Cancellations & Refunds

Overview

This page is for students who need to cancel a booked session, understand how a refund works, or understand the first-lesson money-back guarantee on eligible tutors that offer. It explains Tuitionable's tiered refund policy — how the refund amount depends on how much cancellation notice period you gave — where refunds go, and how the guarantee refund differs from an ordinary cancellation refund.

Two separate mechanisms on refund:

• Cancellation refund — you call off a session before it happens. The amount returned is tiered by your notice window.
• First-lesson money-back guarantee — you attended your first paid lesson with a tutor but weren't satisfied. You can self-serve a full refund after the session, within a 24-hour window, on eligible tutors and bookings only.

The tiered cancellation refund policy

When you cancel a session you have already paid for, Tuitionable calculates the refund from the number of hours between now and the session's scheduled start time. The longer notice period you gave, the more you'll be refunded back.

Free trial sessions are non refundable. There are no refunds for free trial sessions. No matter how much notice you give, canceling a free or zero-price reservation will not result in any fees.

What counts as "notice"

Notice is measured at the moment you confirm the cancellation, not when you first opened the booking. If your session starts at 6:00 PM tomorrow and you cancel at 5:30 PM today, that is roughly 24.5 hours of notice — a full refund. Cancel the same session at 7:00 AM tomorrow and you fall into the partial window.

How to cancel a session

You cancel from the booking's own detail page.

1. Open My Bookings from your dashboard and select the session you want to cancel.
2. On the booking detail page, find the Cancel Session button in the actions area.
3. Confirm in the dialog. You can optionally add a reason, which is recorded and shared with your tutor.

A session is only cancellable while it is in the pending (awaiting tutor confirmation) or confirmed state and its start time is still 24 hours or more. Once a session has started, completed, or already been cancelled, the button no longer appears.

The Cancel Session button is the only self-serve cancellation control. There is no separate "request cancellation" process — cancelling is immediate, and the refund (if any) is processed in the system automatically.

Tutor notification

Your tutor is notified automatically when you cancel. If a tutor declines a session you requested, that is treated as a cancellation too, and your refund still follows the same tiered policy described above. Separately, if a tutor never confirms a pending request and its scheduled time passes, the platform auto-cancels the booking and refunds you in full — you don't need to do anything.

Where refunds go and when

Cancellation refunds are credited to your Wallet. The refund is processed as part of the cancellation itself, so the balance updates as soon as the cancellation completes — there is no separate waiting period or manual approval for a standard policy refund.

Once the refund is in your wallet you can spend it straight toward a new session,you may review it under your wallet and transaction history. Each refund is recorded as a transaction tagged with the cancellation reason so you can review it later.

If you cancel a session that was still in awaiting payment (you never completed checkout), there is nothing to refund — you were never charged. The slot is simply released.

First-lesson money-back guarantee

Some tutors offer a first-lesson money-back guarantee. If your very first paid lesson with that tutor doesn't meet your expectations, you can claim a full refund yourself.

When the guarantee applies

The guarantee is stamped onto a booking automatically at the time you book, and only when all of the following are true:

• It is your first lesson with that tutor.
• The tutor has the guarantee enabled on their profile.
• The booking is fully paid — it is not a free trial or a free session.

When a booking qualifies, Tuitionable records a refund guarantee deadline of 24 hours after the session ends. You can claim any time before that deadline passes, once the session has reached the completed or no_show state.

How to claim

1. Open the booking detail page for the first lesson.
2. Find the First-Lesson Money-Back Guarantee panel. It appears only on eligible bookings and shows how long is left in the claimable window.
3. Confirm the claim. The full amount you paid is credited to your wallet instantly.

The credit goes directly to your wallet, the booking is stamped as guarantee-refunded, and you'll see a confirmation. Once issued, the panel shows that a refund was already credited and the claim cannot be repeated.

The claimable timeframe is firm: once more than 24 hours have passed since the session ended, the claim will be rejected as expired. If you think your first lesson fell short, claim promptly.

Guarantee vs. cancellation refund

These two refund paths look similar but apply at different points in a booking session. Use this table for comparison.

In short: if you require to cancel a session, cancel earlier to avoid notice policy kicks in, claim the First-lesson guarantee refund only after you attend your first paid lesson and if it wasn't right for you.

Rescheduling instead of cancelling

If you simply need a different time rather than a refund, a reschedule keeps your booking — and your payment — intact. Reschedules are to be arranged with your tutor's availability. The tutor may propose to cancel or approve a new time that is available.

To reschedule a session, message your tutor to agree on a new date/time. Your tutor proposes the change, the system checks that the new slot is available on both sides, and once it is approved the booking will simply move to the new date/time — no cancellation, no refund calculation, and no new checkout required.

Because a reschedule preserves your payment, it is usually the better choice rather than cancelling a booking and remaking it. Reach out to your tutor before the cancellation window tightens.

Troubleshooting & tips

Related pages

• Booking a Session — how sessions are created, confirmed, and paid for.
• Wallet, Coupons & Invoices — where your refunds land and how to spend them.
• Lesson Packages — how cancelling a package lesson affects your remaining credits.
• Getting Help & Support — contact support when a refund needs a review.