A reference for current and prospective families. Version 2 · 2026-05-27.
GeorgeTutor is a long-term academic mentoring service run personally by George Tattersfield. This document sits alongside the Services page and the Service Agreement and tells you, in plain terms, how the moving parts of the service behave once you are signed up. It is the practical "house rules" — written once so we don't have to negotiate them session by session. Where this document and the Service Agreement differ in their account of a rule, the Service Agreement governs.
1. The shape of the service
Everything you buy from GeorgeTutor takes one of three forms:
- A subscription — a recurring weekly engagement, billed on a steady cadence, suited to students who want consistent rhythm and a tutor who tracks their progress over months and years.
- A session package — a fixed bundle of sessions you draw down at your agreed pace.
- A single session — exactly that, for a one-off need or a first look at the service.
The Services page explains what each one is and which suits which family. This document tells you how each one behaves.
GeorgeTutor's long-tested model is the subscription, and most families we work with sit there. Packages have grown in use and we offer them seriously. Single sessions are actively encouraged, particularly as a sample session for a prospective family or a point fix when a student has a single academic question to clear. In the document below, where order matters, you'll see subscriptions or packages — that's deliberate, and it reflects the long-mentoring shape of the service rather than any judgment about the alternatives.
Every purchase also chooses a Flex level — None, Standard, or Enhanced. Flex is the cushion that lets life intrude on a fixed schedule without unwinding the whole plan. Section 5 explains it in detail.
Internally we identify your arrangement with a short product code (for example 2L0CA for a continuing two-sessions-a-week subscription with Standard flex, or 1P20V for a twenty-session package with Enhanced flex). You'll see this code on receipts and in the portal. You don't need to memorize it; it's just shorthand.
2. Sessions and Zoom
Your sessions appear in the Family Portal. Subscription families see a recurring weekly schedule; package and single-session families pick slots as they need them. The calendar runs Sunday through Saturday in your local time.
Two Zoom facts, separate and useful:
- Every teaching session carries its own unique Zoom link. That link takes you to George's Teaching Zoom Room, and each teaching event is uniquely recorded on our side. You'll find the link on each booking in the portal and in the confirmation we send you.
- The Contact panel on the portal hub has a Zoom tile. Clicking it walks you straight into George's personal Zoom room for an ad-hoc conversation — no appointment, no formal record. Use it when you need to talk to George quickly without making a booking.
The two rooms are different, and the credentials for the personal room are wired through the Contact tile so you never have to enter them by hand.
3. A booked session is a commitment
The clearest rule in the entire service is also the most important one to understand up front: a booked session is a commitment to attend, and GeorgeTutor does not reschedule sessions.
If a family cancels a session, or simply doesn't appear, the session is treated as used. We do not look for reasons. We do not arbitrate between a serious situation and a trivial one. If the session was on your calendar and you missed it, it counts; if your Flex Wallet has tokens, they step in automatically to absorb the cost (Section 5). The system stays simple because it doesn't try to read your circumstances.
This may sound firm, and in a sense it is. The reason for the firmness is straightforward: schedule flexibility is the most expensive part of running the service, so we encapsulate it inside Flex rather than scattering it across exceptions and judgment calls. Within the Flex mechanism we are generous; outside it we are predictable.
There is one corner case where this rule cuts the other way. If GeorgeTutor has to cancel or postpone a teaching session — illness on our side, an unavoidable conflict, an announced closure — a replacement voucher is placed in your voucher tray. It is usable within fourteen days of issue, at no further cost to you. Like any voucher, it expires silently if unused (Section 6).
4. Late cancels and no-shows
Life happens. When it does, the principle we ask families to live by is as much notice as you can give — days where possible, hours when you must, and minutes is genuinely difficult for us to absorb.
When a session goes uncancelled or is cancelled late, the cost is taken from your Flex Wallet automatically. There is no separate negotiation and no separate invoice. If your wallet has tokens, the missed session is absorbed; if it doesn't, the session simply counts as used. Either way, the Wallet itself is the only place the cost lands.
One small wrinkle worth knowing about. If a session has tipped over into "no-show" on our system but you reach out shortly after, and George is in a position to still deliver the session that day, then the session is yours and we'll proceed. The Flex deduction taken at the no-show moment is not returned to you — the discipline of the rule is preserved — but the session itself is not lost.
5. Flex — the cushion that makes everything work
Flex tokens are GeorgeTutor's internal currency for absorbing the bumps of a real family's week: a skipped Tuesday, a make-up on Saturday, an extra session added on top of the usual schedule. They are not money, and they cannot be cashed out, but they are the mechanism that lets a long engagement stay comfortable.
