Tuition Agency Singapore - Top Tutors Home

Terms

We, or TopTutors Tuition Agency LLP (also known as TopTutors) provide matching services to parents and students (also known as clients or customers) requesting for the service of a tutor or a tuition teacher. Any service that TopTutors or the assigned tutor provides is subjected to the conditions in the remainder of this document. Anyone who uses TopTutors' services must accept these terms and conditions, and our privacy policy.

For Tutors

Registration Requirements

Registering for a TopTutors account is free. You must be at least 18 years old with a minimum qualification of O-level or diploma and reside in Singapore. TopTutors reserve all rights to reject your application.

Tutor Account

You will gain access to your TopTutors account (also known as tutor account) upon completion of the tutor registration process. You shall account for all activities that occur under your account access. Hence, you are responsible for keeping your account and password confidential and for restricting access to your computer. You shall immediately inform TopTutors of any unauthorised access of your TopTutors account. TopTutors reserve the rights to ban or terminate your account at any circumstance. You are not allowed to register again if your tutor account has been terminated.

Tutor Profile

You must submit and maintain an accurate and up-to-date tutor profile about yourself only. We are not and will not be responsible for all the contents that you post, upload, email, transfer or lose in your tutor profile. You shall not post contact details such as contact numbers, email address, website address, into your profile fields that will become viewable by the public or any site visitor; failure to comply may result in termination of your tutor account. A tutor profile includes necessary information about you such as name, NRIC number, and date of birth, gender, photograph, address, email, contact numbers, occupation, detailed qualifications and relevant experiences as a tuition teacher, area(s) and subject(s) preferences.

Qualifications, Certificates and Identification

The details of your qualifications submitted in your tutor profile must tally with genuine certificates in terms of school, level, title, subjects, grades, year, and so on. TopTutors reserve all rights to request or demand scanned copies of your original certificates and NRIC for verification purposes. You are expected to be proactive in getting these verifications done by sending scanned copies of your original certificates and NRIC to info@TopTutors.sg immediately after your tutor account is registered. You will have higher chance of being offered a tuition assignment if both verifications are done without procrastination. You accept that only TopTutors administrative personnel such as managers, administrators, coordinators will ask for copies of your original certificates and NRIC. TopTutors reserve the right to send copies of your certificates to prospective customers. We will handle but shall not be liable for any breach of privacy policy by our own coordinators or customers that may result in your loss.

Tuition Requests

Tuition requests from our customers will be made available to you via SMS, email or phone calls. You accept and allow us to send you tuition requests at any time. When a tuition request is received, you shall response via the same channel with at least a quote of tuition rate per hour. You need not respond to the tuition request if you are not interested in it. Hesitant response may lower the chance of getting the assignment. Responding to any tuition request does not guarantee that you will be offered a tuition assignment. You may stop receiving tuition requests via SMS and emails if you set your tutor account to inactive. We still reserve the right to send any form of requests to any inactive tutor account at any time. To understand further how we manage our tuition requests, just read our frequently asked questions.

Tuition Assignment Offer and Acceptance

After making a quote, you have a chance to receive an offer of a tuition assignment. When receiving an offer from us via SMS or email, you can either accept by replying or reject by ignoring. Hesitant reply may lower the chance of getting the assignment. By you accepting the offer, binds you to a 4-week commitment, but does not bind us to this commitment. We and our customers still reserve the right to terminate the tuition assignment at any time.

Commitment Requirements

Tutor's refusal to abide to the following requirements shall result in 100% tuition fees forfeited. Upon acceptance of an offer, you are required to commit to the tuition assignment for a minimum of 4 weeks tuition without changing any lesson timing. You are not allowed to make any changes to the tuition arrangement. If you wish to initiate slight changes to tuition arrangement, just consult and seek approval from TopTutors. You are not allowed to initiate any changes to the customer directly, bypassing our coordinator. TopTutors only accept official medical certificate or other official proofs of emergency cases as an excuse in lesson postponement. Although there is no requirement for tutor's commitment longer than 4 weeks, tutor is expected to commit themselves further so as to ensure the student achieve good academic performance. Therefore, postponement or cancellation of lessons or cancellation of assignment is strongly discouraged, especially when it is near the examination period. This will be strictly monitored by our TopTutors feedback system. Even if you provide an official proof as an excuse to postpone or cancel lesson, this will still be reflected in our records.

