Cancellation Policy

1. User-Initiated Cancellations

If canceled more than 12 hours before the session: The user receives a full refund. The tutor receives no payout, and the platform charges no fee. This ensures fair notice and full user satisfaction.

If canceled between 12 hours and 2 hours before the session: The user receives a 50% refund. The tutor is compensated with 40%, and the platform retains a 10% fee. This accounts for partial late notice while still valuing the tutor’s time.

If canceled less than 2 hours before the session and within 10 minutes of booking: The user receives a full refund. The tutor and platform receive no payout or fee. This is treated as a grace period for accidental bookings.

If canceled less than 2 hours before the session and after 10 minutes of booking: The user is not eligible for a refund. The tutor receives 80% of the session amount, while the platform keeps 20% as a fee. This policy respects the tutor’s commitment at short notice.

2. Tutor-Initiated Cancellations

If a tutor cancels a session at any time, the user receives a 100% refund. The tutor receives no payout, and no platform fee is charged. While there’s no current penalty, such cancellations are internally tracked for future quality checks.

3. Booking Restrictions

Last-minute bookings made less than 15 minutes before the session start time are not allowed. It is recommended that the platform blocks such bookings to ensure adequate preparation time for both parties.

4. Session Start Protection

Cancellations made after the session start time are not permitted. The backend system should reject such requests by verifying the current time against the session start time and return an HTTP 400 error.

5. Time Handling & Validation

All time-related values must be stored in UTC format to maintain consistency. Booking time and session time should be saved in UTC and only converted to local time for display purposes.

Server Validation: The server must validate the presence of all required time fields and ensure logical ordering, such as ensuring the session time is after the booking time.

Logging: Every cancellation should be logged with timestamps, refund amounts, and tutor payouts. These logs are essential for audit and customer support purposes.