This document (Terms) sets out the terms and conditions of the My Tutorz website (Website) and the services available through the Website (Services) to you as a user of the Website or the Services (User). By using the Website or our Services or registering with us, you are confirming that you agree to these Terms so please take the time to read and understand them. If you use the Website or the Services, references in these Terms apply to you. If you do not wish to be bound by the Terms then please do not use the Website.
IMPORTANT: You must ensure that your contact details we hold are kept up-to-date. We may need to contact you for important messages. If you change your contact details you must inform us of the new details by updating your account.
All and any business undertaken between you and us is subject to these Terms. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and any other terms and conditions, these Terms shall prevail unless expressly otherwise agreed between you and us in writing. No variation of these Terms shall be valid if made without our written consent. These Terms supersede all previous terms of business.
Where we reserve a right in these Terms, it does not mean we will be obliged to exercise it. In the event that any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of these Terms shall remain valid and enforceable. These Terms and any claim or dispute (whether contractual or non-contractual) in relation to these Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with relevant United Kingdom law. If you wish to take court proceedings against us you must do so within the United Kingdom.
We are continuously looking for new ways to improve the Website and our Services. We therefore reserve the right to amend or change these Terms at any time. Terms will at all times be available on the Website. For particularly important changes to these Terms, we may e-mail you to bring such changes to your attention. If we change these Terms and that change is to your detriment, you may terminate any agreement with us for us to provide Services to you by giving us notice.
In these Terms:
'Tutor' means a person using the Website and Services for the purpose of offering and carrying out tuition services via the Website.
'Student' means a person using the Website for the purpose of participating in a tutorial session with a Tutor.
'Tuition Arrangement' means an arrangement for a Tutor to perform online tuition services for a Student, as agreed between the Tutor and the Student, to occur on the Website.
'Tuition Room' means the online tuition platform assigned to each tutor, including video and voice feeds and the presentation feed, available via the Tutors profile on the Website.
'Lesson' means a one-to-one tuition session between a Tutor and a Student conducted on the Website using a Tuition Room.
'Charge' means the amount payable by the Student to My Tutorz in respect of a Lesson.
Words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa and words importing the masculine gender shall include the feminine gender and vice versa.Any phrase that includes the words other, including, for example, such as or in particular (or any similar expressions) shall be deemed to include the phrase "without limitation".
Our Website and Services are provided to allow private Tutors to conduct online tuition, and for Students to attend this tuition for an agreed fee. We do not act as agents for the Tutors, nor are we an agency. We merely provide a facility whereby Tutors and Students can find each other and hold online Lessons. The Website and our Services are not provided to education-related companies, agencies, schools and other organisations (together, Organisations). By registering, you are confirming that you are not an Organisation and that you will not use the Website or our Services to seek or provide education-related services on behalf of any Organisation. We do, however, welcome enquiries from Organisations wishing to work with us and any such enquiries should be directed to us using our contact details as set out on the Website.
Our Services include, but are not limited to, the following (for full details of each Service, please see the Website):
Tutors may register their details with us and registered Students will be match against these Tutors;
Tutors may then use their Tuition Room and My Tutorz resources (or their own resources) to conduct a Lesson with the Student;
Payments on a Tutors My Tutorz account will be transfered to the Tutors nominated bank account within the agreed number of days once the Student has made payment.
All Charges are calculated with reference to the duration of the Lesson, the student will only be charged for 60 minutes.
Students must pay for Lessons in advance. A Student will only be able to enter a tuition room to start a Lesson if they have at least 1 hours worth of credit on their account, as determined by their Tutors hourly rate. Payment can only be made by credit card or debit card. We do not accept cash, cheques or payment by telephone. Following the conclusion of a Lesson we shall transfer the amount chargeable in respect of the Lesson from the Student's account to the Tutor's My Tutorz account.
It is understood all Tutors are Self-employed and payment is made direct to the Tutors/Agency minus the agreed My Tutorz commission. Tutors are responsible for their own Local Taxes. This agreement is the same even if the Tutor is contracted via a 3rd party agency.
