Terms of Use

All services provided by Student Helpmate LLC may be used for lawful purposes only. Any material or data in violation of any United States federal, state, or local law is prohibited. This includes copyrighted materials, any materials we judge to be threatening or obscene, or any material protected by trade secret or other statute.

Also prohibited are any and all materials, links, or transmissions which may promote illegal activity or cause actual or potential damage to Student Helpmate LLC's servers, subscriber's computer, or other internet servers.

Examples of Unacceptable Content:

NOTICE: If your account is found to contain: illegal activity; media such as copyrighted music or videos; pirated software; warez; viruses, worms, etc.; other illegal files. YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY, WITHOUT NOTICE. ADDITIONALLY, STUDENT HELPMATE LLC WILL NOTIFY THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES OR REGULATORY AGENCY.

Server Abuse

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server or customer of Student Helpmate LLC is strictly prohibited. As our customer, you are responsible for all your accounts. Should you violate the Terms of Use outlined within, your account will be cancelled without chance of refund.

Refusal of Service

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel or suspend service, at our sole discretion.
All sub-networks and distributive hosting of Student Helpmate LLC must adhere to the above policies.

Billing

Per each transaction, Student Helpmate LLC uses PayPal Payment Solutions for all transactions via either:

  1. Direct payment processing on studenthelpmate.com using a debit or credit card
  2. OR Express Checkout offered at paypal.com using a PayPal account

PayPal.com has established their own Legal Policies. It can be reviewed here.

Fees

The following commissions are debited from a tutor’s earnings per payment period:

  1. 25% for answers and real-time chat sessions

These fees are subject to change at any time with, or without, notice.

There is NO fee for a student member to ask a question on studenthelpmate.com.

Minimums

  • Minimum deposit: $5.00
  • Minimum withdrawal: $10.00
  • Minimum tutorial fee $2.00

Payments to Tutors

Tutor’s must establish or use an existing PayPal account to receive compensation from Student Helpmate, LLC. Payments to tutors will be processed the 15th and 30th of the month. A minimum balance of $10.00 must accrue within each payment period, otherwise earnings totaling less than $10.00 are held in escrow until the requirement is met.

IRS W-9 Forms

Once a tutor accrues $600.00 in earnings, the tutor is required to complete and file an IRS Form W-9 with Student Helpmate, LLC. The form will be electronically sent to the tutor once the tutor accrues $500.00 in earnings. The completed form is then to be sent via mail or fax to be filed. A tutor that fails to file an IRS Form W-9 with Student Helpmate, LLC that has accrued in excess of $599.99 in earnings will have their account frozen and compensation held in escrow until it is filed. It is the tutor’s sole responsibility to report all money they receive as compensation for tax purposes. Student Helpmate, LLC will not be held responsible or liable for the tutor’s failure to comply with all Federal, state and/or local tax regulations. Student Helpmate, LLC will process these documents and issue IRS Form 1099 to all tutors for tax filing by January 31st of the following tax year.

Refunds

We do not refund transactions. Student Helpmate, LLC facilitates a service to connect students and tutors, and cannot guarantee claims set forth by tutors regarding expertise, educational background, experience, etc.

Chargebacks

In the event that a student member disputes charges incurred on their billing statement from studenthelpmate.com, any, and all credits will be deducted from the corresponding tutor’s earnings balance. The student member will be responsible for any fees associated with the chargeback.

Student Helpmate, LLC provides all services in good faith and will not tolerate chargebacks. Any student member that practices a chargeback will incur immediate termination of account and privileges throughout the website.

Refusal of Service

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel or suspend service at our sole discretion.

Limitation of Liability

Student Helpmate LLC shall not be responsible for any claimed damages, including incidental and consequential damages, which may arise from Student Helpmate LLC including servers going off-line or being unavailable for any reason whatsoever. Furthermore, Student Helpmate LLC is not responsible for any claimed damages, including incidental or consequential damages, resulting from the corruption or deletion of any web site from one of Student Helpmate LLC's servers.

Violations

Violations of these Acceptable Use Policies should be referred to info@studenthelpmate.com. All complaints will be investigated promptly. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate account deactivation.

