Terms of Service

1. Parties

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are between you and:

"We", "us" and "our" refer to Icelabz Solutions Ltd. "You" and "your" refer to the individual booking or attending a lesson through the Mandarin Learner service (the "Service").

2. Acceptance

By booking a lesson, creating a teacher account, or otherwise accessing the Service, you confirm that:

• You have read and understood these Terms.
• You agree to be bound by them.
• You are at least 18 years old (see section 4).
• You are legally able to enter into a binding contract under the laws of England and Wales.

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation, in which case "you" refers to that organisation.

3. The service

The Service lets you find, book and pay for live one-to-one Mandarin lessons with independent certified teachers. Lessons are delivered over video conferencing and scheduled in the teacher's local time and your local time. The Service is available at mandarinaudio.com and through the Mandarin Learner mobile application.

We act as an intermediary between you and the teacher. The teacher provides the lesson; we provide the platform, take payment, and handle support.

The Service is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis and is subject to change as we improve and expand it. We may add, modify or remove features from time to time, provided that we do not materially diminish the core booking functionality on which you have relied.

Lesson delivery

Lessons are live, one-to-one video calls of 50 minutes, held over Zoom or VooV. Your meeting link appears in the app and in your confirmation email as soon as payment is confirmed. Mandarin Learner does not record lessons.

4. Eligibility and age

You must be at least 18 years old to book a lesson. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to use the Service. If we learn that a booking has been made by someone under 18, we will cancel it, refund any payment and delete the personal data associated with it. See our Privacy Policy for the procedure to follow if you believe this has happened.

5. Bookings, payment and renewal

Where the Service is offered on a per-lesson or package basis:

• Prices are quoted in pounds sterling (GBP) and are inclusive of UK VAT where applicable. Other applicable taxes are shown at checkout.
• Payment is processed by Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. By providing a payment method you confirm that you are authorised to use it.
• A booking is confirmed when payment succeeds and you receive a confirmation email containing the lesson time in both your local time and the teacher's local time.
• You can reschedule or cancel from the link in your confirmation email, or by emailing support@mandarinaudio.com. Cancellation terms are stated at checkout and in the confirmation email.
• If a payment fails, we will notify you by email and the booking will not be confirmed.
• Price changes: if we change the price of a recurring plan, we will notify you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. You can cancel before the new price takes effect.

6. 14-day right of withdrawal

Where the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 ("CCRs") give you a 14-day right of withdrawal, that period starts on the day the contract is concluded.

For a service contract, the right of withdrawal is lost when the service has been fully performed, not when performance merely begins. Merely starting a lesson does not remove the right: for a single-lesson booking it is lost only when that lesson has been taught in full, and for a package it is lost only when the last lesson in the package has been taught. The right may be lost earlier only if you gave your express consent to performance starting during the cancellation period and acknowledged that the right is lost on full performance, and we confirmed that to you in writing.

At checkout we ask you to tick a checkbox reading:

"I agree to the lesson being performed on the scheduled date and acknowledge that my 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 will be lost once the lesson has been fully performed. I understand that if the lesson has not yet been fully performed, I may still cancel within 14 days of booking."

If you do not tick this checkbox, or if the lesson has not yet been fully performed, your right of withdrawal remains in force for 14 days from the date the contract was concluded. To exercise it, email support@mandarinaudio.com with the subject "Cancellation" within the 14-day period; we will refund you within 14 days of receiving your notice using the same payment method you used.

This right is in addition to — and does not replace — the free-cancellation window described in section 5 and at checkout (cancel or reschedule free of charge up to 24 hours before the scheduled lesson). Where both apply, whichever gives you the longer window applies. For convenience you may use the model cancellation form at the end of these Terms, but you do not have to use it.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Record, copy, scrape, or redistribute lesson content, teacher materials or any part of the Service.
• Resell, share or transfer a booking to another person.
• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable local, national or international law.
• Harass, threaten or discriminate against a teacher or any member of our team.
• Attempt to disrupt, harm or reverse-engineer the Service, our servers, or any related infrastructure.
• Use any automated means (bots, scrapers, agents) to access the Service except for bona-fide search-engine indexing.
• Share your account credentials with anyone else.

