Merit online academy’s terms of Service disclosed

These Terms of Service explain what to expect when you book lessons with Merit Online Academy (“Merit”, “we”, “us”) — how payment and cancellations work, what we ask of students, parents and tutors, and how we look after everyone involved, especially the students, most of whom are still at school. We’ve written this in plain language rather than dense legal text, because we think you should actually be able to read it. By booking a lesson with us, you’re agreeing to these terms.

1. Acceptance of these terms

By booking a free trial lesson, enrolling in lessons, or otherwise using Merit Online Academy’s services, you agree to these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you’re booking on behalf of a child, you’re confirming you’re their parent or legal guardian and that you accept these terms on their behalf.

2. Eligibility & parental consent

Our tutoring is designed for school-age students preparing for Cambridge or Pearson Edexcel English qualifications. A parent or legal guardian must book and manage the account for any student under 18 — we don’t accept bookings made directly by a minor without an adult’s involvement.

3. Our services

Merit Online Academy provides 1:1 online English Language and Literature tutoring for Cambridge (O Level, IGCSE, A Level) and Pearson Edexcel (GCSE, International GCSE, A Level) students. Every new student is offered a free trial lesson before any payment is required, so you can meet your tutor and see how lessons run before committing to anything.

4. Booking & scheduling

5. Payment terms

Lesson pricing is confirmed with you before you’re asked to pay for anything beyond the free trial — ask us on WhatsApp or by email for current rates. [Add your pricing structure here — per-lesson, package, or subscription — once decided.]
Payment is due [before / after each lesson, or per package], in [SAR / your chosen currency], via [your accepted payment methods]. We’ll send a receipt for every payment.

If a payment fails or is overdue, we’ll let you know before pausing any scheduled lessons. We won’t cut a lesson short mid-session over an admin issue — that’s not fair to the student in the middle of it.

6. Cancellations & refunds

We know plans change — school schedules shift, children get sick, technology fails. These terms are written to be fair to families and to respect the time tutors set aside for you.

Free trial lesson

No payment is required and there’s no obligation to continue. If you need to reschedule or cancel your trial, just let us know on WhatsApp as soon as you can.

Individually booked paid lessons

Let us know at least [24 hours] before a lesson is due to start if you need to reschedule or cancel, and we’ll rebook it at no charge. Cancellations with less notice may not be refundable, since your tutor has usually already set that time aside — but if something genuinely unexpected has come up, message us. We’d rather work something out than apply a rule rigidly.

Lesson packages or prepaid credit

Unused lessons in a package remain valid for [X months] from purchase. If you decide a package isn’t right for you and haven’t used any lessons yet, you can cancel for a full refund within 7 days of payment — this reflects your right under Saudi Arabia’s E-Commerce Law to cancel a service contract you haven’t yet used or benefited from. After that window, or once you’ve started using the package, contact us and we’ll refund the value of any genuinely unused lessons on a pro-rata basis.

If we need to cancel a lesson

If your tutor needs to cancel — illness, an emergency, a technical failure on our side — we’ll tell you as early as possible and offer a replacement lesson at no charge, or a refund if you’d prefer.

7. Attendance & no-shows

If a student doesn’t join a scheduled lesson without letting us know in advance, that lesson is treated as used, since the tutor has set aside dedicated time for it. Running a few minutes late? Message your tutor or us on WhatsApp — most tutors will wait a reasonable amount of time before treating a lesson as missed. Repeated no-shows without notice may affect scheduling priority for future lessons.

8. Conduct — students & parents

-Join lessons on time, from a quiet space where the student can focus.
-Treat your tutor with the same respect and courtesy you’d expect in return.
-Let us know as early as possible about changes to grade, exam board, or target grade, so we can keep lessons relevant.
-Don’t record lessons without telling your tutor and Merit first.

