【Our Terms of Taiwan Chinese Education Center】

1.Scope and changes of the rules

1.These terms and conditions apply to both members, including corporate members, and Taiwan Chinese Education Center, henceforth referred to as TCEC. By accepting or using any of the services, the member agrees to these terms and conditions (the Terms of Service) and the privacy policy service located here.

2. TCEC reserves the right to make any changes to the privacy policy and it will be active from the date stated. Any changes made to the privacy policy and its date of effect will be, where appropriate, notified to the member. However, this section shall not apply if the changes to this agreement are in the general interest. New members that join between notification and the date of effect of the change to the privacy policy are recognized as users who agreed to the new policy at the time of registration.
 

2. User Registration

1. All users who wish to be registered to the website agree to these Terms of Service and apply for registration according to these terms and procedures.

2. TCEC will determine whether the application is acceptable through its own inspection and procedures. The application may be declined without disclosure of its reasons.

3. Users agree to the Terms of Service at the time of the acceptance of the application (Registration is completed at the time the member receives an email of notification of the membership number).

4．Users will be contacted by email to the registered email address. Members agree to receive those notification emails regarding service. Members must set up their inbox to receive emails from TCEC. TCEC does not take any responsibility for any loss caused by delay or failure of reception of the email.

5. To receive service members must make sure that all devices and network environments, such as computers and software, can be received without hindrance prior to the time of service.

6. It is prohibited to assign, loan, transfer or in any other way give access to a third party.

7. It is the users’ responsibility to treat their personal information such as membership number and password carefully. TCEC does not take any responsibility for any loss due to the inattention of members, such as the usage of users’ membership number and password by a third party or lost information.

8.Membership will continue unless a member requests its termination. TCEC has the right to terminate membership and service without a member’s confirmation when there is no sign of activity for a certain period.

9. All underage applicants need to apply with parents or guardians as minors are not able to apply themselves. Minors are only able to use the service in the range of membership of the applicants. All responsibility regarding the use of the service by underage users lies with their parents or guardians.

10. Notification of any changes to members’ registered information, such as name, Skype name or email address is required immediately. TCEC does not take any responsibility for any loss caused by information not being updated, in a timely fashion.

11. Corporate members agree to the following matters:
-The preceding terms also apply to corporate members.
-TCEC will disclose or report progress of lessons to the corporate representative.
-In the case of a breach of the Terms of Service by corporate members, TCEC will report to the relevant corporate representative with the details of breach and the record of the lesson.
 

3. The use of personal information

Personal information will be managed appropriately based on the privacy policy here
 

4.About Service

1. This service uses the internet and designated software, and provides one on one Chinese language lessons with a tutor. To use the service, members are required to prepare a headset and webcam is optional. All requirements of the internet, personal computer, headset and webcam are prepared by members. All costs to connect with the service, such as internet fee, are covered by members.

2. Members must ensure the internet connectivity, devices and software are prepared to run lessons smoothly. Troubleshooting devices are not supported by TCEC.

3.The privacy policy does not include the registered Skype name of the member as personal information. Since the Skype name is required to be shared with teachers, members should obtain a dedicated Skype name for the use of this service, in the event the member wishes to keep their personal Skype name private.

4. The teaching materials or textbooks used with the service are prepared by TCEC or by teachers free of charge. Members, who prefer paid teaching materials, must pay an additional cost. This is optional.

5．When using the service, members are required to confirm whether there are any notifications through the booking system or to the registered email address. Any cancelled lessons and other information will be notified through email or the booking system.
 
6. rules of use
6-1. Members are required to read the terms of use of the service to attend lessons.

6-2. Lesson fees and other fees are displayed on the website. TCEC has the right to change the price.

6-3. The purchase of lesson tickets enables members to attend lessons.These lesson tickets have an expiry date. Please note that the tickets are not issued on paper, they are only represented on the reservation system.

6-4. Unused lesson tickets after the expiration date of the lesson ticket will become invalid. Any reservations made before the expiry date are still valid even though the lesson date is after expiry date. Reserved lessons after the expiry date are not eligible to be cancelled or rescheduled.

6-5. Purchase of additional tickets enables members to extend the expiry date of existing lesson tickets. However, after the original specified period the extended tickets are non-refundable. This does not mean all members can make additional purchases of tickets and TCEC has the right to refuse those additional purchases.

6-6. If it is found that no lessons have actually been taken for more than 180 days from the date of ticket issuance and the ticket expiration date is extended due to additional purchases, from the perspective of maintaining the proper operation of this service, additional purchases may be temporarily declined until all tickets already held are used or the expiration date has passed. In this case, the member may not be able to purchase additional tickets. In this case, the Member will not be able to purchase additional tickets, and TCEC will temporarily suspend the purchase of additional tickets until all tickets already held have been used or their expiration date has passed. TCEC may also take the same action with respect to additional ticket purchases if the member has not taken a lesson for more than 180 days since the last lesson.

