Terms & Conditions
By making a booking on this site, you agree to the terms and conditions hereby stated.
In these terms and conditions, DA is Dear Asia.
Lesson Types
DA offers 4 types of group classes and private tutoring (1-2 students) to students at all levels.
- Group classes
Regular Weekly Class is for lessons running once a week either on weekday evenings (Monday to Thursday) from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, or on Saturdays for a 2 hours time slot between 10:00am to 6:00pm, for a period of 8 to 10 weeks.
Intensive Class is for lessons running twice a week, either on weekdays evenings (Monday to Thursday) from 6.30pm to 8:30pm, and/or on Saturdays between 10:00am to 6:00pm, for a period of 4 to 5 weeks.
Semi-Intensive Class is for lessons running twice a week for 3 weeks, then once a week for 6 weeks, either on weekdays evenings (Monday to Thursday) from 6.30pm to 8:30pm, and/or on Saturdays for a 4 hours time slot between 10:00am to 6:00pm, for a total period of 9 weeks.
Corporate Group Class is for lessons provided exclusively to our clients at their company premises.
- Private Tutoring
Private Tutoring is for lessons provided exclusively to 1 or 2 maximum students at our premises or other premises agreed with students.
Class Time Table
All DA courses are advertised with scheduled start and finish dates within specific hours. Each course booking is only valid for the specified dates and times, and is not transferable to other courses at different dates and times, unless previously agreed by DA.
DA reserves the right not to run an advertised course at the scheduled start date and time if there are fewer than 4 students enrolled for that course. Wherever possible, an alternative course or a later start date will be offered to the students; if this is not possible or suitable to the students, a full refund will be arranged.
Tuition Fees
DA tuition fees must be paid in full in advance before a scheduled starting date.
Entry Beginner – Prepaid Booking
All Entry Beginner courses are only available to attend with a prepaid booking. the Entry Beginner tuition fee must be paid in full to DA prior to an Entry Beginner course start date to confirm a successful booking. There is no trial lesson available for Entry Beginner courses; instead DA’s Satisfaction Guarantee is offered to all Entry Beginner students for refund options. [do we offer trail class for beginner?] Please see below for details.
Other Group Classes – Trial Lessons
Trial lessons are available to students interested joining DA’s courses higher than Entry Beginner. Students must contact DA separately to prepay for 1 (or 2) lessons of a DA Group course. A student will then be able to attend 1 (or 2) lessons of a currently running group course to enable a student to assess whether the group course is suitable for them.
Private Tutoring
Private Tutoring must be booked and paid for in advance in a minimum block of 6 lessons (or as individually agreed with students). Each private tutoring session is a minimum of 1.5 hours to 2 hours. Please contact DA directly about arranging private trial lessons.
Satisfaction Guarantee Policy
DA offers all students its Satisfaction Guarantee policy to protect your pre-paid booking with DA. After attending the first lesson of the booked course, students will have 7 days to contact DA directly (via email / phone) to apply for a full refund of the remaining tuition fee, if for whatever reason, the course has not lived up to the student’s satisfaction.
Refund & Cancellation Policy
All PM tuition fees are non-refundable except in the following circumstances:
- DA cancels a scheduled group course or private tutor session;
- DA’s Satisfaction Guarantee applies; or a
- Force Majeure event occurs.
A Force Majeure event is an event or circumstances beyond DA’s control; such an event or circumstance may include (but is not limited to) any of the following: an act of terrorism, war, riot, strikes, Act of God or an outbreak of an infectious and communicable disease. If a Force Majeure event occurs, and becomes necessary to close DA for a limited period, DA cannot accept responsibility for any loss that may be incurred by students through the loss of classes.
If, due to unforeseen circumstances, a tutor assigned to a group course or private tutoring course becomes unavailable, DA reserves the right to change the tutor for the remaining group course or private tutoring lessons.
For Private Tutoring, DA offers flexible scheduling and students are able to make appointments with tutors independently; however, a 24 hours cancellation policy applies to Private Tutoring. Once an appointment has been agreed between a tutor and student, any date or time change to that scheduled lesson time must be agreed with at least 24 hours notice. Lessons cancelled or postponed with less than 24 hours notice will be charged at full rate.
Private Tutoring block bookings have a designated expiry date on each invoice. If there are any remaining lessons that have not occurred before the expiry date, these lessons will not be refunded, and DA has the right not to fulfil these lessons.
Unpaid or Late Payment Penalty
If a student begins attending a DA course without having made a prepaid booking, or does not make payment before the course start date, a late payment penalty will be charged to the student. If payment of the tuition fee has not been received by DA within 4 weeks of the course start date, 5% of the tuition fees will be charged to the student, in addition to the due tuition fee. If payment of the tuition fees has not been received by DA within 8 weeks of the course start date, 10% of the tuition fees will be charged to the student, in addition to the due tuition fee.
