We hired James about four months ago for my ten-year-old daughters piano lessons. Recently my daughter was very ill and we had to take her to urgent care. She was sick on top of a double ear infection and I told James early that morning that we needed to reschedule. We had only rescheduled ONCE before in all four months also due to illness and not wanting to spread to other kids. I offered to bring him a Dr note and asked for a date to reschedule the lesson. He said to check his studio policy and it would be counted as an "unexcused absence" and next time I'd have to pay for the missed lesson regardless of if she was ill and then pay for the makeup lesson as well if I wanted one. At $65 a lesson, this is a little ridiculous so I asked him if he would have rather me brought her in sick, and that it's unrealistic to expect a kid to only have one sick absence per year and avoid having sick kids in studio.
He got angry and went on a text tyrade with me lecturing me on how he needs a consistent income and to make a living. I reminded him that I was not trying to get out of paying for the week, just a date to reschedule, but if this is his policy we planned to finish out the month and the recital my daughter had been practicing for for weeks and then find another teacher. He agreed to reschedule for the coming Friday, in writing. I thanked him and thought that was it until the next day I received an email saying he was canceling my Friday makeup lesson, and all her other lessons that month except the one right before the recital, all of which had already been paid for. I sent him a response literally saying "I am asking you very nicely to honor your word and allow my daughter the Friday makeup lesson you agreed to prior to the recital so she isn't less prepared as a result of our decision to leave your studio."
Apparently, this sent him over the deep end and he told me that I forced him to pull my daughter from the recital entirely and there would be no more lessons and that I'm difficult to work with and "I hope you reconsider the level of respect that you give to whoever your next piano teacher will be." I am literally beside myself this horrible man would punish a ten year old and take away something that she has worked and practiced very hard for for several weeks over a simple request to keep a makeup practice. If you do make the horrible mistake of hiring James, I definitely don't recommend giving him any notice when you plan to pull your student because he will be spiteful and take it out on your kid in any way he can.
Also, generally speaking he is super inflexible, rude, and has ridiculous $20 late fees for payments whether he invoices you or not. He may be a decent piano teacher, but he's quite frankly a huge diva and a HORRIBLE person. read more