This module covers what to do when payment situations come up — fee waivers, student concerns, and payment disputes.

Lessons and payment are connected: Tunelark can only pay you for lessons students pay for. Never share your personal video meeting link directly with students — they can join without a payment being processed, which means you won’t get paid.

Emergency fee waivers: If a student has a genuine emergency, you can waive the lesson fee using the Do Not Charge option in your dashboard before the booked lesson window closes. One non-emergency exception per student per year is a reasonable goodwill gesture. Frequent waivers for non-emergency reasons affect whether new students are routed to your studio.

Student concerns: If a student has a concern about a lesson, handle it directly — complete the lesson credit or refund request form in your Instructor Handbook. Don’t pass it to support. Between a credit and a refund, always lean toward a credit: it keeps the student in your studio and costs everyone less. Only issue a refund when you’re confident the student won’t be booking again.

Payment disputes: A dispute happens when a student contacts their bank to challenge a charge. Disputes are expensive — Stripe charges Tunelark $15 to receive a dispute and another $15 to contest it, on top of staff time. The situations that cause disputes are almost always within a teacher’s control. Acting early on student concerns is the best way to prevent them. The short version: Show up to every lesson, provide quality instruction, and take student concerns seriously. Those three things prevent the vast majority of payment issues before they start.