Short Description:
Welcome to verticalprogress.in (the "Platform"). This platform is owned and operated by Vertical Progress. These terms also include, 'Vertical Progress Platform', 'website', 'VPLMS', and 'Vertical Progress'.
Please read this Terms of Use carefully before using this Platform. By using the Platform, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to this Terms of Use, you may not use this Platform.

Terms of Use
Updated on 9th April 2021.

Introduction:
Warm Welcome to Vertical Progress.!
Vertical Progress is a Skill Development company with a mission of ‘Enabling People to Achieve their Dreams”. This LMS platform is an initiative of Mr. V. Prasanna Venkatesan, founder member of Vertical Progress. This platform aims to make learning flexible, simplified, and affordable. Vertical Progress is focused on providing flexible learning opportunities along with personal connect and interaction between Learners and Instructors. All our courses are focused to improve your skills and provide solutions for your personal and professional challenges. 
People having a ‘genuine sellable content’ and teaching ability can teach their courses through our platform. We are committed to provide affordable, flexible and secured learning and teaching. In order to ensure security, we are having these rules and regulations. Our rules are applicable for everyone teaching, reselling and learning with us in all the platforms we serve. 
The instructors as well learners shall strictly adhere to the rules and terms of Vertical Progress. Any dispute arising will be resolved through an Arbitration process arranged by Vertical Progress in India.
If you are a learner using Vertical Progress platform, you must agree to the Learner Terms. If you are an Instructor using Vertical Progress platform, you must agree to the Instructor Terms. If you are a Reseller using Vertical Progress platform, you must agree to the Reseller Terms.
 
Terms and Meanings:
Vertical Progress: Vertical Progress means the e-learning website in the domain www.verticalprogress.in, and the android / iOS mobile application for e-learning through www.verticalprogress.in. 

User: User includes Learners, Instructors and Resellers who are having a valid account in Vertical Progress.

Learner: Learner is an individual having a valid user account with Vertical Progress to learn the courses listed in Vertical Progress by paying the required fees for the courses. 

Fee: Fee means the price of learning the listed courses in Vertical Progress.

User Credit: User Credit means the reward given to any user or the payments kept reserved after refund to purchase any courses listed in Vertical Progress. This User Credit shall be used only to purchase any course listed in Vertical Progress LMS platforms and such User Credits shall not be paid as money to any User account.

Refund: Refund means return of purchased price of the courses in Vertical Progress and kept such returned money as User Credit. It is not returning the amount to the user.

Learner Terms: Learner Terms means the rules and regulations of Vertical Progress to be strictly adhered by the Learners. Breach of Learner Terms or any part of it may end up termination of the Lerner Account and any payments made will be forfeited.

Instructor Terms: Instructor Terms means the rules and regulations of Vertical Progress to be strictly adhered by the Instructors. Breach of Instructor Terms or any part of it may end up termination of Instructor Account and any payments received from the Learners will be forfeited.

Reseller Terms:  Reseller Terms means the rules and regulations of Vertical Progress to be strictly adhered by the Resellers. Breach of Reseller Terms or any part of it may end up termination of the Reseller Account and any payments due from Vertical Progress will be forfeited.
 
1. User Account:
Users shall login and create a User Account in our platform for all activities including teaching, reselling and learning. The user ID and Password must be kept safely by the users. If the user comes to know or suspect someone is using your account, please inform us through an email to success@verticalprogress.in. Users shall take complete responsibility for their account and the users are responsible for any damages to their account caused by someone. 

Only people with eligibility norms of entering into legal contracts as per Indian Laws shall use the services of Vertical Progress.

The Resellers promoting the courses through the Reseller link provided by the Instructor will have direct business dealings with the Instructors not with Vertical Progress. If the Reseller link is provided by Vertical Progress, such Resellers will have business dealings with Vertical Progress.

Users are strictly restricted to use their account for their uses and must not share or transfer their account to anyone. In case of the demise of the user, the account of the user will be closed. All the users are granted limited, non-exclusive, non-transferrable permissions to use the services of Vertical Progress by Vertical Progress.