Disclaimer

Student Helpmate LLC is not responsible for system down time, crashes or data loss. Student Helpmate LLC is not responsible for the use of our clients' accounts. Failure to comply with any terms or conditions may result in the automatic deactivation or the account in question. We reserve the right to remove any account, without advance notice for any reason beyond our control without restitution as Student Helpmate LLC sees fit.

Account Activation

By activating your account with Student Helpmate LLC you agree to the above policies and disclaimer. Upon requesting activation of an account, you are required to accept these policies, guidelines and disclaimer, and a copy of your acceptance is forwarded along with your activation request to be maintained with your account information.

NOTICE: If you sign up for an account and fail to comply with these terms, no refunds will be given. We will, however, advise you by e-mail prior to taking any action to provide you with an opportunity to correct the problem.

Acceptable Use Policy

As a provider of web site hosting and other Internet-related services, Student Helpmate LLC offers its customer (also known as “Students and Tutors”) and users the means to acquire and disseminate a wealth of public, private commercial and non-commercial information. Student Helpmate LLC respects that the Internet provides a forum for free and open discussion and dissemination of information. However, when there are competing interests at issue, Student Helpmate LLC reserves the right to take certain preventive or corrective actions. In order to protect these competing interests, Student Helpmate LLC has developed an Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which supplements and explains certain terms of each customer's respective service agreement, and is intended as a guide to the customer's rights and obligations when using Student Helpmate LLC's services. This AUP will be revised from time to time.

One important aspect of the Internet is that no one party owns or controls it. This fact accounts for much of the Internet's openness and value, but it also places a high premium on the judgment and responsibility of those who use it, both in the information they acquire and in the information they disseminate to others. When subscribers obtain information through the Internet, they must keep in mind that Student Helpmate LLC cannot monitor, verify, warrant or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information they acquire. For this reason, the subscriber must exercise his or her best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet may be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive. Because Student Helpmate LLC cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, Student Helpmate LLC cannot accept any responsibility for injury to its subscribers resulting from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive or illegal Internet communications.

When subscribers disseminate information from the Internet, they must keep in mind that Student Helpmate LLC does not review, edit, censor or take responsibility for any information its subscribers may create. When users place information on the Internet, they have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation and other harmful speech. Also, because the information created is carried over Student Helpmate LLC's network and may reach a large number of people, including both subscribers and non-subscribers of Student Helpmate LLC, subscribers' postings to the Internet may affect other subscribers and may affect Student Helpmate LLC's goodwill, business, reputation or operations. For these reasons, subscribers violate Student Helpmate LLC policy and the Service Agreement when they, their customers, affiliates or subsidiaries engage in the following prohibited activities:

Spamming:

Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial information over the Internet. It is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward Student Helpmate LLC, but also because it can overload Student Helpmate LLC's network and disrupt service to Student Helpmate LLC's subscribers. Also, maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. When a complaint is received, Student Helpmate LLC will investigate and shutdown the account that is SPAMing.

Audio/Video Streaming:

Audio/Video Streaming is not hosting friendly. As such, Student Helpmate LLC does not allow any streaming of audio or video content. Offending accounts will be suspended without noticed or terminated. Users are permitted to link to acceptable audio and video content in good faith.

Adult-Oriented Content:

Student Helpmate LLC does not allow adult content and will suspend/terminate any offending account.

Large File Policy:

Student Helpmate LLC is not for file hosting and distribution - as such, customers may not host any files larger than 10MB in size that are observed to be available for the sole purpose of download. Such files include but are not limited to .ISO, audio/video files, .EXE files. If you are unsure whether your file is against this policy, please e-mail info@studenthelpmate.com. Word documents, slideshow presentantions, PDF documents, and spreadsheet documents are permitted.

Obscene Speech or Materials:

Using Student Helpmate LLC's network to advertise, transmit, store, post, display, or otherwise make available child pornography or obscene speech or material is prohibited. Student Helpmate LLC is required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through its network.

Defamatory or Abusive Language:

Using Student Helpmate LLC’s network as a means to transmit or post negative, defamatory, harassing, abusive or threatening language.

