Terms of Service
- About the Terms of Service
- GILL COMMUNICATIONS Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "the Company") establishes the following Terms of Service regarding the use of all services provided on the online Chinese school "NetChai" operated by the Company (hereinafter referred to as "our services") by applicants for and members of our services (hereinafter referred to as "the Member"), and the Member shall be deemed to have accepted the Terms of Service by using our services.
- Article 1: Scope of the Terms of Service
- The scope of the Terms of Service includes the provisions set forth on our service website, as well as information sent by the Company to the Member by email or other means.
- Article 2: Registration for Our Services
- Paragraph 1
- The Member shall register for our services in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the Company.
By registering for our services, the Member confirms and accepts the following items.
1. Register for our services only after carefully reading the Terms of Service and accepting its contents.
2. Install Microsoft Teams.
3. Register true and accurate information for your name, address, telephone number, email address, Microsoft account, password, and other items.
The Member shall also strictly safeguard the information set at the time of registration at the Member's own responsibility.
4. Confirm that your Internet connection is adequate for using our service.
5. If the Member is a minor, obtain the consent of a parent or other legal guardian.
6. Pay the usage fees by a payment method specified by the Company.
7. The tutors who provide lessons for the Company include not only the Company's full-time and part-time employees but also independent contractors and commissioned contractors.
8. The Company will display the username and Microsoft account registered by the Member on the booking pages and other parts of our service for the purpose of providing lessons.
9. If the tutor scheduled to provide a lesson becomes unable to do so for any reason, the lesson will be taught by another tutor or rescheduled.
10. If a lesson is disrupted by a poor connection on Microsoft Teams, the lesson will not be eligible for rescheduling if the Company checks the tutor's connection and confirms that calls work normally, and there is no indication of a large-scale outage of Teams or the Internet.
11. The Member shall not engage in sexual harassment, moral harassment, or any other form of harassment toward the Company or the tutors who provide lessons for the Company.
- Paragraph 2
- The Member's registration for our services shall be completed when the Company sends notice of acceptance by email in response to the registration procedure described in the preceding paragraph. However, the Company may restrict the Member's use of our services until the Company has confirmed the Member's payment.
- Article 3: Prohibited Acts
- Paragraph 1
- The Member shall not engage in any of the following acts when using our services.
1. Transferring to another person, allowing another person to use, buying or selling, changing the name of, pledging, or offering as collateral the Member's right to use our services.
2. Infringing on the Company's honor, credit, copyrights, patent rights, utility model rights, design rights, trademark rights, portrait rights, or privacy.
3. Illegal acts or acts contrary to public order and morals.
4. Conduct that interferes with the operation of our service.
5. Using our service for sales activities, commercial purposes, or preparations for such purposes.
6. Soliciting or encouraging other users of our service or tutors to engage in illegal acts.
7. Conduct that causes financial or emotional harm or disadvantage to other users of our service or to tutors.
8. Making personal contact outside our service with other users or tutors whom you met through our service.
9. Criminal acts or acts that may lead to criminal acts.
10. Harassment of tutors or other misconduct that disrupts the progress of lessons. Whether conduct constitutes harassment will be determined at the Company's discretion after confirming the facts with the tutor.
11. Prying into confidential information that the Company does not generally disclose, such as tutors' employment conditions, the location of the call center, or Internet connections.
12. Attempting to make personal contact with tutors, whether online or offline, including by email, either directly or through a representative.
13. Soliciting tutors to work for services or companies that may compete with the Company.
14. Verbal abuse of or threats toward customer support staff, or conduct that obstructs customer support operations.
15. Sharing a single account among multiple users.
16. Holding multiple accounts and booking a lesson with one account, canceling it, and then immediately rebooking and taking the same lesson with another account.
17. Speech, behavior, or inquiries directed at tutors or our staff that are clearly discourteous by generally accepted social standards
18. Any other conduct that the Company deems inappropriate in connection with the use of our service.
- Paragraph 2
- The Member shall not engage in any of the following acts when using our services.
If the Member engages in any of the acts set forth in Items 5, 7, 11, 13, or 14 of the preceding paragraph, and such acts become the primary cause of a situation such as those described below, the Member shall compensate the Company 1,000,000 yen for each tutor so affected.
This liability for damages shall remain in effect even after the Member withdraws from membership.
1. When a tutor ceases to work for the Company on an ongoing basis.
2. When a tutor begins to work on an ongoing basis for a service or company that may compete with the Company.
- Article 4: Refusal or Cancellation of Registration
- Paragraph 1
- If the Member falls under any of the circumstances set forth below, the Company may refuse to approve or may cancel the registration. In addition, any amounts already paid shall not be refunded under any circumstances.
