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Absolutely tell the new teacher. I disagree with Journey. You do not have to do a bunch of soul-searching. You're being paid for effort and sometimes, to be present at a lesson time when the clients choose non-attendance. You are not being paid for results. If the customer is unsatisfied, they must point out to you what needs changing at their earliest convenience. Then you can choose to end the association if you can't meet their needs. Barring this conversation, you can assume that your effort as a bona fide piano teacher is sufficient.

And I WOULD ask the new teacher to help me collect the money. Piano teachers need to stand together against destroyers of our livelihood. You would do the same for her.

We need more piano teachers like you!

I think this is another strong reason to ask for lesson fees to be paid in advance. If not there are always going to be people who take advantage.

Reading between the lines I don't agree that this family are withholding payment because they were not satisfied with tuition. It's just that they don't want to pay for the lessons they have had and know that there is very little you can do about it.

If it were me I would warn the other teacher and write off the lost fees in the knowledge that you can now replace them with a more reliable student.

Actually what happened is that they started no-showing, asking for rescheduling, and not practicing since the first of the year. Never had problems with them before (had the 2 siblings for 2 years) and the kids were progressing well. Rescheduling is something that I offer students, but when folks reschedule and then no-show a few times in a row, that doesn't work for me. They owed me $ for Feb., which was due at the beginning of the month. Parents suddenly started questioning my studio policy on no-shows and didn't want to pay. Looking for a new teacher for whatever reason? I would welcome that communication from the family.

Thanks for everyone's replies here, food for thought! I think no-showing and no-paying is not one of the 50 Ways to Leave Your Teacher.

Back to soul-searching.....

"...I'd want to know if the family skipped out on paying what they owed. Someone wanting a fresh start is different..."

Yes, that kind of start is a little too fresh for me.

Do piano teachers never report this kind of thing to the credit bureaus? Some people are extremely sensitive regarding their credit score.

On the whole, a written policy including paying for the month's instruction in advance, is the easiest fail-safe. As our OP has said, you do not need a crystal ball to predict the future for some customers.

Reporting to a credit bureau involves establishing credentials with one of the reporting agencies. This can be expensive and difficult for a small time sole-proprietor. Collections can also be a rather expensive and time-consuming endeavor.

Charging up front for service solves a lot of problems, but you have to back it up by refusing to provide the service if it's not paid for.

This is also a good reason to join some kind of teachers' organization. Whether it be MTNA, a Federation club, MTAC - having a forum in which to meet and communicate with other teachers can be extremely helpful.

I would continue to send invoices to the family and consider hiring a collection agency if the amount is significant.

As regards contacting the other teacher, I still feel it's perhaps best to remain silent unless asked for an opinion. If a teacher I didn't know well called me to tell me a transfer student was one month late on payment, I'd have a hard time deciding whether they were just bitter and whining about it or if they did indeed have solid business practices and were truly jilted by their clients. (Honestly, one month late and an 8 week history of no-shows doesn't really sound that bad to me. It sounds like the family is going through a rough patch. Maybe it will continue, maybe there's a reason, maybe it won't, and maybe there's not.)

If I knew the teacher well, it would be a different story, because I'd be more familiar with their business practices, policies, and attitude towards this kind of thing.

That is exactly what I suspected. The writing was on the wall and rather than trying to get closer to them and try to understand what the real problem was, you got all huffy and legalistic and self-righteous, thereby in effect pushing them away and causing them to leave or confirming the wisdom of their decision to leave.

It isn't that they didn't take lessons which they refuse to pay, but rather that they do not want to be held to an onerous, one-sided, studio policy of paying for lessons never taken. With their busy lives that allow them the luxury to pay piano lessons they obviously expected more pleasant and understanding interaction, more flexibility, involvement and empathy and a modern service mindset than you were able or willing to provide.

These inflexible consumer-unfriendly studio policies that stifle relationship-building communication and demand payments from parents without teachers rendering teaching services in return, where teachers want to receive something for nothing, lead in many more cases than yours to parents leaving and slamming the door shut hard as they go. Not only are you out some cash but they might tell six other parents to avoid your studio since you seem to be more interested in your contract than the specific real-world family circumstances of your long-term students.

