Terms of service for Makers & Course or Service Providers

Our mission is to help people get creative and discover the joy of making and doing things. We assist the UK art & craft industry in one of its most noble and useful endeavours; the passing on of creative and practical skills and appreciation & take-up of craftsmanship.

What we do

This Website (www.craftcourses.com) provides a platform where UK Makers can list creative workshops, courses and experiences (“Courses”) bookable by Customers and kits and handmade products (“Goods”) for sale. As the platform provider we facilitate contact and the buying and selling process between Customers and Makers; we do not buy or sell the Courses or Goods ourselves. We facilitate purchase of the Courses or Goods through the provision of the Website as a marketplace and through the provision of gift vouchers and payment services, administering refunds on behalf of you, our Makers and Service Providers and providing interactive services through which You can chat with your Customers, providing confirmation emails and reminders.

Customers may order Goods and Courses via the Website; subject to availability. The listings pages on the Website are maintained by the Makers and Service Providers; images and descriptions are used to illustrate the Courses and Goods on offer but may vary. The Goods and Courses (and the listing for them on the Website) are provided by Makers and Service Providers and the contract for the provision of these Goods and Services is between the respective Maker / Service Provider and the customer. We are not liable for the sale or supply of any Courses or Goods advertised on the Website. Additional terms (including without limitation Participation Rules) may apply, and where applicable are set out by the Maker or Service Provider on the Website] or via email confirmation of the order. Makers and Service Providers shall be responsible for the management of their listing and the terms of sale of their Courses or Goods and in making a purchase of the Courses or Goods, Customers will enter a contract with the Maker or Service Provider on those terms.

By using the platform, you accept these terms and conditions in full. If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions you must not use the platform. You must be at least 18 years of age to use this platform as a Maker or as a Customer.

All services are provided by our Makers and not by us and the supply and provision of these services is the sole responsibility of the Maker. Makers will receive their earnings, minus our commission, within 3 days once the services have been provided.


These terms
These terms including documents referenced within them sets out the terms under which we offer the Website, platform and associated Services to Users (“the Agreement”). By browsing the Website or using the platform, you accept these terms of use in full. If you disagree with any part of these terms of use you must stop browsing the Website and not use the platform. You must be at least 18 years of age to use this platform.

There are other terms that may be applicable to You in the browsing of the Website or use of the platform as a Maker or Service Provider:
Our Terms of use, plus
Our Messaging Terms which sets out how Makers & Customers may safely communicate
Our Privacy Policy : which sets out how we use your personal information;
Our Content Standards which sets out how users are expected to behave;
Our Terms for Services which sets out terms for the provision of Services that we provide


Gift vouchers

CraftCourses.com offers gift vouchers which can be spent on any course, kit or gift on the website and are not tied to any specific maker.

Our gift vouchers all come with a full 12 months of validity. The course/s must be booked before the expiry date, though they may take place at a later date.

Vouchers are available in any amount (minimum £10) and are issued instantly upon purchase via email, with the option of adding a personalised and printed voucher and greeting card with a postal service (at an additional cost of £4.80). 

If services purchased exceed the voucher amount, the difference can be paid via card or Paypal.

If the gift voucher is worth more than the service purchased the ‘change’ voucher is returned to the customer via email.

Purchasers can choose to specify the start date of the voucher, so that special dates such as birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries can be marked.

Places on specific courses or for specific kits and gifts cannot be guaranteed. Our makers are predominantly individual craftspeople and artisans, and the services are therefore bespoke and offered in limited numbers. 

Gift vouchers are fully refundable up to 14 days following purchase and this can be arranged if you Contact us.

We can extend vouchers up to a maximum of 3 months beyond the original expiry date. Please enter your code using this tool here to apply for a 3-month extension (please note this extension must be applied for within 15 months of the original purchase date).

Any bookings made using gift vouchers on courses that then get cancelled will automatically be extended an extra 3 months of validity from the point that it is un-hooked from the cancelled booking, so that customers have enough time to find another course, kit or handmade gift. 

