The following constitutes the entire agreement between you (the client) and us (the vendor, Fastgrades for its online tutoring platform. Please read these terms over carefully as these are the terms that you are agreeing to.We ask that you do not agree to these terms if you are not in agreement with them.
About Us
Fastgrades is a leading online platform that connects students with tutors. We pride ourselves in efficiently connecting students and tutors on a national level. Anywhere and anytime.
Join our online tutoring team
– Earn extra income
– Set your own rates
– Set your own hours
– Work from anywhere
– The sky’s your limit
Fastgrades allows teachers, tutors and students to have live one-on-one online tutoring sessions via video conferencing and screen sharing that mimic in-person teaching. Schools are increasingly seeing the benefit of providing more support to their students, following 2+years of global learning disruption. Our platform complements teachers with the fact that the student knows the overall topic. They just need help with a hard-to-understand concept, difficult assignment, or preparation for an upcoming test.
All our live on demand sessions are 1 hour long. The student can take as many sessions as they desire at their discretion with the same or different tutors until their needs are completely satisfied. By reviewing our platform and resources, school staff, students and parents will easily and quickly see how beneficial, simple to use, efficient and effective fastgrades help students reach their potential in academic excellence, success and fulfillment.
Financial Partnership.
We partner with Stripe for all secure payments and financial services. Your financial details collected during tutor payment account creation and credit card payments if you are a student paying for a session are all stored, processed and secured by Stirpe and their financial services, policies and protection agreements.
Agreement and permission to use student’s name, tutor’s name and profile picture.
By using Fastgrades services as a student or a tutor, I permit and agree that my name will be visible to the public when finding tutors and tutoring jobs without a login to the site. After a user login, both my first name and last name will be visible and made available for the processing and accessing of Fastgrades services.
In addition, as a student or tutor, you can choose to upload a profile picture. If you do, this picture will be displayed and used for tutoring request services.
How much will having my own tutor cost me?…
Well, that depends!
At Fastgrades, you can “shop around”.
Prices vary depending on the tutor.
Students can browse through list of tutors to view tutors that meet their request criteria, availability, and prices
Tutors set their own prices
If you are a tutor…Set your own prices, based on what you think is fair for your target audience and level of expertise. Fastgrades commission is 30%. Tutor retains 70%. Example, if you charged $30/hr, you would receive $30 x 70% = $21/hr. We would retain $9/hr commission. Tutors must agree to adhere to the Fastgrades Professional Code of Ethics and Standards ****
*** Money-back guarantee and session cancellation policy
All fastgrades online sessions are 1 hour long. If this is not enough time, you may, at your discretion, schedule more sessions with the same or different tutors until your tutoring needs are completely satisfied.
If you schedule a tutoring session, and join your session and your tutor is more than 10 minutes late in joining their session, the session will be automatically cancelled and you will be entitled to a full refund. The same requirement exists for the student. If a student is more than 10 minutes late in joining their session and the tutor has joined their session and is waiting, the session is
automatically cancelled and the tutor will get paid in full and the student would have forfeited your payment.
Important note: All calculations are based on the first user that joins. If you are late, the time of your session will be cut short accordingly.
Statement on contact method: Our means of contacting you is via email and phone. Please ensure that your profile is up to date at all times. You agree to keep your email address up-to-date at all times for the purposes of receiving general notices.
Statement on correspondence between tutors and students: Tutors who sign up to our service must agree not to give out their personal contact information (email, phone number, physical contact address, etc.) to any of their students while they are registered with us. They must also agree not to ask their students for any of their personal contact information. All uploads and sharing of documents must take place through the document upload portal available on both the student and tutor accounts (see the “Documents” tab). This policy is implemented for the security of all concerned. An infringement of this policy will be grounds for dismissal as a tutor for one year.
Statement on public comments: Tutors will be reviewed and rated by their students. All tutors must be willing to accept this, recognizing that sometimes comments may appear that the tutors may not entirely agree with. Students agree not to post defamatory or untrue comments regarding their tutors. Any such posting is a violation of our terms of service. The only comments that should be posted are those that help the viewing audience to choose a tutor. We encourage all students to formulate their reviews in such a way that they will be helpful to the tutors.