This, in contrast to building PWR (Positive Working Relationships) with everyone that every passes through your studio leading to retaining students and getting enthusiastic referrals from others.

With regard to reporting to a credit bureau or collection agency....

I have reported a half dozen or so students over the years to our local collection agency. It's not difficult or time consuming. I brought them the parent's signed studio policy, gave them their contact info, and let them do the rest. They take 40% of what they can collect as their fee. And the delinquency stays on their credit report just as if you were a big department store or other business trying to collect.

If you are out one-month's fee you may or may not consider it worth your time. In my case, I also charge a late fee, which makes the amount owed over $100. If I can collect 60% I am happy.

Thanks for the info.
Kreisler, I agree with what you say and thank you for your insight.
Everyone, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. I will stay silent unless their new teacher contacts me and asks for info.
Thank you!

I disagree with this view. Clients come and go, but colleagues more-or-less stay for the long haul. I think it is important to establish a good rapport with local colleagues and "team up," in a way, to combat problems that we share. It is especially true if the other teacher belongs to the same organization like MTAC (and in the same branch, no less).

I got the impression that Kreisler agrees with you, that teachers within an organization support each other, and he suggested I join one for this reason.

Yes. I would only discuss a client with another teacher I knew well. I would never discuss a client with someone I did not know well. It just seems the courteous thing to do.

In the context of a professional organization, such a discussion seems more appropriate. Outside of an officially professional context, discussing a client seems impolite.

My suggestion also comes from the fact that I live in a smaller community. If I alerted other teachers about a client who didn't pay and they denied that client service, I can see a scenario where that client would inform their friends that I had them blacklisted because my makeup policies were inflexible and they were a few weeks late on a payment. My actions could be 100% true and justified, but word of mouth is a powerful thing, and bad press has a habit of ruining people even if the truth exonerates them. (Just ask any of several politicians!)

Barb, the gray situation you have encountered is not one that would be helped by joining an association of music teachers. In essence, you *have* joined one, and it's PW, and our opinions differ.

There's no clear policy on what to do when a student's family runs into a rough patch of life. Or has financial setbacks. Or becomes less smitten with piano lessons. Or hears that another teacher might be more enticing.

We just all muddle through these things, trying neither to hurt anyone nor hurt ourselves.

Very well said, Peter!

That fact remains that the parent signed an agreement and needs to honor it.

The fact remains that contracts are broken all the time in the real world and teachers need to realize it. In many Western countries even a significant majority of all marriage contracts are broken.



+1

Sometimes you need to take the high road and choose your long term success over extracting blood in the short term.

Unfortunately I think you will find that people like this will bad mouth you anyway in an attempt to cover up their lack of progress and real reasons for teacher hopping.

I've had countless transfer students in the past who start off by telling me how bad the previous teacher was or how inflexible they were. I don't pay much attention anymore as after a few weeks it becomes apparent that they just don't practice or want you to reschedule every other week. When they move on I have no doubt they say the same things about me but so far have never had any problems getting new business.

Most of the teachers I know don't particularly like spending their time constructing policies to protect them against people who take advantage. We would rather get on with the business of teaching. But we do need to make a living from this.

By the sounds of it Barb was not being inflexible as she had already offered make up lessons which they failed to show up for (or pay for). If there was something about her teaching style that they did not agree with then they should have said rather than keep booking lessons and then cancelling them. Whatever their situation is being honest is not that difficult. I have read this thread again and can't see where Barb had threatened them with a rigid policy or made any attempt to 'extract blood'.

In other professions, it is a common professional courtesy to inform other members of the profession about potential or chronic problems with clients.


Seriously? Kidding, surely?? Such oblique messages might be common in the world of children.

The "clear and unambiguous" way to convey such a sentiment is to SAY exactly that, and hopefully face-to-face.

I agree with you.

Unfortunately, that is not the way consumers are trained to think and act these days. Especially, if the basis of a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship was not lain. If the relationship is there, the respect and the money will be too.

If you attached a lien to their house, you might get their attention. The cost of such action might be greater than what they owe you, but why let people get away with stealing from you?