Riding school using direct debits??

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horsey_mad123

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A local riding school has introduced a direct debit system where you pay for all lessons in that month in advance! The problem is they only want people who are going to commit every week! And basically do not want your custom if you don't agree to the direct debit system.
What are your thoughts on this?
 
My friends yard has sort of done this due to too many no-shows. But if you cancel 48 hours in advance then they'll re-book the lesson. Not DD though - bank transfers or standing orders I believe.
 
It sounds like they want to lock people in which is fair since running a business is tricky if you get a lot of one-shot wonders or people who just drop in "whenever" as you can't rely on that income.

Payment in advance also works wonders for making people turn up; as opposed to just flaking out last minute for a myriad of reasons (including just not feeling like it). For the person attending and not paying its just not going out; for the business its a lost potentail time slot for income. So advanced payments a month early is pretty reasonable for a company.

That said it seems odd to only have direct debit as the payment option; whilst that locks people in its also a big commitment upfront and for something like training I know many would prefer a less formal and fixed trial period. That said they might have such a system in place already.

It sounds like they want to have a better control over their finances and specifically their income by locking in people a month in advance and thus allowing them to budget per month in advance themselves.
 
horsey_mad123 said:
A local riding school has introduced a direct debit system where you pay for all lessons in that month in advance! The problem is they only want people who are going to commit every week! And basically do not want your custom if you don't agree to the direct debit system.
What are your thoughts on this?
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My daughters swimming club only accept members if they pay for their training/ tuition monthly in advance by standing order. You don't get any money back if you can't turn up. They are able to go up to 3 times a week for the level they are at so you get better value if you do go to all the sessions. My daughters can only attend 2 so it does make you put all your effort into being there and on time for their sessions. I actually find it works for me as they can just turn up and I don't need to chase around for money beforehand.
 
Lets face most sports facilities, gyms want you to pay a membership fee and then pay monthly in advance. What surprises me is that its taken riding schools so long to catch on. Unlike running machines a horses needs feeding whether its in a lesson or not.
 
I had a riding school for 10 years, I had a 10 lesson prepaid booking system which worked very well, but it was optional and had an incentive - Parents paid for 10 lessons and got lesson 11 free. The card had a use by date - lessons had to be used within 13 weeks. We also had a cancellation policy - advise at least 2 days before or advise the week before then no penalty fee, phone 24hrs beforehand $5 penalty fee, No show - pay up before next lesson or for those on card system lose a prepaid lesson.

I don't agree with Direct Debits - I don't like someone else having access to my bank account.

Prepay system was a printed, Laminated Card - with the weeks numbered - we had a ticket punch to mark each used leson. Parents loved it - some used them to give presents to the kids, I loved it because it was guaranteed income.
 
Tnavas said:
I had a riding school for 10 years, I had a 10 lesson prepaid booking system which worked very well, but it was optional and had an incentive - Parents paid for 10 lessons and got lesson 11 free. The card had a use by date - lessons had to be used within 13 weeks. We also had a cancellation policy - advise at least 2 days before or advise the week before then no penalty fee, phone 24hrs beforehand $5 penalty fee, No show - pay up before next lesson or for those on card system lose a prepaid lesson.

I don't agree with Direct Debits - I don't like someone else having access to my bank account.

Prepay system was a printed, Laminated Card - with the weeks numbered - we had a ticket punch to mark each used leson. Parents loved it - some used them to give presents to the kids, I loved it because it was guaranteed income.
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Excellent scheme, win, win.
 
In the late 80s/early 90s my riding school would only sell lessons in batches of 10.
The batch had to be used within 6 months. You handed over a ticket when booking the lesson and if cancelling you didn't get it back unless they were feeling nice (I think essentially it literally was the mood of the lady at the desk that influenced if you could talk her into giving a ticket back lol) ... My next RS we paid by monthly standing order and the minimum was 2 lessons a week. That was a serious training yard though; they expecting all clients to get out and compete on the school horses and I learnt loads!
 
Up to them, really - as others have said it's common in other sports / fitness. As long as there's a trial period so you can try them out, and a sensible cancellation period, and you can suspend it for genuine longer illness or injury (like a gym) I can see it working.

Presumably they have plenty of business, so they can afford to insist on this and perhaps lose a few customers in exchange for less hassle and lost income from no shows.

My old yard used to used payment in advance - pay when you book, basically - and if you didn't cancel in time you lost the money. I had no problem with that.
 
Many shcols do this now. People are flakey and yes life gets in the way but if you are counting In Them coming then they don't it's the school that suffers.
 
I think its a good idea but agree there should be other options such as bank transfer (although that would mean more work for them checking up who's paid).

I used to work at a very busy riding school where there was a waiting list for regular lessons, if you cancelled late you paid for the lesson if you didn't show up a couple of weeks you lost your place on the lesson simple as.

I also had to carry around a bag full of money which wasn't very safe, there would be a few hundred pounds by the end of the day and we were in the middle of nowhere so it's definitely safer not having loads of cash about the place.
 
It's a tricky 1 in our area we have seen riding schools close for various reasons, I actually keep my horse on livery at a riding school and they get very booked up for private lessons and so if they were to implement a dd for payment in advance it would stop the people who book and then cancel at the last Minute or just don't turn up! But I can see that this would also put people off starting off!
 
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