General terms and conditions
of the Sankofa Lingua Academy, Inh. Akwasi Badu-Aning
1. validity of the general terms and conditions
1.1 The following General Terms and Conditions (“GTC”) apply to all business relations between Sankofa Lingua Academy, Inh. Akwasi Badu-Aning, ℅ Hope Foundation e.V. Petersburgerstr. 92, 10247 Berlin (hereinafter referred to as “Sankofa”) and the customers. The version valid at the time of the conclusion of the contract shall be authoritative in each case.
1.2 Customers within the meaning of these Terms and Conditions are both consumers and entrepreneurs. Consumers in the sense of the terms and conditions are natural persons with whom business relations are entered into without them acting in the exercise or for the purpose of a commercial or independent professional activity. Entrepreneurs in the sense of these terms and conditions are natural or legal persons or persons and companies with legal capacity with whom business relations are entered into and who act in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity.
1.3 Certain services and/or products of Sankofa may each be subject to separate contractual and/or registration conditions, thereby supplementing the provisions of these GTC. These shall be referred to separately in connection with the respective service/product in the product-specific terms and conditions (see Section 5 of these GTC). Insofar as these separate and special terms and conditions for individual areas of performance deviate from the provisions of these GTC, the provisions of the special terms and conditions shall take precedence over the respective provision of these GTC.
1.4 Deviating, conflicting or supplementary general terms and conditions shall not become part of the contract, even if known, unless their validity is expressly agreed.
2. conclusion of contract
By registering for a Course via the online order form and the subsequent confirmation by Sankofa (in writing or by e-mail), a contract is concluded between the Customers and Sankofa. Registration can be done through the online forms or through the written registration form.
3. right of withdrawal for consumers in distance contracts and off-premises contracts
Cancellation policy
Right of withdrawal
Consumers have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the date of conclusion of the contract.
To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must notify us (Sankofa Lingua Academy, Inh. Akwasi Badu-Aning, ℅ Hope Foundation e.V. Petersburgerstr. 92, 10247 Berlin, e-mail: info@sankofa-lingua.com) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by mail or an e-mail) about your decision to revoke this contract. You can use the enclosed sample revocation form for this purpose, but it is not mandatory.
In order to comply with the withdrawal period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the expiry of the withdrawal period.
Consequences of the revocation
If you revoke this contract, we shall reimburse you all payments we have received from you, including delivery costs (with the exception of additional costs resulting from the fact that you have chosen a type of delivery other than the most favorable standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and at the latest within fourteen days from the day on which we received the notification of your revocation of this contract. For this repayment, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no case will you be charged for this repayment.
If you have requested that the services begin during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of the services already provided up to the time you notify us of the exercise of the right of withdrawal with respect to this contract compared to the total scope of the services provided for in the contract.
The right of withdrawal exists according to § 312g para. 1 BGB only for consumers and not for entrepreneurs. In addition, the aforementioned right of withdrawal for consumers only applies to contracts concluded away from business premises and in the context of so-called distance contracts, i.e. contracts in which the entrepreneur or a person acting in his name or on his behalf and the consumer exclusively use means of distance communication for the contract negotiations and the conclusion of the contract, unless the conclusion of the contract does not take place in the context of a distribution or service system organized for distance selling (Section 312c (1) of the German Civil Code). Means of distance communication are all means of communication that can be used to initiate or conclude a contract without the parties to the contract being physically present at the same time, such as letters, catalogs, telephone calls, telecopies, e-mails, messages sent via mobile phone service (SMS), as well as broadcasting and telemedia (Section 312c (2) BGB).
Special note on online programs
In the case of digital learning solutions that are not provided on a data carrier, the right of withdrawal already expires at the beginning of the execution of the contract – for example, when the login to a portal has taken place and the first course unit has been started. Customers agree to this point within the framework of these GTC.
Sample cancellation form
(If you want to cancel the contract, please fill out and return this form).
To
Sankofa Lingua Academy
Inh. Akwasi Badu-Aning
℅ Hope Foundation e.V. Petersburgerstr. 92
10247 Berlin
E-mail: info@sankofa-lingua.com
- I/we (*) hereby revoke the contract concluded by me/us (*) for the purchase of the following goods (*)/provision of the following service (*)
- Ordered on (*)/received on (*)
- Name of the consumer(s)
- Address of the consumer(s)
- Signature of the consumer(s) (only in case of notification on paper)
- Date
(*) Delete as applicable
4. pricing, payment methods and terms of payment
4.1 For the respective services and/or products of Sankofa, the respective prices stated on the Website and in the online order form shall apply at the time of the order. The course fees will be listed again in the booking confirmation.
