Purpose of this policy
The purpose of thie Site Outage Response policy is to provide a clear, pragmatic, and consistent process for handling unexpected platform outages, ensuring transparency and minimising disruption for families, tutors, and school partners.
Overview
While MyTutor aims for 100% uptime on the website (achieving 99.8%), the site does occasionally go down. On top of this, our lesson space provider, The Lesson Space, also periodically experiences technical challenges causing the space to go down. When that happens, tutors and customers aren’t able to get into lessons. As a result, we are committed to responding promptly and pragmatically to minimise inconvenience for everyone. This policy outlines how we compensate customers and tutors, as well as the actions we recommend during an outage.
Scope
This policy applies to:
All scheduled tutoring sessions on the MyTutor platform that are disrupted by a verified platform outage.
Customers (parents, guardians, and students), schools (teachers and pupils), and tutors with confirmed sessions impacted by such outages.
It covers:
Compensation for customers
Compensation for tutors
Recommended actions for customers and tutors during an outage
Definition: What is a site outage?
A site outage is defined as a sustained technical failure (minimum 20 consecutive minutes) that prevents users from logging in or joining a scheduled session. Outages are verified by the MyTutor Engineering or Support team, and logged internally for reference. We define 20 minutes because there are a range of technical problems that could occur outside of our control which tend to be resolved in less than 20 minutes. And at less than 20 minutes, disruption to lessons is minimised. If a technical issue persists for less than 20 minutes, we’ll still contact impacted customers to let them know where appropriate, and ensure tutors aren’t blamed.
What happens during the outage?
MyTutor notification process
For outages happening within normal working hours (9am - 6pm):
Within the first 30 minutes of the outage being confirmed, we will aim to notify tutors and customers with sessions scheduled to start in the next 1 hour, and that should have already started since the site went down.
This timeline may be delayed if there are technical challenges with identifying impacted users
Additional notifications are sent every 30 minutes as long as the outage persists, targeting upcoming sessions. Unless we have a robust estimate for when the outage will be fixed. If we do have a robust estimate, we’ll contact anyone impacted up until the outage will be over
These notifications, sent via email, will:
Inform users the site is down and lessons are cancelled
Ask users not to attempt to access lessons
Outline how compensation works (see below)
Link to this policy
For outages happening outside normal working hours (6pm - 9am):
Within 24 hours of the outage being confirmed we will aim to contact tutors and customers who were impacted by the outage
When the platform is restored:
All affected users who have already been emailed will be notified again to let them know the site is back online
Users will be informed that any lessons they’ve already been told are cancelled, remain cancelled
Rebooking instructions will be included
Recommended actions for parents and guardians
What to do as a parent:
If you receive an email notifying you of a site outage, please don’t attempt to access your scheduled lesson. Lessons impacted by the outage will be automatically cancelled, and you will receive the full cost of the lesson credited to your account so that you are able to rebook at your convenience.
Please wait until the platform is back online before contacting support. It’s unlikely our support team will be able to help until the outage is resolved.
If you think you’re experiencing an outage but haven’t received an email we recommend:
Follow the instructions in our tech support article
Wait 5 minutes and try again
If none of these work, contact MyTutor support and report the problem, try to be as detailed as possible, including screenshots if you can
Why: This ensures your time is not wasted trying to access a lesson that cannot proceed. We’ll notify you as soon as the site is back online, allowing you to re-book. And you’ll be refunded with credit on your MyTutor account within 5 working days of the email that confirms your lesson is cancelled due to a site outage.
Recommended actions for schools
What to do as a school customer:
If you receive an email notifying you of a site outage, please don’t attempt to access your scheduled lessons. Lessons impacted by the outage will be automatically cancelled. We will add an additional lesson onto the end of the programme (or a time of your preference) to make up for the missed lesson.
Please wait until the platform is back online before contacting support. It’s unlikely our support team will be able to help until the outage is resolved.
If you think you’re experiencing an outage but haven’t received an email we recommend:
Follow the instructions in our tech support article
Wait 5 minutes and try again
If none of these work, contact MyTutor support and report the problem, try to be as detailed as possible, including screenshots if you can
Why: This ensures your class’s time is not wasted trying to access a lesson that cannot proceed. We’ll notify you as soon as the site is back online if you have more upcoming lessons that day. And we’ll add an additional lesson onto the programme within 5 working days of the initial email that confirms your lesson is cancelled.
Recommended actions for tutors
What to Do as a tutor:
If you receive an email notifying you of a site outage, please don’t attempt to access your scheduled lesson. Lessons impacted by the outage will be cancelled, and you will receive £5 compensation per lesson cancelled for your inconvenience. Wait for our email confirming the site is back online before resuming work or re-booking lessons.
Please wait until the platform is back online before contacting support. It’s unlikely our support team will be able to help until the outage is resolved.
If you think you’re experiencing an outage but haven’t received an email we recommend:
Follow the instructions in our tech support article
Wait 5 minutes and try again
If none of these work, contact MyTutor support and report the problem, try to be as detailed as possible, including screenshots if you can.
If you’re unable to access chat because the website is down, we recommend waiting until the website is back online. You’ll be compensated £5 for each lesson missed.
Why: Attempting to access lessons during an outage does not guarantee payment beyond the £5 compensation, as the platform is down, and lessons won’t be accessible. By waiting for our confirmation, tutors avoid unnecessary effort and can resume teaching once the issue is resolved.
What Happens After The Outage?
Parent and guardian compensation
Parent and Guardian customers will receive a full refund for any lessons that do not go ahead due to the outage - refunds will be in the form of credit on your MyTutor account. This will allow you to book another lesson at no cost.
Refunds will be processed automatically within 14 working days of the outage resolution and credited to the customer’s account to be used on another lesson. If the refund is needed urgently due to an upcoming exam, we recommend immediately contacting customer support, who can expedite the process.
School compensation
Schools will receive an additional lesson for any lessons that do not go ahead due to the outage - additional lessons will be scheduled as an extra week at the end of the current programme. Alternatively, they can be scheduled as a one off lesson on a different day/time.
Additional lessons will be processed and added within 5 working days of the outage resolution.
Tutor compensation
Tutors will receive a £5 compensation per lesson for every lesson that is cancelled by MyTutor as a result of a site outage. Parent accounts will also be credited so that missed lessons can be rebooked.
Compensation will be processed within 14 working days of the outage resolution. And will be paid into the tutor’s account on the usual pay date which follows processing.