Nancy J.

As a tutor, I had really positive experiences with WyzAnt and very negative experiences with the company.

Positive:

-you can make a lot of money as a tutor
-WyzAnt takes care of all the business side of things for you (payroll, advertising, conflict over payment with a parent, etc.)
-it's extremely easy and convenient for parents/students to find a tutor and for tutors to find parents/students

Negative:

-WyzAnt takes 40% out of your pay in the beginning (but come on! It's business--they have to get their cut somewhere, don't you think?)

-WyzAnt takes a very non-communicative approach to resolving conflict between clients and tutors. They don't call you. You have to call them if you have a problem, and if you don't talk to them through email or by phone by a certain time, they will suspend your account. I don't think that makes a more "transparent internet" like the other commenter had said. Which goes to the next one:

-WyzAnt can suspend your account for any reason at any time. People don't realize this when they open email accounts and what not, but I find it hilarious that WyzAnt just shuts down accounts that don't respond to them, when all you need is have a small team to make a quick call to verify that it's a real person. This pisses a lot of people off, parents and tutors alike

-WyzAnt is not immune to internet fraud, like everything on the internet. Because it's not a brick-and-mortar business where you have to physically deal with a person and actually be there, a spammer can pose as a "parent" or a "student" and contact tutors. I have had a spammer contact me more than once already, posing as a "parent" who wants personal information from me.

But mostly, I find WyzAnt a great way to make some money and get experience teaching or tutoring. Like Marc C. Said, because WyzAnt deals with all the business aspects of the tutoring, the tutor can concentrate on educating the students to meet their needs. You don't have to spend all this time trying to market yourself--that's a lot of work to do for one individual.

As for the other commentator's opinion on whether or not the parents (and tutors) feel ripped off that WyzAnt takes 40% out of your transaction just for doing nothing more than marketing, I feel that, hey, if the parents want to pay $100 a week just so that the tutor can be there for a few hours a couple times a week, so that the tutor can get their good share of the cut, it's on the parents. It's the parents' responsibility to check out a tutoring company and make sure that this is the best decision for their child, not the other way around.

I have had one or two parents that want me to be there and pay me $20 an hour to "boost their child's social skills" and play with them for two hours once a week. Hey, if you want to pay a tutor to do that, great. The parents are happy and the tutor is happy, and everyone wins. I have also had parents that want me to do their children's homework for them, or parents who are willing to pay me to do their homework for them for $20-$30 each time. But on the flip side, I have also had parents who want me to tutor English, Math, and piano for $10/hr. And get angry when their child's grades didn't improve in a month because the child is having a hard time. But hey, who am I to judge?