Terms of service

These terms are the agreement between you and SayAway for the language lessons and the website at sayawaylessons.com. You accept them when you create an account, book a lesson or buy a package. Please read them together with the Privacy policy and the Cancellation policy, which form part of them.

1. Who we are

SayAway is a language-teaching business based in Australia, ABN 49 179 423 151. We teach English, Spanish and Italian online, one to one.

• Email: sayawaylessons@gmail.com
• Phone: +61 413 444 208
• Website: sayawaylessons.com

In these terms "we", "us" and "SayAway" mean this business, and "you" means the person who holds the account.

2. Who can use the service

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account and buy lessons. A parent or legal guardian may create an account, buy lessons and book them for a student under 18. In that case the parent or guardian is our customer, accepts these terms and is responsible for the student's use of the service.

You may hold one account. The details you give us must be accurate and kept up to date.

3. What we provide

Lessons are private, one-to-one language lessons held online by video. The kinds of lesson we offer, their length and what each costs are shown on the site and in your account before you book. At the time of writing they are:

• Trial lesson: 30 minutes, to meet, talk and work out where you are and where you want to get to. One per person, for new students only.
• Private lesson: 50 minutes, one to one, built around your plan.
• Intensive session: 90 minutes, worth two lesson credits.

After each lesson your teacher may leave written notes, vocabulary and a small piece of homework in your account. Lessons are not recorded.

We do not promise a particular exam result, level or outcome. How fast you progress depends on attendance, practice and on you, as much as on us.

4. Packages and lesson credits

Lessons are bought as credits, in packages. Before you pay, a package tells you how many credits it contains, what kinds of lesson they can be spent on, its price and how long it stays valid.

• Validity. Each package is valid for a fixed number of days from the date of purchase (for example 14 days for the trial lesson, 60 days for a single lesson, 90 days for five lessons and 180 days for ten). The expiry date is shown in your account. Credits not used by that date expire and are not refunded, except where the Australian Consumer Law requires otherwise. We email you a week before a package expires.
• Booked is safe. A lesson booked before the expiry date is kept, even if it takes place after it.
• Personal. Packages and credits belong to the person who bought them. They cannot be sold or transferred to someone else without our written agreement.
• Package terms. A package may carry its own short terms, shown when you buy it. Those terms apply in addition to these. If they conflict, the package's own terms prevail for that package.
• Changes. We may change packages and prices at any time. A package you have already bought keeps the price, credits and validity it was bought with.

5. Booking lessons

You book lessons from your account, in the times your teacher has made available. Booking spends the credits for that lesson straight away.

• Each kind of lesson needs a minimum notice, shown when you book (at the time of writing, 12 hours for a trial or private lesson and 24 hours for an intensive session), and can be booked up to 60 days ahead.
• Lesson times are shown in the time zone set in your profile. Check that it is right: a lesson missed because your time zone was wrong is a missed lesson.
• The rules a lesson is booked under (its cancellation deadline, how many times it can be moved) are fixed at booking and stay with that lesson, even if we later change them for new bookings.

6. Cancelling, moving and missing lessons

The Cancellation policy says exactly what happens when you cancel or move a lesson, when you miss one, and when your teacher cancels. In short:

• Cancel before the deadline shown on the lesson and the credit returns to your balance.
• Cancel after the deadline, or do not turn up, and the lesson counts as used.
• If your teacher cancels, the credit always comes back and you are offered a new time.

7. Attending lessons

Lessons take place on the video link shown in your account for that lesson: a Google Meet room, our built-in lesson room, or a standing link your teacher gives you. Please join a few minutes early with a working camera, microphone and connection. You are responsible for your own equipment and internet connection.

A lesson starts and ends at the booked time. If you join late, the lesson still ends at its scheduled time. We ask that lessons are conducted with respect on both sides. We may end a lesson, and refuse further bookings, if a student behaves abusively or inappropriately.

You may not record a lesson, or share a lesson link with anyone else, without your teacher's agreement.

8. Payments

Payment is taken in full at the time of purchase, through Stripe, in Australian dollars. Prices include GST where it applies. We do not see or store your card details; Stripe does, under its own terms and privacy policy. A receipt is available from your account after each payment.

• Discount codes and gift cards. Where we offer them, a code or gift card is applied at checkout under the conditions shown with it. Gift cards cannot be exchanged for cash.
• Subscriptions. Where we offer a subscription, it renews automatically at the interval shown until you cancel it from your account. Each paid renewal adds that cycle's credits. You can cancel at any time: the credits already granted stay yours until they expire, and no further payment is taken. If a renewal payment fails, we tell you where to update your card; nothing is taken back.
• Failed or disputed payments. Credits are granted only for payments that succeed. If a payment is later reversed or disputed, we may remove the credits it paid for and any lessons booked with them.

9. Refunds

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. If a service we provide is not what it should be, you are entitled to the remedies that law gives you.

Beyond that, unused lessons are not refunded for a change of mind. If you are unable to keep using the service for a serious reason, write to us: we consider these requests case by case, but cannot promise a refund. If we can no longer provide lessons you have paid for (for example because your teacher stops teaching and no alternative is offered), we refund the unused credits.

Refunds go back to the payment method you paid with, through Stripe, and the corresponding credits are removed from your balance. Credits in your balance cannot be paid out as cash.

10. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your password private and for everything done from your account. Tell us at once if you think someone else has used it.

You can close your account by asking from your profile page. We first settle what is open: lessons still booked need to be completed or cancelled, and unused paid lessons need to be used, refunded or written off, so that closing an account never silently swallows anything you paid for. When the account is closed, your name, contact details and your own words are removed. The record of lessons taught and payments made is kept, without your identity, as our business and tax records. See the Privacy policy.

We may suspend or close an account, after telling you why, if these terms are broken, if a payment is reversed, or if the account is used abusively or to harm others. Credits already paid for are dealt with under section 9.

11. Materials and intellectual property

The notes, resources, homework and other materials your teacher gives you are for your own study. You may keep them; you may not publish, sell or redistribute them. The website, its content and its design belong to SayAway.

Your homework, answers and messages remain yours. You allow us to keep and use them to teach you and to run the service. We quote a student publicly, for example as a testimonial, only with that student's consent.

12. Our liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot be excluded.

To the extent the law allows, our liability for anything arising from these terms or the service is limited, at our choice, to supplying the service again or to the amount you paid for the affected lessons. We are not liable for loss that is indirect or that we could not reasonably have foreseen, for the failure of third-party services we rely on (video, internet, payment providers), or for the results of your learning.

13. The service and its availability

We do our best to keep the website and lesson rooms available, but cannot promise that they always will be. Maintenance and outages happen. A lesson that cannot take place because of a fault on our side is treated as a lesson cancelled by the teacher.

14. Privacy

How we handle your personal information is set out in our Privacy policy.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Every version is numbered and dated on this page, and earlier versions stay on record. The version in force is the one published on the site when you book or buy. If a change is significant, we email account holders before it takes effect. Continuing to use the service after that date means you accept the new version.

16. Governing law and language

These terms are governed by the laws of Australia. Any dispute is subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Australian courts. We hope never to get there: if something goes wrong, write to us first and we will try to sort it out.

These terms are published in English and Italian. The English version is the binding one; the Italian translation is provided to help.

17. Contact

Questions about these terms: sayawaylessons@gmail.com.