How flex arrives
- Subscriptions drip a fixed number of flex tokens into your wallet each month, on timely payment of that month's invoice. If a month's payment is late, that month's drip is forfeited; it is not retroactively topped up when the payment lands. The drip rate depends on your Flex level and on how many sessions per week you take.
- Packages carry a one-time flex grant that lands as you pay. Pay up front, and you receive the full grant immediately. Pay monthly, and the grant arrives in equal slices as each monthly payment confirms; the final slice trues up to the exact total.
- No-Flex plans carry no drip and no grant. They are the most economical option, suited to families with a steady and dependable schedule.
The three Flex levels
- None — a confident default. No drip, no grant, no cushion.
- Standard — the middle level. A predictable monthly drip that handles ordinary disruption.
- Enhanced — the highest level, with a higher monthly drip and a higher wallet ceiling than Standard. Suited to families whose schedules are genuinely variable. It is more generous than Standard, but it is still finite — Enhanced is not "unlimited flex."
How flex spends
- Flex absorbs late cancels and no-shows automatically (Section 4).
- Flex can pay for any teaching session, whether it's an extra on top of your regular schedule, a make-up after a missed week, or a one-off booking outside any package or subscription. It is a universal currency for sessions.
Your wallet has a ceiling — a sensible maximum it will hold — and a drip that pauses when the ceiling is reached. The portal's Flex panel shows your current balance, your accrual rate, and the room you have left, at all times. You don't need to track any of this in your head.
6. Vouchers
Vouchers are a separate currency from flex. A voucher is a purchased delivery unit: one voucher buys one session, full stop. Vouchers exist inside GeorgeTutor purely to support bookings and flexibility arrangements; they have never been used for promotions or marketing, and they aren't a discount mechanism.
A few characteristics worth knowing:
- Several voucher types exist in the system, each tied to a particular purpose — for example, the replacement voucher you receive when GeorgeTutor cancels a session (Section 3), or the premium voucher associated with certain plan structures.
- Voucher duration varies by type, from roughly two weeks at the short end (replacement vouchers) up to about ten months at the long end (premium vouchers). Each voucher displays its own expiry date in your voucher tray, so you always know how long you have.
- One voucher pays for one session. Vouchers don't accumulate against a flex cap and don't absorb cancellations; they simply pay for a booking.
- When you have more than one voucher available, you choose which to spend at booking time. The portal presents the options and you pick.
- Vouchers expire if unused. When a voucher reaches its expiry, it leaves your tray.
The 70-day rule that families occasionally hear about is a package rule, not a voucher rule (Section 9).
7. Paying — the two lanes
GeorgeTutor accepts two payment methods, which we call lanes because each has its own rhythm.
Card (instant)
Card payments run through Square. When you book a session and choose the card lane, you enter card details once, and the charge is authorized immediately. The booking confirms the moment the authorization succeeds. ZIP and CVV are collected by Square for card-not-present authentication; we never see or store your card number.
A booking in the card lane sits briefly in a pending_card state while Square authorizes. If the charge fails, the booking does not confirm and you'll see a clear error. There is no surprise charge later.
Zelle (manual)
Zelle is the bank-to-bank lane. When you choose Zelle, the portal generates a short memo reference code (for example Z-WYG-4HMV) and asks you to put that code in your Zelle memo line when you send payment to [email protected]. Your booking sits in a pending_zelle state until George marks it received by hand, usually within a business day.
Two house rules for the Zelle lane:
- The memo code ties your transfer to your booking. If you omit it, your booking will sit pending until we reconcile by hand, which can take a little longer.
- A Zelle payment that has actually arrived is never voided on our side. Once funds have landed in the account, they are committed to your booking; we do not unwind them.
Flex and vouchers as payment
In the portal you'll also see flex and voucher as options on the booking screen. These don't move money — they spend the matching currency from your Flex Wallet or voucher tray. Bookings paid with flex or vouchers confirm instantly.
8. Subscriptions, in particular
A subscription is the long-form shape of the service, and most of GeorgeTutor's day-to-day rhythm runs through it. Three things are worth knowing once a subscription is live.
Re-registration and the Returners' Window. Continuing-subscription families re-register each year during the Returners' Window — roughly July 25 through August 5. This is not a re-signing of the underlying agreement, which survives intact; it's a brief annual confirmation of details and direction. Re-registering inside the window earns you two things: first pick of slots in the coming academic year, and the same financial terms you held the previous year. Outside the window, neither of those is guaranteed.
