In simple terms, Sherpa's automated cancellation policy is:
A full refund if a lesson is cancelled with more than 12 hours' notice.
A 50% refund when cancelled from the student side with less than 12 hours' notice.
Rescheduling
It's likely that just rescheduling the booking could solve the issue, which can be done even after a lesson has been paid to avoid any cancellation fees or waiting on a refund.
Late cancellations (by the student)
If you are going to cancel a booking, especially at late notice, please let your tutor know as they may understand and cancel it for you for a full refund.
Cancelling within 12 hours of the start time will result in a late cancellation fee of 50% of the booking cost. This is to compensate the tutor for reserving the time and doing any preparatory work.
If this was done due to an emergency, contact your tutor ASAP so they might consider authorising a full refund which needs to be done within 48 hours of the scheduled lesson. Check out our refund policy too.
Late cancellations (by the tutor)
When a tutor cancels a confirmed booking that has been paid for (with less than 24 hours' notice), a full refund is automatically triggered by the system and will be received within 5-10 business days. This may affect your relationship and business with a student so please make sure this only happens rarely under mitigating circumstances.
Failed payment
If there has been a failed payment, we will notify you by email and give you until 12 hours before the lesson to update the payment details before the lesson gets automatically cancelled after a final attempt. You can do this from your upcoming bookings page.
If a lesson is accepted within 12 hours of the start time and the payment method fails, the booking automatically gets cancelled. An email notification will confirm the lesson has been cancelled for this reason.