Course Transfer
Up to 7 days before a group course starts, a student may change their group booking to another date without incurring an administration fee. Students must contact DA directly to arrange this. After a course starts, any course transfer requests will be considered on an individual basis, a minimum transfer fee of 20% of the tuition will be charged if a successful transfer can be arranged.
Attendance & Making Up Missed Lessons
Attendance to all lessons is the students’ own responsibility. DA cannot make any reduction on tuition fees if a student cannot or fails to attend all lessons of a booked course. Any untaken lessons by the student is not refundable and/or transferrable to credits for future course bookings.
However, DA reserves the right to offer a deduction on tuition fees if a student has pre-booked holidays before enrolling on a group course. Any fee reduction is offered on an individual basis, but will be no more than 20% of the total tuition fees. Any student who wishes to apply for a deduction must contact PM directly before enrolling on a group course.
To help students attend all lessons, DA offers the below options of making up missed lessons. Students can choose to:
- attend another group class at a date and time given by DA; or
- arrange a make-up private lesson at a discounted rate; or
- use DA’s free class teaching material, recorded audio lessons for review
Students should contact DA directly about making up missed lessons.
Please note: only TWO ONE? free make-up lessons will be offered per course, any further requests will be charged at £5 10? per make-up lesson.
Term Time & Public Holidays
New Beginner courses are available on a monthly basis.
Higher level courses are available on 4 terms per year basis:
- New year term intake starts in January;
- Spring term intake starts in April;
- Summer term intake starts in July;
- Autumn term intake starts in September
Private Tutoring may be arranged at any time of the year.
On Public Holidays, DA’s classes are usually not taught, unless otherwise agreed in advance between students and their teachers.
Bookings:
- On booking and paying for a class you will receive a booking and payment confirmation by email.
- If you cannot attend a class, you may send someone else in your place. Please let us know the name of the attendee and contact details (email, phone no.) in advance of the class.
- Our classes are packed with as much cooking as we can possibly fit into them, so starting on time is crucial. As a result, it is essential you arrive promptly for your class. We advise you to arrive 10 minutes in advance.
- The menus posted on our website may be subject to variations if ingredients are not available. Occasionally we may have to cancel or postpone a class due to unavoidable circumstances or if a class is under-subscribed. In such a case we will notify all confirmed attendees as soon as possible and offer to transfer to another class or issue a full refund in our sole discretion
- Any descriptions, photographs or advertising we publish or issue or contained in Our Website, are solely intended to provide you with an approximate idea of the services they describe. They do not form part of the contract between you and us or any other contract between you and us for the supply of the Services.
- You may be photographed and/or filmed during your class. DA may use any photographs and/or recordings featuring you, and may cut, edit and adapt the same as necessary, on our website, on social media, or in our marketing and promotions. If you do not wish to be photographed/ filmed, please let us know by email.
Food Allergy
- Ingredients may contain or have been manufactured/prepared on shared equipment with wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts, fish, soya and shellfish and other allergens.
- You must inform us of any dietary requirements and allergies that you and any other participants have at the time of booking and confirm those when you arrive for your cooking class. It is your responsibility to let us know of any allergies or intolerances. We cannot be held responsible for any issues arising from not being informed in advance..
- We will provide you with a work area that does not have the ingredients you are allergic to, however, you are ultimately also responsible for avoiding allergens and ensuring your guests avoid allergens.
- You alone are responsible, and we accept no responsibility, for ensuring that allergy and dietary requirements are looked after for anyone who consumes any food you take home from a cookery class.
Health & Safety
- If you have been or are suffering from food poisoning or an upset stomach (or have come into contact with anybody who is exhibiting these symptoms) within 48 hours of the course, we would ask that you not to attend and contact us as soon as possible.
- All open wounds must be covered, ideally with a blue plaster. If you don’t have a blue plaster, let us know on arrival and we will be happy to provide one.
Cancellation or Reschedule a Class
- You may transfer to an alternative class if you give us notice not less than 7 days before the date of the class. In this case, we will rebook you on to your selected class. Transfers will be subject to an administration fee of £10?
- The class/ event will only be cancelled or rescheduled when you receive notice in writing (or telephone in the event that you do not provide an email address) from us confirming the cancellation or rescheduling.
- In the event that you cancel your booking, the amount of refund will be determined by period of notice received by us:
- 7 days before the class date – full refund
- 1 – 2 days before the class date – 50% refund
- 1 day before the class date – NIL
- We may be able to reschedule or offer refund for your class at our discretion in exceptional cases.