# Banning customers (/en/businesses/customers/bans)

Most venues need to stop someone from booking now and then: a customer who damaged the equipment, a regular who keeps taking class spots and never shows up, a member whose fee has been unpaid for weeks. Thril does this in two ways. Staff ban a customer by hand, and rules you turn on block customers automatically.

A ban by hand, the absence ban and the unpaid-participation block cover every venue of your company. The membership block covers the membership's venue, or all of them when the membership is available in all venues. Thril tells the customer about each automatic block. For a ban by hand, you choose whether to tell them.

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## Manual ban or automatic block [#manual-ban-or-automatic-block]

| If you want to…                                                 | Use                                               | Where                                                                                                                                                 |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Stop one customer for a while, for a reason of your own         | **Ban customer** on the customer                  | [This page](#banning-a-customer-by-hand)                                                                                                              |
| Stop customers who keep missing events and classes from joining | **Ban customers with repeated absences**          | **Events and classes** settings, see [Attendance](/businesses/events/attendance#banning-customers-who-dont-show-up)                                   |
| Stop customers with unpaid events behind them from booking      | **Block customers with unpaid participations**    | **Events and classes** settings, see [Blocking customers who don't pay](/businesses/events/registration-and-payments#blocking-customers-who-dont-pay) |
| Stop members with an unpaid membership fee from joining events  | **Ban members with an unpaid membership payment** | **Memberships** settings, see [Renewals and payments](/businesses/shop/memberships/renewals-and-payments)                                             |

[Cut no-shows](/businesses/playbooks/cut-no-shows) combines attendance, the absence ban and payment rules into one plan.

The absence ban runs for the number of days you set. The two unpaid blocks last until the customer pays, and paying lifts them at once.

**Ban members with an unpaid membership payment** blocks a member with an unpaid renewal from events, classes, leagues and tournaments and cancels their upcoming bookings there. [Renewals and payments](/businesses/shop/memberships/renewals-and-payments#blocking-events-too) covers the rest, including refunds and the block on reservations and door access.

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## Banning a customer by hand [#banning-a-customer-by-hand]

**Ban customer** on a customer has two scopes. Pick one or both and give each an end date. For a long ban, set the date far ahead. The ban covers every venue of your company:

- **Ban from reservations** stops new resource reservations.
- **Ban from participation** stops events, leagues and tournaments. Course sign-ups stay open.

With **Ban from participation**, **Cancel their bookings during the ban** also cancels the customer's event and class sign-ups that start before the ban ends. The freed places go to the queue. Sign-ups after the ban ends stay, and tournament entries are never cancelled. **Money already paid** decides what happens to the payments for the cancelled sign-ups: **Not refunded**, **Refunded to the original payment method** or **Added to the customer's balance**.

Cancel the reservations the customer already has by hand.

The **Reason** you write is internal. With **Send ban notification to customer**, the customer gets a notification that names the scopes and their end dates, never the reason. The same message comes by email.

The ban lifts itself on the end date. To lift it sooner or change the dates, open **Edit ban** on the customer. Staff see a **Banned** tag on the customer.

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## What a blocked customer sees [#what-a-blocked-customer-sees]

A banned or blocked customer cannot make the bookings or sign-ups the ban covers, in the app or on the web. The notification Thril sends says what is blocked and until when. A customer blocked for unpaid participations sees what they owe on the app's home screen and can pay it there.

Customers can read what a ban means for them in [Blocked from booking](/consumers/blocked-from-booking). The page sends them to you for the reason.