OBS cancelled (Life lessons)

He was supposed to go for OBS, but because maternal grandmother passed away, he had to cancel. He had paid $400 already.

I wrote a letter for him, requesting teacher to refund the money.

He basically tells the teacher he is not going OBS without showing the letter. Then he tells me that cannot claim the money.

He is probably shy to show letter demanding money return from teacher .

He must understand that there is nothing wrong with about asking what is his. Adults do it all the time.
i) He must know that $400 is a lot of money to a lot of other people.
ii) He must learn to ask what is his ?
iii) After asking, if the teacher say cannot, it is another story altogether. He has at least done his part. In life, he must learn that you need to ask in order to have a chance of getting at something. Nothing shy about it at all.
iv) In fact, if he dont ask, and dont mention why he is skipping OBS, teacher would be thinking negatively of him. They might think that he is irresponsible for skipping OBS at last minute without informing.

(This is similar to me when i skip NCC Adventure course without telling the real reasons. End up in principle office and was demoted for 3 months.)

Dont want to nag him, but this is a $400 lesson to think over.