A or B: My daughter's daycare charged me $96 in late pickup fees for September. Their lobby clock runs 8 minutes fast. The director says "the lobby clock is the official time" and it's in the handbook I signed
My daughter is in the toddler room at a daycare we were waitlisted at for 14 months. It's right by my office and she's obsessed with her teacher. Pickup is by 6:00, after that it's $1 a minute.
Parents sign kids out on a clipboard under a big owl clock in the lobby. Its eyes move back and forth every second and my daughter waves goodbye to it every night.
The thing that tipped me off was a night in the middle of September when I signed her out at a few minutes after 6 by the owl, even though my car had said 5:56 when I parked. The next day I held my phone up next to the owl and it was 8 minutes ahead. I told the girl at the front desk and she said she'd let the director know.
From then on I took a picture of the owl next to my phone every time I signed out. That's 11 pickups and the owl was ahead by about the same amount in EVERY one of them.
The October invoice came a few days ago. It had the usual tuition plus $96 in late fees for September, itemized by day. They had me late on 19 days, mostly by a few minutes.
Honestly I cut it close. I leave work with just enough time for the drive and most days I walk in around 5:55 by my phone.
I emailed the director the photos. Her reply was "The lobby clock is the official time for the center. We can't adjust fees based on personal devices." She also pointed me to the parent handbook. It does say sign-out times are recorded by the center clock, and I signed that handbook in July.
She offered to "split it, one time only" if I pay $48 this week. Nobody has fixed the owl either. It was still fast when I checked again.
The part I can't back up is the first half of September. I don't have photos from before I noticed, so maybe the owl was right back then and I really was late on some of those days. I doubt it but I can't show it.
My husband thinks we should just pay it and I should leave work earlier. "We waited over a year for this place. Don't be that parent over a hundred bucks."
A) Pay the $96 or take her $48 deal, start leaving work earlier, and stay off the director's radar so we don't lose the spot.
B) Pay the tuition but not the late fees, send the photos again, and ask them to fix the owl and credit at least the 11 days I have pictures of.