Terms & cancellation policy

1. The agreement between us

These terms govern English lessons provided by Sneha Sridhar, trading as Teacher Sneha, to you as a student or, where the student is under eighteen, to you as the parent or guardian who books on their behalf.

The agreement takes effect when you book and pay for your first lesson or block. The free 30-minute introductory consultation carries no obligation, and none of the payment, cancellation or refund clauses below apply to it.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the consumer law of your own country. Where a provision here conflicts with a mandatory consumer protection where you live, that protection prevails and the rest of these terms continue to apply.

2. Definitions

3. Booking and confirmation

A booking is made through the booking form, by email, or by agreeing a time during a lesson.

1. Your request is acknowledged the same day, and two or three specific time slots are proposed within one working day.
2. A slot is held provisionally until payment is received. Unpaid provisional slots are released after 48 hours if I have not heard from you.
3. Once payment is received, the slot is confirmed and appears in your schedule.
4. Recurring weekly slots are held for you for as long as you have lessons remaining in a block. If a block runs out and is not renewed within fourteen days, the slot may be offered to someone else — I will always warn you before that happens.

4. Prices, payment and currency

Current prices are published on the pricing page and form part of these terms.

• Currency. All prices are in US dollars.
• Timing. Payment is due in advance — before the lesson, or before the first lesson of a block.
• Methods. Bank transfer, PayPal and Wise. Wise usually gives the best rate for students outside the United States.
• Charges. Any transfer, currency-conversion or intermediary-bank fee is paid by the sender. If a payment arrives short because of an intermediary fee, I will tell you the difference rather than silently absorbing or invoicing it.
• Receipts. An invoice or receipt is issued for every payment on request, and automatically for blocks.
• Price changes. Rates may be reviewed once a year. Existing students are given at least thirty days’ notice, and any block already paid for is honoured at the old rate.
• Taxes. Prices are inclusive of any tax I am obliged to charge. You are responsible for any tax due in your own country.

5. Blocks, validity and expiry

• A block of five or ten lessons is valid for six months from the date of purchase.
• Lessons may be taken at whatever pace suits you within that period; there is no minimum weekly commitment.
• Unused lessons are transferable to a family member or partner at no cost — simply tell me who will be using them.
• If illness, travel or a work crisis means you cannot use a block in time, ask for an extension. A first extension of up to three months is granted as a matter of course.
• A block that expires unused after all reasonable extensions is not refundable, but I will always contact you at least a month before expiry rather than letting it lapse quietly.

6. Cancellation and rescheduling

This is the clause most likely to matter to you, so it is set out in full. The purpose of a notice period is not to penalise you — it is that a slot cancelled at short notice cannot be given to another student, and the time is simply lost.

The exceptions, which are generous on purpose

• Your first late cancellation is always free, whatever the reason and whatever the notice. Life happens.
• Illness, bereavement and genuine emergencies are not charged. I do not ask for evidence and I would rather occasionally be taken advantage of than have a sick child sitting through a lesson.
• Blocks of ten include two free reschedules at any notice; blocks of five include one.
• Repeated short-notice cancellations — more than three in a term — will prompt a conversation about whether the scheduled time is really working, rather than an escalating series of charges.

How to cancel

Email or message me on whichever channel we normally use. Notice is timed from when your message is sent, not when I read it, so a message at two in the morning still counts. You do not need to give a reason.

7. Lateness and no-shows

• If you are late, the lesson still ends at its scheduled time, so that the following student is not delayed. I will wait online for the full duration.
• If you have not appeared after 20 minutes and I have heard nothing, the lesson is treated as a no-show and charged in full.
• If I am late by more than ten minutes without having warned you, that lesson is free and is not deducted from your block.
• If I am late by less than ten minutes, the time is added to the end of the lesson or to the next one, whichever suits you.

8. If I need to cancel

It happens rarely, and when it does the outcome is always in your favour.

• You are given as much notice as I have, through the channel most likely to reach you quickly.
• The lesson is not deducted from your block.
• You are offered a replacement slot within seven days, at a time you choose from what is available.
• If no replacement time suits you, that lesson is refunded in full.
• If I have to cancel more than twice in a term, you may end the arrangement immediately and have every unused lesson refunded without deduction.

9. Technology and connection problems

Lessons run on Zoom or Google Meet — whichever you already use. You need a device with a camera, a reasonably stable connection and a quiet place to sit. Headphones with a microphone are strongly recommended for pronunciation work but are not required.