9. Conduct — tutors

Every Merit tutor agrees to:
-Communicate with students and parents only through official channels — WhatsApp for scheduling, and the agreed video platform for lessons — never through personal social media or private messaging outside these channels.
-Keep lessons focused on the agreed subject and exam board.
-Treat every student with patience and respect, whatever their starting point or pace of progress.
-Never request or arrange to meet a student in person.
-Raise any concern about a student’s welfare with Merit immediately, rather than handling it alone.

[Confirm and describe your actual tutor vetting process here — for example, identity verification, reference checks, or background checks — before publishing this section. Parents increasingly ask about this directly, and it’s worth being able to answer specifically rather than vaguely.]

Child safeguarding

Most Merit students are minors, and we take that seriously — not as a legal formality, but because it matters.

A parent or guardian books and manages the account. Lessons aren’t arranged directly with a child without an adult’s involvement.
All virtual lessons are recorded for quality and safety review, and handled securely as described in our Privacy Policy.
Parents are welcome to be present during lessons, especially early on, and can ask about how a lesson went at any time.
If you ever have a concern about a tutor’s conduct, tell us immediately. We’ll treat it seriously, respond promptly, and pause lessons with that tutor while we look into it if needed.

For any further questions regarding our safeguarding measures, please contact our admin team directly.

11. Technology & lesson delivery

Lessons are delivered by video call — typically Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, whichever your tutor uses. You’ll need a laptop, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone, and a reasonably stable internet connection. If a lesson is disrupted by a technical problem on either side, we’ll reschedule it at no extra charge.

12. Course materials

Worksheets, notes, slides, or past-paper annotations your tutor shares with you are for your child’s personal study use. Cambridge and Pearson Edexcel past papers and official materials remain the property of those exam boards; we reference and use them under the terms those boards make available to teachers and tutors. Please don’t redistribute or resell materials shared with you.

13. Academic outcomes

We’re proud that many Merit students have gone on to achieve A*/A grades, and every lesson is planned to give your child the strongest possible preparation. That said, we can’t guarantee a specific grade or outcome — results depend on things beyond our lessons, including a student’s starting point, effort between sessions, and how their school prepares them. What we can promise is a tutor who knows the exact syllabus your child is sitting, and lessons built around real past papers and mark schemes.

14. Your statutory rights

Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under the law that applies to you.

In Saudi Arabia, this includes rights under the Kingdom’s E-Commerce Law, including the right to cancel a service contract within 7 days of payment if you haven’t yet used or benefited from it.
In the UAE, this includes your rights under Federal Law No. 24/2006, including the right to have a service carried out with due care and skill, and to a remedy — repair, re-supply, or refund — if it isn’t.

If anything in these Terms conflicts with your statutory rights, your statutory rights come first.

15. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, Merit Online Academy’s liability for any issue with our services is limited to the amount you’ve paid for the lessons in question. We’re not liable for indirect losses, such as a missed grade boundary or a school deadline, except where the law says we can’t limit that. This doesn’t affect your statutory rights described above.

16. Termination

You can stop lessons at any time by telling us — see the cancellation and refund terms above for what happens to any prepaid lessons. We may pause or end our services to you if payment isn’t made, if these Terms are seriously or repeatedly broken, or if we reasonably believe continuing would put a student’s or tutor’s safety or wellbeing at risk.

17. Force majeure

Neither of us is responsible for a delay or failure to deliver a lesson caused by something genuinely outside our control — a significant internet or platform outage, a natural event, or similar. We’ll reschedule affected lessons as soon as reasonably possible.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms occasionally, for example as our services or the law changes. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the latest version. For significant changes, we’ll let you know via [email / WhatsApp / a notice on the site — pick what you’ll actually do] before they take effect.

19. Governing law & disputes

We’d always rather resolve a disagreement directly first — message us and we’ll do our best to sort it out before anything more formal is needed.

20. Contact us

Questions about these terms, a payment, or a lesson? Reach us at:
hello@meritonlineacademy.com
WhatsApp