I have been trying to update everyone as much as I can. I feel that it is necessary because what happened to me can help prevent someone else from being taken advantage of. I told the parent that I paid for the exam fees. He paid me for half of the lesson payment and the exam fees. He still owes me the full payment for the missed lesson, but he refuses to pay for it. I gave him a payment due date. And he flipped out of control. He began threatening me by saying that he would find another piano teacher. I learned that he has began searching for another piano teacher. He posted on Facebook. Little does he know, he are actually friends on Facebook! I don’t know how he doesn’t know that. I saw his post about an hour ago. And it’s amusing to me that he would blatantly lie about me to everyone.
All in all, I am okay from the situation. I think that I made it out of the entire issue completely unscathed. He had given me the exam fee money that I had paid an advance for. And I can replace the time slot with a student that will pay much more for the time. I was charging them 50% of what I usually charge for the time. I was charging him $30 for an hour of lessons while I now I charge $60 for an hour. He paid me $15 and refused to pay me for the full hour of lessons that he missed. In summary, he only owes me $15, but he is not going to pay me the money.
If I have learned anything from this situation, I’ve learned that people will continue to look down upon you no matter what you do. I traveled to their home for lessons, gave free piano books for all the piano levels (seven books worth about $70), two recitals every year, free piano rehearsals that were also lessons, leniency for sick days, and I only charged them $15 for 30 minutes of lessons. The current rate for 30 minute lessons in our area is $30. I did all of this because I believed that we had a laid-back understanding/respect. I was wrong.
I will begin trying to come up with solutions on how to recuperate the time and money that I lost. I will be working hard on trying to make sure that my family and I will continue to be stable. Financial worries are stressful, but I’m so proud that I stood up for myself. For so long, I was afraid of taking a stand on what I believed was right for myself. I would like to thank my husband for giving me the strength to stand up for myself. I will be okay and I hope that anyone who is going through hardship knows that they will be okay also.
As always, thank you so much for reading. I truly appreciate it.
Pocketfuloflearning 