible to pay for their child’s assigned classes whether or not the child attended all of them. Fair enough.
The third paragraph, however, was a stunner. Parents were notified that, from then on, parents would be responsible to pay the full fee for any class that the teacher canceled because of bad weather.
“After all, on those stormy days, we are ready and willing to teach but Mother Nature decides differently” is how she phrased it. No make up class would be offered and yet she expected ME to pay for a class SHE cancelled.
I sent a nice letter explaining that I didn’t think the new policy fair. Having to cancel swim class due to bad weather is a liability inherent to the nature of her business and it simply wasn’t right to expect payment for a service not rendered. I even went so far as to propose the fee be split evenly 50/50 so that Mother Nature’s burdens would be equally shouldered by parents and teacher. To which she responded: “that’s how it’s gonna be. Sorry but not sorry.” I’m paraphrasing but you get the gist of it.
On principle, we couldn’t go along with the new preposterous rule. We gave our two week notice and parted ways, with no animosity, after 5 years of enrollment.

Incident 2: Ballet class
My daughter has been enamored of ballet ever since she could walk. She started asking for classes when she turned 6. I enrolled her in a class when she turned 7 but it turned out to be subpar ballet instruction so we stopped. I was excited to find out that a new ballet school had opened up in our town. We budgeted a semester of ballet classes as her big 8th birthday gift.
The day we signed up, there was already a hiccup. The teacher insisted the semester was 5-month long. Math is not my strength but I could only count 4 months between 01/27 and 05/26. I guess, she couldn’t counter argue so, in a very frustrated tone, she finally agreed to “let” me make one less payment.

Then last week, I found out about the Spring Performance. The performance fee was a reasonable $20, costumes would be loaned to the children and spectators did not have to pay for admission. It all sounded good, except that the recital was scheduled during my daughter’s regular class time which would be canceled. Only the Saturday students would miss out on ballet instruction that week, so I asked if we could attend Friday’s class instead. Imagine my surprise when the teacher refused, stating that they had a no make-up class policy. Surely that policy didn’t apply when the teacher was the one canceling?
I calmly explained that we were paying $21 for 1 hour of ballet instruction we would not be receiving. We were paying an additional fee for the show. Students who came to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday classes would get BOTH the instruction and the show that week but not my daughter, since her assigned class was on Saturdays.
Finally, the teacher reluctantly offered a refund for the canceled class.

Why it proved so difficult is beyond me.

Why she thought offering me a refund was better than letting us attend class on another day is beyond me. (My option would have kept the $21 in her pocket.)

Why SHE was annoyed with ME, is beyond me.

In both incidents, it is obvious, we were one of the few, if not the only parents to have brought up the issue. THAT is the problem and a big part of what’s wrong with our society at large.
People who don’t pay attention.
People who do what they’re told.
People who just go along.
People who don’t care about what’s right and wrong.
People who don’t have the gumption to stand up for themselves.

“Oh it’s only $20 bucks. What’s the big deal. It’s not worth it.” some would say.
To which I respond: “If you notice that the cashier gave you an extra dollar in change, would you keep it? Aren’t those who would, not stealing just the same?”
It doesn’t matter that I have the money; it only matters whether it’s fair that I pay.

Don’t we all have a responsibility to pay attention, to question what we’re told, to care about what’s right and wrong and to stand up for ourselves?
The world needs more people willing to use the backbone they were born with!

The world needs us!

Won’t you please join me in fighting against unfair business practices?

What do you think of each incident? What would you have done? I’d love to read your input.