WHAT ARE YOUR CONTRACT TERMS?
We do not require a contract for our services.
We offer our services on a month-to-month basis or an “as needed” basis. This provides for the most flexibility as far as scheduling. If you are needing a break for holidays, personal reasons, or due to changes in your work/school schedule, you can easily arrange sessions around any schedule.
WHAT ARE YOUR PAYMENT TERMS?
We will email an invoice to you on the 1st day of the month, if it is a working day (Monday-Saturday) or the following working day for PAYMENT IN ADVANCE of the sessions in that month. Our FIRM TERMS are that all invoices must be paid no later than the 10th of the month in accordance with US billing and payment remittance practices. We ask that all clients provide us with a contact name, address and phone number.
Data we need from you for invoicing and scheduling:
Contact Name, Billing Name (NIP if appropriate), Complete Billing Address in Poland, Email Address, Contact Phone Number
If you are a family or a business, we will have one primary contact person for your account.
WHY DID I GET AN INVOICE FROM “English with Emily” or “English with Jessica”?
As we are US based and independent English language coaches, we will send individual invoices. Your invoice will be sent from the coach that is managing your account, generally this will also be your primary coach. Sometimes, due to group or family accounts, we will select an account manager who is not your primary coach. For various reasons, our partner coaches may choose to subcontract with Emily or Jessica, rather than invoice the client directly.
HOW DO YOU CALCULATE THE COST FOR SESSIONS?
For sessions, by the minute. For clubs, by the month. For all others, by the hour.
It is important to note that we set our session prices by a 60-minute hour with a per session rate. This means that if you have two 20-minute sessions per week, you are only paying for 40 minutes of time each week. If you have two 30-minute sessions per week, you are paying for 60 minutes of time each week.
Simply divide the 60-minute rate by 3 to calculate the per session rate for a 20-minute session or by 2 for a 30-minute session and then add the appropriate number of sessions to determine the weekly or monthly total cost.
This calculation allows for you to choose the duration and frequency for each week or each month and also for each individual on your invoice.
While this may seem complicated at first, you will see that your time and associated cost is easier to control and clearly stated on the invoice.
WHAT IF I NEED TO CANCEL OR POSTPONE A SESSION?
We will change your session time and date if we are contacted by email at least THREE HOURS IN ADVANCE of the session.
If you contact us by email, at least three (3) hours prior to your session, we will change your session time and/or date. Of course, we understand that there may be a sudden illness or injury, therefore under these special circumstances it is possible to suddenly need adjustments in the schedule at the last minute.
Please be respectful of our time and recognize that we have many clients, all of whom are very important to us. We will do our best to arrange things so that you are satisfied, but we hope there can be understanding, patience, and compromises.
If you do cancel a session, you may use that prepaid time to schedule an additional session in the same calendar month as the original session (although we may need to choose an alternate coach for this rescheduled session). We keep close accounting of time and payments, so there is no loss of either, if appropriate advance notice is given.
WHEN ARE EMILY AND JESSICA OR THEIR PARTNER COACHES AVAILABLE FOR A SESSION?
We have strict hours of 3:00 pm – 8:00 pm (15.00 – 20.00) on Monday through Friday.
We have multiple “time slots” available because we have several coaches working at the same time. Please be aware that our partner coaches are in Poland, Europe, and North America. The final session of the day will end at 8:30 pm (20.30).
We respectfully request that every client is on time for their sessions. The sessions begin and end at precise times. There is generally no extra time in our schedule for delays or late starts.
If, under unusual circumstances, there is a need to delay the start of a session, we will contact you using email and/or any additional contact methods in order to communicate this delay. We ask that all clients do the same. It may not be possible to offer additional minutes at that time, however, we will arrange for all prepaid time to be utilized.
WHAT LANGUAGE MATERIALS SHOULD I PURCHASE?
For our standard and conversational sessions, we do not require any language learning materials to be purchased.
It is important for our clients to have experience in a natural English setting. We utilize various freely available materials, articles, current event topics, and conversation prompts to enhance the sessions. Your interests as well as your language level will determine the “lesson of the day.” Most often, conversations will develop from topics or articles. We strive for about 50-50 between client and coach, however, listening skills are a necessary part of learning the cadence, pronunciation, and prosody of a language, therefore there may be sessions where the coach is doing the majority of the speaking.
For exam focused sessions, there will be material to purchase. This material is offered in various online purchase portals and at most bookshops in Poland. Your exam coach will direct you to the correct version to purchase.
If you have material from school, work, or a project that you would like us to review in a session, please send us the material at the beginning of the session. You do not necessarily need to send it in advance, but it would be appreciated.
I WANT TO QUIT, or TAKE A BREAK, WHAT DO I DO?
Be direct and send us an email. We are not offended if you simply state in the email, “I am not going to continue sessions. I am taking a break.”
If you decide that we are not the right fit for you, or if your child does not want to continue, we completely understand. We do not hold you to a contract or agreement. We simply ask for you to email us directly.
If you decide to leave in the middle of the month and have prepaid sessions that have not been used, you may request a refund for the unused sessions. Please email your request and allow for a minimum of two (2) weeks for your refund to be processed.
If you decide to leave at the end of the month (or before you have paid for the following month). Please, as a courtesy, simply email us that you are taking a break.
All of our clients are welcome to return to us at any time, as long as the relationship has not been broken by repeated late payments or a breech of trust, ethics, or morals.
If you have concerns about our coaches or partners, please tell us.
If you are satisfied with our coaches, please tell your friends, family, and colleagues.
HOW DO I SCHEDULE SESSIONS?
Send an email. Our preferred scheduling mode is via email.
Our main email address is managed by both Emily and Jessica, therefore it is the most consistent way to contact us for scheduling, changes, and questions.
Of course, we have various apps and you can try to message us on Skype, but to be absolutely certain we see, read, and acknowledge your contact, email is best. If you are emailing to cancel a session, please be assured, we have received your email.
A few more points to keep in mind:
Sessions are scheduled either one month in advance, quarterly, seasonally, or by the school year.
Sessions are first-come, first-served, meaning the first email we receive is the one that will be confirmed first. As a general rule, we do not “hold a session slot open.”
Unless it is an emergency or urgent in some way, please allow us at least 24 hours to respond to your email, messages, texts or contact.
Do not expect a reply after 10:00 pm (22.00) Poland time.
Due to time zone considerations, do not expect a reply before 2:00 pm (14.00) Poland time.
HOW AND WHEN CAN I CONTACT YOU?
Email is best and our preferred method of contact. It is clear communication and can be managed in a timely manner by our team. You may write in Polish or in English.
contact @ emilyandjessica.com is our primary email address.
We do ask that you allow for a reasonable response time for all email. Typically, we can reply within 24 hours during the week.
On the weekend, we will not reply to emails on Saturday or on Sunday unless it is for a session situation on Monday.
In our experience, there are very few English language emergencies, even if there are scheduling issues or changes that need to be made.
Do not expect a reply after 10:00 pm (22.00).
Do not expect a reply before 2:00 pm (14.00).
If your email servers do not accept responses from our URL, please try adding us as safe sender/receivers or to your whitelist. If that is not possible, we do have a secondary address emilyjessicaenglish @ gmail.com.
Alternate ways to contact are as follows:
Message us on Skype using the chat function – if you are a client, you are connected to us via Skype (although it may not be seen or responded to immediately). Telegram, Signal or WhatsApp are available upon request, however, due to privacy reasons, these options are only available for clients.