Now where shall I begin. I booked a tutor called Rowena Gray from this site who claimed to be a serving teacher but actually wasn't. I paid the £10 fee to release her details and the tutor answered all questions to how I wanted to hear them. She was in fact an actress specialising in drama and not even a serving teacher. What I required was a serving secondary English teacher. She had however done some teaching before but that's not what I wanted. When she came to my house she claimed she worked for Ofsted and she 'wrote' exam papers for various exam boards. Her words just didn't add up. Every time I asked her what she actually does she would just waffle and I would end up with no clear answer. I passed her details on to my sister who required a tutor and my sister asked for her ID, DBS clearance, references after the first lesson but she cancelled the following lesson after that request. Her details just didn't add up so I asked her to bring her ID, references and DBS clearance on the next lesson which she should have bought in the first lesson but guess what as cancelled the lesson when I asked for theses. We rearranged and she came to another session with no DBS, references and claimed she has already done this with the UK TUTORS website. She was hesitant to show me her ID and the smell of her lies just kept getting stronger! Someone who works with children in a school would definitely have been DBS checked. I told her that I wanted to see them and she once again agreed to bring them for the following session. She then messaged my sister and I that she is extremely busy can can no longer teach our children. She obviously knew we were on to her lies and she couldn't keep up with them. It was only a matter of time before she was going to get revealed for who and what her real intentions were. The worst thing of all was when so asked my 8 year old child what I was speaking about on the telephone to a family member in my language which was in a separate room and had no concern to her. My child just simply answered 'I don't know'. UK TUTORS needs to be more in control who who is registered on their site and whether they have the necessary documentation to back up who they claim to be. All they seem to be bothered is about the fee that was paid to them and the rest is history. Parents need to request these documents before comencing sessions as not everyone is who they claim to be so be vigilant!
I signed up to this site in 2008 to offer my services as an English teacher.
The way they work is the following:
- The tutee gets in touch with the tutor via the website - DETAILS SUCH AS TELEPHONE NUMBERS, ADDRESSES OR ANY OTHER PERSONAL INFORMATION MUST NOT BE EXCHANGED OR BOTH ACCOUNTS ARE CLOSED.
- The tutor accepts the tutee's request based on personal availability and overall identification to deliver the lessons.
- The tutee then pays a fee (around £10) and the tutor pays another fee per student (around £6)
My page was very attractive and some people started to enquire about lessons, but I was not available at the time of the first requests.
One day this girl contacted me and we finally confirmed the mutual interest to start the classes. She payed her fee and I paid mine. We exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses and began the process to book the 1st lesson. She said she was a flight attendant and was not available all the time but we managed to book one lesson. She cancelled it. We booked another lesson. She had to travel and couldn't make it. Then another lesson was booked and it snowed. She obviously cancelled it. Then it was Christmas time last year and she decided to leave it for the new year...
I was available to have the lessons from mid January 2010 and reminded her of this by sending numerous text messages and e-mails. She never got back to me...
But in the meantime, this other lady showed interest in my services. We started the whole process again and managed to book a day, time and place for our 1st meeting. The website interfered saying that we HAD TO PAY OUR FEES OR OUR ACCOUNTS WOULD BE CLOSED. We were not allowed to exchange messages anymore unless we paid our fees.
I nearly paid the fee again when I stopped and remembered that the 1st lady had simply disappeared. By the way my fee had gone up by roughly a £1 compared to the last one.
This to me looks like a fraudulent site or a terrible way to financially abuse people who need to advertise their services in a recession.
It was actually stupid of me to sign up to a website like that when there are other sites that offer free services and are proved to be reliable.
I wonder if there are other people out there who have used this website or know whether they are dishonest or not.
Best regards.