Cancellation fees and lesson no-shows - Should I charge a cancellation fee?

If the reason for cancellation is not acceptable and the lesson is cancelled by the student less than 1 hour prior to the arranged time, a cancellation fee of 100% of the planned lesson fee shall be charged.

Once a lesson (either through in-person or online means) has been arranged (agreed upon by both student and tutor), KIS Academics, acting as the Agent of the tutor, considers this booking to be final, subject to this cancellation policy. That is, the student agrees to pay for the arranged lesson unless specified otherwise in this document. Note that if a lesson is cancelled for any reason, the student must notify the tutor immediately, or at least an hour before the scheduled lesson.

If the lesson is cancelled by the student less than 1 hour prior to the arranged time, a cancellation fee of 100% of the planned lesson fee shall be charged.

What is an arranged lesson?

An arranged lesson is one which the student and tutor have agreed to hold at a particular time and place (either in-person or online). The agreement can be verbal or written. A lesson will be considered to have been arranged even if the tutor or student knew or ought to have known at the time of arrangement that the lesson would have to be cancelled. If an agreement is reached to continue holding lessons regularly for a period of time, it will be considered that lessons have been arranged, even if specific times and places have not been agreed.

If the student and tutor arrange to have a lesson subject to any conditions other than those listed in this document, the lesson will not be considered to have been arranged as long as any of the conditions are not met. However, as soon as all conditions are met, the lesson will be considered to have been arranged.

Acceptable reasons for cancellation

The student cannot be charged for the lesson if the lesson is cancelled more than 1 hour before commencement due to:

• the tutor cancelling the lesson for any reason, or failing to be at the agreed place at the agreed time for any reason;
• the student being sick (as certified by a medical practitioner);
• the student having an appointment which is:
  • important and urgent, and
  • unable to be rescheduled;
• the student and the tutor agreeing to cancel the lesson without charge;
• the student’s requirement to appear in court for any reason;
• the student cancelling the lesson with sufficient notice, more than 1 hour prior to the commencement time of the lesson;
• any other unforeseeable event which should reasonably take precedence over the student’s attendance at the lesson.
  
  

Unacceptable reasons for cancellation

The student can be charged for the lesson if the lesson is cancelled less than 1 hour prior to the commencement of the lesson due to:

• the student’s lateness, including but not limited to lateness due to transport delays;
• a reasonably foreseeable or regular event which would otherwise satisfy any of the acceptable reasons for cancellation above, with the exception of a court appearance;
• any event which is unable to be rescheduled due to a lack of planning by the student;
• other work or study commitments;
• any unexplained failure to be at the agreed place at the agreed time.

Furthermore, the student will be charged for the lesson if:

• the student fails to give sufficient notice of at least 1 hour of the cancellation of the lesson, unless the lesson is cancelled for an acceptable reason as defined in this document; or
• the student’s failure to give immediate notice of the cancellation causes significant inconvenience to the tutor.
  
  

Variation of lessons

If the time, place or duration of a lesson is varied by mutual agreement without significant inconvenience to either the student or tutor, the lesson shall not be taken to have been cancelled.

Replacement lessons

The student will be charged for any lesson arranged in the stead of a cancelled lesson, unless the cancelled lesson was cancelled by the tutor and the cancellation caused significant inconvenience to the student.

Repeated Cancellations

After two no-shows or last-minute cancellations less than 1 hour before the arranged lesson time, the tutor may choose not to tutor the student any longer. This decision may be made at the discretion of the tutor or KIS Academics, acting as the Agent of the tutor.

Waiver of fees

The tutor or KIS Academics, acting as the Agent of the tutor, may choose not to charge the student for a cancelled lesson, even if the student would otherwise be charged under the terms of this policy. For tutors to process a missed lesson (without sufficient notice given), they must firstly contact KIS Academics administration to notify them of the cancellation.

Hi CUSTOMER,

This is CUSTOMER_SERVICE from KIS Academics.

I’m just sending you an email to notify you of a cancellation payment we’ve billed your account due to a cancelled lesson with TUTOR_NAME less than 1 hour before the lesson time: LESSON_TIME

We’ve just sent this through as according to our Private Tutoring Policy, if a student fails to show up, or cancels a lesson less than 1 hour before a pre-arranged time, you'll still be charged the lesson fee.

Here's a link to the invoice:

INVOICE_LINK

We hate to have to do this, but unfortunately we need to make sure that our tutors’ time is respected - which is why we have the cancellation fee in the first place.

If you have any questions about this charge or think it has been made unfairly, please contact me at contact@kisacademics.com instead of contacting your tutor, as the tutors are not involved in enforcing cancellation fees - it’s something we organise as the admin staff.

For more information about our Private Tutoring Terms of Service and Cancellation Policy, see here: [<https://blog.kisacademics.com/terms-of-service/>](<https://blog.kisacademics.com/terms-of-service/>)

Please make sure that if you need to skip a lesson in future, or move a lesson time around, just get in touch with your tutor and notify them as soon as possible, leaving as much time as you can before the lesson so alternative plans can be made.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, or contact Manoj on 0426213600.

Kind regards,

CUSTOMER_SERVICE from KIS 🧠