Learners can terminate their account at any time. Instructors can terminate their account after stopping new enrollment for their courses and after ensuring all the enrolled learners have completed their learning. 
Vertical Progress will not intervene in the disputes that arise between the learner and instructor as well between the Instructor and Reseller. 
 
2. Course Enrollment and Access:
Learners shall have access to our courses after creating a User Account. Learners are required to pay the required fees and learn from Vertical Progress only for their educational, non-commercial, and personal purposes.

Instructors can publish their course on Vertical Progress and start teaching provided such course videos, contents are in accordance with the Quality Standards of Vertical Progress. However, Vertical Progress reserves the right to accept, reject, and to request modified course contents from the instructors.

Vertical Progress has rights to limit, change and restrict the duration of user accounts and any features associated with user accounts. Vertical Progress does not offer any lifetime access to any user. 
Instructors must not give direct access to their courses to anyone. Learners must not share the access to their account to anyone.  
 
3. Payments, Credits, and Refunds:
Vertical Progress is transparent to our users. Learners can request for a refund of payments made within 15 days of the payment date if the learner is not satisfied with the course before completing 25% of the purchased course. Vertical Progress will calculate this percentage of course completion either by the duration of the course or by the portions of the course. The learner will not be eligible for refund either if the learner crosses 25% of the course or 15 days are lapsed from the date of making payment whichever is earlier. If the refund claim is approved by Vertical Progress, the refunded amount will be kept as User credit and the learner can use such payment to learn any other courses available in Vertical Progress platform. Such user credits must be used within 180 days of approval of refund. Such user credits will be forfeited ending 180 days from the date of approval of refund. Vertical Progress will not refund the fee paid / user credit as direct credit of money to the Learner’s account. Once the user credit is used to purchase another course of Vertical Progress, further eligibility of refund of the used credit is not available to learners. Vertical Progress reserves all rights to approve refund requests.

When the learner purchases the courses after paying the fees for courses, the learner authorizes us to charge their debit or credit card or to process other means of payments such as internet banking, UPI, direct debit or other payment methods for those fees. Vertical Progress will work to keep your payment information secure.

The prices of courses are decided by the instructor based on the Instructor Terms. Instructors may offer any discounts to their courses but no paid course shall be priced less than INR 99 by the Instructor after such discounts. The price of the courses offered by Vertical Progress may not be the same as the same courses offered in other platforms. Discounts offered to the courses in Vertical Progress are not common for all learners. As Vertical Progress and Instructors offer such discounts through various promotional activities, the discounts may vary. No learner shall demand for such discounts from Vertical Progress. Currency of payment is decided by our payment gateways. Vertical Progress may not have options on the currency of payment for the courses as of now.

The payment confirmation shall be the receipt for the payments made by the learners. As of now, Vertical Progress can collect service taxes from the learners and pay to the authorities in India only. Soon Vertical Progress may collect the service taxes and other taxes form the learners and remit to the authorities of the learner’s country. As of now the price you see on the Vertical Progress platform is the price of the course may or may not be inclusive of the taxes.
 
Learner Terms:
Learner is any individual having a valid User Account with Vertical Progress. Learners must be legally eligible to use the services of Vertical Progress. Learners must use the user account only for the purpose of learning for his/her personal, educational and academic purposes. Learners must not use the User Account and course materials for any commercial purposes.

Learner authorizes Vertical Progress to contact them through email and contact number provided to Vertical Progress while creating a User Account. 

Learners must not share the User Account to any other person or organisation. The User Account is only for the learning purpose of the Learner who created the User Account.

Learner agrees to all the terms and conditions of Terms of Use. Learners must communicate with the instructor and Vertical Progress by the options provided by the instructor or Vertical Progress if any, in a decent manner. Learners are not permitted to do any unlawful activities in Vertical Progress platforms.
Vertical Progress is not responsible for the course contents. Learners are advised to take adequate precautions before experimenting any course contents. Learners are totally responsible for any adverse impacts out of experimenting or doing the prescribed suggestions in the course they learn from. Vertical Progress is not liable for any damages happened to the Learner.