We are aware that many Makers sell their own independent gift vouchers, but to avoid the inevitable confusion of promoting different types of gift voucher, the CraftCourses platform may only be used to advertise CraftCourses gift vouchers.

In the event of fraudulently obtained gift vouchers, we have the right to suspend your account and take payment from you for any services you have purchased using these vouchers.

  

Bookings & purchases:

As a Maker you can opt for Instant Bookings and orders at 15% commission, or to receive them 'on Request' at a rate of 18%. If you are using our Widget, which allows you to take bookings on your own website, these are at a commission of 6%. All fees are fully inclusive of VAT and there are no hidden extras. 

For details of What we do please visit our Teach page. 

 

Instant bookings and orders 

  • It is the Makers’ responsibility to ensure listings are up to date and that dates and availability of spaces or quantities of products are correct. If you do not want your course/ product to be available to book/order, you can archive your listing or remove dates from the calendar.
  • You will receive an instant booking/order confirmation (via email and SMS if you have opted into that) and this email will contain the full details of the booking as well as a direct link to Chat with the customer.
  • The customer’s payment will have been authorised and captured at checkout.
 

On request bookings and orders 

  • You receive a booking request (via email and SMS if you have opted into that)
  • You have 72 hours to accept or reject the booking OR change the date.
  • The customer's payment is authorised at checkout but only captured once you have accepted & confirmed the booking – you will then be sent an email confirmation.
  • If you reject the booking or it lapses (after 72 hours), no payment will be taken.
  • These payments may show as ‘Pending’ on the customer’s bank statement but will not be captured unless the booking or order is confirmed by you the Maker, within 72 hours.
  • Makers will receive the initial request via email and SMS if you have opted in to these text message alerts too. If this has not been accepted or rejected, we will issue a further reminder to you after 24 hours and if the booking/order is still not confirmed either way, you will receive a final reminder 12 hours before the payment authorisation expires. If you are arranging alternative dates with the customer, which can take time, if the customer agrees you may Accept the booking and then amend it to a date that works for you both. We strongly advise Makers to make sure that their calendars are fully up to date so that any bookings received can be smoothly accepted to avoid disappointment and unnecessary admin for customers. The vast majority of our customers prefer Instant bookings as there is less uncertainty and these are charged at lower commission to you to encourage this option if you are able to.
 

Refunds & cancellations (in-person and live online course bookings)

Customers can cancel their course bookings within the cancellation period of that course and receive a refund using the same method used to make the payment. 

When adding your workshops & products, we offer our Makers the option to select the cancellation policy that best suits your requirements, to protect you from late cancellations and no-shows. For example, a course that requires a lot of preparation and prior investment usually requires a stricter cancellation policy than a short course that requires little preparation and can be cancelled at short notice. If a student does not show up, you are entitled to request payment. This is to protect you and ensure that your courses remain viable, as we understand well how damaging late cancellations can be.

If a maker offers a ‘cancellation’ during a conversation with a student on the CraftCourses message board, even if it is outside the cancellation policy, CraftCourses will understand this to mean a ‘cancellation and refund’ unless the maker clearly stipulates otherwise.

Please note that bespoke courses made by arrangement, for groups or corporate events, cannot be cancelled and refunded unless by agreement with you.

 

Easy, Medium and Strict Cancellation 

You can select an Easy, Medium, Strict or Non-refundable cancellation policy on each of your scheduled courses (in-person and live online), and this is clearly specified in the customer's basket on checkout. The default setting is Easy, and you can change it at any time though once a booking is made with one policy this cannot be amended to a different one.

  • Easy: cancellation and a full refund can be obtained up to 2 weeks before the course starts.
  • Medium: cancellation and full refund can be obtained up to 4 weeks before the course starts.
  • Strict: Cancellation and full refund is permitted up to 8 weeks before the course starts.
  • Non-refundable
 

Changing the date of a course booking

Bookings on request: Changing the date of a booking is easy and you can do it in Bookings > View > Edit date.