If the Tutor acknowledges that he was unable to provide satisfactory tuition during the Lesson, the Charge may be refunded to the Student's account in full.
If a Student is unhappy with any Lesson they must report this concerns to us within 48 hours of the end of the Lesson. We shall then investigate these concerns and, if appropriate, arrange a refund. Our decision in this regard is final.
For safety and quality control reasons, My Tutorz has access to a record of the details of all Lessons undertaken. My Tutorz may also record Lessons, and these recordings may include the audio and video streams from both the Tutor and Student, as well as the presentation stream. These files may be stored on the My Tutorz private servers and, in the unlikely event of a dispute, may be accessed by My Tutorz in order to resolve the dispute.
Provisions that apply to all Users of the Website and Services.
your e-mail address and other contact information provided to us are real and accurate and that you will update us with any changes to your contact information;
you are fully entitled to use any credit, debit or charge card, the details of which you submit to us and that such card has available funds sufficient to cover the charges which are to be deducted from it;
you are over 18 years of age (any person seeking to use the Website or our Services who is less than 18 years of age must arrange for a parent or guardian to register with us on their behalf);
you do not appear on either List99 or the PoCA list;
your behaviour on the Website and during any Lessons will not be disruptive, offensive, abusive, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or otherwise objectionable in any respect.
you will compensate us for all (if any) claims, liabilities, costs and expenses (actual or consequential) that we may suffer, which arise out of or in connection with your use of the Website and/or the Services, in particular in relation to your breach of any provision of these Terms, your involvement in any Tuition Arrangement (including your breach of any Tuition Arrangement) or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
you are personally responsible for the information posted by yourself on the Website and shall indemnify us against all and any liability incurred as a result of any false, inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information provided about yourself;
we may withdraw your access to the Website or any of our Services for any period and if necessary permanently, at our sole discretion without liability to you, provided that we provide any payments or refunds due to you;
you are responsible for ensuring that your computer systems and internet connection meet all relevant technical specifications necessary to use the Website and Services and that they are compatible with the Website and Services.
for safety and quality control reasons, My Tutorz has the right to record all Lessons which occur on the Website, and that these recordings can include the audio and video streams from both the Tutor and Student, as well as the presentation stream. You agree that these files can be stored on the My Tutorz private servers and, in the unlikely event of a dispute, can be accessed by My Tutorz in order to resolve the dispute.
In using the Website and our Services (including submitting User Content), you will not:
copy, reproduce, republish, download, upload, post, broadcast, record, transmit, commercially exploit, edit, communicate to the public or distribute in any way the services, web pages or any content on the Website or the computer codes of elements comprising the Website;
provide to any other Users, or request from any other User, any identifying information including, but not limited to, phone number, e-mail address, home address, postal address, website address or details of any organisation, school or body of which they are a member;
do anything that may lead to the encouragement, procurement or carrying out of any criminal activity;
do anything that may cause you or us to breach any applicable laws;
e-mail, transmit or otherwise disseminate any material which is defamatory, obscene, vulgar or indecent or may have the effect of being harassing, threatening, abusive or hateful or that otherwise discriminates against, degrades or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability, or which breaches the rights of others (including copyright and other intellectual property rights);
distribute unsolicited communications including 'spam' messages;
violate, plagiarise, or infringe the rights of third parties including copyright, trade mark, trade secrets, privacy, publicity, personal or proprietary rights;
use inappropriate (e.g. vulgar, offensive etc) user names;
submit advertising or promoting or the posting of other web site addresses;
transfer files that contain viruses, trojans or other harmful programs or use the Website in any way that may damage or disrupt another's computer;
access or attempt to access the accounts of other Users, penetrate or attempt to penetrate the Website security measures or use the Website or our Services as a means to collect or store personal data about others;
include identifying information (such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, message service identifiers, voIP identifiers, postal addresses, website addresses or name, company name, tuition agency or organisation or any other contact information through which you can be contacted) in any messages sent to other Users;
use the Website and/or our Services other than in good faith for your own purposes as an individual Tutor or Student (for the avoidance of doubt, use of the Website and/or the Services by organisations such as employment agencies is not permitted);
attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website and, in particular, you will not attempt to circumvent security, tamper with, hack into, or otherwise disrupt any computer system, server, Website, router or any other internet connected device.
