Terms & Conditions
Last updated: October – 2024
We will permit you to use our awesome website and courses if you promise to only use your powers for good and not evil. In other words, follow our rules, pay your course fees on time, don’t misuse our stuff, don’t share our course material with other people, don’t spam people, harass them, be a jerk, or do other things that you know you shouldn’t be doing with or while studying with Formula Botanica. In return, we’ll work hard to give you a great learning experience and outstanding customer service.
By enrolling for or studying on any of our courses and/or using any of our websites, you agree to these Terms & Conditions and also this Earnings Disclaimer (together “this Agreement”).
1 DEFINITIONS
1.1 The terms ‘student’, ‘graduate’, ‘applicant’ or ‘enrolee’ all refer to you, the paying client and/or customer and/or website visitor.
1.2 Formula Botanica may also be referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, ‘the school’ or ‘the college’ and other such terms to differentiate between ‘us’ (the school) and ‘you’ (the applicant/student). Formula Botanica is a trading name of Herb & Hedgerow Ltd, a company registered in England, registered number 07957310, with registered offices at Wadebridge House, 16 Wadebridge Square, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 3AQ, UK.
1.3 “Ecourse” refers to any of our homestudy program of distance learning course materials. For clarity the terms ‘ecourse’, ‘distance learning’, ‘elearning’, ‘correspondence course’ and ‘homestudy’ are interchangeable and refer to any of our courses which you study at home and not in a physical property or venue with us present and excluding the Lab Membership.
1.4 The terms ‘course or tutor materials’, ‘‘modules’, ‘downloads’, ‘lessons’ and ‘coursework’ refer to the electronic documents and supporting information (such as slideshows/videos) that are provided for your studies.
1.5 “Intellectual Property Rights” means all patents, inventions, registered and unregistered designs, copyright and related rights, trademarks, trade and business names, service marks, know-how, goodwill and the right to sue for passing off, rights in software, domain names and rights in confidential information and all other forms of intellectual property wherever in the world enforceable;
1.6 “Lab Membership” means our online monthly subscription site to our exclusive online community known as “the Lab”;
1.7 “Student Handbook” refers to the confidential handbook setting out policies, procedures and additional information for students in connection with the Ecourses as complied and updated from time to time by Formula Botanica and made available to students upon enrolment.
1.8 “VLE” is an abbreviation of ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ and refers to the online resource library that you, the student, can login to access your course materials and lessons. Also referred to as the ‘student login area’ or ‘course software’.
2 GENERAL
2.1 This Agreement shall apply to all contracts for the supply of E-courses, Lab Membership and the supply of any other goods or services by Formula Botanica to you and includes your use of our websites.
2.2 We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions of this Agreement at any time.
2.3 All of our course materials and tutor materials are provided in English as this is the language most of our students work in.
3 ENROLMENT, PAYMENT & CANCELLATION
3.1 Enrolment is not considered complete until payment has been made (either deposit for instalments or full payment) and has cleared.
3.2 Cancellation and refund policy: Your statutory right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 in the UK means that you waive your cancellation right once you have accessed any of the digital course materials in Formula Botanica’s Ecourses and/or the Lab Membership. However, we recognise that life sometimes throws unexpected events at us, so we offer you a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee for Ecourses only, which commences on the day of your purchase. You can ask for a refund within 30 days of your purchase as long as you have not completed more than 25% of your Ecourse, or more than 25% of one Ecourse if you have purchased a package of Ecourses (“Package”).
3.3 Refunds are not available for Lab Membership; however, you may cancel your subscription at any time. 72 hours notice is required to process the bank debit cancellation. Event tickets and (as per clause 9.3 below) Ecourse extensions are also non-refundable.
Product / Service – Refund / return terms
Ecourse – 30 day money back guarantee
ecourse extensions – no refunds available
Lab membership – No refunds available
Live event tickets – No refunds available
3.4 Email is accepted as a formal written request for cancellation.
3.5 We do not issue any refunds for payments made by bank transfer. You will only qualify for a refund if you purchased the Ecourse/Program using our eCommerce system.
3.6 Refunds are not awarded to students who failed the Ecourse/Program they were enrolled in.
3.7 Use of cheating and/or plagiarism in your Ecourse assignments will result in an automatic fail with no refund option. Any students found stealing or sharing course material will also automatically be removed from their Ecourses and from Formula Botanica’s community with no refund.
3.8 Formula Botanica trades in British Pounds (GBP) – symbolised by the £ Sterling sign. When payments are made in foreign currencies, we reserve the right to charge 1.5% in handling fees. You may also be charged an additional fee by your card handler, your bank or by PayPal and you should check this before making your purchase.
3.9 Formula Botanica does not offer a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee for Ecourse upgrades (when a student moves from an individual Ecourse to a Package).
4 INSTALMENTS
4.1 When you sign up to a payment plan with Formula Botanica, you agree to pay your instalments on time as part of the recurring payment plan you have signed up to. Instalments are then deducted automatically from your card or PayPal account on a monthly basis until the full Ecourse fees have been paid.
