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Terms and Conditions
Legal information
concerning tutors and students.
Last
updated on March 1, 2007
Welcome to the
"Austin Tutors website" (http://austintutors.net
and every web page in this domain or any subdomains)
which represents "Austin Tutors" a partnership of four UT
Longhorns. These Terms and Conditions, govern your use of the
Austin Tutors website. The following applies to any tutor
who has accepted these Terms and Conditions ("Tutor") and anyone
who uses this website, especially those who schedule
appointments through our service (“students”).
Austin Tutors
may renew these Terms and Conditions periodically. We will
notify Tutors of any significant change at the email that they
specify upon accepting these Terms and Conditions. A Tutor will
be given the option of renewing his or her agreement with us or
he or she may be dropped from our service and the former Terms
and Conditions agreement will come to an end. Any party which
disagrees with any terms and/or conditions should discontinue
the use of Austin Tutors and the Austin Tutors website
immediately.
If any
provision of these Terms and Conditions shall be held to be
invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the remaining
provisions shall continue to be valid and enforceable. If a
court finds that any provision of these Terms and Conditions is
invalid or unenforceable, but that by limiting such provision it
would become valid and enforceable, then such provision shall be
deemed to be written, construed, and enforced as so limited. All
users agree that regardless of any statute or law to the
contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related
to use of our service or these Terms and Conditions must be
filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action
arose or be forever barred.
This Agreement
contains the entire agreement of the parties, and there are no
other promises or conditions in any other agreement whether oral
or written. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the
state of Texas. All parties represent and warrant they have no
obligations inconsistent with the terms of this Agreement or
with undertaking a relationship with Austin Tutors and that the
use of the services called for by this Agreement do not and will
not violate any applicable law, rule or regulation or any
proprietary or other right of any third party for the state of
Texas.
Terms of Use
Austin Tutors
website materials, copyright of Austin Tutors, and all materials
included in it is owned by or licensed to Austin Tutors and all
rights are reserved. You must abide by all copyright notices and
restrictions contained on the Austin Tutors site. You may not
copy, distribute, enter into a database, display, publish,
perform, create derivative works of, transmit, or otherwise use
any materials from the Austin Tutors website (including computer
programs or other code), in whole or in part, without the
express permission from Austin Tutors or its affiliates.
Trademarks
Austin Tutors,
The Austin Tutors Logo, and any other trademarks on the Austin
Tutors website are trademarks owned by Austin Tutors. You may
not use the Austin Tutors trademarks in connection with any
product or service that does not belong to us, or in any manner
that is likely to cause confusion among users about whether we
are the source, sponsor, or endorser of the product or service,
or in any manner that disparages or discredits us.
Links, Frames,
and Meta-Tags
You may link
to the home page (http://austintutors.net) of the Austin Tutors
Site as long as the link does not cast us in a false or
misleading light. You may not frame the content of the Austin
Tutors Site. You may not use Meta-tags or any other "hidden
text" that incorporates the Austin Tutors Trademarks or our name
without our express written consent.
Terms of Service
All Tutors are solely responsible for their actions made on the
Austin Tutors website and otherwise. All legal action is between
parties other than Austin Tutors. Tutors, clients, and visitors
to the site agree to indemnify and hold Austin Tutors, and its
subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other
partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand,
including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any third party
due to or arising out of any content on the website,
communication with Austin Tutors, or services provided by Austin
Tutors and/or the Tutors, whether by negligence or willful
conduct. Tutors, clients, and visitors to the site also agree
not to hold Austin Tutors liable for any loss in property or
data due to the activities of the Tutors, promoters, or
Tutor/promoters and/or students.
Tutors have
the option of canceling a home appointment if there is not a
third person present of age 18 or older. Tutoring is conducted
only for the specified course(s) at the time of booking an
appointment.
The
student/parent must provide notice to the Tutor for
cancellations or to re-schedule an appointment more than
twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the appointment; failure to
do so will forfeit the session. Upon arrival of the Tutor, if
the student is not available, the Tutor must wait 15 minutes,
after which time the Tutor may declare the session forfeited.