Instant bookings: Dates must only be changed on instant bookings in exceptional circumstances. For example, if a student is unable to make the original course date it is acceptable to offer alternatives that are mutually agreed. It is the responsibility of the course provider to ensure their calendars are regularly updated and reflect the dates they would be happy to have instantly accepted.

 

If you cancel a course 

As we offer you a choice of cancellation policies which protect you against cancellations and no-shows, we also ask that you honour these notice periods for your customers too; e.g. if you have selected the 2 week cancellation policy, then we also ask that you give your customers 2 weeks notice if you need to cancel. Of courses this is not always possible, as adverse weather conditions, illness or mechanical breakdowns can occur, but please do ensure that the customer has been notified ASAP. 

In the event of a cancellation, the customer has these options:

  • Most popular – rearranging a mutually convenient date!
  • Receiving a full refund
 

Returns on craft kits, books & handmade gifts

In the unlikely event that orders are wished to be returned or exchanged, the customer needs to send it back within 14 days of delivery and received within 30 days of delivery in the same condition that it arrived in. The cost of the return postage is covered by the customer, and they must obtain proof of postage.

The following items are not eligible for return:

  • Custom or personalised orders
  • Perishable products (like food or flowers)
  • Digital downloads
  • Intimate items (for health/hygiene reasons)
  • Items on sale/offer
Please refer all issues and complaints to us and we will do our best to help.

 

Payments to you (for bookings) and our commission:

  • You will be paid the value of the booking/order, minus our commission, directly via BACS within 4 working days of you confirming that the course, gift or kit has been provided. Please make sure your up-to-date bank details have been added to your account, which you can do under the Billing > Payment methods tab. These are safely encrypted in your dashboard
  • Your payments can be requested from the Earnings tab in your dashboard.
  • Your invoices for the commissions are available to view and download from your dashboard under Billing > Invoices
  • If a customer does not show up or cancels outside of the cancellation policy then you are entitled to still claim payment.
  • Where the customer seeks a refund due to their rights to cancel, the Maker will not be entitled to any payment of fees by us. If the payment has already been claimed, then the Maker must pay back the fees to us to enable us to refund the customer.
Please note that the commission fee is an all-inclusive fee that we charge for facilitating the booking process - there are no hidden costs. Commission is an operational cost for the Maker and must never be passed on to the customer.

 
Digital VAT and online, on demand courses: how this works for sellers
CraftCourses collects and remits VAT on digital items purchased i.e. anything within the category of 'online, on demand' course. Courses categorised as 'live online' are not subject to this tax.  If you sell digital items, buyers will be charged VAT. Examples of digital items include online Downloadable courses, Digital patterns, Downloadable PDFs. Makers/Providers are not responsible for adding VAT to their digital listing prices; CraftCourses will automatically add this on to the course price, take the VAT paid by the buyer and remit to the relevant tax authorities.  If you have any questions regarding your tax liability on digital items that you sell, please contact your tax advisor.  Buyers see the total price with VAT included on each product listing that applies, as well as in their basket, invoice, and purchase page.

Customer service, Integrity & trust, Diverting and Underselling

  • Customer service: we put a lot of resource and thought into offering our customers an excellent and approachable service by phone, email and social media. The connections built between learners and artisans are a large part of the joy of our community and offering a friendly and positive welcome to our mutual customers is important. Your customer’s reviews will reflect this and lead to increased bookings.

  • Integrity & trust: Respecting our business terms is essential for this community to work as it needs to, with trust, honesty and integrity. We need to be able to trust you and vice versa; our goal is to build strong, long-term relationships with you, our Makers, and together deliver to our mutual customers a happy, positive experience. We are committed to providing a solid, reliable and cost effective service (as we have since 2011) delivering you a stream of enthusiastic creative learners to share your skills with and earn. 