If your connection is persistently poor, tell me — audio-only lessons work far better than most people expect, and I will restructure the material accordingly rather than have you struggle through frozen video.

10. Materials and intellectual property

• Worksheets, slides, recordings, correction logs and progress documents are provided for your personal study and are yours to keep indefinitely.
• You may print them, annotate them and share them with a parent, guardian or tutor supporting you.
• Please do not republish, resell or distribute them publicly, or upload them to a document-sharing site.
• Copyright in materials I have created remains mine. Third-party materials used in lessons — published coursebooks, news articles, audio clips — remain the property of their publishers and are used within the limits of educational fair dealing.
• Articles published on this website may be quoted with attribution and a link. Wholesale reproduction is not permitted.
• Anything you write or record during a lesson remains entirely yours.

11. Conduct and the learning environment

Almost nobody needs this section, and it is here for the rare occasion when someone does.

• Lessons are a place of mutual respect. Abusive, discriminatory or threatening behaviour ends the lesson immediately and terminates the arrangement, with unused lessons refunded.
• Please join from a setting appropriate to a lesson — not while driving, and not somewhere you cannot speak freely.
• For young learners: a parent or guardian should be at home and contactable for the duration of the lesson. They are welcome to observe at any time, without notice.
• Please tell me in advance about anything that affects how a student learns — dyslexia, ADHD, hearing difficulties, anxiety about speaking. It changes how I plan, and it is never a problem.
• I reserve the right to decline or end an arrangement where I do not believe I am the right teacher for a student’s needs. In that case I will say so honestly, refund everything unused and, where I can, suggest someone better suited.

12. Refunds

Refunds are returned by the same method you paid with, within fourteen days of being agreed.

13. Holidays, breaks and long absences

• Tell me about a planned holiday whenever you know about it. Slots are held free of charge for breaks of up to four weeks.
• For breaks longer than four weeks, I will hold your slot where I can but cannot always guarantee the same time on your return.
• I take a small number of teaching breaks each year, and you will always have at least three weeks’ notice.
• Public holidays are not automatically cancelled — if you want to study on a holiday and I am available, we study.
• Block validity is extended by the length of any break agreed in advance.

14. Results, levels and exam scores

I will work hard for your result and I will be honest with you about how it is going. What I cannot do is guarantee it.

• No score is guaranteed. No teacher can promise an IELTS band, a TOEFL score or a particular CEFR level, because the outcome depends on your practice between lessons, your starting point, your performance on the day and factors none of us control.
• The figures quoted on this site — such as an average gain of around half a band over a ten-week block — describe past students. They are honest, and they are not a promise about you.
• Level estimates given in the free consultation or in the online quiz are informal guidance, not a certificate, and carry no official standing.
• If your progress is slower than expected, I will tell you plainly and we will change the plan rather than continuing and hoping.
• I am not responsible for decisions made by universities, employers or immigration authorities on the basis of your test results.

15. Liability

I provide lessons with reasonable skill and care. To the fullest extent the law allows:

• My total liability in connection with these terms is limited to the amount you have paid me in the twelve months before the claim arose.
• I am not liable for indirect or consequential loss — for example a missed visa deadline, a lost job offer or a rejected application.
• I am not liable for failures caused by events outside my reasonable control, including internet outages, power cuts, platform failures, illness and natural events. In those cases the lesson is rescheduled or refunded, which is the remedy available.

Nothing here excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.

16. If something goes wrong

Please tell me first. Nearly everything is fixable in a five-minute conversation, and I would much rather hear a complaint than lose a student silently.

1. Raise it by email or in the lesson. Acknowledged within two working days.
2. We discuss it — usually a short call is quicker than a long exchange of messages.
3. A written outcome follows within ten working days, setting out what I will do.
4. If you are still unhappy, you keep every right you have under your own consumer law, and any unused lessons are refunded so that you are not tied to an arrangement that is not working.

17. Changes to these terms

These terms are reviewed annually. The version number and effective date at the top of the page always show the current text.

Changes are notified to current students at least thirty days in advance and never apply retrospectively to a block you have already paid for. If a change does not suit you, you may end the arrangement and have unused lessons refunded in full.

18. Governing law and severability

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts of Chennai have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory consumer law of your country of residence, nor of the right to bring proceedings there.

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, that provision is severed and the remainder continues in force. A failure to enforce a term on one occasion is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later.

These terms, together with the pricing page and the privacy policy, form the whole agreement between us.