We may suspend or terminate your access if we reasonably believe you have breached this section.

8. Intellectual property

All intellectual property rights in the Service — including the Mandarin Learner name and logo, the website, the application, and the platform software — are and remain the property of Icelabz Solutions Ltd or its licensors. Teaching materials supplied by a teacher remain the property of that teacher.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access the Service for your personal, non-commercial language-learning purposes. This licence ends when your booking is complete or these Terms are terminated.

9. Third-party content and providers

The Service uses third-party providers for payments (Stripe), transactional email, hosting (Alibaba Cloud, Hong Kong) and video conferencing (ADR-0005). Their terms and privacy policies apply to the data they handle and to the services they provide to you. We are not responsible for the acts of those providers, except to the extent required by law.

The guides published on this website are provided for general information only. If we link to external sites for reference, those sites are not under our control and we do not endorse or accept responsibility for their content.

10. Availability, changes and termination

We aim to keep the Service available at all times but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. We may need to suspend access for maintenance, updates, security incidents, or causes beyond our reasonable control.

We may make changes to the Service, including adding, modifying or removing features. Material changes that affect your ability to use a confirmed booking will be notified to you at least 14 days in advance by email.

We may suspend or terminate your access if:

• You materially breach these Terms.
• You fail to pay for a booking when due.
• You use the Service in a way that creates a security or legal risk for us, a teacher, or another user.

You may stop using the Service at any time. To request deletion of your data, see Privacy Policy section 17.

11. No-guarantee outcome disclaimer

Subject to your statutory rights under section 12 below, the Service is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. In particular:

• We make no warranty or representation that the Service will enable you to achieve any specific level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, including any particular HSK level (HSK 1, HSK 2, HSK 3 etc.).
• Your progress depends on factors outside our control, including the time you commit, your prior language-learning background, your consistency of practice, and your individual aptitude. We do not warrant any specific outcome.
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects will be corrected within a particular time, except as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Nothing in this clause limits any right you have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including your statutory rights relating to the supply of services with reasonable care and skill.

12. Liability cap

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:

• Death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
• Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
• Any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by the laws of England and Wales (including your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015).

Subject to the above, our aggregate liability to you under or in connection with these Terms in any 12-month period shall not exceed the total amount you have paid us for the Service in that period.

Subject to the above, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, including loss of profits, loss of business opportunity, or loss of data, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such losses. This clause is reasonable under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 because it reflects the consideration exchanged and the limits of our insurance cover, and is transparent under section 64 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us against reasonable losses, costs and expenses that we suffer as a result of any breach by you of section 7 (Acceptable use). This indemnity is limited to direct losses and does not extend to indirect or consequential losses. It does not apply where the breach is not your fault.

14. Data and privacy

Our handling of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. It explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

15. Governing law

These Terms, and any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with these Terms, save that consumers resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland retain the protection of the mandatory laws of their country of residence.

16. Dispute resolution

If you have any concern or complaint about the Service, please email support@mandarinaudio.com first so that we can try to resolve it. We aim to acknowledge within 3 working days and respond substantively within 14 days.

Nothing in this section affects your right to bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales (or, if you are a resident of Scotland or Northern Ireland, in your local courts) under section 15 above.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The current effective date and version are shown at the top of this page. Material changes — meaning changes that affect your rights or obligations under these Terms — will be notified to active users at least 14 days before they take effect, by email to the address on file.

Continuing to use the Service after the effective date of a change constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not accept a change, your right and only remedy is to stop using the Service before the change takes effect.

18. Contact

For any question about these Terms:

Model cancellation form

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you may use this form to exercise your right of withdrawal. You do not have to use it.