Forging of Headers:

Forging or misrepresenting message headers, whether in whole or in part, to mask the originator of the message.

Illegal or Unauthorized Access to Other Computers or Networks:

Accessing, illegally or without authorization, computers, accounts or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual's system (often known as "hacking"). Also, any activity that may be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (i.e., port scan, stealth scan or other information-gathering activity).

Distribution of Internet Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses or Other Destructive Activities:

Distributing information regarding the creation of and sending Internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mail bombing or denial of service attacks. Also, activities that disrupt the use of or interfere with the ability of others to effectively use the network or any connected network, system, service or equipment.

Facilitation a Violation of this AUP:

Advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available any software, program, product or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail bombing, denial of service attacks and piracy of software.

Export Control Violations:

Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States.

Other Illegal Activities:

Engaging in activities that are determined to be illegal, including, but not limited to, advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, fraudulently charging credit cards and pirating software.

Other Activities:

Engaging in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that Student Helpmate LLC determines to be harmful to its subscribers, operations, reputations, goodwill or customer relations.

As we have pointed out, the responsibility for avoiding harmful activities just described rests primarily with the subscriber. Student Helpmate LLC will not, as an ordinary practice, monitor the communications of its subscribers to ensure that they comply with Student Helpmate LLC's policy or applicable law. However, when Student Helpmate LLC becomes aware of harmful activities, it may take any action to stop the harmful activity, including, but not limited to, removal of information, shutting down a web site, implementing screening software designed to block offending transmissions, denying access to the Internet, or any other action deemed appropriate by Student Helpmate LLC.

Student Helpmate LLC is also aware that many of its subscribers are themselves providers of Internet services, and that information reaching Student Helpmate LLC's facilities from those subscribers may have originated from a customer of the subscriber or from another third party. Student Helpmate LLC does not require its subscribers who offer Internet services to monitor or censor transmissions or web sites created by customers of its subscribers. Student Helpmate LLC reserves the right to directly take action against a customer of its subscribers. Also, Student Helpmate LLC may take action against the Student Helpmate LLC subscriber because of activities of a customer of the subscriber, even though the action may affect other customers of the subscriber. Similarly, Student Helpmate LLC anticipates that subscribers who offer Internet services will cooperate with Student Helpmate LLC in any corrective or preventive action that Student Helpmate LLC deems necessary. Failure to cooperate with such corrective or preventive measures is a violation of Student Helpmate LLC legal policies.

Student Helpmate LLC will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by its subscribers, unless required to do so by law, governmental authority or when public safety is at stake. Student Helpmate LLC may, however, monitor its service electronically to determine that its facilities are operating satisfactorily. Also, Student Helpmate LLC may disclose information, including, but not limited to, information concerning a subscriber, a transmission made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation or governmental request. Student Helpmate LLC assumes no obligation to inform the subscriber that subscriber information has been provided and, in some cases, may be prohibited by law from giving such notice. Finally, Student Helpmate LLC may disclose subscriber information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to protect Student Helpmate LLC and others from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of the system. However, Student Helpmate LLC will never sell information to other services or outside companies.

Student Helpmate LLC expects that its subscribers who provide Internet services to others will comply fully with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications. A subscriber's failure to comply with those laws will violate Student Helpmate LLC policy. Finally, Student Helpmate LLC wishes to emphasize that, in signing the Service Agreement, subscribers indemnify Student Helpmate LLC for any violation of the Service Agreement, law or Student Helpmate LLC policy resulting in loss to Student Helpmate LLC or the bringing of any claim against Student Helpmate LLC by any third party. This means that, if Student Helpmate LLC is sued because of a subscriber's or customer of a subscriber's activity, the subscriber will be responsible for payment of any damages awarded against Student Helpmate LLC, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

We hope this AUP is helpful in clarifying the obligations of Internet users, including Student Helpmate LLC and its subscribers, as responsible members of the Internet. Any complaints about a subscriber's violation of this AUP should be sent to info@studenthelpmate.com.

Revision date: April 14, 2010