Allan Zhang

51Talk was showing red signs even before I started the training but I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

1. The first training was for 5 hours and this was with no pay.
2. The second training is with pay however, the trainees are required to do various tasks after the training. This tasks are time consuming and with no pay.
3. They penalize teachers for absences of $16 per session regardless of reason; doctor's or hospital's note are not accepted, they will penalize the teacher, period!
4. Poor communication. They will say one thing on an email and another thing on the next email.
5. It is difficult to get a hold of technical support. If a teacher is having an emergency, it is likely that the response time from tech support will take 12-24 hours.
6. Waking up at 3 in the morning to accommodate the time difference.

I work 2 jobs. I work as a teacher and I also work as a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist for foster children. I accepted the job offer from 51 talk as a gig and because I enjoy working with young children.

After the 3rd day of training with 51talk, I received a feedback on one of my tasks from the trainer at 1:00 A.M. PST. I was asked to redo my task and to submit it on the same day before 4PM PST. At 4 PM PST, I also had to attend the 51talk training. I did not have enough window to accommodate everything in such a short period of time so I messaged my trainer, Allan Zhang asking for a one time extension. The trainer, Allan Zhang was very unfriendly and unprofessional with his responses. But again, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and in order to ascertain the gest that I was getting from his messages. I reiterated and reworded my plea multiple times. However, my understanding was correct the first time. His main response was "other teachers were able to do it so, so should you" and "you should have done your task correctly the first time, then you wouldn't have to redo it". Allan Zhang continued by telling me that I had 15 hours to redo my task. I responded by asking him to reconsider just that "one time" and pointed out that the 15 hour he was referring to, includes my bedtime and my time at work. Again, I only asked for a one time consideration but Allan Zhang responded in an unethical and unprofessional manner.

To those who plan to work with 51Talk, think, think, and think again. The only "Pro" I see is that, if teaching is your passion, the job will give you a great sense of fulfillment... working with kids is happiness by itself. As for the rating, I would have given them a "Negative" if it was an option for the review.

Here is a link to their policy. This has only been consolidated and posted as of 6/15/17.
http://mypage.51talk.com/candidate/#/FAQ

I have worked for 51 Talk for almost a year now and there have been some good and many very bad experiences.

To start with, the lesson plans are provided. They are obviously written in the Philippines and there are some small grammatical and fluency problems. That is not that big of a deal and the students actually seem to like having the teacher correct the flaws in the lesson.

Once you have been at the company for a while, getting student 'bookings' are not an issue. To begin with, though, you will struggle to find regular students and have to perform many 'free trial' lessons for potential students. These are mind-numbing as you will mostly be teaching colors or numbers to children with absolutely no English background and possibly no experience with online learning.

As stated in the policy page, students can both leave a review of you as a teacher and leave messages in a bulletin board (which I have never seen). This can be frustrating as bookings are very much determined by other student's review of you. For a beginner teacher, this can mean that one bad review will cause you to lack bookings for several days. There is no way of contesting a rating. So, as mentioned by others, if the student complains about their internet connection, it is poor reflection on you. This is indescribably frustrating.

I personally have never experienced the payroll issues that others have and have always received a wire transfer to a US bank within the posted time frame. (Once a month on the 12th)

The problems are if you experience any issue like connectivity or the need to cancel a lesson. If you read over the policies, they sound reasonable in theory. A small fee if you cancel a lesson over a day in advance and increasing the closer you get to the time of the lesson. The problem is that the attendance number to call in an emergency NEVER connects to a real person. I have tried it even when I wasn't missing a lesson just to test it. And if you try their support page to chat with someone, you will wait for at least an hour before you are connected to someone. The teacher support should be considered non-existent.

All this being said, I still work for them part time as does my wife, and I enjoy the regular students that take my lessons. I do feel that I have a good impact in their learning and actually have fun teaching them. I can attest to the honesty of the other reviews on this page and feel their frustration. If you are a self-sufficient worker and can intuit how to work their system, you can succeed with this company. If you can not, they will most likely cause a stress ulcer.

The following is an email exchange depicting jus ONE of several ways in which this sham of an operation works. To set the scene - My ISP's signal dropped, knocking my modem offline for 3 hours during which were scheduled 6 lessons. They expected verification of my claim for being offline in the course of instructing a lesson. My earnings were docked for missing those lessons and the following day's lessons.

I sent a screen capture of the incident and immediately contacted 51Talk via skype as soon as things unfolded, and provided to them my ISP account info should they choose to speak with the ISP to receive official verification of my claim from a company representative.

Me:

Please see the attached documentation.

Thank you,

Charlie

================
51Talk:

Hi Teacher,

Sorry teacher but contacting your Internet service provider is not part of our role anymore. Once you have the proof send it here and we'll have the request for penalty adjustment to our fees team for validation. Thanks.

Sean,

Sincerely,
Sean - AA Support
=================
I sent a screen capture the billing statement from my ISP issuing me a credit during the outage.