1. The Member does not actually exist.
2. When the Member's application contains false information, errors, or omissions.
3. When the Member is already registered with our service.
4. When the Member's registration approval has previously been revoked by the Company.
5. When the bank account or credit card designated by the Member has been suspended or otherwise restricted.
6. When the Member has previously failed to make payments.
7. When the Member is a minor, an adult ward, a person under curatorship, or a person under assistance, and has not obtained the consent of a parent, legal guardian, or other authorized person at the time of registration.
8. When the Member engages in any of the prohibited acts set forth in the preceding article.
9. When the Member belongs to a company (including part-time work) that operates a service competing with the Company (providing online Chinese lessons), or has been commissioned by such a company to conduct research or similar activities.
10. When the Company determines, for any other reason, that the Member's use of the Service is inappropriate.
- Paragraph 2
- If the Member fraudulently uses the Company's services under a registration falling under Items 2, 3, or 8 of the preceding paragraph, the Company shall charge the Member 100,000 yen per instance of fraudulent use. If the Member fraudulently uses the Company's services under a registration falling under Item 9 of the preceding paragraph, the Company shall charge the Member 1,000,000 yen per instance of fraudulent use. This liability for damages shall remain in effect even after the Member withdraws from membership.
- Article 5: Amendment of the Terms of Service
- The Company may amend the Terms of Service without obtaining the Member's consent.
The amended Terms of Service shall take effect at the time they are displayed on the website, and the Member agrees to this in advance.
- Article 6: Changes to Registered Information
- If there is any change to the registered information submitted to the Company, the Member shall complete the procedure to update the registered information without delay.
The Company shall bear no responsibility whatsoever for any disadvantage or other burden incurred by the Member as a result of the Member's failure to update their registered information.
- Article 7: Handling of Registered Information
- Paragraph 1
- The Company shall manage the Member's registered information in accordance with the Privacy Policy separately established by the Company.
However, the Member's registered information may be provided or disclosed to third parties in the following cases.
1. When the Member's consent has been obtained
2. When the Company is required by a public authority to disclose information under laws or regulations
3. When displaying a nickname registered in alphabetic characters on the booking pages or other parts of our service
- Paragraph 2
- The Member shall strictly manage and safeguard their registered information. The Member shall be responsible for any damages resulting from forgetting or losing their registered information or from inadequate management of it, and the Company shall bear no responsibility whatsoever. If the Member learns that their registered information is being fraudulently used by another person, the Member shall immediately notify the Company and follow the Company's instructions.
- Article 8: Breaks and Withdrawal
- Paragraph 1
- The Member may complete the break procedure (the procedure to suspend use of the services) at the timing of the monthly contract renewal by the prescribed method. The Member shall select "About taking a break" on the contact form, enter their wish to take a break in the inquiry field, and submit it; the break shall take effect at the next renewal date once a reply email from the Company has arrived. If the break notice is sent no later than two days before the monthly fee payment date, no payments shall be incurred from that point onward. The Member may also withdraw from membership through the above procedure. Upon withdrawal, the Member shall lose all rights to our services and may not make any claims against the Company.
- Paragraph 2
- 1. If the Member has paid the usage fee by bank transfer and the remaining validity period is at least one month and one day, the Member may take a break.
2. Membership may be suspended in one-month units starting from the payment date. However, suspensions cannot be applied retroactively.
3. Membership may be resumed in one-month units starting from the payment date.
- Article 9: Plan Changes
- In principle, you can change your plan in one-month units from your payment date. Details and procedures for plan changes are provided on the "FAQ" page.
- Article 10: Service Provisions
- The Member agrees in advance to, and shall comply with, each of the following service provisions.
- Paragraph 1
- The Member may use our services by paying the usage fees separately determined by the Company through the following methods.
1. Pay one month's usage fee by credit card or PayPal
2. Pay one or more months' usage fees by bank transfer
- Paragraph 2
- After the Member makes a payment under Item 1 of the preceding paragraph, for the monthly plan, if the Member does not complete the break or withdrawal procedures set forth in the preceding article, the Member shall be deemed to intend to continue using our services, and the Member's user registration shall be renewed continuously at the same fee on the expiration date one month after the payment date. For the point plan, the Member shall purchase points each time.
- Paragraph 3
- After the Member has paid the usage fee through the procedure set forth in Paragraph 1, Item 2 of this Article and has used our services for one month or for multiple months, in order to continue using the services, the Member must complete the service continuation procedure prescribed by the Company before the expiration date and pay the usage fee for one month or multiple months.