4.2 The prices stated on the website and in the online order form are final prices. Due to the VAT exemption pursuant to § 4 No. 21a and b UStG, we do not charge VAT on our services. This applies to both face-to-face and online lessons. Accordingly, VAT is not shown on invoices.
4.3 The prices applicable in each case shall be derived from the respective service or product description. Customers undertake to pay this price. Payment is due when the service or product is ordered. We reserve the right to claim higher damages for delay.
4.4 Payment methods
PayPal
To pay with PayPal, specify PayPal as the payment method in the online order form and enter the information for your PayPal account. If you want Sankofa to remember your information, check the Remember information box.
If you do not have a PayPal account, you can sign up on the PayPal website.
Instant bank transfer
After you have selected Sofortüberweisung as payment method in the online order form, you will be redirected to an already filled out transfer form. Check payee and transfer amount and select your bank by bank code.
In the next step, you enter your usual access data for online banking into a protected payment form. From there, the data is forwarded to your bank. You will receive a one-time valid TAN from your bank as usual, for example via smartphone.
If you confirm the transfer by entering a TAN, you will receive a summary of all data of the purchase transaction or directly a purchase confirmation of the store.
Bank debit
A bank direct debit is an instruction to the bank by which you authorize Sankofa to collect the course fees from your account. The condition is that we inform you in advance about the amounts and the time of collection. The instruction to the bank is called a direct debit mandate.
After you have given the direct debit mandate in the online order form, payments will be automatically debited from your account on the due date without you having to do anything.
4.5 Terms of payment
Depending on the program booked, Sankofa may charge a service fee as a contribution to cover personnel and administrative expenses. Their amount will be shown to you at the time of booking under “service fee”.
Customers are required to pay the tuition price stated in the online order form and in the booking confirmation, in addition to the service fee, no later than before the start of the program. In the case of an installment agreement, the first installment is due for payment at that time. From the day of booking, further installment payments will be made according to the contractually agreed due dates. The contract concluded between the Customers and Sankofa shall also be considered as a (standing) invoice.
Incoming payments are always offset against the oldest claim, unless otherwise specified at the time of payment. Lessons not used but already paid for expire after 3 years from the end of the year in which the right to carry out the lesson arose, unless the contract or program term is specified otherwise (see section 5).
5. special conditions
5.1 Scope
The detailed provisions applicable to the courses are available on the website and contain important and relevant information for the conclusion of the contract. These include, among other things, payment terms, program scope and duration, number of participants (group size), duration of course units (possibly including non-instructional break times), cancellation and withdrawal periods, information on possible cancellation fees or refunds, as well as information on the contract duration, introduction (orientation session), determination of the individual lesson plan, on possible conversions if the minimum number of participants is not reached, or on other product-specific features.
5.2 Special note on termination
The following applies to courses already started in face-to-face or online group instruction: If customers are unable to attend classes (e.g. due to illness, vacation, professional incapacity, etc.), the tuition costs must still be paid. The customers who could not participate will receive a voucher after 5.3.
Termination without notice by either contracting party is only possible for good cause. If the Customer fails to meet its payment obligations and defaults accordingly, Sankofa shall be entitled to terminate the contract without notice.
Separate or deviating written agreements between Customer and Sankofa are possible. A refund of fees for unused but already paid lessons after the statutory period of limitation has expired is excluded. A refund of the cost of paid and handed out teaching materials as well as the service fee is also excluded.
Customers are free to prove to Sankofa that the expenses saved by their cancellation justify a significantly lower cancellation fee or no cancellation fee at all.
Any termination must be in text form to be effective. Cancellations from teachers, especially during an ongoing teaching session, are not possible.
5.3 Special conditions for rebookings and cancellations
Procedure of rebookings and cancellations
In case of rebooking, prior cancellation of the lesson is required. Cancellation can be made up to 24 hours before the scheduled class date. Cancellation after the start of classes is not possible.
Cancellation can only be made through the Sankofa Lingua Academy website or through the Academy’s customer service. Changes or cancellations of the booking with teachers, especially during an ongoing lesson, are not possible.
If the booking includes both individual lessons and weekly courses, the cancellation will affect all lessons booked.
Validity period of cancellation vouchers
In case of cancellation, a cancellation voucher will be issued. This cancellation voucher is valid for 12 months from the date of issue and entitles learners to make a new booking within this period for the value of the voucher. If the price of the new booking is higher than the voucher value, the difference must be paid. If it is less than this, the remaining amount of the cancellation voucher is retained and can be used for a later booking. Deviations from these regulations may occur in the case of time-limited promotional offers. For more details, please refer to the separate promotion terms and conditions on the Sankofa Lingua Academy website.