4.2 If you pay through the use of instalments and fail to meet your regular payments, then your account will be temporarily suspended and you will be contacted directly to try to resolve the issue. Our system suspends your Ecourse access automatically, so please be aware that the moment your instalment payment fails you no longer have access to your Ecourses.
4.3 We are very flexible and accommodating, but if you make no effort to communicate with us to resolve the issue then if further payments are then not provided within a period of 14 days, you will be removed from your Ecourse.
4.4 Instalment payments cost more than payment in full to reflect the administrative burden of chasing late payments. We charge a £65 admin fee on top of each instalment payment.
4.5 Refunds are not available on instalment payments unless they fall within the initial 30 days of you enrolling for your Ecourse and you have not completed over 25% of the Ecourse, as stipulated by our 30-Day Money Back Guarantee in clause 3.2 above.
4.6 We do not accept any instalment payments by bank transfer.
4.7 Formula Botanica may collect payments from you using reference transaction through PayPal. A reference transaction is a financial transaction from which Formula Botanica can derive subsequent transactions. When you purchase an item on the Formula Botanica website and use PayPal to make the payment, a transaction ID is generated. Formula Botanica will then use the transaction ID later to initiate a subsequent transaction, i.e. recurring monthly or yearly subscription charge. By agreeing to reference transactions, you permit Formula Botanica to take the relevant payment for each Ecourse/product using a reference transaction ID from your first transaction to initiate subsequent transactions. The reference payment may be cancelled at any time by you, by logging into your PayPal account and cancelling the transaction.
5 EQUALITY & DIVERSITY POLICY
5.1 We have a strict Equality & Diversity Policy for enrolment and never discriminate against students on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, race, religion, age, disability or sexual preference.
5.2 Bullying or harassment is not permitted and such behaviour will result in suspension from Formula Botanica Ecourses and failure of your Ecourse.
5.3 Students must respect the equality and diversity policies outlined in the Student Handbook when interacting with fellow learners in the group.
6 COURSE CONTENT
6.1 We reserve the right to make changes to the advertised course materials at any time.
6.2 Formula Botanica warrants that the course materials will be of satisfactory quality but does not warrant that the course materials will be error free.
6.3 Formula Botanica aims to teach according to organic standards and to follow ‘natural’ principles. Organic standards and the meaning of the word ‘natural’ differ around the world. Formula Botanica’s definition of the word ‘organic’ follows Ecocert standards and we aim to use Ecocert ingredients in all of our sample formulations in order to standardise our organic teachings. We cannot however guarantee to be fully organic at all times and we are not certified by an organic body such as the Soil Association (who do not certify education providers). Please be assured that on the rare occasions we have to deviate from Ecocert organic standards for practical and logistical reasons, we will work to ‘natural principles’ as we have defined below.
6.4 Formula Botanica’s definition of the word “natural” is as follows: a natural ingredient can be either:
a) purely natural, meaning the ingredient has retained the same chemical structure as its natural source and has not been chemically altered. Examples include cold pressed oils, or waxes.
b) naturally derived, meaning the ingredient was derived from natural sources but has been chemically processed in order to produce the final ingredient. Examples include emulsifiers, preservatives, solubilisers.
c) nature identical, meaning that the ingredient is chemically identical to its natural counterpart but has been produced/developed in a laboratory setting. Examples include certain chemical compounds found in preservatives.
6.5 By using, subscribing to, watching, listening to and accessing Formula Botanica’s website, Ecourses, blog posts, videos, podcasts and any other course materials, you agree to and acknowledge our definition of the words ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ and accept that we may have to occasionally deviate from Ecocert standards.
6.6 Please note that all sample formulations contained within our course materials are for teaching purposes only and have not been formally assessed for their safety in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
6.7 All our Ecourses are set up to allow for sequential learning. What this means is that you progress through your coursework module by module, so you don’t have instant access to all of the course materials in one go. When you first enrol for your Ecourse, you will only have access to the first module and you can only ‘unlock’ further modules by successfully completing the required coursework and passing all relevant quizzes/assignments. It is not possible to unlock future parts of your Ecourse without moving through the Ecourse in this way.
7 STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
7.1 During the learning period of each Ecourse, all students will have access to a private Facebook group with is monitored daily by Formula Botanica. The aim of the group is to provide an interactive learning space and peer support. The aim of the group is not to provide one-on-one tutor support.
7.2 Students are offered tutor support through dedicated, monitored public tutor forums in each of the courses, except the School’s Diploma in Beauty Brand Business Management which comes with its own dedicated Mastermind group on Facebook. Formula Botanica’s Education Team aims to provide feedback to questions in these forums within a 7-day window, although in practice responses are posted up much quicker.
7.3 Personalised or one-on-one tutor support is not included with the Ecourses, which allows the School to keep its course fees purposefully low. Please do not direct message Formula Botanica staff or abuse the Facebook group by tagging Formula Botanica staff with direct questions. Repeated abuse of student support services may result in your removal from the Ecourse.
7.4 Technical support arising from issues with our website, email, downloads or videos and related matters is unlimited via [email protected]
8 AFFILIATES AND ONLINE PARTNERS
8.1 Please note that we work with affiliates and pay them a fee for new students referred to us. Similarly we work with online partners who on occasion will pay us a referral fee where we recommend their services to you. Any affiliate links will be clearly marked as such.
