Terms of Service.

1. Terms

This agreement is between the following parties:

A: You, the customer. Any mention of “you”, “your”, “student”, “customer”, ”user” or “client” should be considered as equivalent;

And,

B: We at Speak English with Jo. Any mention of “we”, “our”, “the company”, '“teacher” or “www.speakenglishwithjo.com” are considered equivalent.

By visiting the website at http://www.speakenglishwithjo.com, and/or booking an online English lesson, you hereby assent to the following terms and conditions, all applicable laws and regulations, and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site. The materials contained in this website are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

2. Modifications

Speak English with Jo may revise these terms of service for its website at any time without notice. By using this website you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these terms of service.

3. Service overview

Speak English with Jo provides one-to-one online lesson and personalised English coaching to its students and customers.

4. Services

4.1 Lesson cancellations and no-shows If you cancel more than 24 hours before a scheduled lesson, you will maintain the credit for booking it again at a new time agreed with the teacher. If you cancel less than 24 hours prior to the class or fail to show up, you will lose the lesson.

4.2. Refunds Once you have purchased any of the individual lessons or packages from Speak English with Jo, you will not be entitled to any refunds or additional lessons, even if lessons are cut short by technical difficulties or unclear sound quality. Any requests for refunds or additional lessons will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of Speak English with Jo's management.

4.3 Equipment and Conditions The following equipment is recommended for you to maximise your experience as a student when taking an online lesson with Speak English with Jo:

  • A fast internet connection is essential. Skype recommends the minimum download and upload speed required for best performance is 1.5Mbps. But we say, the faster the better. Speak English with Jo does not bear any responsibility for the quality of your Internet connection and will not be able to reimburse students on this basis. Please communicate directly with your Internet Service Provider if problems persist.

  • Computer/tablet/smartphone. A computer is highly recommended and preferred over mobile devices.

  • Headphones.

  • A web camera.

  • Engaging in a lesson requires compatible hardware and the download and installation of Skype software. You are solely responsible for acquiring and installing any such hardware and software and for determining compatibility with your system, and hereby assume all risk and liability associated with such hardware and software.  You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to review and comply with all applicable license agreements and other terms and conditions relating to all software you use in connection with lessons, generally.

4.4 Prohibited behaviour in lessons Behaviour that will not be tolerated from students includes the use of offensive comments in the lesson about religion, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity. You agree not to engage in any activity that is unlawful, defamatory, libellous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, violate any law or is otherwise inappropriate.  You agree to engage in lessons for the sole purpose of practicing your language skills.  

4.5 Lesson material and content You acknowledge that Speak English with Jo uses lesson materials and content from third-party sources, (such as videos or articles on the internet) as teaching aids and that you may be exposed to topics that you find objectionable in the course of engaging in a lesson and that Speak English with Jo shall have no liability in connection therewith.  

4.6 Revocation Speak English with Jo reserves the right to revoke your use of the service and cancel and refund all bookings at any given time; however, this will only be enacted should Speak English with Jo have just cause.

Speak English with Jo retains the right to refuse to teach students, should they feel that they are not taking the lessons seriously and wasting teaching time. Examples of this type of behaviour that will not be tolerated include students who are repeatedly late for classes, have consistently poor internet and hardware making teaching nearly impossible, consistently end classes early, or do not pay attention during classes. Consequences of such behaviour will be the refund of any payments made to Speak English with Jo and the termination of the relationship between the parties. This also applies to the display of any prohibited behaviour as outlined in clause 4.4 above.

4.7 One person, one booking Only one person can use one booking. If you have booked a block of lessons as part of a package, they cannot be gifted or transferred to another student.

4.8 Trial lesson The trial lesson is free and lasts 15 minutes. Booking a trial lesson does not commit you to take any further lessons. 

5. Teachers

Teachers agree to engage in lessons for the sole purpose of teaching language skills.  We will follow the strict application of our Privacy Policy. Behaviour that will not be tolerated from teachers includes the use of offensive comments in the lesson about religion, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity. We agree not to engage in any activity that is unlawful, defamatory, libellous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, violate any law or is otherwise inappropriate.

6. Teacher cancellation

We apologise for any instances of your teacher at Speak English with Jo being late for a scheduled class or missing it completely. In the unlikely event that your teacher misses a scheduled class or turns up late, you will not be charged for that lesson and we will investigate the incident. Please email jo@speakenglishwithjo.com immediately to report any problems.

From time to time, it may be necessary to cancel booked lessons in advance. You will be immediately notified of the cancellation and will be given the opportunity to reschedule your lesson. You will not be charged for the cancelled lesson.

7. Temporary interruption of service

Speak English with Jo bears no liability for interruption or cancellation of services due to force majeure events such as floods, fires, uprisings etc. In the event that lessons are cancelled by Speak English with Jo, you will not be charged for those lessons and arrangements will be made to reschedule as soon as possible.

8. Lesson package expiry

  • The 10-lesson package will expire if any lesson remains unused 6 months after purchase and will not be refunded to you.

  • The 2 lessons/week package must be used within the same week. Any lessons unused will not be refunded to you. Any requests for refunds or additional lessons will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of Speak English with Jo's management.

  • The 5 daily lessons package must be used within the same week. Any lessons unused will not be refunded to you. Any requests for refunds or additional lessons will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of Speak English with Jo's management.

9. Links

Speak English with Jo has not reviewed all of the sites linked to its website and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Speak English with Jo of the site. Use of any such linked website is at the user's own risk.

10. Intellectual Property

All lesson plans, teaching materials and artwork on our website are proprietary and owned by Speak English with Jo. These materials shall not be sold, leased, licensed, used, copied or redacted for any other purpose than tuition of Speak English with Jo students. Any planned use of these materials for other purposes must be sanctioned in writing by Speak English with Jo management. Legal action may be taken in the case of intellectual property infringement.

11. Jurisdiction

These terms of service are in compliance with European Union law. Speak English with Jo operates under EU business regulations. Any disputes arising from these Terms & Conditions are subject to EU law and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that State or location.