Terms & Conditions

Learn Locus LLC provides one-on-one tutoring, online, for students from middle school through university level. Sessions take place over video — usually Zoom or Google Meet — at times agreed with your tutor.

Our in-person SAT Seminar is a separate program with its own terms covering places, deposits, and withdrawal. Those terms are provided when you register and take precedence over this document for anything to do with the seminar.

Once we’ve matched your child with a tutor, you agree a regular schedule directly with them — typically one or two fixed sessions a week during the school year. Extra sessions, for example before an exam, are arranged with your tutor by email or message, subject to their availability.

To move a session, contact your tutor directly. We are flexible where we can be, but a tutor’s availability is not guaranteed and a moved session may not be possible at short notice.

Please give at least 24 hours’ notice to cancel or move a session. If a session is canceled with less notice than that, or the student doesn’t attend, we reserve the right to charge the full fee. We understand that things happen, and we use this discretion reasonably — but a tutor’s time that has been set aside for your child cannot be given to someone else at short notice, and we will charge for it if late cancellation becomes a pattern.

Rates. Fees depend on the tutor, and are agreed with you in writing before tutoring begins. Your agreed rate is fixed for two academic years from the start of tutoring. If we continue together beyond that, any new rate will be discussed and agreed with you before it applies.

How sessions are billed. Sessions are billed in 15-minute increments, and each 15-minute period that has started is charged in full. A 22-minute session, for example, is billed as 30 minutes.

Invoices. We invoice monthly in arrears. Payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date, by the methods shown on the invoice.

Late payment. If an invoice remains unpaid after the due date and we have not heard from you, we may charge interest on the outstanding amount at 1.5% per month, or the maximum rate permitted by law if that is lower, and we may pause sessions until the account is settled. We would much rather talk to you than do either — if there is a problem with an invoice, tell us.

Tutoring works when the student is ready to be taught. We ask that students:

If these expectations are repeatedly not met, we may pause or end tutoring after speaking with you.

Tutoring is provided either by Doug Poggioli or by tutors he has personally selected, vetted and coached. Tutors other than Doug are independent contractors rather than employees of Learn Locus. They work under the Learn Locus name, to the same standards, and are bound to keep your family’s information confidential.

If a tutor becomes unavailable for a sustained period, we will tell you promptly and offer an alternative where we can.

Worksheets, notes, practice problems and any other materials we share are for the personal use of the student they were given to. Please don’t republish, distribute or sell them. Materials remain the property of Learn Locus or the tutor who created them, and a tutor may reuse materials they have written with other students.

We will teach carefully and honestly, and we will tell you plainly how your child is doing. We cannot guarantee a particular exam result, grade or admission — those depend on many things besides tutoring. Doug has taught since 1990 and has a long record of students who improved markedly in understanding, confidence and results; that record is the best guide to what we do, but it is not a promise about any individual student.

We are not responsible for losses arising from internet or platform outages, technical problems at either end, or other circumstances beyond our reasonable control. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

We may update these terms from time to time. If we do, we will email current clients with the changes before they take effect; continuing with tutoring after that date counts as accepting them. Your agreed rate is not affected by an update to these terms.

You may end tutoring at any time by telling us. We may end or suspend tutoring for non-payment, for repeated late cancellations, or where the expectations in section 5 are persistently not met — and we will always raise the issue with you before taking that step.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States, and any dispute will be subject to the jurisdiction of its courts. Nothing in this section takes away protections you have as a consumer under the law of the country you live in.

If anything here is unclear, or if your situation doesn’t fit neatly into it, email admin@learnlocus.com and we’ll sort it out.