Refund Policy

This policy sits alongside our Terms & Conditions and explains when you get your money back. The rules differ depending on who is booking, so it is in two parts. Most people want the first.

For individuals

This part applies if you are booking for yourself, for your child or for someone in your family — anything other than for a business. In law you are a “consumer”, and you have rights we cannot reduce, whatever any document says.

Changing your mind after booking

If you booked online, by email or by telephone, you have 14 days from the day we confirm your booking to cancel and get everything back, including any joining fee. You do not need to give a reason. This is set out in full under “Your right to change your mind” in our Terms & Conditions.

If you asked us to start within those 14 days, and told us you understood you would lose the right once the lessons or rehearsals had been fully provided, we will charge a fair amount for what you actually received and refund the rest.

Trial lessons

The first trial lesson for one-to-one tuition is free. There is nothing to refund and nothing to commit to.

If you cancel a single lesson

• More than 24 hours before — we will rearrange it within the same term where we can, and credit it against your next payment where we cannot.
• Less than 24 hours before — the lesson may be charged in full. We hold the slot, and it is rarely possible to fill it at short notice.

We will always try to be reasonable about genuine emergencies and sudden illness. Please ask.

If we cancel

You will get at least 72 hours’ notice and a full refund or an alternative date, whichever you prefer. If a session is cancelled at short notice because of illness, we will offer an alternative date, or a refund where an alternative does not suit you.

Choir membership

Membership of The Choir Engine and The Choir Engine (Youth) is a monthly fee, not a payment per rehearsal. Rehearsals run weekly in term time, around 30 weeks a year, and the monthly fee is the year’s cost spread evenly across twelve months. So:

• there is no extra charge in busy months and no reduction in quiet ones;
• missing a rehearsal does not reduce that month’s fee;
• if we cancel a rehearsal ourselves, that is covered above.

Joining fees

The one-off joining fee is fully refundable if you cancel within your first 14 days. After that it is not refundable, unless we were unable to let you start for a reason that was ours.

Leaving a choir

You can leave at any time. Please give us one month’s notice, so we can offer your place to someone on the waiting list. Your final monthly payment covers that notice period, and we do not refund part months.

If something is not right

If a lesson, rehearsal or event was not carried out with reasonable care and skill, tell us. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you are entitled to have it put right — normally by us repeating it at no charge — and to a reduction in price if that is not possible, or not done within a reasonable time. We would much rather hear about it than not.

How refunds are paid

By the same method you paid with, within 14 days of us agreeing the refund — and within 14 days of you telling us, where you are exercising the 14-day right to change your mind.

How to ask

Email caroline@thesoundengine.co.uk or telephone 07754 861874. Tell us what you booked, when, and what you would like to happen. You do not need any particular form of words.

For schools, organisations and businesses

This part applies if you are booking on behalf of a school, a company, a charity or any other organisation.

The consumer protections above — the 14-day right to change your mind, and the Consumer Rights Act remedies — exist to protect individuals, and they do not apply to a business-to-business booking. This is not us excluding them: as a matter of law they do not arise. What applies instead is what we agree with you, and the terms below.

If you are self-employed and booking lessons for your own enjoyment rather than for your work, you are a consumer and the first part applies to you. What matters is the purpose of the booking, not whether you happen to run a business.

Cancelling or postponing a booked session

• More than 14 days before — no charge, and we will rebook at a time that suits. For a programme or a series of sessions, please give us 28 days.
• Between 14 days and 48 hours before — half the fee, or the full fee credited against a rebooking within three months.
• Less than 48 hours before — the full fee. The date has been held and staff booked.

Programmes and terms of work

Where we have agreed a block of work — a term of group tuition, a series of workshops, a project — either of us may end it with four weeks’ written notice. You pay for the sessions delivered up to the end of that notice period, and for any costs we have already committed to on your behalf and cannot recover, which we will evidence.

If we cancel

You pay nothing for a session we cancel, and we will offer the earliest alternative date. If we cannot deliver an agreed programme at all, we refund in full anything paid for sessions not delivered.

Payment

Payment terms are agreed with you when we confirm the booking. Refunds due on an invoiced booking are issued as a credit note or a bank transfer, whichever you prefer.

Everything else

The rest of our Terms & Conditions applies to business bookings in the same way, except where this part says otherwise. Nothing in our terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud — that is as true of business bookings as of consumer ones.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with a refund decision, say so. Email caroline@thesoundengine.co.uk and we will look at it again and reply within 14 days. If we still cannot agree, your statutory rights are not affected and you remain free to take the matter further.