When a service is received, the payment is best to be made as soon as possible to avoid unwanted consequences in the future.

Recently, a tutor in Singapore reached out to the mother of one of her students and asked for payment of the fees, only for the conversation to turn hostile. While the tutor eventually received the payment that she deserved, the conversation with the mother of her student did not begin and end well.

At 5:50 pm, the tutor sent the mother the breakdown of the payment, which was SGD240 (approximately RM780). However, there was no response, and that prompted the tutor to send another reminder to the mother 3 hours later and asked her to acknowledge the message. Tuition fee was agreed to be paid on the last lesson of every month.

“Due to your busy schedule, you may have overlooked this message. Would appreciate an acknowledgement if you have received this. Thank you.”

This time, the mother responded immediately and told the tutor that she was at work and that she would have made the payment if she had time to acknowledge her message. A minute later, she paid the fees and told the tutor “since it’s very urgent”.

Unhappy with the response, the tutor clarified that most of the parents would’ve acknowledged the message and that she couldn’t read minds, hence the request for acknowledgement.

“I thought you have overlooked, and it’s not a matter of urgency, but a courtesy to acknowledge,” the tutor said.

However, both parties agreed on one thing.

The mother expressed her desire to discontinue the tuition from next week onwards, to which the tutor agreed. But the conversation did not end there. The mother told the tutor that there is no need for her to inform the latter that she was still working, and called the tutor “desperate for money”.

The tutor told Stomp that she wanted to caution other tutors about this matter.

Do you think that the mother should’ve paid the tutor earlier, or do you think the tutor shouldn’t have repeatedly reminded her?

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