Standard Terms & Conditions: Specialist Services

At Grad Coach, we believe in clear, transparent communication. This agreement sets out the standard terms and conditions of our Specialist Services, so that we’re always on the same page. By using these services, you agree to the terms below. The terms for our other services are listed on our terms and conditions page.

1. Confidentiality

1. We will treat any material you provide to us as strictly confidential, subject to Clauses 1c and 1d.
2. We will treat your relationship with us as strictly confidential, and we will not disclose your use of our services to anyone, subject to Clauses 1c and 1d.
3. If you dispute a charge with your bank, card provider or PayPal, they will ask us for details of the services we provided to you. We are legally required to provide this information, and you understand and agree to this. We will also take the legal action necessary to recover all funds owed to us, along with the associated legal costs. This may involve court applications, which may make your details visible in a public register.
4. We may use insights from our work with students for research and educational purposes, such as research articles, blog posts and videos, and to improve our services. Any insights we use are fully anonymized, so neither you nor your project can be identified.

2. Identity verification

1. If our payment processors or banking partners flag a payment as high risk or suspicious, we may ask you for documents to verify your identity and confirm the purchase.
2. If someone else pays on your behalf (a third-party payment), we may ask for supporting documents to verify their identity and the transaction.
3. In either case, we cannot proceed with your project until verification is complete.

3. Ethical use of services

1. You may only use our services in line with your university’s academic code of conduct, rules and regulations. We reserve the right to refuse any request that may be deemed academic misconduct.
2. We don’t know the specific rules of every program at every university. It is therefore your responsibility to make sure that any service you use is permitted by your university and does not breach any of its codes of conduct, rules or regulations.

4. Payment

1. A 50% deposit is required to confirm any project booking and to start any agreed timeline.
2. The remaining balance is due in full when the project is complete. We cannot release any work until we have received full payment.
3. You may change the date of your booking, but this will affect your project’s turnaround time and may incur an additional fee.
4. All payments, including deposits, are final and non-refundable.
5. If you dispute a payment with your bank, card provider or PayPal, we will take the legal action necessary to recover the balance owed to us. You will be liable for all costs of that action, including all legal expenses.

5. Language editing and proofreading

1. This service involves editing and proofreading your document to improve its English and its technical formatting. It does not include an academic review of the content, or any advice on it.
2. When the work is complete, we will give you:
   1. A document with comments and tracked changes; and
   2. A document with all tracked changes accepted.
3. While we aim to improve the overall quality of the English in any document, we cannot fix very poor English, including text that is incoherent or incomplete.
4. We will correct incorrectly formatted citations and references. We will not identify or source any missing references or reference details, or check whether a source is suitable.
5. We will generate lists of tables and figures, but we will not format or edit the tables and figures themselves.
6. We aim to make your writing more concise, but we cannot guarantee any particular reduction in word count.

6. Audio transcription

1. This service involves manually transcribing your audio recordings (for example, interviews or focus groups). It does not include any coding, analysis or other preparation of the data. We only transcribe recordings in English, and we do not translate.
2. When the work is complete, we will give you fully editable transcripts in Microsoft Word format.
3. The quality of your recordings directly affects the quality of the transcripts. Poor recording quality, background noise, reverberation, echo and similar issues will all lower the quality of the transcription.
4. Where we cannot confidently tell what a speaker said, we will mark that part as “[Inaudible]” in the transcript. We will not guess at any words or make judgments about what may have been said.
5. If speakers talk faster than 110 words per minute, or if an audio file has been sped up to shorten the recording, we reserve the right to re-quote you at a proportionally adjusted rate.

7. Qualitative coding

1. This service involves an initial coding of your qualitative dataset. It does not include qualitative analysis (for example, thematic or discourse analysis), any form of second-level coding (for example, axial coding) or advice. If you’d like guidance on analyzing your data, please consider our Private Coaching service, which is billed separately.
2. When the work is complete, we will give you:
   1. A single-level coding structure;
   2. The fully coded textual dataset; and
   3. A summary spreadsheet containing all the coded data.
3. You need to provide your data as text, in an editable file format (for example, Microsoft Word). If your data is not in an editable format, we may offer to convert it for a separate fee.
4. Transcripts of audio recordings must be 100% accurate. If they differ from the audio files in anything other than light editing of filler words, the quality of the coding will suffer.
5. Once we have completed an initial review of the data, we will propose a coding structure. We recommend that you engage with it and give us as much feedback as possible. We will take your feedback into account when we finalize the coding structure, and then code the data.
6. We have the final say on the coding structure and the coding process. Once we have finished coding, you are welcome to revise the coding structure and undertake additional coding.

8. Custom projects

1. Any customization of, or variation from, the standard services described above must be agreed in writing by both parties before your booking is confirmed.
2. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, all projects are treated as standard and will be completed in line with the core deliverables set out on each service’s page:
   1. Editing: gradcoach.com/dissertation-thesis-editing-services;
   2. Transcription: gradcoach.com/transcription-service; and
   3. Coding: gradcoach.com/qualitative-data-coding-service.

9. Leniency

1. If we show leniency, or do not enforce any term of this agreement, this does not waive that term or any other term. Nor does it affect the validity of this agreement or our right to enforce any term at any later time.

10. Revisions

1. We reserve the right to update our standard terms and conditions from time to time. The current version will be posted at gradcoach.com/terms-conditions.

11. Governing law and severability

1. This agreement is governed by and interpreted under the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this agreement, including any question about its existence, validity or termination, will be referred to and finally resolved by the courts of Hong Kong.
2. If any provision of this agreement is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable under the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, that provision will, to the extent required, be treated as not forming part of this agreement. The validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions will not be affected or impaired in any way.