6-7. The lesson reservation must be made by the member himself/herself by logging into the reservation system and reserving the desired date, time, and teacher from 2 days to 2 months in advance. The lesson reservation is not valid for any other method than that stipulated by TCEC.

6-8. Members’ preference of teachers, date or time may not be available. According to teachers’ or the needs of TCEC, there may be cases of cancellation of reserved lessons without the consent of members after notifying via email. In that case members will need to reserve another lesson.

6-9. Members are required to make cancellations themselves through the reservation system. Cancellation more than 12 hours prior to the reservation time is free of charge. Other ways of cancellation is invalid.

6-10. Members are responsible for confirming any actions made on the reservation system, including reservations and cancellations. TCEC does not take any responsibility for any loss caused by neglecting these confirmation.

6-11. In the case of absence from a reserved lesson, a ticket is used. TCEC has the right to refuse the use of service for members, in case of any actions that affect the operation of the service, such as excessive continuous cancellations.

6-12. The teacher that has been reserved will be online from the start to the end of the reserved time, regardless if the member is present or not. The member may start the lesson at any time after the start time, however the time will not be extended if the member is late. In addition, refunds, make-up lessons, or ticket returns will not be issued for absence or lateness caused by the member, including computer, internet or Skype troubles.

6-13.In the event there is no contact from the teacher after 10 minutes of the start time, please report to TCEC immediately by the specified means. TCEC will return the ticket for the missed lesson. Please report immediately, as TCEC will not return the ticket after 7 days of the cancelled lesson.

6-14. TCEC will return the ticket when the booked lesson is cancelled due to a teacher’s sudden reason such as illness, delay, or hardware troubles. In the event a teacher is delayed for some other reasons, The member’s lesson time will be compensated with the extension of the lesson time.

6-15. In case of suspension during the lesson because of a network problem on the teacher’s side, TCEC will compensate with either extension of lesson time or return of the ticket. The decision on compensation will be notified through either email or Skype after investigation of the issue. This decision will not apply to the reasons on the member’s side.

6-16.If the lesson is interrupted or abandoned due to the member’s own circumstances (i.e emergency, sudden change of schedule, illness, dissatisfaction of the lesson, etc.), the lesson will not be refunded.

6-17.In general, lessons are conducted using video. However, the tutor may switch to audio only if it becomes difficult to continue with the video due to problems, such as internet disruptions. In such a case there is no compensation for the lesson or ticket return.

6-18. Lesson schedules of each teacher may change significantly and some lessons may be withdwrawn.

6-19. All times in shedule are listed in JST(UTC+9) for instance lesson booking and cancellation, payment due, and date and time stamped on certificates. Members living in other area with different UTC needs to pay attention to those time themselves.

7.We have right to consign some affairs of our services to other companies fully or partially.
 

5. Lesson fees and payment

1．Members purchase tickets as lesson fees prior to booking and make payment according to the way we designate.
 

6. Payment method and refund

1. All payments of members related to our service will be made according to the way we designate to us.

2.For any reasons we do not refund for used tickets including your absense and unused expired tickets.

3.Members can request refund for unused　lesson ticket (excluding expired and those on extention period of expired ticket with additional purchase), that will be calcurated as follows:

｛(unused tickets) – (Used ticket)｝*A－(Administration Fee＝40％*A)－(Paypal Refund Fee)
*Applys to the price and tax at the purchase

Your refund will be back to you through Paypal payment system.
If the amount is under 0yen after deduction of administration fee, no money will be refunded. The amount refunded into your account can be less than calculation as the Paypal exchange rate may differ.

4.We do not refund for any reasons on member’s side for instance network environment, device malfunction, connection error, software trouble including Skype or other reasons and absent from lessons.

5.We compensate the lessons that missed because of these reasons in Japan, Taiwan or other countries tutors reside - politic reasons, riots, natural disasters, plague and any problems on our system (including issues at Microsoft that owns Skype) by returning your ticket. No other option for refund is available. We notify suspension and reopening of our service by email or on our website and blog.
 

7. Suspension and withdrawal (of your membership)

1. Members can suspend your membership although expiry date of your ticket will not be extended and will be void after the date.

2.We have right to remove your membership and stop our service without your confirmation in certain time after your suspension.