The student is obligated to pay in full for such a session, but
the Tutor is responsible for the collection of this payment.
Relationship
between Austin Tutors and Tutor
"Tutor" in
this document refers to a tutor who has accepted these Terms and
Conditions and is currently using the services of Austin
Tutors. Austin Tutors provides equal opportunity to qualified
persons interested in being Tutors without regard to race,
color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status or
disability.
Tutors are
utilized as our customers; no relationship of employment,
partnership, or joint venture agreement is expressed or implied.
Austin Tutors is not required to offer benefits such as
insurance, workman's compensation, overtime, paid vacations,
retirement plans, or other formalities associated with such
relationships. Tutors are financially responsible for all
expenses related to their work including any federal, state, and
local taxes.
Austin Tutors
does not guarantee the tutor will get any particular number of
students or hours. Estimates may be provided by Austin Tutors,
but Austin Tutors is not responsible for the ultimate accuracy
of such estimates. Furthermore, Austin Tutors does not
reimburse Tutors for supplies, tuition, transportation, or
relocation.
All Tutors
acknowledge that all Austin Tutors students are exclusive
clients of Austin Tutors and Tutor shall not render services to
said clients independent of Austin Tutors, for the specific
course(s) for which the Tutor was referred or for any
course/subject regardless of whether Austin Tutors offers
it/them, while currently working with Austin Tutors and for two
(2) years after resigning from Austin Tutors. If a Tutor renders
services to Austin Tutors clients, independent of Austin Tutors,
and under any circumstances, regardless of whether or not Tutor
accepts payments for said services, Tutor then agrees to pay
Austin Tutors, two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per
student, to compensate Austin Tutors for the Tutor's breach of
these Terms and Conditions and interference with Austin Tutors'
business practice. In addition, if Austin Tutors incurs attorney
fees and cost in attempts to enforce this clause, then the Tutor
will be liable for said attorney fees and costs.
Tutors agree
to confidentiality with proprietary information and with the
privacy of our customers, staff, and other Tutors. Tutors will
be bound by the "Non-compete Agreement" described below. The
Tutor grants permission to Austin Tutors, its affiliates, and
customers, to do a background check on himself or herself as
necessary. The tutor agrees to provide complete and truthful
information to Austin Tutors, its affiliates, and all customers
on all documents and during all communications without
exception.
All Tutors
agree not to use profanity or other controversial language or
ideas which our viewers might find offensive; such conduct might
possibly lead to the termination of the relationship between the
Tutor and Austin Tutors. Tutors grant Austin Tutors permission
to edit, copy, publish, distribute, translate and otherwise use
in any medium content they provide without limit or
compensation.
Explanation
of Fees
Austin Tutors
will collect 25% of the earnings for each session the Tutor
completes. The amount collected by Austin Tutors will be based
on the hourly wage listed by the Tutor on his or her Austin
Tutors profile.
All Tutors are
required to use our scheduling system to record every
appointment with a student that has used our service. This will
be done automatically when a student signs up for an appointment
with a Tutor. All Tutors are prohibited from removing
appointment records in our scheduling system that occurred in
the past.
Billing
Payment does
not require PayPal membership and can be made securely with all
major credit cards or an online check. If the Tutor is a PayPal
member he or she can also pay with an instant PayPal transfer.
On the first
day of each month, Austin Tutors will send a PayPal invoice to
the email address that the Tutor specifies upon accepting these
Terms and Conditions. The email will contain details about the
sessions that the Tutor completed in the past month and will
contain a link for paying Austin Tutors. Payment does not
require PayPal membership and can be made securely with all
major credit cards or an online check. If the Tutor is a PayPal
member he or she can also pay with an instant PayPal transfer.
