The following are terms and conditions for booking Mandarin Chinese tutors through ShanghaiTutors.Com. If you have a question or concern which is not covered here, please contact us.
Bookings
ShanghaiTutors.Com is a tutor booking site. We work with a pool of Mandarin tutors available for teaching in Shanghai and major cities in China. We function as an agency, not a school. We do not employ or manage tutors. Your bookings are made on behalf of tutors on your own judgment and you are employing tutors by direct binding contract. We cannot accept liability for any conflicts between you and tutor or any accident, loss or damage associated with tutoring.
Interview
We make appointment with you to meet requested tutor or suitable candidates after we receive reservation/booking from you. There is no charge for interview in our office. If you require interview to be held in your place instead of our office in Shanghai, we charge 50rmb your place is located within inner ring of Shanghai, or 100rmb outside inner ring.
Tuition Fee
Rates quoted on website are for reference. Final rates are negotiation between you and the tutor. Tuition will be charged after you decide to take tutoring with the tutor selected, before the first lesson. Tuition should be paid in full upfront through us. We will transfer the money on your behalf to your tutor monthly, based on actual taught hours.
Service Fee
For successful case only, we charge a one-time service fee along with tuition fee. The fee is 400rmb for 1-1 private tuition. If you study in a group, there will be 100rmb surcharge on service fee for each additional student studying in the group. Textbook, if used, are to be paid separately by actual price of the book. Service Fee for big group/corporate bookings is to be confirmed based on actual arrangement.
Payment
All these payments are to be made in CASH in RMB or by bank transfer (only RMB transfer within China). Credit cards are NOT accepted. Please be sure to have with you the necessary funds when you sign the contract. Tutoring will not start until the learner has made payment full (full tuition fee plus the service fee).
Continuous Support
Service fee guarantees you one year continuous support. If anything goes wrong with tutoring (e.g. conflict of schedule, teaching quality decreasing, or you like a change), we can provide another tutor (tutoring rates need be discussed and confirmed with new teacher). There is no limit in changing teacher within 1 year.
Tutoring
Minimum 30 hours tutoring is required for any booking. ShanghaiTutors.Com reserves the right to modify the conditions when necessary. The number of persons (adults and children) taking the lessons must not exceed the number confirmed in the contract. In the event that the maximum number of individuals is exceeded, the contract is immediately terminated. Service fee and tuition fee will be recalculated to proceed with the lessons under a new contract. The substitution of person(s) during the contract period is forbidden unless previously agreed with the tutor. We will allow the transfer of a learner's booking to another person/party. The request must be sent in writing to us for approval. The lesson location, time, frequency is a matter of discussion between learner and the tutor and will be included in contract. Change in these factors will result in change in tuition fee. We and the tutor do not provide the place. It is learner’s responsibility to provide a suitable place for tutoring. Tutors can refuse tutoring if the place is unhealthy, hazardous or requires mandatory consumption. The learners may not use the paid hours for any other purpose than Mandarin learning, such as translating, interpreting, accompany, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing by the tutor. The learners shall not engage in any activity or practice that is or may become a nuisance or offence to the tutor, or that might invalidate any insurance policies effected on the tutoring.
No-Show Policy
Learners should notify the tutor at least 8 hours in advance if they want to delay or cancel lessons. If a learner does not show up at the pre-scheduled time (and has not notified the tutor of any delays or cancellations), the hours will be treated as taught and the tutor is not obligated to wait for you. If you do not show up or arrive in time, monies paid associated with these hours will be forfeited. We will not issue refunds for situations arising from inclement weather, illnesses or any personal reasons for no-show.
Refunds
Prepaid but unused portion of tuition fee is refundable for any reason, whether you want to shorten the hours or stop learning, as long as you notify us within service time (1 year)
Conditions:
1 There will be 5% processing charge on returning tuition fee to cover our administrative costs.
2 Request made in written form to moneyback@ShanghaiTutors.Com within service time (1 year)
3 Refund will be made in 30 days after requesting.
4 Refund does not apply to the event that learner has previously breached contract or engaged in illegal or improper behavior, language.
5 Resuming lesson with same tutor without giving us notice will invalidate Money Back Guarantee
6 Refund will automatically terminate 1 year service while one time service fee is not refundable under any circumstance.
Student Complaints
If you have any problem regarding tutoring during contracted hours, you must notify the tutor. Should the tutor not be available or the problem cannot be solved, you should contact our staff or Emergency Complaints Number previously provided with the contract. Complaints notified only after finishing the lessons cannot be taken into consideration.
Teacher/Tutor Complaints
In the case of complaints coming from tutors due to illegal or improper behavior or language, we reserve the right to immediately terminate contract and cancel the lessons without refund of monies paid, and you will be subject to Chinese laws.
Disclaimer
All tutors have the right to decide not to teach you. In the event that this occurs, we will arrange a comparable tutor at the original rate for you. The learner agrees to hold us harmless. This also applies to the event that the tutor elects to remove himself/herself from the presentation of ShanghaiTutors.Com. If comparable tutors are not available, the learner agrees to accept refund of unused tuition fees the learner has paid for.
On the rare occasions in which circumstances force us to cancel a learner’s booking, the learner can choose another tutor with similar qualifications among our available listings.
In the case that the alternative options do not fit the client’s needs, we will refund the total paid amount and we will incur no further liability.
We and the tutor reserve the absolute right to terminate any individual’s contract for disruptive behavior without any refund.
We reserve the absolute right to reject any person from using our service without reason.