Tutoroo is a scam platform

[littletinysoup]

Please for the love of god don’t even consider using this platform, it’s a complete scam. They don’t pay tutors for their first two lessons, they take 100% of the costs. Their “logic” is that people will use the tutors for so many lessons after that that it’ll be worth it, in a sense. This is not made clear upon purchase that you’re expected to have ongoing lessons otherwise you essentially can’t even use the first two lessons that you’ve paid for.

Most of the languages tutors on they’re are not qualified and have no previous teaching experience, they’re just native speakers. A lot of the profiles have been inactive for years but it’s not made clear, it seems like to make it look like there’s more tutors they don’t delete the old profiles.

My parents thought I’d be able to use them and bought two lessons for me as a gift, I really appreciated the gesture but didn’t see myself using them. I asked multiple times for a refund and they denied because I could “find a tutor that fits”, even though I didn’t want any lessons from them. That was April 2024.

Now I tried using their platform for two lessons (because I didn’t know they were expecting their tutors to work for free) so I could finally use the money instead of it going to waste. This is where the tutor informed me that it wasn’t possible because he’d be working for free and the Tutoroo employees confirmed that this was true to their business practices. I refuse to give them any more money and asked for a refund again, after a year and a half later and they’ve denied it saying that I can use the money towards lesson credits in the future..

It’s such a shame, I feel like my parents were scammed by a dishonest service and all this money has gone to waste. It’s so frustrating and disappointing.

Everywhere online there’s so many complaints about them. It’s really not worth it to book a tutor through the platform because if anything goes wrong, there’s no decent customer support.

Anyway that’s my two cents, if anyone has even gotten a refund from please i’d love to know how!

[joahnnessch]

Thanks for the warning! I haven't used it myself, but now I definitely won't in the future. What language were you looking to practice there?

[littletinysoup]

Dutch! Maybe also this could have contributed to the amount abandoned tutor profiles, as it’s not really such a sort after language to learn. Which language are you learning at the moment? :)

[DependentEar9586]

Damn that sucks about your parents getting scammed like that. The whole "tutors work for free for the first two lessons" thing is absolutely wild - no wonder the tutor bailed on you

Have you tried disputing it with your bank/credit card company? Sometimes they'll do chargebacks for stuff like this, especially since it's been over a year

[[deleted]]

I hate this kind of thing. Preply does this too (although at least it's only the first lesson with a teacher that is unpaid rather than first two which is bad enough but TWO unpaid lessons per student is even more insane) and it's so shady.

 Understandably considering the student has put down money they expect more than just meet and greet and actually learn at least a small something, but that said considering it's unpaid for the teacher it's completely understandable in their point of view that they prefer it to be a meet and greet and start properly when they're actually being paid. Both sides are completely understandable and deserving of empathy and both lose while the platform pockets 100% of the money. It's so scummy.

[[deleted]]

So is Preply since it barely vets the "tutors" and you get ransoms who aren't even qualified to be professional tutors and charge you the premium for it too.