Terms of service

1. About these terms

These terms of service form a binding agreement between you and Sino Tutor. They are intended to be read together with our Privacy policy, our POPIA notice and our Cookie policy, all of which form part of your agreement with us. If you do not agree with any part of these terms, you should not use the platform. Where we refer to "the platform" or "the service" we mean the Sino Tutor website, app and all the features we make available through them.

2. Eligibility and accounts

To use Sino Tutor you must be able to enter into a binding agreement. If you are a minor, a parent or legal guardian must create and oversee your account and accept these terms on your behalf. When you register you must give accurate, current and complete information, and you must keep it up to date.

You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for all activity that takes place under your account. If you believe your account has been accessed without your permission, you must let us know promptly so we can help you secure it. You may not share your account, use someone else's account without authority, or create an account using false information.

3. What Sino Tutor is

Sino Tutor is a marketplace that connects students and parents with independent tutors, alongside study tools such as an AI study assistant and a library of learning resources. The tutors on the platform are independent and are not our employees, agents or partners. Our role is to provide the technology that lets you find one another, arrange bookings and manage the relationship. We do not deliver the tutoring ourselves and we do not control how an individual tutor teaches.

4. Subscriptions, plans and billing

Sino Tutor offers a Free plan and paid Plus and Pro plans. Each plan comes with its own features and limits, which are enforced on our side and which we may adjust over time. By choosing a paid plan you authorise us, through our payment provider, to charge the applicable fee for the billing period you select. Fees are shown in South African rand.

You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel your plan at any time from your settings, and changes take effect according to your billing cycle. Unless the law requires otherwise or we say so expressly, fees already paid are non-refundable. If we change the price of a plan, we will give you reasonable notice before the change affects you.

5. Tutors

If you use the platform as a tutor, you additionally agree that:

• your profile, qualifications and identity or supporting documents are truthful, accurate and your own, and you will keep them current;
• you will only offer to teach subjects and grades you are genuinely competent to teach;
• you set your own hourly rate and are solely responsible for the sessions you deliver, including their quality, conduct and any tax or regulatory obligations that apply to you;
• you will honour confirmed bookings and communicate promptly and professionally with students and parents;
• you understand that your application is subject to review, and that we may decline, suspend or remove a tutor who breaches these terms or our community standards.

6. Students and parents

If you use the platform to find tutoring, you agree to provide accurate information, to treat tutors with respect, and to attend or properly cancel the sessions you book. Parents who manage an account for a child remain responsible for that account and for the conduct that takes place under it. You are responsible for satisfying yourself that a particular tutor is suitable for your needs before booking.

7. Bookings and cancellations

A booking is an arrangement made directly between a student or parent and a tutor through the platform. When you request a session the tutor may confirm or decline it, and confirmed sessions are protected against double-booking. Each plan limits how many active bookings you may hold at once. If you need to cancel, please do so as early as possible out of respect for the tutor's time. We are not a party to the booking itself and are not responsible for a session that a tutor or student fails to attend, although we encourage you to report problems so we can help.

8. Reviews and content you provide

You may post reviews, ratings, messages and other content on the platform. You must ensure that anything you post is honest, based on genuine experience, lawful and respectful, and that you have the right to share it. You retain ownership of the content you create, but you grant us a licence to host, display and use it as needed to operate and promote the platform. We may remove content that is abusive, misleading, fraudulent, infringing or otherwise in breach of these terms.

9. The AI study assistant

The AI study assistant is provided to support your learning. While we work to make it helpful, AI-generated answers and documents can be incomplete or incorrect, and you should not rely on them as a substitute for professional advice or for verifying important facts yourself. You agree to use the assistant responsibly and in line with academic-integrity expectations - in particular, you must not present AI-generated work as your own where doing so would breach the rules of your school, university or institution.

10. Acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the platform. In particular, you must not:

• harass, abuse, threaten or defame any other person;
• impersonate anyone or misrepresent your identity or qualifications;
• use the platform for fraud, or for any unlawful or harmful purpose;
• attempt to circumvent plan limits, security measures or the booking system;
• scrape, copy or harvest data, or interfere with the platform's operation;
• upload malicious code or content that infringes someone else's rights.

11. Intellectual property

The Sino Tutor name, logo, software, design and content (other than content provided by users and tutors) belong to us or our licensors and are protected by law. We grant you a limited, personal, non-transferable right to use the platform for its intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, distribute or create derivative works from our platform or branding without our permission.

12. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the platform and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access where you breach these terms or our community standards, where it is necessary to protect other users or the platform, or where we are required to by law. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will give you notice. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination - such as those on liability, intellectual property and governing law - will continue to apply.

13. Disclaimers

The platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free or fit for a particular purpose, and we do not warrant the quality, conduct or outcomes of any tutoring arranged through it. Any tutoring relationship is between you and the tutor.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Sino Tutor is not liable for the acts or omissions of tutors or students, or for any indirect, incidental or consequential loss arising out of your use of the platform. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, and your statutory rights as a consumer under South African law are not affected.

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless against claims, losses and costs arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the platform, or content you post, to the extent permitted by law.

16. Changes to the service and these terms

We may improve, change or discontinue parts of the platform over time. We may also update these terms, and where changes are significant we will take reasonable steps to let you know, for example by updating the date above or notifying you in the app. Continuing to use the platform after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them, without affecting any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have.

18. Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, please reach us via our contact page.