Sometimes, life happens and lessons have to be rearranged, but we understand this doesn't make cancelled lessons any less frustrating! With this in mind, our cancellation policy has been updated to ensure that students have a reasonable degree of flexibility, but our tutors are also protected against last minute change-of-plans.
Students can cancel any time up to 24 hours before the lesson start time for free, but any lessons cancelled within 24 hours of the start time can result in the student incurring a charge.
A cancellation is eligible for a charge when you or your students cancel within 24 hours of the start time and the reason for cancelling is due to the student. Lessons that are automatically cancelled by the system due to a student not confirming in time are not eligible for a charge.
Tutor controls for late cancellation charges
You have controls on your dashboard that give you greater choice over the level of cancellation charges to apply. When cancelling a lesson within 24 hours of the scheduled start time on behalf of a student, you'll be asked whether you’d like to charge 0%, 50%, or 100% of the lesson price as a cancellation charge. If you are cancelling on behalf of the student, you’ll be asked to decide the level of charge to apply after entering the cancellation reason on the lesson cancellation page, as shown in the screenshot below.
If the student cancels the lesson from their dashboard, we’ll notify you via email and include a direct link to the page where you can decide whether to enforce the cancellation charge or not. This page is also accessible via the lesson details page for lessons eligible for a charge.
You have 24 hours from the time of the cancellation to decide what charge to apply. If you do not apply or waive the charge within this window then we will automatically enforce a 50% charge.
Tutorful Late Cancellation Handling Fee
If a lesson is cancelled within 6 hours of the start time and you choose to waive the charge by selecting 0%, or apply a 50% charge, we will charge students an additional mandatory Late Cancellation Handling Fee of £5. This fee is not applicable for late cancellations where the reason for cancelling is due to the tutor. Students are informed of this policy in their lesson booking and reminder notifications, as well as at the point of cancellation, to make sure that they have fair warning of the cancellation charges that they may incur if they do not give sufficient notice.
No-shows and Cancellations after the start time
Any lessons that are either cancelled after the start time of the lesson or where the student never informed you that a lesson could not take place will be charged at full price. Tutors must wait for the student for at least 15 minutes in the online classroom, attempt to contact the student via phone call and be able to provide evidence of this in order for us to enforce a 100% charge if they do not have alternative evidence of a student cancelling after the start time.
Tutors cannot charge a student in full if the student cancels the lesson after the start time as a result of a tutor being late for a lesson. You can see more on lesson lateness here. (5.20)
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We recommend that you inform your students of your chosen approach to enforcing charges for cancellations that occur within 24 hours so that they know what to expect if they do make a late cancellation. If you’re unsure about how much to charge in certain situations, some things to consider are:
- How many times the student has made a late cancellation in the past
- The reason for cancelling
- The time you’ve spent preparing for the lesson
We're always happy to help you with these decisions if you need us - our Engagement Team is available by live chat and email Monday - Friday and is great at that sort of thing!