At 8:03 am, I emailed Riley (not her real name) a gentle reminder about our 8 am session. Five minutes later, I sent another text. Still, no response. I remembered Riley’s fretful voice when she telephoned several weeks ago to book an appointment; she was so anxious to speak with me, she wanted her reading to start then and there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t accommodate her, as I had a dentist’s visit in 15 minutes.
So where was Riley now?
While I watched the wall clock add more seconds to my life, I ruminated on the reasons why some clients failed to call in or log on to Zoom for their sessions. They ranged from the simple (forgot about the appointment; messed up on the time difference between their location and mine) to the tragic (my California client’s neighbourhood was on fire and she had to flee. Yikes!).
And then there’s what I call the fear factor.
I thought of Shelley, who called me a week after missing her telephone session. She told me that she had never seen a psychic medium before, and five minutes before phoning suddenly became afraid something evil would show up and jump through the phone lines and bedraggle her to no end. I calmly assured her that nothing like that had ever happened to any of my clients. But, she countered, that had happened to someone on a “reality” TV show. Oh, boy. I should’ve told her to stop watching things like “A Ghost Ruined My Life” and “My Paranormal Nightmare.” (These are real TV shows.)
Then I remembered Richard, a real estate mogul, who booked with me two Decembers ago for a session on January 3, my first day back in the office after holiday break. When I got to the office and sat down before my video screen – no Richard. On January 4, I received his sheepish email: Richard cancelled the session because he was afraid he’d hear bad news about his future. He ended the note by saying something like, “But just out of curiosity, do you feel I’m going to …” I told him to book another session and we’d find out. He never did.
That made me think of Martha, who cancelled her mediumistic session because that morning she kept feeling her mother’s spirit would come to me and Martha really didn’t want to hear from her mom. And I’ll never forget Kathleen, who was so apologetic when she called later about missing our appointment. Kathleen let her mother, who sounded like she was more religious than the pope, talk Kathleen out of seeing me because it would put a black mark on her soul.
When just about all of the above-mentioned people contacted me about skipping their sessions, they asked for a refund. I told all of them no. I am a psychic medium, I explained, and I am also a businesswoman. My time is important, and people who don’t show for their reserved booking time means I suddenly have an open spot that I can’t fill with another client. Doctors, dentists and lawyers charge you for skipping your appointments. Same goes for the hair stylists, reiki masters and massage therapists I know. We respect our work, and expect people to respect our time and service. To make my position clear and, hopefully, eliminate confusion, I added information about late cancellations and no-shows on my website and in the confirmation email clients receive after reserving a session. This guarantees no surprises from my end.
Still – as with every rule, there are exceptions. Life sometimes throws us sudden curve balls we must deal with. And I fully refunded the session fee to my client who was threatened by the California wildfires. And I added a mental blessing, praying for her safety.
If you have any questions or comments on this subject or on any other spiritual matter, feel free to write me at mail@carolynmolnar.com. And please visit me again!