Users must register with a valid personal email address that they access regularly so that moderation emails can be sent to them. If a user registers with someone else's email address, or with temporary email addresses then their registration may be terminated without notice. We may require Users to re-validate their registration if we believe they have been using an invalid email address. We reserve the right to terminate your registration if your are seen to be using proxy IPs (Internet Protocol addresses) in order to breach there Terms.
If you wish to cancel your account, you may do so by written notice to us at any time. We will cancel the account within 72 hours of such notice. Within 21 days of receipt of such a notice of cancellation, we shall transfer to you any outstanding balance on your account.
Additional provisions that apply to Tutors
If you are a Tutor, the following provisions apply to you.
You promise to use your real name and real personal details. You promise that you are at least eighteen years of age and can (and will on request) provide any references, CRB checks, proof of identification or qualifications as claimed in your profile. You acknowledge that if you use false details we have the right to terminate your account. You acknowledge that your Tutor profile and some details entered by you on the Website will be publicly visible and may appear in search engine results.
Students will add credit to their account before the Lesson starts. A Student will only be able to enter your Tuition Room to start a Lesson if they have credit on their account. The amount of credit on the Students account is displayed as soon as they enter your Tuition Room. It is your responsibility to check that the Student has sufficient credit to cover the cost of the Lesson before you begin. The displayed Student credit will decrease throughout the lesson in accordance with your hourly rate. Once the displayed Student credit reaches zero, you may continue teaching, but you will not be paid for this time and the Student will not be Charged. You will not receive payment for any tuition given while the displayed Student credit is zero.
If you do not agree that the Charge for any Lesson is correct, you must contact My Tutorz via the Website within 48 hours of the end of the Lesson, and we will investigate the issue and may adjust the Charge if necessary.
If there is a dispute between you and the Student, regarding the Charge for a Lesson or for any other reason, you must report this to My Tutorz immediately. My Tutorz will then act as a moderator and attempt to resolve the disagreement and both you and the Student will be contacted. My Tutorz has records of all correspondence between you and the Student, made via the Website, and may also have recorded the Lesson. This data will be reviewed by My Tutorz administrators and a decision will be made. It is at the discretion of My Tutorz as to whether any Charge will be made for a given Lesson, and if so, how much. The decision made by My Tutorz on these matters is final. We reserve the right to refuse payment for any Lessons you have conducted, if we have reasonable grounds to do so. It is at the discretion of My Tutorz as to whether any refunds will be made for any reason.
If a Student believes that you were unable to provide satisfactory tuition during a Lesson, the Charge for the Lesson may be refunded to the Student's account in full. It is at the discretion of My Tutorz as to whether any refunds will be made for any reason.
You acknowledge that we are entitled to alter this amount or the basis of the calculation of our fees, provided that such amount or basis is clearly stated prior to any fees being taken.
You agree that you will never seek payment for the tuition you perform on the My Tutorz Website from the Student directly. You agree that all payments for tuition you perform at My Tutorz will be made via the Website.
You acknowledge that Students are entitled to submit feedback in relation to you, your profile and your tuition services. Students can submit ratings and written comments. You cannot control whether or not ratings submitted by Students will be published. You are, however, entitled to determine whether or not comments in relation to you should be publicly viewable. When a Student submits a comment via the Website, you will be sent a message showing the comment. You must then approve or decline the comment within 2 weeks. If you decline, the comment will not be made publicly viewable. If you do not take any action within 2 weeks, the comment may be published in full. In responding to feedback from Students posted on the Website, you shall not be personally abusive about a Student, Tutor, My Tutorz or anyone else. You acknowledge that we retain the right to remove or edit feedback where we see appropriate in occasional cases.
You acknowledge that you are not an employee of ours or any of our affiliated companies and you accept full responsibility for all Income Tax, National Insurance and other taxation or employment-related responsibilities arising in connection with your involvement in any Tuition Arrangements on the Website.
You agree not to publish, disclose to others, or copy the content that we make available to you on the Website. You agree not to share your login details with others, or otherwise to enable others to access your account.