First Lesson

The first lesson is very important because it leaves a strong impression of you and the agency. Upon acceptance of the offer, you are not allowed to change the date and time of the first lesson, unless it is initiated by the customer. You are expected to call the customer just one or two days before the first lesson to re-confirm the tuition subject(s) and lesson time. You are not allowed to re-negotiate the agreed tuition arrangement directly with the customer. You are required to bring your NRIC and original certificates to the first lesson and show to the clients without request. Failure to attend the first lesson will lead to the termination of your tutor account. This will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Commission

We collect 50% of tuition fees for 4 full weeks of given lessons from the customer on your behalf as a commission from you. The commission must be collected directly from the customer by our manager at the end of 2nd week's lessons. You may start collecting tuition fees directly from the customer from 4th week onwards. The amount of commission will not be affected by lesson postponement or cancellation due to any reason. However, it may increase or decrease proportionally if there is any change in tuition frequency or the tuition assignment is terminated, before the 4 full weeks of lessons are fulfilled. If such a situation occurs, TopTutors will collect from or pay you the prorated amount. TopTutors will not be liable for any unforeseen or uninformed changes. If the customer cancelled the assignment before 4 weeks of lessons are completed, and then suddenly contact you personally to continue the assignment, you are still liable for 50% commission for a total of 4 weeks of given lessons. When such situation occurs, you are obligated to let TopTutors know immediately. Any attempt to keep it from us is considered cheating and shall result in the termination of your tutor account. We reserve the rights to let the client know and replace a tutor without notice.

Cancellation of assignment

You are not allowed to cancel the assignment until 4 weeks of lessons are completed. After the 4 weeks commitment, you are free to cancel the assignment. Even though, our opinion is such that a responsible tutor shall commit to the tuition assignment until the end of the student's final exam(s), or at least the mid-year exam(s) if applicable. Hence, your commitment towards the assignment will be monitored till the assignment is terminated or the student's next major exam(s) is/are over, whichever is earlier. In this case, TopTutors have higher expectations for full time tutors. The customer can cancel the assignment at any time.

Cheats

Common cheating cases such as an attempt to offer customer tuition discount so as they would fake an early assignment cancellation for the sake of lowering the commission levied on you, or include your contact information in your tutor profile that is viewable by the public. You will be liable in compensating our losses and your tutor account will be terminated if caught cheating.

Delayed payments

In any case when we collect an amount which you are liable, you must get the payment done within 7 days. Any delay will subject to a $2 fine per week of delay. If the delay is over 6 weeks, TopTutors will consider submitting the case to Small Claims Tribunals.

Tutor Conduct & Customer's Complaints

Penalties will be imposed on tutors who show poor conduct. Being unpunctual, having improper dressing, showing poor commitments such as postponing or cancelling lessons, or not concentrating on lesson are common signs of bad conducts. Any complaints or feedbacks received from customer will be recorded and you will be given a chance to comment, explain, or dispute. Vice versa, rewards will be given to tutors who show good conduct and receive good feedbacks. We reward tutors with priority to get better benefits in future with us e.g. more tuition assignments.

For Customers

Quality of Service

TopTutors do not guarantee that the assigned tutor will help improve the student's academic performance; neither will be liable for any poor academic results. You are liable to pay tuition fees for all lessons attended, regardless of how the tutor conducts the lesson. However, we have a feedback system in place to help us recommend quality tutors, provided that your requirements are not too stringent. We appreciate your help in providing us accurate feedbacks so as to be fair to yourself, and to the tutors.

Contract

There is no contract and you may request a change of tutor or terminate the tuition at any time. However, the tutor, once agreed to take up your tuition assignment, is supposed to complete 4 full weeks of lessons without changing the agreed tuition rate and schedule. After the 4 weeks commitment, the tutor is free to terminate the assignment. Even though, our tuition agency does not expect the tutors to do so and we encourage you to feedback to us if this happens. We will review your case and make appropriate recommendations.

Tuition rates and Schedule

The tuition rates we offer you are quoted directly from the tutors. The tuition rates we publish on our website are averages of the quotes for the past 6 months. Although it serves as a good guide for both customers and tutors, we do not guarantee that all tutors would quote within the range. Upon acceptance of the tutor for your assignment at an agreed tuition rate and schedule, you are not allowed to renegotiate the rate and schedule with the tutor without TopTutors' knowledge. If you renegotiated a lower tuition rate with the tutor, the original rate agreed with coordinator is still the official rate, which is still applicable to the commission calculation that we collect from you. You shall inform us immediately if the tutor tries to renegotiate the tuition rate or schedule before completion of 4 weeks of lessons. The tuition rate and schedule, once agreed can be renegotiated by you, but subjected to further acceptance by the tutor. If there is a need, we will recommend another tutor to suit your new requirements.

