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Christmas Voucher Policies? (All Teachers)
I also wanted to ask a question about your experience with packaged lessons as I have sold a few on the run-up to Christmas. Hopefully I will not have to worry about this but I was just wondering if you had anybody requesting refunds? What’s your position in terms of this? Would it maybe be an idea to mention on the website that these packages are only refundable for a limited period of time? (i.e. 2 weeks after purchase?). As I said, I haven’t had anybody contacting me yet but knowing how it works sometimes with other “Christmas Presents”, I thought it would be good to have a clearer idea before any issue arises (hopefully not!).
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16 Replies
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My personal advice would be, yes we do have incidents when clients request refunds (often for reasons of falling out with the person that they have bought them for…girlfriends/boyfriends breaking up etc.). In terms of the commission that isn’t a problem, business policy is that if you generate income from the lessons than commission is created, if you make no money then no commission is created – so in this case if you were to refund a client then I would refund you the commission on that clients lessons (or more likely deduce the refund amount from the next months payment). The more likely thing we find that happens if that the receiver doesn’t claim their lessons for months/years and turns up one day demanding their lessons…I would therefore recommend a 3 month expiry date to take your first lesson. That said it really is something to play by ear as lets say Student A is suddenly admitted into hospital it seems very harsh to prevent them from taking their £100 worth of lessons as they didn’t make it to their first one due to serious illness etc. Interested to hear what other teacher think/have done this year:)
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Hi
Really glad this has come up as I am dealing with a refund myself. I actually enforced a £5 deduction fee to cover admin costs (as I even had to go out and POST the vouchers would you believe!!!!!) which was cheeky as I hadn’t mentioned it in the T’s & C’s (which I will now do!) but the guy accepted it nonetheless. But perhaps this isn’t enough. Me and Georgia (my PA) have been wondering what to do in this situation. Either an 85% refund or no refund at all after a certain amount of time… not sure!
Also, Matthew, even if we take voucher payment fully and upfront, do you only take commission once the lesson is had, as obviously it starts showing up on spreadsheets and invoices? I probably already know this to be a yes, as this is what I’ve been doing…!
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Hi Eliza,
Thanks for the question – just to clarify on that specific point, I leave it essentially with the teacher whether they wish to record the full commission at the time of payment or as the lessons take place. Either way I do not mind as long as that teacher is consistent in the manner that they record these transactions. Hope that helps to clarify it:)
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I’ve made it so that my vouchers and bulk lessons are absolutely non-refundable. They are both discounted, so i stand strong on this.
However I give them a whole 12 months before they expire, which I’m happy to do.
I also say that the voucher/bundle will be transferrable once. So if they’re sure they won’t use it, they can change whose name it’s in and either be compensated by that person, or gift it onwards. -
Interesting…!!
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