51Talk's reply:
Via a chat page:
Chat transcript from date 02/19/2017
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:31:40): Sean:
Please see the attached as verification of my appeal for absence on 2/17/17. The attachment reflects credit to my account for the Internet outage on 2-17-17. Will this document suffice? Also note that my classes from 2-17-17 onward were to have been cancelled. It appears that they were not cancelled.
Sean - AA Support (10:32:33): Hi teacher Charlie, i'm Sean and I'll be assisting you today.
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:33:00): ok
Sean - AA Support (10:36:56): Sorry teacher but a written correspondence coming from your internet service provider. I'm afraid that a discrepancy from your billing would not be considered by our fees team. Send your internet service provider a formal letter/email for a request of the proof that there was an outage that affected your lesson. Thank you.
Sean - AA Support (10:37:08): Sorry teacher but a written correspondence coming from your internet service provider is required*
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:41:56): Sean, I will again try. However, please consider the following: Has it ever occurred to you that someone like me who would go to the lengths ai have gone must be telling the truth? Liars or dishonest people are, by their nature, lazy and would not pursue a matter like this with vigor. There is nothing to "lose face" about as far as my perspective. When a matter goes on for the time that this has, one has to invoke their sense of discernment and humanity and let those qualities be their guide rather than absolute adherence to formalities whose logic lacks any sense of humanity.
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:47:39): Are yiu still there?
Sean - AA Support (10:47:42): I do get your point, yes you are right we could see your effort in doing a follow up to straigthen out this matter. Sadly, as much as we'd like to be sentimental with our teachers effort or track record perse, process wise it would not be possible since the protocol would always end up looking for a solid proof before having to decide whether the request is plausible or not.
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:54:38): If my efforts do not manifest plausibility, then nothing will. In essence, my efforts and submissions are to date, being dismissed as being invalid, therefore my word is not being given credit. Don't equate sentimentality your own judgement and ability to arrive at conclusions on the basis of your own intellect. Entities that lack the capacity to practice discernment using intellect and adhere to structures must either adapt or revise those structures that otherwise restrain their leadership from exercising independent thought.
Sean - AA Support (10:56:46): Our apologies, but this is not about giving credit. This is 51talk making sure that there are no gray areas when it comes to disputes. This is to make sure that the proof required for a dispute is purely black and white. If there's none then it's a no go, if there's one then it's up for validation. For now there's no valid proof yet we could get from you that's the reason we can't send a request for an adjustment. Whenever you have the letter/email from your internet service provider just send it here so we could move to the next step. Thank you.
NA - Charlie Joseph (10:58:09): Again, I will try. However, my classes were to have been cancelled. That's what I was told would happen. They have not been cancelled. Penalties continue to accrue.
Sean - AA Support (11:02:41): Yes, you're page has been locked but all you still need to attend all your booked classes since there are no means for us to close/cancel or have you requested for the remaining classes to be marked absent?
Sean - AA Support (11:04:30): Teacher, please know that it's already the end of our shift and the office is closing now. Just make sure to send the requested requirement for your dispute so we could handle it correctly. Is there anything else I could assist you with?
NA - Charlie Joseph (11:04:58): I spoke with a representative about this incident and indicated that until the matter was resolved, my future lessons should be reassigned to another teacher. I was told that this would be done.
NA - Charlie Joseph (11:05:25): No. May your evening be a good one.
=================

I emailed to 51Talk a letter from my ISP supporting my claim. 51Talk's response:

Hi Teacher Charlie,

Good day. We do not remove penalties due to ISP issue since it was an error on your end, not a system issue.
As an NYSE-listed company, 51Talk expects all its teachers to be prepared to conduct booked lessons at all times. Thus, please ensure that you have a backup for both your power and internet. We are sorry to inform you that your penalty disputes have been declined by HBT Fees.
Thank you for your utmost understanding.

Sincerely,
Terence-Fees
==========

My final reply:

You must be insane, "Terrence"!

I've read the reviews about 51Talk and this scenario, but didn't choose to believe them. I wanted to extend the benefit of the doubt.

It's so disgraceful, dishonorable and shameful of your "company" to expect independent contractors to have a backup generator and their own backup ISP "handy" for just such an occurrence.

Even after being told that what I provided is what would be needed, to see that it really didn't matter anyway... your company is a sham; nothing but deceitful.

You, Terrence, should be embarrassed to be working for a company with such low standards. The company is probably disrespecting your humanity and deceiving you as well. You just haven't awakened to that possibility yet.

Some day I hope that you will realize just how deceitful your employer is. If you already know this, then you are just as despicable as the company leadership is.

DO NOT dare to thank me for my "utmost understanding". It hasn't been given to you. You, and your explanation aren't deserving of my understanding.

Now, go home after work, look your loved ones in the eye and say to the, "I did my job with integrity and value placed on excellence." If you really mean that, you truly are brainwashed. If you don't mean it, you're a hypocrite!

In this day and age of social media and networking, rest assured that news travels far and wide quickly.

Keep the ill-gotten money. You must need it far more than do I. Consider it a pity-offering to you and to your illusion of a company with a noble mission.