  • Diverting bookings:  Deliberate attempts to divert bookings & orders in order to avoid paying our service fee may result in your account being closed. Any comments or queries about fees or our service must be raised with CraftCourses directly and we will always be happy to receive feedback and chat through any concerns you have, within reason, as we always have. If you are unwilling to accept the 15% or 18% commission we take for finding you a fully paid-up customer, please refrain from using this service. Raising this topic with our mutual customers often comes across as unprofessional and unwelcoming to them, so please do not discuss the CraftCourses commission with customers who are trying to book unless specifically asked to. We are very transparent about our fees, which are lower than any comparable service we are aware of, and they are very easy to find for anyone browsing the site who may be interested to know how we work with our Makers. 

  • Underselling: The commission charged by this platform is a marketing & booking service that must be factored in to your business model as a cost. To avoid frustration for our mutual customers, please ensure that services listed on the platform are not knowingly undersold elsewhere. 

 

Safety & insurance

All our Makers/Service Providers are solely responsible for meeting the health and safety regulations and providing the appropriate insurance cover for their course/s, handmade items & kits. For example any makers running classes with or working with children should have a valid DBS check. Craft Courses Ltd takes no responsibility for individual makers, suppliers or course providers who advertise on the site and does not provide any insurance cover or official safety advice or inspection.

 
Prohibited or restricted items  
For all items supplied, you as the Maker/Service provider must supply goods or services in accordance with the law and are fully responsible for ensuring the legality of supply; where applicable you must address this in your terms with the user. 

CraftCourses is not a curated marketplace and you, our Makers/Service Providers, are the retailers and suppliers of all goods and services listed and must meet all applicable legal requirements. We do prohibit certain types of items from CraftCourses. Some items present legal risks to our community; others are inconsistent with our values, are harmful to our members, or simply are not in the spirit of our community. This policy explains what is prohibited or restricted on CraftCourses.

Items which are not prohibited by the restrictions below may be listed, as long as you as the Maker/supplier meets all applicable legal requirements, e.g. where required by law, you may need to undertake additional verification checks, such as age verification, in order to supply these goods and/or make delivery. 
 
We have a zero-tolerance policy for prohibited items, particularly those that promote, support or glorify hatred, those that promote, support or glorify violence, or are unlawful. Makers/Service Providers deemed to violate this policy can be subject to immediate account suspension or termination, in accordance with these terms.
  
By operating as a Service provider/Maker on CraftCourses, you’re agreeing to this policy and our Terms of Use. If CraftCourses has reason to believe you, Your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms, we may deactivate your content to some or all buyers or suspend or terminate your account and your access to the Services. Generally, CraftCourses will notify you that your content or account has been suspended or terminated, unless you’ve repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you.
 
The following types of items are prohibited or restricted on CraftCourses:
  1. Dangerous items: hazardous materials, recalled items and weapons
  2. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs
  3. Certain animal products and human remains
  4. Hate items : items that promote, support or glorify hatred
  5. Illegal items, items promoting illegal activity and highly regulated items
  6. Internationally regulated items
  7. Nudity and mature content
  8. Violent items: items that promote, support or glorify violence

We reserve the right to remove listings that we determine are not within the spirit of CraftCourses. Violating this policy may result in the Maker/service provider’s selling privileges being suspended and/or terminated.


Boosts

Boosts help new Makers or Courses get more traffic by placing them on the home page and top of category searches, where the user is not searching by location. Boosts can be purchased on a monthly or annual subscription. The monthly subscription is £10 per month per boost and the annual subscription is £100 per year per boost (none refundable). Boosts can be cancelled at any time and also moved from listing to listing making them very flexible and a good option for Makers who run various courses throughout the year.


Suspension and cancellation of accounts

If you wish to cancel your account, please contact us and we can arrange this.

We reserve the right to cancel or suspend your account or edit your account details at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation. If we are holding payment to you and if these terms and conditions have not been breached, we will pay this amount due to you.

 

Reviews

Service reviews help share an insight into what to expect and assist our makers to gain recognition, feedback, and valuable testimony.

Reviews must be honest, reasonable and genuine reviews of service provision.

