How late is “too late” for an appointment?

If either the Client or the provider is running behind: at what point is it OK to cancel and move on?
For instance, I received a deposit for a meeting. Client told me he was running late. After he was already past the time he was supposed to be here: He decided to stop at the grocery store. That put his New ETA a 40 minutes after the start time.
At that point, I chose to move on with my schedule.
Am I the asshole for keeping the deposit?
(Full disclosure: I am notorious for running 15 minutes late, but I would never stop somewhere if I was already pressed on time. I think that’s the part that upset me more than the actual tardiness.)

Yes

Yes Originally Posted by Anthonylewis50

So let’s assume I waited the 40 minutes for him to show up and then he gets an extremely quick session while still having to pay the full rate because that’s all my schedule allows. There’s no winner here.

I think you won.... free money.

You could have rescheduled. If you take a commoditized approach (e.g., guys are a wallet, every hour of your day must be billed, etc.) then yeah, keep the deposit. I have great relationships with ladies where I'd never show up late and they'd never fault me if I fucked up one time and did show up late. You probably lost a client forever, but I don't think you are concerned about the relationship, you're concerned about the lost hour.

So let's be real... you require deposits for just this kind of situation. You don't really care what I think or anyone else about this issue....so why ask?

You won't stop charging deposits. Guys who don't like deposits will never see you. We agree to disagree. You were compensated for a missed hour. Lots of guys ABSOLUTELY waste your time, but that's this particular business. Roofers get their time wasted too. Just own it. If you wanted to keep this customer, you would have let him slide. Short term loss for long term gain. If he's not worth your attention, you fire him. If you have it on your site how late a guy can be before you keep the deposit, then--it's still assholeish--but transparent. He bears the risk. If you don't, its very ashholeish. It makes you an asshole but there's lots of assholes in business. There's nothing wrong with being an asshole when no one else is paying your bills. But don't be an asshole and then ask for permission to be an asshole. Own it.

And maybe put on your site that guys who are late get their deposits taken...and guys who have bad sessions with you get their money back.

Was he a newbie to u or 1 of ur regulars?? If newbe take the he money if a regular just reschedule & keep the $ for the new appointment

We had never met, but I refunded half of the deposit lol

We had never met, but I refunded half of the deposit lol Originally Posted by DallasBella

This is new information. Why not share this in the initial post?

My only question is, was there ever any discussion between either of you of rescheduling?