You agree to participate fully and professionally in all Lessons. You agree that no material used by yourself in the course of a Lesson will be offensive or defamatory and it will not infringe any UK laws (including laws relating to copyright). You are also wholly responsible for the appropriateness of any content you use during a Lesson.
In the interests of quality control and teaching standards, My Tutorz has the right to terminate the accounts of any Tutor who's qualifications, experience or teaching standards do not meet our requirements.
Any Tuition Arrangements you make with a Student are your responsibility to fulfil. If you need to alter a Tuition Arrangement, you must contact the Student via the Website. If you need to cancel or rearrange a Lesson, it is your responsibility to inform the Student via the Website messaging system. My Tutorz will not be involved in the creation or enforcing of any Tuition Arrangements. However, if you fail to honour a Tuition Arrangement without duly informing the Student, My Tutorz may terminate your account.
Additional provisions that apply to Students
If you are a Student or if, as a Tutor, you use Student-level access, the following provisions apply to you.
You hereby confirm that you are not less than eighteen years of age. Any person seeking to use the Website or our Services who is less than eighteen years of age must arrange for a parent or guardian to register with us on their behalf and that parent or guardian shall be the Student for the purposes of these Terms.
Each time you add credit to your account, a binding contract is formed between you and My Tutorz on these Terms. You agree to pay My Tutorz directly and in advance for all tuition you receive on the Website, and will not pass any payment directly to the Tutor. If a Tutor requests that you pay them directly or outside of My Tutorz, you must not do so and you must inform My Tutorz. My Tutorz will terminate the account of any User who breaches these Terms.
By entering a Tutor's Tuition Room, you are agreeing to pay the Tutors hourly rate as stated. You promise to have credit on your account equal to or in excess of the equivalent of the Tutor's hourly rate. You promise your account will always have sufficient credit to cover the cost of the tuition you receive at My Tutorz, and if this is not the case, you promise to add credit your account to cover all costs you have incurred.
Following the conclusion of a Lesson we shall transfer the amount chargeable in respect of the Lesson from your My Tutorz account to your Tutors My Tutorz account. If you do not agree that the Charge for any Lesson is correct, you must contact My Tutorz via the Website within 48 hours of the end of the Lesson, and we will investigate the issue and may adjust the Charge if necessary.
If there is a dispute between you and the Tutor, regarding the Charge of a Lesson or for any other reason, you must report this to My Tutorz immediately. My Tutorz will then act as a moderator and attempt to resolve the disagreement and both you and the Tutor will be contacted. My Tutorz has records of all correspondence between you and the Tutor, made via the Website, and may also have recorded the Lesson. This data will be reviewed by My Tutorz administrators and a decision will be made. It is at the discretion of My Tutorz as to whether any Charge will be made for a given Lesson, and if so, how much. The decision made by My Tutorz on these matters is final. We reserve the right to refuse a refund for any Lessons you have received, if we have reasonable grounds to do so. It is at the discretion of My Tutorz as to whether any refunds will be made for any reason.
If you are unhappy with any Lesson or Tutor, you must report these concerns to us within 48 hours of the end of the Lesson. We shall then investigate these concerns and, if appropriate, arrange a refund. Our decision in this regard is final and binding.
Any Tuition Arrangements you make with a Tutor are your responsibility to fulfil. If you need to alter a Tuition Arrangement, you must contact the Tutor via the Website. If you need to cancel or rearrange a Lesson, it is your responsibility to inform the Tutor via the Website messaging system. My Tutorz will not be involved in the creation or enforcing of any Tuition Arrangements. However, if you fail to honour a Tuition Arrangement without duly informing the Tutor, My Tutorz may terminate your account.
Whilst we may request that Tutors make available full details and proof of their credentials, it is not reasonably practicable for us to check every Tutor's Credentials, and we cannot do so. For this reason, we cannot guarantee that the information submitted by the Tutor is accurate and we shall not be responsible for any failure of the Tutor to provide to you satisfactory evidence to support the statements on the Tutor's profile as to the Tutor's Credentials. You should always check carefully all relevant information in relation to a Tutor before you choose to enter into a Tuition Arrangement with the Tutor and you should verify the Tutor's Credentials (e.g. by checking identification) yourself before entering into any Tuition Arrangement. It is solely the Student's responsibility to evaluate which Tutor is suitable to fulfil their needs.