You agree to the publication of reviews relating to you and your business and acknowledge that such reviews may be critical or defamatory or otherwise unlawful and you agree that you will not hold us liable in respect of any such reviews.

In posting a review on CraftCourses customers expressly agree not to post anything that is false, unlawful, misleading, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable.

We are not liable to you for any loss or damage arising from a dependence you may place on any review published.

Course reviews posted on this Site are the sole property of CraftCourses.com and may not to be duplicated on any other platform, website or social media without our express consent.

Whilst we monitor the content posted, CraftCourses does not edit and cannot control the reviews posted by users on this site, therefore do not warrant the accuracy of these reviews.

CraftCourses reserves the right for any reason in its sole discretion to remove without notice any Site Content. Offensive and inappropriate comments will be removed, as will comments from those who have not used the services purchased. However, we will not remove negative reviews at the demand of makers without the consent of the reviewer and makers should not approach students with requests in this regard. All concerns and issues should be communicated to CraftCourses.com.

 

Payments

All online booking payments and any transactions involving our gift vouchers will be securely processed by CraftCourses.

 

Registration 

To register as a Service Provider / Maker on CraftCourses you must be at least 18 years of age and operating as a business in the UK (as a sole trader, company or partnership).

Our goal is to connect artists and craftspeople with those wishing to learn or appreciate craftsmanship. 

Listings may be in 5 formats: in-person courses, live online courses, online on-demand courses, kits & handmade products.

The following rules apply to all information uploaded onto CraftCourses.com:

  • Information supplied must be true, accurate, current, and complete and reflecting bona fide services offered.
  • You must keep listings up to date and remove any listings or dates on services that have ceased to be available. We offer a “flexible” and “Specific” date option to make it easier for you to manage your availability quickly and easily.
  • Customers should receive courteous, polite, and helpful correspondence and the highest level of customer service. This includes being gracious regarding reviews.
  • All prices specified must be in pounds sterling only.
  • Only photographs/images which belong to you (or which you have authority to use) may be uploaded.
  • Unless you own or control the rights to the material you must not republish or redistribute material from our platform to any other platform, for any purpose.
  • Each listing must hold the details of one type of course, kit or product/gift, with a specific price and length, though there may be multiple dates for courses that repeat throughout the year.
  • To avoid confusion, listings may not be used to advertise any other gift voucher scheme except the CraftCourses one.
  • All makers/tutors registered with CraftCourses can log in any time to edit their content online, manage bookings, add or amend boosts, view and download invoices, claim payments due on bookings/orders.
  • To maintain a positive service for all site users, makers are trusted to respond promptly (within 7 days) to messages via the CraftCourses messaging system. We will send reminders via email and phone in the event of unanswered messages but if we are unable to contact you the associated listing/s will be archived after 14 days. This is to avoid out of date course information remaining on the site, but please do contact us if you would like to reinstate an archived listing.
  • CraftCourses reserves the right to close or suspend accounts without notice if these terms and conditions are breached, if complaints are received or if we have reason to believe a maker to be unsuitable, unprofessional or providing poor service.
  • You must not advertise or supply any service via this platform that: breaches any law, regulations or code or any persons intellectual property rights or gives rise to a cause of action against any person under any law; relates to drugs, narcotics, steroids or controlled substances, relates to pornography or obscene or indecent materials, encourage or facilitates criminal acts or infringes any intellectual property rights.
  • You may only use the platform for your own and business purposes and except as expressly permitted by these terms and conditions, you must not modify any material on this platform.
  • By submitting content to this website, you grant CraftCourses.com a nonexclusive, royalty-free, permanent, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, distribute, or publish the content in any media. You acknowledge that CraftCourses.com may choose to provide attribution of your comments or reviews at our discretion and has full rights to use this content in our marketing as appropriate.
  • You are solely responsible for ensuring that you have and maintain all necessary requirements, licenses, consents and insurances necessary to fulfil the services you advertise on this platform.
  • You must keep your password safe and confidential and notify us immediately if you become aware of any disclosure of your password. You are responsible for any failure to keep your password confidential and may be held liable for any losses arising from this circumstance.
 