Learners must carefully select the courses after understanding the course details provided if any. Using Vertical Progress platform is the willful act of the Learner and the Learner is responsible for any impact of such learnings in Vertical Progress platform.

Learners must pay the course fees only through Vertical Progress platforms. Vertical Progress do not authorize anyone including Instructor, Reseller, Promoter or any other person or institution to collect any payment on behalf of Vertical Progress. Vertical Progress is not liable for any such payments made to anyone but for the provisions made in Vertical Progress Platforms. 

Learners must understand and agree to the refund policy of Vertical Progress. Learners must not demand for repayment of User Credits. User Credits shall only be used to purchase any other courses listed in Vertical Progress platform within 180 days of approval of refund.

Vertical Progress is not responsible for any dispute, discrepancies between the Learner and Instructor as well the course content. 

If the Learner faces any trouble in accessing his/her account or purchased courses, the Learner shall write to Vertical Progress through email address success@verticalprogress.in or through any other email address provided in the Vertical Progress platform.

Vertical Progress will respond to any requests or complaints within 7 working days. However, there may be a delay in responding or solving.
 
Instructor Terms:
Instructor is any individual who is having a course to sell to the Learners by using Vertical Progress platforms. An Instructor must be a legally eligible person to sell his / her course through Vertical Progress. Instructors must use a valid User Account as Instructor to submit his/her course materials for Vertical Progress to approve and keep it ready for selling in Vertical Progress Platforms. The Instructor must have complete knowledge about the courses he / she is selling and must answer all the questions the Learners ask related to the course unless the Instructor restricts the Learners to interact.

The Instructor can provide maximum of one free course per paid course and such free course duration shall be maximum of 10% of the duration of all his/her paid course’s video presentations. This means, if an Instructor is having 10 paid courses in Vertical Progress platform, he/she can provide maximum of 10 free courses only. If the duration of all video presentations of the paid courses of the instructor is 1000 minutes, all the video presentations of his/her free courses shall not exceed 100 minutes. This restriction is only to ensure the optimum usage of the Vertical Platform’s resources. Even through the fee of courses are decided by the Instructor, the Fee per paid course shall not be less than INR 99/- after discounts if any.

Vertical Progress reserves all rights to approve, reject, cancel the submitted courses by the Instructor or request instructor for modification in the course contents. Instructors are totally responsible for the contents given in the courses they sell. Vertical Progress is not liable for any claim, complaint of any nature about the course title, course content and or license to sell the courses. 

Vertical Progress do not guarantee any sale value for the Instructor’s courses. Vertical Progress is only a platform. Instructors shall take their efforts to promote their courses in the market place. 
Vertical Progress shall process the payments to the instructors for the sale amount after refunds if any after 30 days of receipt of payments from the Learner. This due to the refund policy and other operational procedures. Such payments to the Instructors shall be made directly to their bank account after deducting applicable TDS if any.

Instructors must follow their Learners and support them in Vertical Progress platform. There is a provision of private chat between the Learner and the Instructor. Instructors must answer each question / doubt for clarification posted by the Learners within 48 hours. This will make your course more personalized and will enhance the learning experience of the Learners. Vertical Progress may remove the courses of the Instructor or refrain the Instructor to access his user account from Vertical Progress platforms who has failed to answer the questions or doubts of the Learners within 48 hours.

The Instructor shall appoint Resellers to sell and promote his / her courses. The Instructors shall fix the Reseller margin for the Resellers appointed by him/her within the Instructor’s share of revenue. Vertical Progress will be paying from its share of revenue only to the Resellers appointed by Vertical Progress. The discounts offered to the learners whether they are directly purchasing the courses or through the Resellers shall be determined by the Instructor.

Vertical Progress will pay to the Instructor’s bank account directly through any mode of transfer convenience to Vertical Progress from the payment received through the sale of courses of the instructor after deducting the tax and refunds if any, Reseller payments if any and any other charges. 