Statement on third-party services: We may choose to work with other vendors or providers (such metrics or performance improvement services, image providers, software providers, video and audio repositories (eg Google, Vimeo), and other providers) in supplying your services. Although it is rare, performance issues may arise with any of these providers which may
temporarily affect your service. You agree that we shall not be liable for any performance issues
caused by third party vendors. Cases may occur in which we decide to move from one third party vendor to another in order to ensure the continuity of your services. Minimal service disruptions would be expected in such a situation, which you agree are normal and expected in such circumstances. You agree to hold us blameless for such service disruptions in such cases.
Statement on non-endorsements of stated third parties. We explicitly disclaim liability for any third-party services (such as, but not limited to, video conferencing services). The fact that we use these services should not be construed as endorsements. Each person using our services agrees to assume responsibility for using any and all third-party services, since they are beyond our ability to regulate. Should any problems with any third-party services be found, we ask that all concerned persons write us at [contact_email] so that we may be informed. We will be diligent into looking into all claims so that any services used can function at their optimal level.
Statement on payment cards: We use Stripe to process payment cards. We do not store or know your card number or verification code. We only know the name, last four digits, and expiry date of your card for verification purposes. When storing your card with Stripe, if your expiry date changes, Stripe may automatically update the expiry date and verification code (the 3 or 4 digit code that appears on the front or back of your card) in order that auto-renewals can go through(auto-renewals will only be put through if you enable the auto-renewal option described in the next section).When paying for your service, your card information will be stored with Stripe. You may update your payment card information, or delete saved cards, from the “Account” section of your account. Anytime you use a saved card, if multiple cards exist on your account ,the last card used becomes your default card. You can change your default card from the “Account” section of your account.
Statement on refunds: In case of a dispute and you are entitled for a refund after investigation…………… we offer a full money-back guarantee within 7 days of your purchase transaction. Our dispute is exactly 7 days (to the second) after you hit the submit button and
make your payment. Please be aware that we offer no refunds after this 7-day period has expired and that our decision is final in this matter. The dispute link will disappear after the 7 days has expired and will no longer be available. Please note that for security reasons, and to prevent unwanted abuse, refunds can only be issued to the same payment card that was used to make your purchase. Submitted refund requests are irreversible and may result in the total loss of all data submitted.
Statement on service termination: We are a family-oriented business. We expressly prohibit any pornographic, obscene, or defamatory materials as this is wholly inappropriate. Any such posting, uploading, or usage of such material is a breach of our terms of service, and may and will result in the termination of your account, with or without warning. In order to protect the integrity of our services, we reserve the right to deny or terminate services for any reason and at any time. In a worst case scenario, our sole obligation to you will be to refund any wholly unused time blocks that you already paid for.
Statement on software: Due to the nature of software, and the constant changes that are being made to it (including third-party software, of which many plugins and themes depend), it is not possible for us to guarantee that software glitches will not occur. You agree to hold us blameless for software glitches.
Statement on costs: In some cases, the cost of your services may be calculated in more than one way. Depending on the method used, a fractional difference may be observed. These are considered rounding differences and are not considered an error. The amount of rounding difference between one method of calculation and another shall be deemed acceptable as long as the difference is less than 10 cents for every 100 dollars (or the equivalent thereof in your local currency). In the case of multiple discounts, discounts are applied sequentially, after any previous discounts have already been applied.
Statement on errors in mathematical calculations or clerical errors: We wish to not have any errors in mathematical calculations or clerical errors. But the reality is, a mathematical error may occur and clerical errors may also occur. We are normally very quick to spot these, but we cannot guarantee that in some cases a mathematical error or a clerical error will not occur due to browser differences, software anomalies, third-party software bugs, human error, or any other reason. In such a case, you agree to hold us blameless and agree to the corrected calculation (in an extreme case, if you did not accept the corrected version, we would offer you a full refund for any wholly unused time blocks that you already paid for). As a case in point, if a bank were to deposit one-thousand dollars (or the equivalent) into your bank account, which did not belong to you, you would not expect them to keep it there. In short, you agree to your agreement, and we agree to our agreement, and neither of these includes an agreement to mathematical or clerical errors.
