May 23, 2013
AMERICAN ROCK SCHOOL POLICY: CANCELLATIONS & MAKE-UPS
Q: "Can I cancel come in on a different day?"
A: Only once per month for qualified make-ups. Coming in at a time other than the one you already reserved means that you want to book 2 lesson appointment times (the one reserved for you -and- some different time) but you only paid for one of them. Tuition holds the specific lesson time and compensates the instructor for that time (30 min or hour). Your teacher is your "personal trainer" and they rely on the students to pay them for the time they hold to have the lesson - as no one else can take your spot!
IMPORTANT - Qualified Free Make-up lessons must be scheduled within 7 days of the qualified cancellation and must be taken within 14 days. Once booked, we do not re-schedule a make-up lesson. (because it blocks an appointment time that we can't book another student) We do not apply missed lessons as credit to future tuition.
Lessons occur at the scheduled time. That is the only time your tuition pays for. The time slot in which the lesson occurs is the only time the instructors are compensated for with tuition payment. Instructors are compensated for the time they reserve for their students - not a different time. If the student has to miss the lesson, the instructor will still need to be compensated for that specific time. We appreciate you letting us know in advance if possible if you have a conflict and can’t make the appointment. Teachers are required to make-up missed lessons if they cancel it (see below).
Time Change: If you need to move to a regular new lesson time; we will move you if there is a spot available. Please limit these requests to no more than once per quarter. See below for vacation and holiday off weeks
Sickness / Make-ups: with the understanding that teachers must be paid for their time regardless of whether the student comes in, we will schedule a free make-up lesson to students who miss due to sickness and bring in a doctor’s note. We require at least 45 minutes advance notice of the missed lesson (by phone) and the doctor’s note within 7 days of the missed lesson. It is your responsibility to schedule the make-up lesson within 7 days of the missed appointment. A make-up is in addition to the regular scheduled lesson. Once booked, we do not reschedule make-up lessons.
About free make up lessons: Unfortunately, some students feel like they are "losing money" when they miss scheduled lessons with no make-up but the reality is that they are paying the teacher for their time, thereby keeping them employed as a teacher of the guitar, piano, voice etc... In addition, you are keeping your ideal lesson time. If a time slot is not paid for, it is open for anyone to book it. The teachers only get compensated for the specific lesson time that your tuition pays for, not ANY other time. They rely on the number of booked lesson appointments being a reality so they can budget and pay their bills and put gas in their cars like everyone else.
Vacation time: To keep your lesson time and teacher secure, a 50% tuition rate applies for dates missed. We can’t expect our teachers to reserve a lesson spot for free. However, we can allow 1 “off week” per quarter that there is no charge for. *We require notice of the date you will be missing at the time of tuition payment or at least one-week in advance to not be charged. Off weeks do not roll over, and can’t be combined. 3-month, yearly Quarters are as follows: January 1st – March 31/ April 1st – June 30th/ July 1st – Sept 30th./ October 1st – December 31.
You will not be charged for Holidays that we are closed.
We do NOT close on all days that public and private schools have off.
Dates we are closed: Jan 1. Memorial Day (May), Independence Day (July 4th), Labor Day (Sept), Thanksgiving, Christmas Day. There will always be advance notice of days we will be closed.
Teacher cancellations: In the event that your instructor has to cancel, they will arrange a make-up. If that is not possible, your lesson will be credited. If you come in for a lesson and your teacher is not there, you will get a free lesson credit on your next tuition payment. We have the right to provide a qualified substitute instructor without notice.
This is different from a student cancellation because you will not ever be charged if your instructor cancels, and if you can't do a make-up, you will get credit instead.
Advanced tuition payment: We cannot hold a lesson spot that is not secured in advance. If a student does not show up - even with a phone call in advance, we must open the next lesson time for a different student if there is nothing keeping a spot reserved. The option is to reserve by phone, online, in person, or to use a deposit to hold the lesson time (see below)
Refunds: When we are given no less than one-week notice of lesson stoppage (VIA email only) Verbal and phone messages are not accepted.
We will refund paid tution balance with a check by mail.
All students are required to be on our email list. Important updates and recital info come VIA email.