Piplings Nursery - No return of deposit

[george74]

Has anyone ever had any financial issues with Piplings Nursery, in Dulwich? Have tried for several weeks now to speak to a human being, but simply get standard emails in response. No one appears to be willing to discuss why they are not willing to return our ?1,400 deposit with 9 weeks notice prior to starting, when they only ask for 8 weeks notice when you start. Found out we are pregnant again and simply can?t afford on one salary.

Appears to be a ?cash cow? of a nursery, but keen to hear if anyone has had similar problems, and how it was resolved, if at all.

[Pugwash]

Would this be a case for Trading Standards?

[xapis85]

Sorry to hear this. There have been a few similar threads under Family Room - Discussion. If you run a search for Piplings they'll come up. Someone else had similar very recently I'm afraid.

[Abe_froeman]

They might pay attention if you sue them using moneyclaim online.

https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim

[KidKruger]

For that amount I?d be down there in person giving them hell in front of their other customers.

[george74]

Thanks for the recommendations all. Unfortunately they do appear to have this point covered off in the super small print within the contract; totally unreasonable and cannot believe they don?t even have the decency to discuss in person. Simply keep fobbing us off with one line emails.

[Abe_froeman]

It still might be an unfair contract term / unenforceable penalty. Maybe worth talking to the citizens advice bureau or a drop in legal clinic to check your rights.

One and half thousand pounds is an awfully large gouge from a business that hasn't yet provided you any services.

[KidKruger]

Yeah I?d go legal on this as contracts have to ultimately be reasonable, this does not seem reasonable.

[george74]

Totally unreasonable I agree, but it seems like many other parents on this and other forums, we have been taken for a ride by Piplings, when desperately trying to find a spot for our son. NB: we had to pay the ?1,400 within a limited period otherwise we would have the lost his place. That in itself was pressurised given the amount!! Will be investigating our legal options today for sure.

[fishbiscuits]

TBH I wouldn't expect a nursery deposit to be refundable, if you change your mind, or change of circumstances. Otherwise what's the point of asking for a deposit?

That amount of money does seem unreasonable though.

[Siduhe]

Which has a good advice page on this sort of issue (see below). Firstly, if the nursery manage to fill the place, they cannot fairly retain your deposit as well.

However, if they can't fill the place, and the cancellation was at the sort of notice where they have incurred sunk costs and are unlikely to fill the place, then they may be able to retain it, but only if the amount was reasonable in the first place. It may also depend if it was truly a deposit, or rather an advance payment for services (which, given the amount you paid, it sounds like this was).

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/can-i-claim-back-a-non-refundable-deposit

[KidKruger]

The best the nursery should be entitled to under the circumstances described is a few quid (?50 ?) to contribute towards admin.

They should be running their business off the funds from people they do business with, not the people they don?t do business with.

Whether you prosecute/escalate or not this needs outing, and if other people have been stitched-up too that doesn?t legitimise it - it just means the process is making money for the nursery.

[george74]

I guess the point I?m trying to make here is that they could have filled his space 10 times over within 24hrs for sure, as they have waiting list. Of course I would expect them to invoke the contract terms if they were unable to fill and therefore incur costs, but with 9 weeks notice, this clearly would not be the case.

[Beulah]

They've given you no other option other than to take legal action.

Worth checking if you have legal cover included on any home insurance/work policies.

Good luck.

[tomskip]

Yes, sue their ass!

[CLAU]

Definitely avoid Piplings!

Our child attended for a while and although there were constant issues with bad nappy rashes (they only routinely change nappies twice a day!), high staff turnover with no notification to parents of who was leaving / joining and lots of errors in the daily reports which made them redundant as weren?t accurate, the main issue was to accidentally discover that they didn?t have an ?onsite chef cooking organic food? (as we were told in the site visit in summer 2018) but were using pre-ready meals.

We complained about that and asked for an explanation and instead of an apology or any other form of reassurance, we received an email giving us notice of termination of a few weeks. This was highly devastating for us as a family as our child had built friends there and I was 8 months pregnant, which of course they knew about.

The ?management? which you will never see or speak to (everything is by email) is very defensive and rude and every response you?ll see is dismissive and just to protect themselves.