Tutor.com reviews

Terrible pay. After almost three years, I'm earning a whopping $10/hr. Given the level of expertise they require and the amount of effort they expect, it's disheartening to know that I could earn more at Starbuck's. A few students are abusive. There is no recourse against them. As many others have mentioned, bad mentors. I began with a good mentor and was then switched to a bad one. I now realize how rare that good mentor was -- my current mentor is much closer to typical. If anyone reading this thinks that other reviews mentioning bad mentors must be from people who deserved the bad feedback, I urge you to think again. My current mentor has leveled two outright fabrications against me, and on many other occasions has misunderstood simple things because she just wasn't paying attention. She also seems to have arithmetic problems; she once claimed that my average rating was an unacceptable 3.0 for a time period in which it was actually a respectable 4.5. Oh, and you're required to maintain a rating of 4.2 in order to remain employed. That means that the student who thought you were both helpful and nice, who left you a 4-star rating to show that you're better than average, actually harmed you in the eyes of Tutor.com. It also means that a spiteful student or even a prankster can leave a 1-star rating from which it may take weeks to recover. There is no way to remove bogus ratings. In their FAQ, Tutor.com says they "cannot" remove them. Think about that. It happens so often that it's in their FAQ. Tutors are prevented from communicating with other tutors. Maybe they're afraid we'll unionize or something. Most of the "helpful advice for tutors" is rather obviously designed to benefit Tutor.com, the company, rather than tutors or students. It seems amusing at first, but it quickly becomes rather insulting (do they think we're all fools?), and eventually it's just depressing.

I've been teaching on the college level for more than a decade but wasn't passing their assessments. They didn't like what I was doing, never tired of saying so, and basically ignored my sincere and humble calls for help. Customers liked what I was doing, but that clearly wasn't enough. The problem is, as another reviewer has noted, with their perception of "giving answers." They apparently want you to play a kind of ineffectual and insubstantial game with customers, all in the name of providing supposedly "educational" experiences. When I differed with the program and pointed out that I did have some experience as an educator, hoping I could bring something of value to the program, I was frostily ignored. When I pointed out that I had better ratings at the beginning of my time with them, before they began to actively mentor (i.e. micro-manage) me, my mentor told me that of course I was getting good ratings--I was giving away all the answers. At first this disconnect seemed baffling, but then I recognized it--it is simply the monolithic voice of Corporate America, telling the underlings how things must be and ignoring how they actually are. I used to hear it as a lowly corporate peon, when I hadn't age, experience, or qualifications going for me. Now I have plenty of those and I still hear it. These are the kind of people who, in the name of Quality Control, want to control everything. The people who do not trust a human being to provide customer service on the phone, so they require employees to answer with thank-you-for-calling-barnes-and-noble-it's-a-beautiful-day-in-the-universe-today-this-is-Fred-speaking-how-can-I help-you? I regret that this opportunity did not work out. It seemed like a great way to occupy quiet office hours and stretch a few teaching muscles with some new technology. But I can't deal with their total lack of respect. I should add, in accordance with other reviewers, that Tutor.com will not back the employee against the abusive customer. Many people logged in with no desire to learn, seeking answers, hoping someone else would do their work. I've resisted such users and received bad ratings and bad language, only to be criticized for doing so by my mentor. I'm amazed that the company enables these (often insulting) abusers and dares to call itself an education-based program.