MyTutor — Local services in London

This is hard to write as I currently work for MyTutor but maybe this will have an actual impact therefore. I want to give 3.5/4 stars and I will be fair as possible. More 3.5 with the way things currently are. This is from a tutor perspective of the last 3 years. There are positives and negatives.

Great things: Lots of opportunities on the private side , used to be a lot of school opportunities ( before national school tutoring budget cut last autumn so not their fault ) . The UI is easy to use and they have a lot of resources and a good community tab. Staff are friendly, bar a few exceptions.

Pay is reasonable, however if you are on the private side note that you will not be taking the whole price of the lesson home . Which is I think is fair , I don't want to disclose the exact percentage however for the company 's privacy.

What needs fixing: they got rid of the phone lines for tutor support which I have asked about but seems they have no plans to bring this up! It's so frustrating to have to talk to their chat bot because if I'm getting touch it's because I need help with something that I cannot look to their FAQs for , such as issuing a refund or on the schools side rebooking a lesson . The chatbot process can be so tedious and you have to wait closer to 10 minutes sometimes to get actual help from an agent . Phone calls were so much quicker and it's way better to talk with someone over the phone than type . I don't remember them ever asking our opinion on getting rid of phone lines for tutors either ....

Next , I only recently got put onto the private side after 2 years of constantly asking despite me having the ability to tutor 11+ which I know is a subject that was in demand. There's no clear pathway set out on how to get into the private side which is very frustrating for many tutors I'm sure . They obviously have some guideline internally but won't share that with tutors. One time I was accidentally put onto the private side , maybe 2 years ago and I saw that there were opportunities available for subjects that I do tutor. Yet I got told always there isn't ... And when I told the agent on the phone I just got told I was mistaken what I saw ...

School side is not great when it comes to how tutors and students are treated above tutors. I was once told that a student had complained that i had given false information on a history topic . Yet we had been having lessons together for weeks and I had plenty of experience. However rather than actual check and verify his claims with perhaps checking evidence, they took his word for it . That was an indicator to me that my word was not valued on face value but the student 's was . You cannot make a claim against someone willy nilly in any other job without proof yet here you can? I did complain but I don't feel I was taken seriously at least in terms of actions . They never replaced the lesson for me , which is another big issue I have . Even if the student is behaving badly and then asked for another tutor, they will not give you a replacement even though school opportunities are first come , first served.

Another thing , now even though I am a top priority tutor, school opportunities are virtually 0. They used to be a lot more school work available when of course the schools had more budget available, so this is not MyTutor 's fault but it's important to know that unless you are on the private side , it will be not reliable or enough work wise.

Positive: good academy where you can find lesson to help you improve as a tutor. This is great.

Overall, there's a few things that do need fixing and I hope they will actually fix them . I've taught almost a 1000 lessons , so this does not come from nowhere.

I also think some parents should be penalised if they consistently do not show up to free meetings without cancelling in advance. Tutors 's time should be more...

SCAM - Uni Students: DO NOT sign up, and do not respect whatever damage control they reply to me with. They might point out technicalities that they caught me out on, but know that this information was deliberately obscured behind walls of commitment. I only found out /what exactly the job was/ once I'd signed away my security. Supposedly I had the opportunity to call with someone, at some point during this process, but they'd rather push you through the machine without human intervention.

They lie about what exactly they are offering for prospective tutors to get you in the system, then force a loan upon you that they randomly decide they want paying back as they please. It feels barely legal.

There is no adequate training AT ALL for tutors. Some barebones videos made by bored 20-somethings about safeguarding, but no real actionable information about being a tutor. I cannot imagine that the kids who need this service will get anything out of it. Guess MyTutor is scamming money from schools as well. Isn't that sad? I find it very sad. They barely check who signs up and they barely teach you anything.

Did you see ads for this opportunity and think it was a real job? It's not: you're technically self-employed, and you have to market yourself over others in a competitive marketplace MyTutor control. It's all first come first serve, so you might not get any work at all! Wow! Honestly, it seems like a complete scam. Pyramid scheme vibes. I don't even remembering receiving my DBS that I had to get out a "loan" for. Then I had no opportunities to book lessons to pay that loan back. This is an unbelievably scummy and poorly-run website.

I've seen that they reply to some complaints by saying that they're "pre-profit". Seems like a problem with the way they're running the business to me. Certainly not a problem that can be fixed by cutting pay for tutors and squeezing money via extortion out of desperate student workers in a cost-of-living crisis.

Let's see what copy-paste platitudes I get in...

Rated 1 out of 5 stars Money grabbers zero care for tutoring Hi all I can only speak on my own personal experience as a parent trying to get extra tutoring for my daughter in Maths using MyTutor. The tutor is called Umama A. as it appears on profile, I thought great friendly picture and 5 star reviews well 4 to be exact at the time. You will learn why it is 4 reviews at 5 star later on. First lesson I thought ok from observation 2nd lesson- 5 mins late, finished lesson 5 mins early. 3rd lesson- 10 mins late notified of this 30 mins before lesson due to begin, didn’t add the 10 mins on I point this out to people in charge of business, they suggested I go with new tutor, I explain I would like continuity for my daughter’s sake. I message Umama directly through messaging on my account regarding this unprofessional approach, she apologies back on message. I feel we both now on same page with helping my daughter. 4th lesson- cannot make it due to train accident, notified 5 mins before start of lesson!!!! I was furious I leave a review about my experience with Umama A. which was 1 star and details of my experience with her as a tutor for my daughter. The business emails me about 5 times asking/telling me to change or delete the review, which I refused. They then delete my review. So to be clear reviews you see on their site for tutors I believe to be doctored. AVIOD using mytutor’ they are just there to collect money with zero care of helping...