CLI Online Terms and Conditions

These terms cover CLI Online: one-on-one Chinese lessons taught online by our teachers in Guilin, sold by the Chinese Language Institute, LLC (“CLI”) and paid for in advance as packages of lesson hours. They apply when you buy lesson hours or take a CLI Online lesson. “You” means the student, the parent or guardian who buys lessons for a student, or an organization that buys lessons for its people. Our in-person programs in Guilin have their own Terms and Conditions.

1. Lesson Hours and Prices
   1. Lesson hours are paid for in advance, in packages of 5 hours or more.
   2. The price per hour depends on how many hours you buy: $20 an hour for 5 to 19 hours, $18 for 20 to 59 hours, $17 for 60 to 99 hours, and $16 for 100 hours or more. Prices are in US dollars. Current prices are always shown on Learn Chinese Online.
   3. The price you pay when you buy a package is the price of those hours. If our prices change later, hours you have already paid for are not affected.
   4. The length of each lesson is deducted from your balance after the lesson takes place. You can ask us for your balance at any time.
2. Free Trial
   1. Your first lesson can be a free 30-minute trial lesson, one per person. You don’t have to buy anything afterward.
   2. Please request your trial at least 24 hours ahead so we can confirm a teacher.
3. Payment
   1. You can pay by card through our secure online checkout, including our Enrollment Form. Other payment methods may be available on request. Organizations can be invoiced instead, as explained under Organizations.
   2. Any fees your own bank or payment service charges you, such as wire transfer, international transaction or currency conversion fees, are yours to pay.
4. Unused Hours, Refunds and Transfers
   1. Lesson hours are non-refundable. Once you have bought lesson hours, we don’t refund them, whether or not you have used them.
   2. Your hours never expire. They stay in your balance until you use them, even if you take a long break.
   3. You can transfer the unused hours from each package once, to another person, such as a friend or family member. After the transfer, those hours belong to that person and can’t be transferred again.
   4. You can instead put unused hours toward the tuition of an in-person Immersion Program in Guilin, valued at the price paid per hour. Transferred hours keep the price the original buyer paid. Hours we gave you at no charge, such as bonus or goodwill hours, have no tuition value. Hours put toward Immersion tuition remain non-refundable.
   5. To transfer hours or put them toward Immersion tuition, please email us at info@studycli.org.
5. Organizations
   1. When a company, government body, school or other organization buys lesson hours for its people, the organization is the buyer under these terms, and each person it names is a student.
   2. An organization’s hours sit in one balance, and hours it buys for several people in one order count together for the price per hour. For example, 100 hours or more bought for a team in one order are $16 an hour.
   3. The organization’s contact can move hours in its balance between its people at any time by telling us. The hours belong to the organization, so they stay in its balance when someone leaves. The once-only transfer rule above doesn’t apply inside an organization’s balance. Hours a student buys for themselves are separate: they don’t count toward the organization’s price, and the organization can’t move them.
   4. We can invoice an organization in US dollars, payable by bank transfer or check, not by card. Lessons can start once we send the invoice, and the organization pays on its usual accounts-payable schedule, by the due date on the invoice. The full invoice is owed even if some hours are never used. If it is still unpaid after its due date, we may pause lessons, including ones already booked, until it is paid.
   5. Everything else on this page applies to an organization’s hours, including the 24-hour cancellation rule and the rule that hours can’t be refunded.
6. Scheduling, Cancellations and Missed Lessons
   1. Lessons are scheduled within our teachers’ available hours, which are set in China Standard Time (Beijing time, UTC+8). CLI confirms each lesson time with you.
   2. To cancel or move a lesson without using your hours, please tell your teacher or CLI at least 24 hours before the lesson starts.
   3. If you cancel or move a lesson with less than 24 hours’ notice, or miss it without telling us, the lesson’s time is deducted from your balance.
   4. If your teacher or CLI cancels a lesson, or your teacher misses it, it never uses your hours, and we will work with you to find a new time.
7. Your Teacher
   1. CLI matches you with a qualified teacher based in Guilin, China.
   2. Teachers’ schedules change, so we can’t promise you the same teacher for every lesson or for your whole package. If you would like to try a different teacher, please let us know and we will see who is available.
8. Taking Lessons Online
   1. Lessons take place on a video platform that CLI confirms with you before your first lesson. You need a reliable internet connection and a device that can run that platform.
9. Students Under 18
   1. If the student is under 18, the parent or legal guardian who buys the lesson hours accepts these terms on the student’s behalf.
10. Respect in Lessons
    1. We ask students, and anyone else who joins a lesson, to treat teachers with respect. CLI may end a lesson, or stop scheduling lessons, if a teacher is harassed or abused, or if inappropriate content is shared.
11. Privacy
    1. How CLI collects, uses and protects personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy.
12. Changes to These Terms
    1. We may update these terms. The new version will be posted on this page with the date it takes effect.
    2. These terms apply to all lesson hours, including hours bought before they were published.
13. About CLI and Governing Law
    1. CLI Online is provided by the Chinese Language Institute, LLC. These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
    2. Questions about these terms? Please email us at info@studycli.org.