Instructors are eligible to get the following percentage of the net payments received through selling his/her courses which includes the Reseller payments for the Resellers appointed by them and Income Tax Deducted at Source. 
Instructor’s Payment Structure:

The above-mentioned percentage of share in net revenue is subject to change from time to time. 
Example1: if any instructor’s courses are sold for INR 100,000/- by Vertical Progress and their associates, if Vertical Progress pays the tax of INR 18,000/-, the balance amount is INR 82,000/- and this will be the net payment. The instructor’s share is 50% of 82,000/- which is rupees 41,000/-. Vertical Progress will deduct Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for Indian Instructors and will pay to their Income Tax account as per the instructions of the Income Tax department from time to time.

Example 2: If the Instructor sells his/her courses for INR 1,00,000/-, if Vertical Progress pays the tax of INR 18,000/-, the balance amount is INR 82,000/- and this will be the net payment. The Instructor’s share is 70% of 82,000/- which is INR 57,400/-. Vertical Progress will deduct Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for Indian Instructors and will pay to their Income Tax account as per the instructions of the Income Tax department from time to time.

Vertical Progress may revise the payment structure for Instructors in future. Vertical Progress will intimate the Instructors about any changes made in payment structure through the given email address of the Instructure.

Vertical Progress is not responsible for any dispute, discrepancies between the Learner and Instructor as well the course content. 

Vertical Progress is not responsible for any dispute, discrepancies between the Reseller and Instructor if the Reseller is appointed by the Instructor.

If the Instructor faces any trouble in accessing his/her account or courses, the Instructor shall write to Vertical Progress through email address success@verticalprogress.in or through any other email address provided in the Vertical Progress platform.

Vertical Progress will respond to any requests or complaints within 7 working days. However, there may be a delay in responding or solving the issue.

Vertical Progress will make any payments to the Instructor only after the Instructor submitting the PAN, Aadhar, Bank Details and any other mandatory KYC information to Vertical Progress. 

Permission to access the course contents: Instructors hereby permits Vertical Progress to access and to allow access to their entire course contents made available through Vertical Progress platform to test, investigate, verify, check the quality of lessons, and to check the legal aspects of the course contents. Vertical Progress may allow all or selected courses to the government authorities, enforcement agencies, affiliates and selected persons at free of cost. 
 
Restricted Topics: Below are the list of topics what are not allowed in Vertical Progress platforms. Instructors shall not sell these contents. Vertical Progress strictly refrains such topics. 

1. Contents for and by children aged under 18 but for approved educational topics.
2. Communal, racism, and sensitive topics.
3. Unlawful or unethical contents.
4. Misleading contents.
5. Arms and weapons and instructions.
6. Cruelty of any nature (animal, human, etc.)
7. Defamatory or discriminatory signs, symbols, languages, and ideas.
8. Violence or harmful contents.
9. Dating, escorting, sexual activities and relationship contents.
10. Nudity but for lawful explanations related to health and science by the licensed professionals.

 
Reseller Terms:
Reseller and Affiliate are one and the same. There are two types of Resellers. One type of Resellers is appointed by Vertical Progress and the other type of Resellers are appointed by Instructors or any other marketing partners. Vertical Progress is liable for the payments of Resellers only if they are appointed by Vertical Progress. All other Resellers who are appointed by the Instructors or any other marketing partners will have to deal with the appointing person directly and Vertical Progress do not have any liability with the Resellers appointed by Instructors or any other marketing partners.

Resellers are the promoters of courses listed in Vertical Progress platforms. Resellers will get their commission as a percentage of net revenue generated through them by selling the courses of Vertical Progress. The Reseller agrees to become a Reseller at his/her free will. 

The Reseller must comply with all terms and conditions of Terms of Use of Vertical Progress. The Reseller must use the Reseller links only to promote the courses of Vertical Progress among prospective learners and to generate a lawful income. The Reseller shall inform the Learners Term to the learners. Any misunderstanding, wrong communication, manipulation to the learners shall be treated as breach of trust and breach of contract. Such complaints will lead to the termination of Reseller status and account and all payments due to the Reseller will be forfeited. 