Amending the arrangement. Once a subscription is running, substantive changes — sessions per week, Flex level, student composition, subject mix, session length — are made by submitting a short form from the Subscription Management panel on the portal. The form gives both of us a clean paper trail and ensures the change takes effect from a date we agree on. A first amendment in any given period is straightforward and free. A second or subsequent amendment within four to five months of the previous one is billable as a flat fee — this is an anti-churn measure, not a discouragement of legitimate change.
Discontinuation. To end an existing subscription you submit a discontinuation form from the same Subscription Management panel. We'll agree on the effective date in writing and the arrangement closes cleanly. Subscriptions do not lapse implicitly; they end by explicit form.
9. Packages, in particular
A session package is a fixed bundle of sessions, represented in the portal as a set of vouchers — one voucher per session in the pack. Two characteristics shape how a package behaves.
The 70-day window. Each package carries a 70-day window for use. The window starts on a date you and George agree at the time of purchase, with one constraint: the start date cannot be later than your first booked session. In practice you'll settle the start date with George and book your first session on or shortly after it.
What happens at the end of 70 days. The expiry rule has two parts, and the distinction matters:
- Sessions you have already booked that fall in a short trailing window beyond the 70-day boundary remain valid. You can still attend them.
- Unused pack vouchers — capacity in your pack that you haven't yet committed to a booking — are immediately lost at the 70-day mark.
The practical implication is friendly to plan around: book your pack sessions onto the calendar early in the window, even if the sessions themselves fall toward the end. Booking, not attending, is what protects the value.
Unused capacity at the end of a package does not auto-renew. Toward the close of your pack, George will write to ask what's next — repeat, pause, switch shape, or stop.
10. Single sessions
A single session is the simplest object in the system: one booking, one payment, one Zoom link. It carries no Flex grant and no pack-voucher attachment. If you cancel late or don't appear, the session is simply used; there is no wallet to absorb the cost.
We actively encourage single sessions for two cases in particular: a sample session to see whether GeorgeTutor suits your family, and a point fix when a student has a specific question or topic to clear. Families often arrive through a single session and later move to a package or a subscription, but a standalone single session is a real and welcome shape on its own.
11. Holidays, closures, and personal vacation
GeorgeTutor follows the calendar of U.S. federal public holidays as its reference. A few days before each federal holiday, George announces whether he will teach on that day:
- If George teaches, a family may cancel that day's session with no flex deduction. The session is treated as a free pass: it doesn't draw from your Flex Wallet, and there is no replacement.
- If George does not teach, the day simply doesn't happen, and there is no replacement.
Separately, George may nominate up to fourteen personal vacation days per year on which he does not teach. Sessions scheduled for those days are not replaced.
These rules exist deliberately without a make-up mechanism. The system is simpler — and the year is more honest — when an announced closure is just a closure, in both directions.
12. What you need on your side
A session is most useful when both sides arrive ready. We assume the following at the family's end:
- A device with camera, microphone, and stable broadband.
- A quiet space, free of distractions for the duration of the session.
- Pen and paper, or any reliable writing surface — math is a written subject and students need to work things out, not just listen.
- A good screen, large enough to follow worked examples comfortably. A touch-sensitive screen with a stylus is welcomed if a student prefers to write on the screen, but it is not required.
If anything on your side becomes unreliable — household broadband trouble, a microphone failure, a noisy week — write to George and we'll work around it.
13. Communication
GeorgeTutor sends two kinds of email: service letters (welcome, agreement, discontinuation — formal and infrequent) and operational notes (session reminders, payment receipts, slot-changed alerts). Both come from [email protected]. You will never receive promotional mail from us; if you do, please tell George — it is a bug, not a feature.
For anything that needs a human reply, the four channels on the Contact panel in the portal — Email, Text, Website, Zoom — are the doors. All four are open to parents and students alike; we don't impose routing rules about who in the family talks to George. Text is a general-purpose channel, not reserved for emergencies, and many families prefer it as their everyday line.
14. Privacy
GeorgeTutor stores the information it needs to run the service and does not share it with third parties. Card data is held by Square, not by us. You can request an export of your record at any time by writing to George.
15. When in doubt
GeorgeTutor's rules exist to make the default fair, predictable, and easy to act on without negotiation. We keep them simple so that the time we share with you can be spent teaching rather than arbitrating. Where the rules give a clear answer, we follow them; where they don't, write to George.
Thank you for being part of GeorgeTutor — we look forward to a long and useful engagement.
This document accompanies the Service Agreement and the Services page on the website. Where this document and the Service Agreement differ in their account of a rule, the Service Agreement governs.