Late Fees
Tutors will
receive an invoice as described above in "Billing." Failure to
pay Austin Tutors the full amount described in the invoice in
seven (7) days will result in late fee penalties. On the eighth
(8th) day of the month an additional five dollars ($5) will be
added to your current balance. Five dollars ($5) will be added
to your balance for each day thereafter. Failure by the Tutor
to pay Austin Tutors his or her total balance by the first day
of the following month may result in legal action being taken by
Austin Tutors toward the Tutor.
Explanation of Scheduling
The Tutor will manage his or her
appointments on our online scheduling service. Students will be able to see the Tutor's
availability and sign up for tutoring sessions directly through
this service. Students will be able to sign up for appointments
fourteen (14) days in advance, but not less than two (2) days in advance. The
Tutor may cancel appointments with good cause more than twenty
four (24) hours
in advance. If the Tutor cancels an appointment less than
twenty four (24)
hours in advance, Austin Tutors will hold the Tutor liable for
the payment for the appointment as described above in
"Explanation of fees". The Tutor will be notified at the email
he or she specifies upon accepting these Terms and Conditions
when a student makes an appointment with the Tutor.
Tutoring Location
It is up to the Tutor to decide where
the session will be held and to contact the student informing
him or her of the location. The setting should be a quiet and
appropriate place for learning. Coffee shops, libraries, and
personal homes are good ideas. If the Tutor does not know the
student he or she is advised to meet in a safe, public
location. Austin Tutors is not responsible for any actions of
the student or the Tutor during a tutoring session.
No-Shows
Occasionally students may schedule an appointment that they
do not attend. Austin Tutors reserves the right to charge
the Tutor the standard twenty-five percent (25%) fee (see "Explanation of fees" above) for
the unattended appointment. However, we will deal with these
occurrences on a case-by-case basis, and if we can verify that
the student did not attend the session, we will not charge the
Tutor for it. The best way to avoid this problem is to contact
the student before the session to make sure there are no
misunderstandings about the location or time.
Tutor Behavior
Austin Tutors reserves the right to remove any Tutor from
the Austin Tutors website and our online scheduling system at
any time and for any reason. Not attending scheduled
appointments, receiving bad reviews, or trying to have
non-professional relationships with students are among the
grounds for dismissal from our service.
Reviews System
Students who attend appointments with Tutors through our
service will be given the option of reviewing their Tutors.
Students will rate a Tutor by completing a short, standard quiz
about their Tutor's performance. A Tutor's rating is the
average score that students have given him or her with the
quiz. Students also have the option of leaving comments about
their Tutors after completing the quiz. Tutors will be ranked
by their rating and displayed in descending order when searched
for by students. A link in any Tutor's personal profile will
allow students to view these reviews and the Tutor's average
rating. Please notify Austin Tutors at
info@austintutors.net
about any inappropriate comments that have been posted in a
review section, and Austin Tutors may or may not remove them
from public view. Austin Tutors is not responsible for any
comments posted by students about Tutors that are affiliated
Austin Tutors. Tutors may not review themselves or other
Tutors.
Ending this Contract
A Tutor may at any time notify Austin Tutors at
info@austintutors.net
that he or she would like to cease to be affiliated with Austin
Tutors. Austin Tutors will then release said Tutor from his or
her responsibilities with Austin Tutors and remove his or her
profile and scheduling account from the internet, but the Tutor
will still be bound by our non-compete agreement, below. Austin
Tutors has the right to terminate the use of a Tutor at anytime
with or without cause. Upon the termination, the Tutor agrees to
return any and all copies of proprietary materials and writings
received from, created for, or belonging to Austin Tutors,
including, but not limited to, those which relate to or contain
proprietary information and Austin Tutors company records that
are in the Tutor's possession or under their control.
Privacy Policy
Information We Collect and How it is Used, and Purposes for
Collecting of Information:
We collect the following information from you: (1) information
you explicitly provide to us by completing a form on our
website, and (2) information that is automatically collected by
us when you visit our website. We use this information for our
own internal purposes, which are more fully explained below. We
do not share your information with any other parties, unless it
is necessary to do so to comply with state and federal laws. For
the purposes of this Privacy Statement, the term "other parties"
shall not include any affiliate of ours.