You may be required to submit and confirm information in relation to yourself, your tuition requirements and the terms on which you have engaged a Tutor to provide tuition services. You agree to supply such information.
If you have an outstanding balance on your account which you would like refunded, you must send us a message, via your profile on the Website, informing us of this. We will process any refunds within 21 days of receiving your refund request. All refunds will be processed back to the account from which the payment was made.
Account credit does not expire. At anytime you can request a full refund of any unused credit. However, If no Lessons are attended for a period of 1 years, your account may be deemed inactive and closed. In this case any outstanding credit on your account will be lost and can no longer be refunded.
When you communicate with other Users via the Website or otherwise use any Services, you may submit or upload various content, such as the text or graphics, including but not limited to any material in your profile and any files uploaded during tuition (User Content). When we receive User Content from you, we may check whether it complies with these Terms. We may reject your User Content if it causes you to breach these Terms, or for any other reason in our reasonable discretion.
By submitting User Content, you:
promise to us that you own the User Content or have the right to grant the licence to its use and that the User Content does not infringe the rights of any third party;
promise that any User Content submitted by you does not cause you to breach these Terms.
Your use of the Website and its contents grants no rights to you in relation to:
intellectual property rights (including copyrights, trade marks, design rights or patents in relation to logos, graphics, photographs, images, sound recordings, compositions, animations, videos and text) in the Website and its contents and in relation to our Services, whether owned by us or by third parties;
IP Rights in any User Content submitted to the Website by other Users.
The limit of our legal obligations
We cannot guarantee the continued availability of any Tutor and accept no responsibility or liability for the withdrawal, removal or unavailability of any Tutor. No warranty or representation express or implied is given in respect of any Tutor.
We accept no liability for any loss, damage, cost, expenses or other claims for compensation arising from the introduction of a Tutor to a Student. Neither do we accept liability for the failure of the Tutor to meet a Students requirements.
We shall not be liable for any consequence, loss or damage of any nature whatsoever and howsoever arising (whether such damage or loss was foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise) out of or in connection with the viewing, use or performance of the Website or Services, whether due to inaccuracy, error, omission or any other cause and whether on the part of us or our servants or agents, or any other person. Such shall include (but not be limited to) loss of data, loss of revenue or anticipated profits, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or injury to reputation, losses suffered by third parties or any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of the Website regardless of the form of action. We accept no responsibility for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction you take based on the information, services or other material available on or through this Website. You agree and acknowledge that we shall not be responsible or liable for indirect losses which are a side effect of the main loss or damage and which are not reasonably foreseeable by you and us at the time of entering into the agreement on these Terms, including loss of profits and loss of opportunity.
We shall not be liable for any loss which results from any User failing to attend a Tuition Arrangement.
We aim to make the Website available at all times but cannot guarantee that the Website will operate continuously or without interruptions nor that it will be error free. You agree and acknowledge that we shall not be responsible or liable for temporary failure to provide the Website or our Services.
We do not accept any liability for damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from your use of the Website and we cannot guarantee that the Website or any files that you download are free from viruses, contamination or destructive features.
Each Tuition Arrangement is an agreement between the relevant Tutor and the relevant Student and we are not a party to that agreement and we are not responsible for the actions of Users or other third parties. For these reasons, you agree and acknowledge that:
we have no responsibility or liability in relation to any aspect of any Tuition Arrangement;
we do not make any promise or representation to you as to the suitability of any User;
we have no responsibility for any examination entry which is the sole responsibility of the Student;
we have no responsibility for any grade received by a Student nor any consequence that grades may entail.
