Tutor Complaints Policy

Feedback and complaints from Tutors

We are committed to providing a great platform for our tutors. We value feedback from tutors greatly because it helps us to continually improve our platform. If you do not feel that you are receiving a great service, or that something could be improved, please do tell us about it. If we have fallen short of the high standards we have set for ourselves then we would like the opportunity to learn from it and to put things right.

How to give feedback or make a complaint

Please feel welcome to raise your concerns with Alex Pagett, Sunbeam Education’s CEO, as a formal complaint under this policy.

This includes complaints about decisions we have made about you, such as refunding or compensating a customer, pausing, restricting or suspending a listing or your profile, cancelling your upcoming bookings, ending our agreement with you, or the result of a check on your documents.

If we email you about a decision (for example a decision to pause your profile, to reject a document you have given us, or to cancel your sessions after a DBS status check), you can reply to that email or write to info@sunbeameducation.com and a member of our team will review the decision. You can also make a formal complaint under this policy.

How to make a formal complaint under this policy

To enable us to investigate and provide a thorough response to your concerns, we will need to form a good understanding of the issues. We would welcome hearing from you by email, by post or through our contact form with a brief explanation of:

• Why you feel dissatisfied with the service you have received, or with your experience on the platform.
• How you would prefer to be contacted about your complaint going forward.
• If there is anything in particular that you would like us to do to resolve your complaint.

Please address your concerns to:

FAO: Alex Pagett
Email: info@sunbeameducation.com
Contact form: https://sunbeameducation.com/contact/
Address:
AP Tutoring Limited
Brook Cottage
Filkins
Lechlade, GL7 3JQ

If you would prefer not to, or would find it difficult to, send written details of your complaint in this way, please call +44 7557 308376 to speak to Alex Pagett so that we can discuss the best way for you to give us an understanding of your concerns (for example, by phone, in a face-to-face meeting or video call).

What happens after I have made a complaint under this policy? 

We will:

• Send a written acknowledgement of your complaint within five working days of receiving it.
• Investigate your concerns diligently, impartially and fairly. This may include reviewing your profile on our platform and related records and discussing the issues with members of our team or our customers with whom you have dealt or who are connected with your complaint.
• Let you know promptly if we need any further information from you to assist our investigation.
• Write to you to provide a formal Final Response to Complaint setting out the conclusion of our investigation and any proposals to rectify or resolve the matter.
• Ask you to let us know whether we have succeeded in resolving your concerns and, if you accept any proposals made, fulfil those proposals promptly.

There is no fee for making a complaint and we will not charge you for investigating and responding to your concerns.

Do I still have to pay while I am complaining?

Yes. We don’t send you invoices for our commission: it is deducted from each customer payment as our application fee when the payment is taken, and this continues in the usual way while we look into your complaint. Any invoice we have sent you for other sums you owe us under our Platform Contract (https://sunbeameducation.com/platform-contract/) remains payable by its due date.

The exception is an invoice that your complaint is about (for example, an invoice for a refund or compensation we paid a customer on your behalf). If you tell us which invoice you are disputing, you don’t have to pay it until 14 days after we send you our Final Response. We won’t charge interest on it, or end our agreement with you for not paying it, before then.

If our investigation concludes that we should reduce or return any amount you have paid us, including commission, we will pay it back promptly.

How long will it take?

We will aim to conclude our investigation and provide our Final Response as quickly as possible. Although we will always aim for sooner, the process may take up to eight weeks from receipt of your complaint.

Some complaints need a quicker answer. If your complaint is about a decision to pause your profile, to cancel your upcoming bookings or to reject a document you have given us, or about the result of a check on your documents, or if it asks us to give you a copy of, correct or delete personal data we hold about you, a member of our team will review it and tell you what we have done within one month of receiving it. If the matter is complex and we need longer, we will tell you why within that month, and we will give you our answer within three months of receiving your complaint.

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to extend the eight-week timescale. If this occurs, we will let you know in writing and will try to agree any variations with you first.

What might the outcome of my complaint be?

We regret any dissatisfaction which our tutors experience and, if our investigation concludes that our service has fallen below our usual high standards, we will not hesitate to apologise. We may also make any proposals that we consider appropriate to resolve or improve your situation. Depending on the circumstances this may include, for example, an offer of compensation, reduced commission or fees, further assistance or other proposals. These are only examples and may not be relevant or appropriate in all cases.

Where our investigation finds that something went wrong, we will also take steps to try to stop it happening again.

What if I remain dissatisfied?

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving our Final Response, or if you have not received a Final Response within eight weeks of our receiving your complaint, you can ask for the dispute to be referred to mediation (see Mediation below). Asking for mediation does not affect either of our rights to go to court at any time.

Mediation

Either you or we can request that any dispute between us be referred to our preferred independent mediator, the TCM Group (https://thetcmgroup.com/). Any such requests should be sent to us at info@sunbeameducation.com. Both you and we must act in good faith when considering any requests for mediation and engaging in any mediation.

We may refuse mediation of a dispute which has previously been mediated if the mediator determined you weren’t acting in good faith in that mediation. We may also refuse mediation of any dispute connected to other disputes in which a mediator has repeatedly found in our favour.

We’ll bear a reasonable proportion of the total costs of any mediation, taking into account all relevant elements of the dispute, as determined by the mediator.