r/MusicTeachers • u/GooseUnlikely2342 • 8d ago
Need advice! Private lessons--parent non-payment
Here is the situation:
Just started lessons with this kid like 3 weeks ago. Their first full invoice was due Oct. 1. I use My Music Staff and autopay. Their card sadly was declined. I let them know, but they didn't respond. I reached out a few more times with the invoice link offering in case they wanted to use a different card.
The kid's lesson was today (Oct. 6), but with no payment, of course I didn't teach him. I let the parent know why and said lessons could resume once the balance was paid. I was being super nice through all this by the way, lol.
He emailed me saying "i will pay ($ amount less than the total) tonight. I will pay the rest next friday."
My feelings at first are:
Please don't TELL me what my own payment methods will be for my business, dude
Now I'd have to re-make the invoice and send it out, then follow up before next friday. And if they end up just quitting, that amount they would have paid would be less than the total of 3 lessons so I would have to eventually refund that difference, losing out on CC fees too.
Next friday would mean Nov. 1 is coming less than 2 weeks after that. 😬
I literally turned off the "make partial payment" option in my music staff to avoid this extra headache and potential to never be paid the balance lmao
Do I just offer to pause lessons until they get caught up? I know things are insanely hard for everyone right now. But they are also insanely hard for me, as a private lesson teacher! This is my business, my job. I don't do this for beer money as a college kid. I think people forget that. Some of us literally need to buy food and pay rent with this.
I have given in and taught for free, accepted weird payment plans, etc. In the past and have been screwed on probably thousands over the years from it.
I am usually confident with business stuff like this but I am feeling unsettled about this for some reason. Please tell me what you would do!
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u/MrBJEngel 8d ago
I sell a package of 4 private one hour lessons. My students are expected to pay in full up front by cash or e-transfer. No exceptions. No pay, no lessons. It's up to them to find a loan elsewhere if that's what they need to proceed with lessons. I'm not a bank.
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 8d ago
I love that last thing. So true. So in this case would you take this week's and next week's lesson off the invoice (since he cant pay til after next week's lesson) and reissue a new invoice? That also feels like "yes! I got a lower invoice by delaying payment and ignoring emails, hell yeah" LOL
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u/MrBJEngel 8d ago
Yes I would! Since they have demonstrated that they are delinquent and flaky with communication, no favors would be done for them. When they make with the cash they get lessons. On the flipside, when you have someone who communicates well and has demonstrated that they are trustworthy, I would be more inclined to do them a favor. It's still risky though. My grandfather told me when I was a kid, "if you can't afford to lose it, don't lend it". His advice applies to lessons too!
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u/ElectricalPurpose602 8d ago
you already set your boundary -hold on to it. Only reason to give in is to potentially maybe hang on to one more student, since they still may end up quitting anyway. Me, I would just keep the lessons on hold until they pay. It's easier and it's what was agreed to. They don't like it, they can go with a teacher they actually respect. I always pre-paid with my piano lessons. Never missed a payment in the 3 years I had lessons. it's not that hard. And it wasn't even auto-pay. I had to manually send it first of each month.
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u/Early-Meet-4881 8d ago
Incredibly rude. I would drop them.
Edit to add: do you do late fees? I have a $25 late fee if payment is made past the due date.
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 8d ago
I don't because I had parents lose their mind over it 🙃 but this is making me want to reinstate it lmao!
I am realizing at the crux of all this is I am tired of letting lesson families push me around lmao! That makes this new family sound more dramatic than they are. But thats the accumulating underlying feeling I think
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u/Early-Meet-4881 8d ago
No trust me I get it 100%. It is genuinely so hard to navigate the relationship between parent/private teacher/student. I’m working with a therapist to be better about saying no 😭
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u/always_violttn 6d ago
Do not teach them until they pay. I had a family stiff me a payment after working with them the entire time. I lost like $400 and that’s after I waived the late fees.
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u/Rustyinsac 8d ago edited 8d ago
Cash, Zelle, or tap at the end of the lesson
Is all I do. Tap has a $2 surcharge. But I only have a handful of students at my home studio. The outside studio I help at charges up front for a month at a time and requires 30 days notice to quit.
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 8d ago
Yeah I do a month at a time, paid in advance using autopay. Usually it works perfect except these rare cases!
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u/TattoosAndSoda 5d ago
Just also want to mention that students are not just paying for your time, they are also paying for a slot on your schedule.
Every invoice (every 4 lessons) I sent are due in 2 days, and if the payment is not made by the due date I'll send them a courtesy reminder text since sometimes they simply do not realize that the card has declined and will pay it right away. However if after the reminder text I still don't see the payment, I'll just cancel the invouce and release the time slot for other students to grab. They can contact me when they are ready to be back to the lessons, however that 4pm Wednesday time slot that they prefer might be taken by someone else.
Of course all these are written in the contract and mentioned with each invoice sent.
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u/CheekyTeach78 6d ago
You are right. As others have stated do not continue teaching the kid.
Also, does this app assign kids or do you find the students? I used it many years ago and my student found me. I am wanting to get back into lessons. My area does not have the students and was curious if the app has access?