8.2 Please note that we have no control over the contents of third party sites or resources linked from our website.
9 EXTENSIONS
9.1 Formula Botanica implements an Ecourse extension policy which is available to all current students in their VLE.
9.2 All of Formula Botanica’s Ecourses come with expiring deadlines, which relate to the date on which you enrolled for the Ecourse. We do not offer lifetime access because we invest heavily in our team, systems and our time, which means that ultimately we invest heavily in our students.
10 TERMINATION OF SERVICE
10.1 If:
(a) you fail to pay any amount due under this Agreement;
(b) you breach any of the other terms and conditions, express or implied, of the Agreement; or
(c) any information provided by you in the making of this Agreement proves to be incomplete or inaccurate,
we shall be entitled, after the expiry of 7 days after a default notice has been served on you, to terminate this Agreement.
10.2 If you fail to complete the Ecourse within the allotted timescale, you will be deemed to have failed the Ecourse and termination will be the end result, unless an extension is requested.
10.3 Formula Botanica reserves the right to terminate this Agreement, if you in Formula Botanica’s sole opinion (acting reasonably) act inappropriately or otherwise bully, harass and cause offence to other students.
11 CODE OF CONDUCT
11.1 You commit to finish the Ecourse before the end date as given in the Student Handbook.
11.2 You commit to conduct yourself in a professional manner when using the student forum in any social media associated with Formula Botanica.
11.3 You commit to use the given channels of communication for student support as outlined in your Student Handbook and in this Agreement.
11.4 You commit to keep your login details safe and not to share, sell or otherwise distribute them to any third parties. We have the right to disable any user logins (whether chosen by you or allocated by us) at any time, in in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with this. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your login details, you must promptly notify us.
12 TUTOR TRAINING
12.1 If you are applying for our Licenced Tutor Training programme, you will be expected to sign a Tutor Licence Agreement upon successful completion of the training.
12.2 This Tutor Licence Agreement sets out specific Tutor Code of Conduct requirements in order to protect the brand and reputation of Formula Botanica.
12.3 You will be expected to sign this Licence Agreement on an annual basis in order to maintain your Licence to teach Formula Botanica workshops.
12.4 After the first year of your Licence which is provided free as part of your Tutor Training programme, you shall pay Formula Botanica £100 per year in order to maintain your Licence to teach Formula Botanica workshops.
12.5 After your Licence expires, you will not be permitted to teach Formula Botanica branded workshops. You will have a month’s grace period after the date expiry during which you can re-sign your Licence and pay your Licence fee. After that month has lapsed, you will need to retake the entire Tutor Training Program should you wish to regain your Licence.
12.6 After completion of your Tutor Training Program, you have a period of 6 months during which you can sign your Licence. Once that 6 month period has expired, you will need to retake the entire Tutor Training Program should you wish to be re-offered your Licence for signing.
12.7 You are welcome to brand your workshops using both your own business name and the Formula Botanica brand. Examples of branding include:
a. “A Formula Botanica workshop offered by [Your Business Name]”
b. “A [Your Business Name] training, by Formula Botanica”
13 COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
13.1 We are the owner or licensee of all intellectual property rights in our course materials and any other content or materials on any of our websites or platforms. These works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world and may not be shared or reproduced without our written permission. All such rights are reserved. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of all course materials and any other content or materials on any of our websites or platforms, must always be acknowledged.
13.2 You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from the course materials for your personal use only. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any course materials you may have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
13.3 When you enrol with Formula Botanica, you promise not to share, sell, publish, copy or otherwise distribute our course materials to any third parties.
14 INDEMNIFICATION
14.1 Students shall indemnify the School against all claims, costs and expenses which arise, directly or indirectly, from the Student’s breach of any of its obligations under this Agreement.
15 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
15.1 Subject to clause 15.3, the entire liability of the School to Student in respect of any claim whatsoever or our breach of this Agreement, whether or not arising out of negligence, shall be limited to the fees paid by the Student for the ECourse to which the claim relates.
15.2 Subject to clause 15.3, in no event shall the School be liable to the Student for:
15.2.1 any loss of business;
15.2.2 loss of opportunity;
15.2.3 loss of profits;
15.2.4 any harm caused to you as a result of you not following our advice properly or having an allergic reaction; or
15.2.5 for any other indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever.
15.3 Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude or limit the School’s liability for death or personal injury resulting from the School’s negligence or that of its employees, agents or sub-contractors.
16 Other important terms
16.1 We will only use your personal information as set out in our privacy policy. If you provide your phone number and give explicit consent, we may contact you via SMS for follow-up purposes related to your enquiries or purchases. You may opt out of SMS communication at any time by responding ‘STOP’ to any SMS you receive from us.
16.2 We may transfer our rights and obligations under this Agreement to another organisation. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under this Agreement if we agree to this in writing.
16.3 This Agreement is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.
16.4 Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.
16.5 If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to under this Agreement, or we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do have to do these things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
17 GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
17.1 This Agreement and any disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.
17.2 The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this Agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).