3. Members may delete their membership registration information by requesting cancellation of membership.

4.We have right to terminate your membership immediately without any notification in case we find when any below applies:
-Registration of false information
-Any actions made against terms of use
-Unpaid Fees
-Member not reachable for certain time and we consider not usable of our service
-Interruption to our operation (including the requests that exceeds our offers)
-Harassments to our support including abuse and interruption to lessons
-Inquisitiveness of confidential matters of us through tutors other than published information
- Causing damage or loss to other members or to third party
- Underage (except registered persons through guardians and family members)
- Direct contact with tutors apart from lessons
-Direct contract with tutors that not processed with us
- Inquisitiveness and research of tutors’ personal information
-Multiple users on one account or multiple students in one lesson(except family members)
-In the event of the member's death
-Any other reasons we consider the member not appropriate for the use of our service

5. We request members indemnification in case we have any loss from listed reasons above.

6. in case of 7-2, we do not refund any of paid amount for any reasons.

7.Members shall lose all rights to use this service (including the right to take lessons that have not yet been reserved and to request refunds for unused tickets) upon withdrawal from the membership, and shall not be able to make any claims against the Company.
 

8. Intellectual property

1.All rights regarding our service, ownership and intellectual property right for instance belong to us. Members are not allowed to breach these our rights at all(e.g. to publish or sell our learning materials, to record or take photo of his/her lesson to distribute or publish on video site, to use contents and sentences of our website without permission)

2. In case a member causes any problem by violating 8-1 the member must to resolve the problem on his/her responsibility and we do not take any part of that. If the problem causes any loss to us the member must indemnify to us.
 

9.Prohibited matters

1.Members are prohibited these actions below along the use of our service:
- Registering false information
- Any action against this terms and conditions
- The act of obstructing or intercepting of our business including requests that overcome the coverage of our service
-The act of obstructing of our lessons for instance any abuse, provoke or harassments against our staff
-Any other act of inflicting damage to other members or third parties
- Contacting or meeting directly with tutors apart from lesson period
-Exchanging or giving any personal contacts apart from Skype name using for lesson, including
email address, phone number, SNS account and other communication software/application contact such as LINE and we-chat
-Prying into unofficial confidential information of our business by asking questions to tutor
-Directly contracting with tutor personally
-Prying into or searching personal information of our tutors
-Underage using our service, except the cases of family members and guardian applying to the service on behalf of the underage member
- Any other act that we recognize inappropriate as member

2.In case there are any problems caused by member taking any act stated above, that member should resolve all problems on his/her own responsibility. We do not take any responsibility for that issue. If any damage is caused to us the member should compensate for it

3.In case we find any banned act stated above such like a direct contract outside of our service between a member and a tutor or any personal communication through Skype at outside of lesson period or through email, phone, SNS and other communication software such like LINE or meeting in person we require the member to pay 2000U.S. dollars as tutor introduction fee.
 

10.Disclaimer

1. All notification from us will be mainly sent by email that member registered with our system or by posting on our website. We do not take any responsibility on your loss caused by member’s procrastination on receiving or acknowledging those notification

2.We do not take any responsibility on any issues between tutors and/or other members including cases caused by act such as contacting or meeting with tutor outside of lesson period

3. We do not take any responsibility on any damage caused by computer viruses or any other defect on your computer/network/software including Skype during the period of use of our service. The damage stated above includes any issues caused by software and files to use in our service.

4．It is members’ responsibility to access URLs and data links securely. Members judge its security to open URL links, data links and attached files that sent to you through Skype or email from us or tutors. We do not take any responsibility on any issues such like infection of computer virus or software/hardware defect that caused in result of opening those links and files.

5．The result of learning Chinese with our service varies between individuals and we do not guarantee of mastering Chinese to any certain level. We also do not guarantee that your success on Test of Chinese Proficiency or an entrance examination to a university or a postgraduate school.

6．We do not guarantee for its effect, accuracy or security of the textbooks and other websites that tutors recommend, or links and information on our website. We do not take any responsibility on any damage caused by the result of following them.

7. Members agree to that we do not compensate for listed below for any reasons:
-Not fully satisfied with our service including the content of a lesson and/or textbook
-Desired lesson slot you wish to book not being available to you
-Desired tutor you wish to book not being available to you
-Temporary decrease in numbers of available lessons caused by sudden increase of new members and any other reasons
-Your booked lesson is closed for unavoidable reasons
-Any issues at the side of Skype and any other third party services that is need to use our service and result in not able to receive our service
-Decreased available days because of our official closed days, system maintenance days and public holidays in tutor’s residential country.
 

11. Ban on the use by person in same business and people involved in same business

We do not accept the use of our service by the person and those who involved in same business. In case we find the breach of this term after registration as member we have right to remove that member without any notification. We also claim for obvious damages and loss caused by the action such like research on our business, headhunting our tutors, defamation against us.
 

12：Court of jurisdiction

Governing law regarding to this term is Japanese law. In case any issues not resolved by concertation the first instance is to be the court of jurisdiction in the area of our head office, Sendai-City, Miyagi, Japan as exclusive and agreed court.

Supplementary Provisions:
These Terms of Use shall be effective as of September 26, 2022.