How charging works
A loop lesson is a 20-minute block for $30, GST included. One price, known before you start. Lessons happen on demand, so there is no booking made days in advance and nothing to cancel days in advance — and nothing to charge for until a tutor actually takes your request.
- You ask for a lesson. Nothing is charged. Your request goes out to tutors who are free.
- A tutor accepts. We place a $30 hold on your card — not a charge. Your bank will usually show it as pending. The money does not leave your account.
- The lesson happens.
- Afterwards we charge the $30. One block, one charge.
The price does not change with the clock. A lesson that runs a little short and one that runs a little over are the same purchase — you agreed to a block and you got one. You are never charged twice for the same lesson, and there is no meter converting minutes into money while your child works. There is one case where you are not charged at all, below.
If your card cannot be authorised, the tutor cannot accept and the lesson does not go ahead. Nobody ends up teaching a lesson that cannot be paid for.
When you are not charged at all
- Nobody takes your request. Requests stay open for 30 minutes. If no tutor is free, the request expires and nothing was ever held.
- You cancel before the lesson starts — including after a tutor has accepted. The hold is released.
- Your tutor does not turn up. If nobody joins the room, we close the request automatically after 45 minutes and release the hold. You do not need to chase it.
- The lesson fails in the first five minutes. If a lesson ends within five minutes of starting — a connection that drops, a camera that will not work, a match that is plainly wrong — the block is not charged at all. This happens automatically. You do not have to ask, and there is no refund to wait for, because there was never a charge.
In each case the hold is released at our end straight away. How long it takes to disappear from your statement is your bank’s timing, usually a few working days.
When you cannot cancel
Once the lesson has started and your tutor is in the room, cancelling is not available — the lesson is happening. To end it early, rejoin and leave the call. You will be charged for the time that elapsed.
If something goes wrong
A technical problem cut the lesson short
If the video, audio or whiteboard failed in a way that stopped the lesson, tell us. Every lesson is recorded, so we are not relying on anyone’s memory. Where the fault was ours or our providers’, we will refund what you were charged or arrange a replacement lesson — your choice.
The lesson was not good enough
If you do not think a lesson was delivered with reasonable care and skill, tell us within 14 days. We will watch the recording and, where the concern is justified, refund some or all of what you paid. We will tell you what we have done about it with the tutor, without sharing things about that tutor that are not ours to share.
The tutor left early, or was not paying attention
Same route, same review. You are not charged for time that was not taught.
Your Consumer Guarantees Act rights
Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, which applies to tutoring supplied to you as a consumer and cannot be signed away. If a lesson was not provided with reasonable care and skill, or was not fit for a purpose you told us about, you may have a remedy under that Act regardless of the timeframes above.
How to ask
Email patrick@loop.study with the student’s first name and roughly when the lesson was. That is enough for us to find it — you do not need a reference number.
We will tell you what we have decided and why. Refunds go back to the card you paid with and usually take 5 to 10 working days to appear, depending on your bank.
Tutors
Tutors are paid for lessons they taught. Where a lesson is refunded, the tutor keeps their share and loop absorbs the refund. We would rather carry that cost than have a tutor’s pay depend on a dispute they are not part of.
Changes
We may update this policy. The date below will change when we do, and a change will not affect a lesson already taught under the previous version.
See also our recording notice and terms of use.
Last updated 8 September 2026.