- Paragraph 4
- The Company records information obtained in lessons in order to provide consistent services to the Member.
- Paragraph 5
- The information obtained under the preceding paragraph may include the Member's personal information.
- Paragraph 6
- Information obtained by the Company under Paragraphs 4 and 5 shall be used solely to provide services to the Member.
- Paragraph 7
- The Company may monitor the services it provides in order to ensure smooth service delivery.
The Member agrees and acknowledges in advance that lessons in which the Member participates may be monitored by the Company.
- Article 11: Service Period
- Paragraph 1
- The Member may use our services from the date the Company accepts the Member's registration for our services in accordance with Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Terms of Service.
- Paragraph 2
- The Member's use of our services shall be suspended pursuant to the provisions of Article 4 or Article 8 of the Terms of Service.
However, in the case of service suspension for the reasons set forth in Article 4, the service suspension date shall be the date the Company notifies the Member of the suspension; in the case of service suspension for the reasons set forth in Article 8, the service suspension date shall be the expiration date as of the time the Member gives notice of taking a break or withdrawing.
- Article 12: Suspension and Termination of Services
- Paragraph 1
- The Company may suspend or terminate our services with prior or subsequent notice via the website or email. The Company may also suspend the services when providing them is difficult due to causes not attributable to the Company, such as Teams outages, domestic or international political situations, or natural disasters.
- Paragraph 2
- The Member agrees in advance that the Company may be unable to provide services on Chinese public holidays, or that the number of available lessons may decrease significantly compared to usual.
- Article 13: Information Distribution
- The Company may send notifications, advertisements, surveys, and the like to the Member by email.
- Article 14: Use of Teams
- The Company provides its services using the services offered by Microsoft Teams. In using Teams, the Member shall be deemed to have agreed to the following.
1. The Member shall comply with Teams' provisions regarding the functions of the calling software and its terms of use.
2. It is the Member's responsibility to download the calling software and confirm that it works before using our service.
3. The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever if our service cannot be used due to malfunctions or improper configuration of the calling software or of the hardware required to use it.
4. The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever for malfunctions of the calling software itself that occur after a lesson has started.
5. Files sent by tutors and URLs other than NetChai's, including those received via Teams chat, are opened at the user's own risk. The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever for any damage, such as virus infections, caused by files or URLs sent by tutors.
6. The Microsoft account and email address registered by the Member will be disclosed to tutors on the booking pages and other parts of our service for the purpose of providing lessons. The Microsoft account and email address registered by the Member shall not be treated as personal information subject to protection and management through reasonable and necessary precautions taken by the Company under its separately stipulated Privacy Policy.
7. If the Member does not wish to disclose a particular Microsoft account to tutors, such as one used privately, the Member shall take reasonable and necessary precautions to protect and manage their own personal information, for example by creating a Microsoft account dedicated to the Company's service, registering it with the Company, and using it for lessons.
8. The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever for problems arising from circumstances on the Microsoft Teams side.
In addition, we do not accept any inquiries regarding the services provided by Teams.
- Article 15: Limitation of Liability
- The Member agrees that the Company shall bear no liability for any damages arising from or in connection with the matters set forth below.
1. Use of, or inability to use, our service
2. Unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration of the Member's data managed by the Company
3. Statements, transmissions, or actions by third parties within our service
4. The learning outcomes of our service, etc.
5. Any damage arising from information disclosed by the Member during lessons
6. When the Member was unable to use our service satisfactorily but any of the following circumstances apply
a) Situations where the number of lessons provided is temporarily insufficient due to a sudden increase in students or a sharp decrease in available lessons caused by telecommunication failures on the Chinese side
b) Situations where lessons at the Member's preferred times cannot be booked
c) Situations where lessons with a specific tutor cannot be booked
d) Situations where lessons must be canceled due to power outages or telecommunication failures in China
e) Situations where, because the booked tutor has become unable to teach for any reason, the lesson is conducted by another tutor or rescheduled
7. Other matters related to the service
- Article 16: Copyright and Ownership
- All copyrights and ownership rights to the trademarks, logos, descriptions, and other content related to our services belong to the Company. The Member is prohibited from using them without the Company's permission.
- Article 17: Governing Law and Exclusive Agreed Jurisdiction
- These Terms of Service shall be governed by the laws of Japan. Any disputes arising between the Company and the Member in connection with our services or the Terms of Service shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court as the court of first instance.
Supplementary Provisions: These Terms of Service shall take effect on September 10, 2010.
Revised November 1, 2016