Payment, billing, and refund requests

First, please know that we are here to help, and we're on your side. We're not going to give you the run-around, but we also need to ensure that we collect timely payments in order to focus on teaching.

Billing and payment

• Advance payment, please: We require payment for all courses and tutoring at least two business days in advance before we can add the student to the course or schedule private lessons for the student. In some cases, we have automatic processes in place to create accounts you'll need for our courses, as well as helpful emails to send, so late registrations can cause problems at times.
• Auto-billing: Some courses offer automatic billing, which reduces our operating costs and simplifies payment for everybody. We need 30 days' advance notice of withdrawal from a course for planning, teaching, scheduling, and staffing reasons.
• We reserve the right to raise tuition: Sometimes things happen, and we have to raise our prices to continue to offer high-quality education. We therefore reserve the right to raise tuition. (Please note that we also reserve the right to lower tuition, but no one has ever objected when we do that!)

Refunds

Please understand that we want all students to be happy with our courses and teachers, and we want parents to trust us. At the same time, we need to establish fair guidelines for refunds in order for us to run a stable, healthy business.

Also, for most courses, missing one live class represents only a part of the value of the course--the student still has homework, and we still correct that homework; we also still need to create homework and keep the student in our record-keeping system.

We also understand that life can come at us fast; if something happens in the family, please get in touch, and we'll discuss your situation. For example, if you've studied with us for a while and one parent loses their job, we will ask how we can help.

If you think you may need to miss classes regularly, please consider the other options for enrollment that we offer to see whether they suit your needs. Note that these options will not include the 'continuous enrollment' discount.

• First class ever at TestMagic: If it's your first class ever with us, and you think it's not going to work out, please let us know right away (within 7 days, please), and we'll refund you 100%. We want all students and parents to see the value of the program and enjoy working with us!
• Requests for refunds must be made in writing by emailing TestMagic. We need two business days to contact you to confirm and then process your request. It is helpful for us to find your information if you include your order number as well.
• Refunds are paid by check to the parent on record or are charged back to the same credit card originally used. (No, Riley Jr., you can't drop out of your SAT course without telling your parents and get the money they paid for it.)
• Private tutoring: In some situations, we offer discounts for pre-payment of tutoring time. For example, a family pre-paying 50 hours of tutoring will pay less per hour than a family pre-paying only 10 hours. If a family pre-pays, for example, 50 hours of tutoring, uses only 10 hours of that tutoring, and requests a refund of 40 hours, the family would lose the discount applied for the rate charged for 50 hours, and the refund would be calculated according to the rate for 10 hours of tutoring.
• Auto-billed courses: We do not refund for part of the period missed (for missed classes, for missed assignments, etc.) since these courses have a heavily-discounted rate compared to the per-class rate.  For semester-length courses (or longer), refunds are generally not calculated according to a straight percentage. For example, if you enroll in a course and withdraw exactly in the middle of the course, you would lose the calculated 'quantity discount' based on the length of your course, and your refund amount would be 37% of the tuition of the course (not 50%).
• Courses with a set duration (for example, a summer course planned to run Jun 15 to Aug 15 or an SAT course planned to run Sep 1 to Oct 30): These courses are not refundable after the course begins. In other words, you can register for the course and be eligible for a refund if you notify us in writing two business days before your course begins.
• Non-refundable fees: These fees are not refundable: Deposits to hold a spot in a course, materials fees, or registration fees.