When the Reseller promotes the courses of Vertical Progress, the Reseller shall use the links provided by the instructor or Vertical Progress only. The Reseller must not directly collect any payment from learners or institutions. The learners must pay only through the platforms of Vertical Progress. The Reseller is strictly prohibited to collect payments from the learners or from any other persons to purchase the courses listed in Vertical Progress platforms.

Vertical Progress shall process the payments to the Reseller appointed by Vertical Progress for the sale amount if any after 30 days of receipt of payments from the Learner. This due to the refund policy and other operational procedures. The Resellers appointed by the Instructor or any other promotional agency, they must deal with the appointing person for payments and any other complaints. Vertical Progress is not liable for the instructors who are not appointed by Vertical Progress.

The discounts offered to the learners whether they are directly purchasing the courses or through the Resellers shall be determined by the Instructor or by Vertical Progress. 

Vertical Progress will pay the Reseller who are appointed by Vertical Progress to their bank account directly through any mode of transfer convenient to Vertical Progress from the payment received only through the sale of courses promoted by the said Reseller after deducting the refund, tax, and any other charges if any. 
The Reseller is eligible to get a permitted percentage of the net payments received by the purchases happened through him/her after deducting the taxes if any. Such percentages may vary from course to course and from time to time.

Example: if any instructor’s courses are sold for Rupees 100,000/-, if Vertical Progress pays the tax of 18,000/-, the balance amount 82,000/- will be the net payment. If the Reseller margin is 20%, the Reseller will get 20% of 82,000/- which is rupees 16,400/-. Vertical Progress will deduct Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for Indian Resellers and will pay to their Income Tax account as per the instructions of the Income Tax department from time to time.

Vertical Progress will make any payments to the Reseller only after the Reseller submitting the PAN, Aadhar, Bank Details and any other mandatory KYC information. 
 
Agreement:
When you access the services provided by Vertical Progress, you agree to enter into a legally binding contract with Vertical Progress to agree all our terms and conditions. Access means, creating User Account, visiting platforms of Vertical Progress, using the services of Vertical Progress. Users must ensure their authority and permissions to use our services. Even though we provide courses in different languages, our official communication language will be English.  
 
Disclaimers:
The services and contents of Vertical Progress are provided without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. Vertical Progress, Instructors and Resellers disclaim any and all warranties and fitness for a particular purpose. Vertical Progress disclaims any and all liability related to the Learner’s, Instructor’s and Reseller’s access or use of the services or any related content. Users are instructed to acknowledge and agree that any access to or use of the services or such content is at user’s own risk. Vertical Progress will not be liable for any indirect, direct, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, personal injury or death, arising in contract, warranty, tort, product liability, or otherwise and even if we have been advised of the possibility of damages in advance. Vertical Progress’s liability to any user or third party is limited to the greater of one thousand Indian rupees or your payments made to Vertical Progress in 30 days before the event giving rise to your claims. 
 
Indemnification:
Users agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Vertical Progress and its associates from any and all claims, liabilities, expresses, and damages, including reasonable attorney fees and costs, made by any third party related to 1. The content the instructors and users post or submit, 2. The use of the services of Vertical Progress by Users, 3. User’s violation of these Terms of Use, or 4. User’s violation of any rights of a third party. User’s indemnification obligation will survive the termination of these Terms and use of the services of Vertical Progress.
 
Jurisdiction:
Any dispute arising between you and Vertical Progress will be dealt with competent courts of Chennai, India as per the Laws of India.
 
Legal Actions:
No action, regardless of form, arising out of or relating to this Agreement may be brought by either party more than One Year (1) after the cause of action has accrued, except where this limitation cannot be imposed by law. 
Any notice or other communication to be given hereunder will be in writing and given by registered or certified mail return receipt requested or email that is associated with the user’s account to success@verticalprogress.in.
 
Relationship between Vertical Progress and Users:
There is no joint venture, employment, contractor, partnership or agency relationship between the User and Vertical Progress.
 
Assignment:
The user shall not assign or transfer these Terms of Use or the rights and licenses granted under this Terms of Use.
 
Dispute Resolution:
Vertical Progress is willing to help resolve any issue.  If the user is not happy with the solutions provided, the User may get redressal through arbitration arranged by Vertical Progress.