Information We Automatically Collect:
IP Addresses. When you connect to the Internet, your computer
has a unique identification code called an "IP address."
Depending on the way you access the Internet, you may have a
different IP address each time you connect, or your IP address
may be the same each time. We log the IP addresses of users who
visit our website. We use your IP address for system
administration purposes, such as to help diagnose problems with
our server. In addition, we may use your IP address to help
identify you and to gather broad demographic information about
you and the rest of the users who visit our website.
Disclosure of Information:
Generally. We may provide aggregate information about
customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website
information to our affiliates, including without limitation our
parent, subsidiaries, successors and assigns, but we do not
provide such information to any third parties.
Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information. We may disclose any
and all information when legally compelled to do so, in other
words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it
or if disclosure is necessary to protect our legal rights.
How
To Correct Your Information:
You have the ability to correct or change any information which
you have previously provided to us by sending email to
info@austintutors.net.
You may change this information at any time and as often as
necessary.
How
To Opt Out:
Students or Tutors may choose to discontinue any and all
correspondences and affiliation with Austin Tutors by sending a
request to
info@austintutors.net.
What are Cookies?
"Cookies" are a feature of web browser software that allows web
servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. They
are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser
on the user's hard drive. Information gathered through cookies
and web server logs may include information such as the date and
time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at the website, and
the websites visited just before and just after our website.
Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web
page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by
the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's
transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a
user to move from web page to web page and to complete
commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make
your online experience easier and more personalized.
How
we use information we collect from Cookies?
We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web
server logs to gather information about our website users'
browsing activities in order to constantly improve our website
and better serve our clients. This information assists us to
design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly
manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the
needs of our users and prospective users. We do not use these
technologies to capture your individual e-mail address or any
personally identifying information about you.
Privacy Policies of Linked Websites and Advertisers:
Our website may contain links to other websites, as well as
advertisements from companies with their own websites. These
other websites may not have privacy policies, and we are not
responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such
websites. If you have any questions about how these other
websites use your information, you should contact them directly.
Employees, Access, Training and Expectations:
Our corporate values, ethical standards, policies and practices
are committed to the protection of customer information. In
general, our business practices limit employee access to
confidential information and limit the use and disclosure of
such information to authorized persons and processes
Non-Compete
Agreement
For good
consideration and as an inducement for Austin Tutors to conduct
business with the Tutors, the Tutor hereby agrees not to
directly or indirectly compete with the business of Austin
Tutors and its successors in the city in which the Tutor tutors
for Austin Tutors and for a period of two (2) years following
termination of these Terms and Conditions and notwithstanding
the cause or reason for the termination. The Tutor agrees to pay
Austin Tutors a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) fine and all legal
fees incurred in the collection of this fine.
For a period
of two (2) years, a Tutor may not tutor a student that he or she
came in contact with through our service. The penalty for
tutoring such a student will be two thousand five hundred
dollars ($2,500) per such student.
The term "not
compete" as used herein shall mean that the Tutor shall not own,
manage, operate, or consult in a business substantially similar
to, or competitive with, the present business of Austin Tutors
or such other business activity in which Austin Tutors may
substantially be engaged. A Tutor may work as a tutor for
competing services during his or her agreement with us and for
any time after his or her agreement with us comes to an end.
The Tutor may
continue to advertise and promote his/her own tutoring, acquire
his/her own clients, or may work for another tutoring service,
but only as long as trade secrets and company policies are not
divulged to their clients or to competitors of Austin Tutors.
The Tutor acknowledges that Austin Tutors shall or may in
reliance of this agreement provide access to trade secrets,
customers and other confidential data and good will. The Tutor
agrees to retain said information as confidential and not to use
said information on his or her own behalf or disclose same to
any third party.
This agreement
shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties,
their successors, assigns, and personal representatives.
This concludes the Complete Terms and
Conditions for Austin Tutors.
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