Diversity and inclusivity policy

CraftCourses is committed to promoting creative learning and inclusive practices for all.

We believe that every individual using the CraftCourses platform as a customer or a maker should be treated with dignity and respect. We ask that all makers using the platform provide a learning environment that is free from judgement or bias, regardless of race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age.

Where disability or physical challenges may be a barrier to participation, we ask that makers make all reasonable adaptations possible to allow maximum safe inclusion for all, and if this is not possible, to make it clear in advance.

 

Notice and take-down policy

CraftCourses.com operates on a "notice and takedown" basis. If you have any complaints or objections to material or content posted on this Site, or if you believe that material or content posted on this Site infringes a copyright that you hold, please contact us immediately and we will make all reasonable endeavours to remove illegal content within a reasonable time.

  

Service Provision

You agree to provide the services offered once bookings or orders are confirmed, but please contact us if there is any difficulty in doing this or anything that may prevent this – we are here to help.

It is the buyer’s responsibility to check the details and cancellation/other policies relating to the services before purchasing.

The buyer will select preferred times and dates and agree to the buyer's terms and conditions at checkout.

The buyer’s payment will be submitted or authorised in full via our third-party payment service providers, via credit/debit card, PayPal or gift voucher at the point of checkout. Instant bookings/orders become a binding agreement immediately (and both Makers and buyers are issued a confirmation) and requested bookings/orders become binding at the point at which you the Maker accept the booking (at which point both parties receive a confirmation email).

Prices for service must be clearly stated in pounds sterling and any other amounts due will only be payable by the customer if clearly and expressly stated in the listing.

Services must be provided appropriately with reasonable care and skill and conforming to all aspects of the listing description or as described by the service provider to the buyer.

You acknowledge that: we do not confirm the identity of users or vet them in any way; we do not verify the information contained in listings; we facilitate a marketplace between Makers and Customers, process payments and any refunds on behalf of Makers and provide confirmation emails and reminders.

We are not liable for the sale or supply of any services advertised on the platform.

You acknowledge that we are not responsible for the behaviour of our users and cannot guarantee that any information provided by a user if true and accurate and therefore you will not hold us liable in respect of any loss or damage arising from user behaviour.

 

Acceptable use

You must not: damage or do anything that causes impairment to the platform; use the platform in any way that is unlawful or harmful; use the platform to spread malicious computer software of any kind; conduct any data collection, mining or scraping without our express written consent; interact with the platform using any automated means, except for the purpose of search engine indexing; use data collected for any kind of marketing.

 

Direct bookings with makers

Makers may not use the platform to facilitate direct communications with customers for the purpose of bypassing the platform. CraftCourses take no responsibility for bookings or orders made and paid for directly with the makers (not using CraftCourses gift vouchers or online booking on the CraftCourses.com site). In these cases, students are bound by individual makers’ own cancellation and refund policies. 

 

Restrictions on certain courses

Certain courses are subject to certain requirements specified by our providers, such as age, health or accessibility. For example, it is not advised to be around lead whilst pregnant. As the service provider you are responsible for highlighting any risks on your listings and ensuring that all customers are aware of and comply with the requirement. 

 

Complaints & feedback

Your feedback is important to us, so please contact us with  any comments or issues to our attention as soon as possible, so that we have a chance to put matters right. We will email you shortly after your course is due to take place to let us know of any issues, and to confirm if the course went ahead so we can process payment. Please let us know immediately (within 24 hours) if the course did not go ahead or if you have any issues to raise with us.

 

Please note

All of the above terms and conditions apply as a condition of using the CraftCourses.com website. CraftCourses reserves the right to change these terms from time to time without reference to customers or notice. These terms and conditions do not affect your statutory rights as a consumer and are governed by and in accordance with British law.

These terms of service are to be used in conjunction with our privacy policy.

 

 


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