Statement on liability: Our maximum liability to you shall be to refund any unused time blocks, should you request a refund. We explicitly disclaim all other liabilities. You agree to hold us blameless for any loss of time, productivity, wages, reputation, livelihood, income, earnings, or others, resulting from the usage of our service. Statement on taxes: All amounts listed do not include taxes unless specifically stated. Fastgrades is a Canadian company. As such, we are required to charge HST/GST for Canadian residents. Where applicable, this rate may be subject to your Canadian province. Statement on jurisdiction. We are located in the province of Ontario, Canada, and as such are governed by the laws of Ontario. You agree that all laws according to the province of Ontario, Canada, will apply, and there will be no other laws applied outside of this jurisdiction that shall govern this agreement.
Guardian Statement on consent and representation: You agree that you are of legal age (at least 18 years old, and in some areas older depending upon your local laws) and that by entering into this agreement, you have had the chance to obtain the proper advice, and that you are making this decision of your own free will, voluntarily, and not under coercion of any type.
Statement regarding abuse: We reserve the right to implement policies designed to prevent abuse. There is no way that every possible scenario can be predicted by which an abusive situation might arise. But if we notice attempts to attack or spam our servers, or if our servers are used in any type of unlawful or malicious manner, or if a usage occurs which is clearly outside of our stated purposes, then these will be grounds to take preventive actions, so that other people are not impacted. Statement on clause exclusions: You agree that no part of this agreement, if deemed unlawful in a court of law, shall in any way limit the enforcement of other clauses, but shall, at the most, exclude that particular clause only, and not the rest of the agreement.
Circumvention policy
We enforce a zero tolerance policy for registered students or tutors who attempt to circumvent Fastgrades services, our online platform and payment methods. This is because it undermines our quality of service and trust that allows both students and tutors to learn and earn through our platform. Violating this agreement will result in a ban or suspension from our platform. Thank-you for complying.
**** Fastgrades Professional Code of Ethics and Standards For students and tutors:
You are expected to adhere to the following professional code of ethics and standards:
(1) You must be a person of integrity.
(2) You must be non-discriminatory.
(3) Tutors must have the ability to confidently and properly tutor students in the subject matter(s) and grade level(s) that you have specified on our website. Students can opt to submit a review of their lessons with you which will appear on our website. It is highly likely that these reviews will be used by other potential students in their decision-making of a tutor for their own needs.
therefore, it is all the more reason to make sure that you are properly qualified and skilled in those subjects which you have specified.
(4) You agree to be punctual. You agree that as early as ten minutes after the agreed upon start time, if you as a the tutor have not started your tutoring session with your student, your session will be cancel and the student will receive a full refund for that session. In such a case, you agree to receive no payment for that session. You agree that we will be entitled to refund the student’s payment in full for that session.
(5) In carrying out your work as a tutor, you agree that you are operating as an independent contractor and not an employee of Fastgrades. As such, you will not be entitled to receive any benefits, pension, paid time off, sick leave, personal or business expenses, or the like, such as, but not limited to, vacation pay, and you alone are responsible to manage your own taxes, remitting as necessary according to the laws of your country. No additional money will be due from us except that which we have agreed to pay you, which is70% of your posted rate, which you agree includes any taxes which you may owe to your respective governments
(6) You agree that in any case of dispute between you and your student, or you and Fastgrades, that the maximum amount of liability that will be owed to you shall not exceed your posted rate less our 30% commission for any full sessions that you tutored.
(7) You agree to forever discharge Fastgrades from all repercussions, culpabilities, liabilities, accusations, or harms which may arise as a result of you using our services. These may include, but are not limited to, loss of reputation, loss of income, personal injury, whether real or imagined, to you, or by you, or anyone related to you, through family, business, or otherwise.
(8) While your account with Fastgrades remains open, and while you continue to solicit tutoring opportunities through the Fastgrades website, you agree not to pursue or engage your students, or to solicit your students, for any other reason than to fulfill your agreed upon duties as a tutor for Fastgrades. Students pay Fastgrades ahead of time and Fastgrades will pay the tutor upon session completion)