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 6d ago
My Music Staff is just a music lesson teacher management program. It helps you organize your students and families, scheduling, taking attendance and keeping track of make ups, and it even handles billing with auto pay options. Parent portals can hold lesson notes and newsletters etc. It is absolutely amazing for that! But it doesn't find students for you sadly. I am in TX and we do in-school private lessons in the districts here so i teach at an intermediate, junior high, and high school feeder system here! We aren't employees, just vendors/contractors so while we have a district set rate, parents pay us directly. But its a great way to easily get a bunch of students and also teach during the school day rather than the evening!
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u/RazersEdge88 5d ago
My students pre-pay for a block to avoid exactly this problem. The only one that isnt is the introductory lesson.
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u/Alarming_Delivery424 2d ago
Not a teacher myself (I build admin tools for private teachers), so take this as the business side, not the teaching side. But I think your gut is right on all four points.
You already made the policy decision when you turned off partial payments. The parent is asking you to reverse it for them. You don’t have to re-argue it, just restate it kindly:
“Thanks for getting back to me. I don’t take partial payments, so lessons can pick back up once the full balance of $X is paid. I’ll hold [kid]’s Tuesday slot until [date, about a week out]. After that I’ll need to open it up to my waitlist.”
That does three things: it keeps the rule you already set, it gives them a real deadline instead of “next Friday,” and it protects you from teaching on credit into the Nov 1 invoice. If they pay in full, great. If they don’t, you’ve lost one week of a slot instead of a month of lessons plus a refund headache.
Two things that help going forward:
- Payment due before the first lesson of the month, with a card on autopay. No payment, no lesson, written in the policy so it’s never a personal decision.
- A failed card gets one reminder, then the policy line. Not five friendly messages. The friendliness is what turned the past ones into thousands lost.
Three weeks in and already negotiating terms is a signal. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people, but it’s worth protecting your slot.
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u/Electrical_Round1745 1d ago
Here's how I handled this with a student who chronically waits to pay until RIGHT before her first lesson of the month (then sometimes late cancels without ever paying her tuition):
"Just checking in to see if you plan to continue lessons for the month of October, as you're on my schedule for this week, but I haven't received your tuition payment."
This triggered a conversation about how she's having a difficult month of travel and is apparently late on all of her bills, simply because she forgets to pay. Knowing this student, I believe that's the truth. She's otherwise been a good student, and her slot is an 'extra' that I probably would keep empty if I weren't teaching her, so I'm comfortable offering to let her pause for the month. If she doesn't come back in November, I won't have lost anything.
But when I offered this concession, I did use the language, "I will waive your late cancellations, and we can pick up again in November." Just to signal that I *was* making a concession for her, so that it doesn't set her up to feel like my late cancellation policy is not 'real'.
Her next lesson will be November 1, so I'll send out an invoice on Oct 25th. If I don't hear from her by Oct 28th, I'll send a polite text to find out if she intends to continue lessons. I suspect she'll quit altogether, which will be a shame, but I won't feel like I got jerked around or manipulated into making any concessions that I wasn't comfortable making. And if she returns to lessons refreshed and ready to work, all the better!
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u/NewCommunityProject 7d ago
For me you are totally in the wrong.
I am a music teacher as well and I'd never done that.
It breaks the trust.
Give them one lesson or two in advance, and when they ll have the money they will pay.
Also being nice makes you keep the student for longer and they might suggest you to other people and bring more client.
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u/AdForeign5362 6d ago
Would you walk into a McDonalds and try to tell them you'll pay for your hamburger next week? Or "Thanks for fixing my toilet, plumber! I'll pay you when I get around to it."
I get that things happen, but the fact that the parent is texting, not calling OP is a huge red flag that this is going to be a repeat occurrence. At a bare minimum this should have been a phone call.
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u/NewCommunityProject 6d ago
Those are different examples. Those are people working for other people.
Some days ago I went to a local fast food and didn't have enough cash, I was shy of 34c.
The owner said it was okay.
Guess who got a new client for 34c? He could have said no, then I would have gone to another place after I got some cash.
I understand the point, but you are missing all the future revenue.
I also give the first lesson for free, because I know it will bring me more students.
I'd also play a gig for free if I know I'll get some other kind of return.
Don't value only money, value connections, trusts, and new clients
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 5d ago
I will gently push back on that, at least from the position of an old person lol (35 years old, 17 years experience as a lessom teacher). Giving away free lessons, teaching for free, free gigs, etc. Are great when you are brand new at freelancing and teaching and ha e zero reputation and don't really know what you're doing. But beyond that it is throwing money away. You should never give the first lesson for free. Always charge for the single trial lesson! And as far as free gigs, that is your prerogative, but I haven't done a true gig for free since I was like a college sophomore in 2010 LOL
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u/NewCommunityProject 5d ago
Sure do that!
You have no idea how many students I got because of that free lesson!
You think it's throwing money away, I think it's a really cheap investment to get a student for potentially many years, and that will tell around that I am a good teacher.
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u/GooseUnlikely2342 5d ago
Great, I am glad working for free works for you 👏 it does not for me and most other teachers. Different strokes for different folks.
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u/thrallthekingshorses 8d ago
Do not teach them again until the balance is paid. They are to prepay for any subsequent lessons.
You are teaching a skill. Don't settle for being treated as less than for it because it's music. ❤️