Refund & Cancellation Policy

• 72 or more hours before the lesson: full refund to your original payment method.
• Within 72 hours of the lesson: the fee is non-refundable, because your teacher has reserved and prepared for that time. You can reschedule instead, with your teacher's agreement.
• After the lesson has started or ended: no refund unless the faculty failed to attend (see Section 3).

If you fail to attend a booked lesson without cancelling at least 72 hours in advance, no refund will be issued. The faculty is paid for the time they held, recognising that they prepared for the lesson and reserved it exclusively for you.

If a lesson cannot proceed because of a verifiable technical failure on the Platform's side (Shopify outage, Zoom outage at scale, our portal unreachable, our payment processor down), the Student receives a full refund, and the Faculty receives a goodwill 50% payout for time already blocked off in good faith.

Failures on the user's own side (your home internet, your device, your Zoom account being banned) are not the Platform's responsibility and follow standard cancellation rules.

• More than 7 days before: standard 72-hour cancellation rule applies.
• Inside 7 days: non-refundable. Masterclasses involve significant preparation by the faculty member — repertoire study, score annotation, scheduling — so late cancellations cannot be refunded.
• If the faculty or TGC cancels the masterclass: every registered Student receives a full refund.

Studio Classes are full-term commitments — you and other students enroll together for a defined term (e.g. September–December). The faculty plans curriculum, builds the cohort dynamic, and shapes progression around the registered roster.

• Before the term starts: full refund up to 14 days before the first class.
• Within 14 days of the term start: 50% refund. The other 50% covers reserved capacity that we likely cannot resell.
• After the term begins: non-refundable. We may grant partial refunds at our reasonable discretion in cases of medical emergency, family emergency, or other genuine personal circumstances. Email info@theglobalconservatory.com to discuss.

Group Lessons are pay-per-session and follow the same cancellation rules as Private Lessons (see Section 1): cancel 72+ hours ahead for a full refund; within 72 hours it is non-refundable, but you can reschedule with the teacher's agreement.

Email info@theglobalconservatory.com with:

• Your order number (visible in your order confirmation email, e.g. #1234)
• The faculty member's name and the date/time of the lesson
• A brief description of why you are requesting a refund

We respond within 2 business days. We do not require explanations beyond what is needed to apply the right rule — we are not here to interrogate you.

• Credit/debit card refunds: 3–5 business days to appear on your statement.
• Bank transfer / Shop Pay refunds: 5–10 business days, depending on your bank.
• We refund to your original payment method — we cannot refund to a different card or account.
• If your original payment method is closed, contact us and we’ll arrange an alternative.

Filing a chargeback (asking your bank to reverse a payment) without first contacting us at info@theglobalconservatory.com may result in immediate suspension of your account pending resolution.

We will work with you in good faith to resolve any disputed transaction — refunds, lesson swaps, faculty changes are all on the table. Most chargebacks are honest misunderstandings that a 5-minute email exchange resolves.

If a chargeback is upheld in your favour, the corresponding faculty payout is reversed. If a chargeback is reversed in our favour, your account access may be restored at our discretion subject to your written agreement to use the proper channel for any future disputes.

We aim to resolve every refund question by email within 2 business days. For disputes that cannot be resolved that way, the dispute-resolution provisions in our Terms of Service §15 apply: binding arbitration administered by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.