Have To Charge Additional Fee What Do You Think Is Fair?

[daycare]

I have a family that that the child normally attends my preschool program only. the mom did not work previously, but just started working.

well dck was not picked up today after lunch time and I could not get in touch with anyone, no mom no dad no emergency contacts.

i finally get in touch with dad around 120, child was supposed to be picked up by 12:45. DCD says they don't have a pick up avilable, so can dck stay for nap time and will pick up about 3 or 4pm. well its 430 and I called to find out where dcd is and says he will be here at 5.

My contact says $1 min after your contacted pick up time. I was going to just charge from a half to a full day rate with a small late fee of the time difference of 1245 to 120, but now I am just beyond mad. I did have to hold my staff over to accommodate this later pick up, so a fee has to be charged.

or I can charge the $1.00 per min which would be a couple hundred dollars

what would you do.

[Josiegirl]

I would certainly at least charge what it'll cost you to pay the staff for the extra hours.

[NoMoreJuice!]

I would make the fee large enough they would never forget to make arrangements again. You could charge $60 or $75 (for staffing) and let them know what the cost would have been ($255 if I counted right) had you followed your policy, which you will be doing the next time this occurs.

[AshleyJean]

I would make the fee large enough they would never forget to make arrangements again. You could charge $60 or $75 (for staffing) and let them know what the cost would have been ($255 if I counted right) had you followed your policy, which you will be doing the next time this occurs.

[Laurel]

I have a family that that the child normally attends my preschool program only. the mom did not work previously, but just started working.

well dck was not picked up today after lunch time and I could not get in touch with anyone, no mom no dad no emergency contacts.

i finally get in touch with dad around 120, child was supposed to be picked up by 12:45. DCD says they don't have a pick up avilable, so can dck stay for nap time and will pick up about 3 or 4pm. well its 430 and I called to find out where dcd is and says he will be here at 5.

My contact says $1 min after your contacted pick up time. I was going to just charge from a half to a full day rate with a small late fee of the time difference of 1245 to 120, but now I am just beyond mad. I did have to hold my staff over to accommodate this later pick up, so a fee has to be charged.

or I can charge the $1.00 per min which would be a couple hundred dollars

what would you do.

I would charge them a full day PLUS whatever you had to pay for the extra staff to stay. For example, if you charge $30 a day plus had staff stay for 4 extra hours and you paid the staff member $10 per hour then their fee would be $30 plus $40 or $70. I would only charge her the extra $40 IF the staff usually leaves and had to be there because their child put you over your numbers without that staff. If they were going to be there anyway for other children then just a full day's pay with a warning.

Laurel

[BabyMonkeys]

I would charge them a full day PLUS whatever you had to pay for the extra staff to stay. For example, if you charge $30 a day plus had staff stay for 4 extra hours and you paid the staff member $10 per hour then their fee would be $30 plus $40 or $70. I would only charge her the extra $40 IF the staff usually leaves and had to be there because their child put you over your numbers without that staff. If they were going to be there anyway for other children then just a full day's pay with a warning.

Laurel

[spinnymarie]

Yikes. Did they give you a reason?
Honestly, what I charge would probably depend on their reason.
They forgot = I'd tell them I'm cutting their $1/m in half and doing them a favor
Mom was in the emergency room/horrible car accident = daily rate + staffing fee

I'd also be forcing them to update phone #s and emergency contacts, since those clearly don't work as needed.

[AuntTami]

The problem with just charging for the full day and then the extra staff wages, in my opinion, is that it's not enough to make them never forget again, especially if they've got a bit more money than the Average bear. What happens the next time they forget? They just pay the fee because it's "not that much"? It needs to be big enough that it'll hurt. I would say $100 flat and tell them that this is a one time thing. Next time it will be per policy which is $1/minute and you won't be discounting the fee again.

[Thriftylady]

No advice, just wondering out loud why people think this kind of thing is okay?

[daycare]

so as it turns out, the parents had arranged for a family friend who is an authorized pick up to conduct pick up today. DCM showed up before the dcd, she didn't even know what was going on. She got home and realized that her daughter was not home. DCM left her cell phone at home. I know this for a fact, because when I called it, her mother who speaks zero english answered it.

I am very angry about this, if my asst could not have stayed today it would have put me over ratio.

I understand that the parents thought that they arranged proper pick up, this person has picked up before. So now do I allow for this person to stay as an alternate after they pulled this today.

I am just more angry that after telling me that they would come at 3-4pm to pick up, was still 45 min late and that is where I had to hold my staff over.

I did talk to the dcm and told her this can not and will not happen ever again. she said please charge me the fees necessary for today's troubles before I could even tell her.

they have been with me for about 2 years and have never done anything like this before, never even paid late once in the two years.

I AM going to chalk it up to a one time thing once again, but I am still charging the fees.

I think I am going to bill for 1/2 day, late fee plus employee wages.

[daycarediva]

Yikes. Did they give you a reason?
Honestly, what I charge would probably depend on their reason.
They forgot = I'd tell them I'm cutting their $1/m in half and doing them a favor
Mom was in the emergency room/horrible car accident = daily rate + staffing fee

I'd also be forcing them to update phone #s and emergency contacts, since those clearly don't work as needed.

The dcd knew and should have left work. They gave a time, and never showed, KNOWING that they were HOURS late.

I would charge a late fee $1/m from contracted pick up time 12:45 to 1:20. THEN say "I am forgiving the additional fee of $1/per minute because I then made arrangements for dck's care. Those fees are: double my staff rate. Then I would pay the staff person that stayed on the different rate for that time. They were inconvenienced as well.

[Unregistered]

I would make the fee large enough they would never forget to make arrangements again. You could charge $60 or $75 (for staffing) and let them know what the cost would have been ($255 if I counted right) had you followed your policy, which you will be doing the next time this occurs.

I agree with this.
Fees are designed not so people can decide whether or not to pay them, but to avoid certain behaviors. The higher the fee, the less chance of a offense, and even less so for a re-offense in the future after enforcement the first time.

I think that it is not right that someone take advantage like this dad did. I had a parent do that to me and I did charge the other 1/2 day (Fridays she worked 1/2 day, decided to buy a car, took MORE than the time she'd paid for and thought I should just deal with it. I charged her what I normally would have for a whole day. She got REALLY upset, but why should she get the benefit of free services? She did NOTHING to even ask me if I could do it in advance, and HELLO, you don't just "go buy a car" (from a dealership) on the fly, that's something you should be planning...she then did not call to let me know she was planning to be late, did not answer my calls after the lateness occurred until I called her mom who called her, then told me she'd be "only" an hour late, and it was almost end of day by the time she got there.) She made her bed. She had to lie in it and deal with the consequences. Did she choose to ever be late again? Nope. She was not happy with me afterward, but I never got taken advantage of again.

She found another daycare center, however, that was OK by me, since she was told to leave that one too, for similar circumstances, so I guess it was going to eventually happen again.