If a cancellation voucher is used for a new booking, the cancellation rules and conditions also apply to the new lesson.
Cancellation fee
Each cancellation and subsequent re-booking will incur a cancellation fee per cancelled lesson. The cancellation voucher will be issued for the value of the lesson less the cost of the cancellation process. If the learner’s name changes, the difference must be paid if the tuition price has increased in the meantime. There is no charge for changing contact information.
Sankofa Lingua Academy Cancellations
All of the above processing fees, cancellation fees and any transfer fees will be waived if the cancellation is due to circumstances for which Sankofa Lingua Academy is responsible. Tuition will be credited only to the account the learner specified when placing the order and, in the case of credit card payments, to the learner’s credit card account. If legally permissible processing fees or transfer fees must be deducted, this will be done by offsetting at the time of crediting.
5.4 Special notes on face-to-face and online group instruction
Start dates
The start dates are determined by the information on the website, especially the timetable, which can be downloaded from the website.
Learning progress
In consultation with and with the consent of the course participant, customers may be transferred to another group for pedagogical reasons if this transfer appears to be conducive to optimizing the learning progress of the group or the individual customers.
5.5 Special notes for all online programs
Technical requirements and responsibility
Customers are responsible for ensuring that the technical requirements for access to and use of the respective services booked are met. This concerns in particular the hardware and operating system software used, the connection to the Internet, the firewall settings (if any) and the current browser software. Customers make necessary and reasonable adjustments themselves and bear the cost of the Internet connection to access the online course.
Sankofa does not guarantee that the offered services can actually be used with the Customer’s computer.
Access data
Customers shall provide the name(s) of the desired participant(s) when placing the order and represent that they are aware of and comply with these Terms and Conditions. Access to online courses is available only to those participants who have been assigned an access link and password. You expressly undertake to protect the access data and passwords received so that unauthorized use of the services by third parties is excluded. This is a temporary service. Sankofa does not reimburse its customers for unused or underused access.
Only one customer at a time is entitled to participate in the courses. The use of an access by more than one person is prohibited and may lead to exclusion from the course program.
Recording live online lessons
Customers agree that certain Live Online Programs (see Section 5) may be recorded in the Sankofa Online Classroom and made available to Participants in their Portal after the event.
6. terminations in text form
All contracts concluded with Sankofa may be terminated in text form.
7. liability
7.1 Sankofa shall be liable for damages only in case of intent and gross negligence. Sankofa shall also be liable for the negligent breach of material contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), i.e. such obligations the breach of which jeopardizes the achievement of the purpose of the contract and compliance with which a contractual partner may regularly rely on. In the event of damage caused by slight negligence, Sankofa and its vicarious agents shall be liable only in the event of a breach of a material contractual obligation, but limited in amount to the damage foreseeable at the time of the conclusion of the contract and typical for the contract.
7.2 The above exclusions of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, limb or health. Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected. Any exclusion or limitation of Sankofa’s liability shall also apply to the personal liability of its legal representatives, employees and other vicarious agents.
8. advertising
Sankofa uses and processes the personal data of the Customers for its own promotional purposes by sending the Customers information on similar goods or services that Customers had already ordered or booked. Customers may object to the use of their data for this purpose at any time by sending their objection by e-mail to info@sankofa-lingua.com sent.
9. final provisions
9.1 German law shall apply to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). In the case of consumers, this choice of law shall only apply to the extent that the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state of the consumer’s habitual residence is not thereby withdrawn.
9.2 In the event of any dispute regarding the meaning or interpretation of any provision of the English translated version of these GTC, the German version shall prevail in case of doubt.
9.3 The place of jurisdiction shall be the registered office of Sankofa, i.e. Berlin, insofar as Customers are not consumers but merchants, legal entities under public law or special funds under public law or insofar as Customers have moved their place of residence or habitual abode abroad after conclusion of the contract or their place of residence or habitual abode is not known at the time the action is filed.
9.4 Amendments and supplements to the contract must be made in text form. Should any of the above provisions be invalid, the statutory provisions shall apply. The principle of the priority of the individual agreement (Section 305b of the German Civil Code) applies with priority to consumers.
10. online platform (OS platform) for out-of-court dispute resolution
We are obliged to refer you to the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform of the European Commission as part of our online offer. This can be reached via the following Internet address: www.ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr
Status: August 2023