You agree and acknowledge that, even though all Users are prohibited from doing so, some Users may provide information or otherwise behave, via the Website, in a way that is unreliable, misleading or even illegal and some Users may not necessarily be who they say they are. Accordingly, to the extent that the law permits, you agree and acknowledge that your use of the Website and our Services is entirely at your own risk and you release us, our directors, contractors and employees from all liability (including in relation to disputes with other Users) where such liability relates to or arises out of the behaviour of (or the User Content or other material provided by) other Users and other third parties.
Whilst we use all reasonable endeavours to correct any errors or omissions as soon as practicable once they have been brought to our attention, we do not promise that the information and other material on the Website itself will be free from errors or omissions.
Although we reserve the right to monitor the use of the Website and the User Content if we choose, we may not always do so and we do not control, and are not responsible for, the User Content submitted by you or other Users of the Website and, as such, we do not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such User Content. Furthermore, we recommend that you run anti-virus programs on any information, content and/or User Content obtained via the Website. We will, however, seek to react quickly to any complaints regarding the Website, any User Content or other content on the Website or the conduct of other Users and we treat such complaints very seriously. If you wish to make a complaint please contact us.
All content and services on the Website are provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. We do not make any promise or representation in respect of the Website or its content, including any assessment of User Content, any advice given (on a personal or general basis) and any statements made by Users on the Website. Any decisions or actions taken by you on the basis of information provided on or via the Website are at your sole discretion and risk.
We reserve the absolute right to alter, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Website or the services provided through it, including access to it. Unless explicitly stated, any new features on the Website, including but not limited to the release of new services, shall be subject to the Terms.
We may provide links from the Website to other websites from time to time. These links are provided for your ease of reference and convenience only. We do not control such third party websites and are not responsible for their contents. Our inclusion of links to such third party websites does not imply any endorsement of the material contained in such third party websites nor any association with their operators. You acknowledge that we will not be party to any transaction or contract with a third party that you may enter into. You agree that we shall not be liable to you in respect of, and that you will not involve us in any dispute between you and a third party in relation to, any loss or damage which you may suffer by using third party websites.
The views expressed by Users are theirs and unless specifically stated are not shared by us. We are not responsible for any information provided by Users via the Website.
Our liability to you arising out of or in connection with any agreement between you and us on these Terms shall be limited to £200.
My Tutorz processes your personal data in order to perform our contract with you, to provide online tutoring services, as outlined in the Terms and Conditions. Processing of your personal data is required to: create your account and communicate important account information (including name, email and mobile); record your communication history (including messages sent and received and lessons conducted); and to process and record your payments (including student payment card details and tutor bank account details which are shared with our payment processors in order to process the transaction). For tutors, we also collect data to: confirm your identity (including date of birth, address and photographic ID); and to produce your publicly shared tutor profile (including photo, tutoring details, qualifications, experience and student ratings) which may appear in search engine results pages.
You can view your personal data held by My Tutorz at any time by logging into your account. If any personal data is incorrect, you can correct it yourself, or alternatively contact us to request a correction. You can request a copy of your personal data, withdraw consent of further processing or request deletion of your personal data at anytime by contacting My Tutorz, either via the site messaging system or via email (support@mytutorz.com”). We will remove your personal data by anonymisation; within 1 month if you request deletion and have not had any contact with other users; within 1 year of the last activity on your account if you request deletion and have had contact with other users who may have a legitimate interest to query your activity; after 6 years of inactivity on your account. For tutors, we disable your public profile within 1 week.
All users consent to the recording of lessons inside the tuition room for safeguarding purposes. This includes the shared whiteboard and user video and audio. The recordings are stored securely and can only be accessed by My Tutorz administrators. In the event of a safeguarding concern or a dispute, the recording can be accessed and reviewed by My Tutorz and may then be made available to the student, their legal guardian, or the tutor depending upon circumstances, in order to resolve the issue. To further ensure safeguarding, all messages and their attachments sent via the site messaging system are saved and can be accessed by My Tutorz administrators, if necessary.
All users registering on the site must be at least 18 years old. For students under 18 years, a parent or legal guardian must register on their behalf and in doing so is consenting to the processing of any personal data they provide while using the account, for the purposes of providing online tutoring services via the site.
If you have any questions, please contact us via the My Tutorz messaging system or via email (support@mytutorz.com).