Terms of Service

1. What Wavelength is

Wavelength is an online marketplace that connects adult students with independent Japanese language tutors for 1-on-1 lessons held in Wavelength's online classroom. Tutors are independent providers, not employees of Wavelength; Wavelength provides the platform, scheduling, payment processing and classroom technology.

2. Accounts

You must be at least 18 years old to use Wavelength. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Provide accurate information and keep it up to date.

3. Booking, rescheduling and refunds

• Lessons are booked against a tutor's published availability. A trial lesson is paid at booking; regular lessons are booked with the lesson credits your plan provides.
• Booked lessons may be rescheduled free of charge up to 24 hours before they start. Inside 24 hours a lesson is committed: it takes place as booked, cannot be moved or cancelled, and a missed lesson may be marked as a no-show and is not returned.
• Wavelength does not provide refunds. Lessons are managed by rescheduling; plan renewals can be stopped at any time before they bill (section 4). Support may, at its sole discretion, make exceptions for exceptional circumstances.
• If a tutor cancels a lesson — at any time — you are made whole: your lesson credit is restored, or a trial payment is refunded in full.

4. Plans and lesson credits

• A plan subscribes you to packs of 5 lessons with a specific tutor at that tutor's per-lesson rate. Each pack adds 5 lessons to your credit balance with that tutor. The next pack is billed automatically 5 weeks after the last, or as soon as every lesson in the current pack has been taught, whichever comes first.
• Credits are redeemed automatically when you book with that tutor and have no cash value outside the platform. Each pack's lessons are valid for 10 weeks from the day they are added; unused lessons expire after that.
• You can cancel a plan at any time: renewals stop, the current cycle runs to its end, and lessons already paid for remain usable until they expire.

5. Course materials

Where physical course books are included, we ship them to the address you provide. Delivery timelines are estimates; lessons begin online and never depend on delivery.

6. Conduct

Treat tutors and students with respect. Harassment, discrimination, recording another participant, or attempting to move payments off-platform may result in suspension or removal.

Lessons are transcribed (never recorded) so that both people receive lesson notes, as described in the Privacy Policy. Students may switch transcription off in Settings. Where it is off, Wavelength has no record of the lesson and cannot mediate a dispute or act on a report about it; each participant remains solely responsible for their own conduct. Wavelength is not a party to the lesson and is not liable for the conduct of any participant.

7. Tutors

• Tutors set a fixed salary (their per-lesson rate) and their own availability, and are responsible for the content of their lessons and their own tax obligations.
• Wavelength charges tutors a platform fee of 35% per completed lesson, decreasing to 15% as more hours are taught on the platform.
• Trial lessons (25 minutes) are unpaid for tutors unless they convert: when the student subsequently starts a plan with that tutor, the tutor is paid 50% of the trial fee for that trial.
• All teaching materials are provided by Wavelength. Lessons on a JLPT-focus plan carry a flat $2 per-lesson materials fee to the tutor; conversational lessons carry no materials fee.
• Salary changes apply only to future purchases and can take up to one 5-week cycle to take full effect: lessons and plan credits already sold are honoured — and paid to the tutor — at the previous rate until consumed, and existing plans move to the new rate at their next renewal. A tutor cannot change their salary again while lessons sold at the previous rate remain unconsumed.

8. Liability

Wavelength provides the platform "as is". To the maximum extent permitted by law, Wavelength's liability for any claim arising from the service is limited to the amount you paid for the lesson or plan cycle giving rise to the claim.

9. Changes

We may update these terms as the platform evolves. Material changes will be announced on the site or by email; continuing to use Wavelength after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.