Tuition fees, Commission and Payments

You are only required to pay tuition fees for the number of hours of lessons given by the tutor. If you decide to stop the tuition after the first lesson, you are only required to pay for that lesson. There is no free trial lesson. Tuition fees are expected to be paid every 4 weeks to the tutors, otherwise agreed between you and the tutors. TopTutors will collect 50% of 4 weeks of tuition fees from you directly at the end of the 2nd week. This payment is a commission we levied on the tutor. The tutor is not allowed to collect the payment on our behalf unless directed by us. If you insist on passing our commission to the tutor and the tutor defaults the commission, you will be liable for our losses. You only have to pay the other half (50%) to the tutor at the end of the 4th week. TopTutors will be proactive in handling the transactions and shall not be liable for any inconvenience or confusion caused among you and the tutor. We will provide our bank account information for you to make payment via cheque mailing or bank transfer. If we provided a wrong account number, we shall not be liable for your loss if we resend the correct account number within a reasonable time. It is your responsibility to ensure that receipt is kept as proof of transaction made via cash deposit transfer. Otherwise, we may not be able to verify your payment.

Place of Tuition

By default, it is the customer's current residence. Otherwise, you shall indicate a suitable location for proper conduct of lesson. If you wish to do it at the tutor's residence, it is subject to the tutor's approval. Tuition fees shall be paid in advance if place of tuition is not at customer's current residence.

Tutor Database

We provide this online database as a free 24/7 service to our tutors and customers. TopTutors shall not be liable for your losses, inconvenience due to a service downtime. TopTutors do not guarantee the accuracy of the tutors' information. We appreciate your help to indicate any inaccurate information.

Shortlisted Tutors

TopTutors website provides a shortlist function where you can submit a list of preferred tutors that you found from our database. TopTutors does not guarantee that you will be assigned your preferred tutor(s).

First Lesson

Upon acceptance of the tutor assigned to your assignment, the date and time of the first lesson must be fixed and adhered to. You are expected to check the visiting tutor's NRIC and the relevant certificates if we are unable to provide scanned copies. It is your responsibility to inform us early if there is a need to postpone the first lesson unless for extreme cases e.g. student is suddenly ill.

Cancellation of Assignment or Lesson

You shall at least inform TopTutors if you wish to postpone or cancel a lesson or the tuition assignment. If you wish to postpone or cancel a lesson that is less than an hour away, you shall be liable to pay for a reasonable transport cost to the tutor if he or she makes the claim.

Lesson Monitoring

We will monitor the lessons for the first 4 weeks by sending SMS reminders and making calls to ensure that the scheduled lessons are conducted on time and smoothly. We shall not be liable for any inconvenience caused.

Feedbacks

Feedbacks shall be gathered from the student, and also the parent if the parent is the main point of contact. We will do a feedback session over the phone once every 2 months until the student's next final exam. If negative feedbacks are gathered, we will give the tutor a chance to dispute with us.

For Coordinators

As coordinators employed by TopTutors, you shall be committed to serving as a point of contact between customers and tutors whenever required. You shall abide to TopTutors privacy policy. You are not allowed to edit, copy, forward or use the tutor's data except for the purpose of TopTutors tuition coordinating operations. You are not allowed to use or disclose tutors' data for your own agenda such as clinch tuition assignments, which are not under TopTutors' jurisdiction. If found out, you will be liable for fine up to S$5000 and immediate dismissal. Your earnings will be based on a percentage portion of the commission levied on the assigned tutor. This percentage is determined prior to employing you. We reserve the rights to change this percentage at any time.

Links to External Sites

You may find links to external sites not under our jurisdiction. We put these links in our websites because they may be useful resources to you. TopTutors does not guarantee the availability or uptime of these external sites and shall not be responsible for any damage or loss caused through the use of or reliance on the contents, goods or services available through these sites.

Intellectual Rights

The contents and graphics on this website are protected by copyrights and other form of proprietary rights.

All materials found in this site must not be used or reused by any individual or party outside TopTutors without prior permission.

Disclaimer

Visiting and using this site is solely at your own risk. We will not be liable for any damage, loss and inconvenience resulting from usage and access of this site. We do not guarantee that the data, which we send through our emails, website, webhost servers, or any other electronic means, are free of computer viruses or other harmful files.