First Tutors, www.firsttutors.co.uk

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I've had a disappointing experience with First Tutors recently. Despite being a long-time tutor with positive referrals, my account was abruptly suspended without any prior communication. customer service failed to address the issue appropriately, and I discovered that the suspension was a result of a system error during a discussion about availability.

This incident is especially disheartening as I work with challenged children and 11+ and GCSE students, yet I've never faced such unwarranted punitive action elsewhere. First Tutors' lack of communication and swift decision to permanently block me is unacceptable.

Considering other tutoring platforms that offer better pay for tutors and more reasonable charges for parents, it's clear that there are superior alternatives available. Save yourself the frustration and avoid First Tutors.

This site is not interested in helping tutors. They push you to pay a 'premium' to them which supposedly places you higher in their search lists. It DOES NOT. I paid this premium and despite following all their advice, and having experience, qualifications, references, up to date DBS, offering a reduction for the first lesson, offering free resources, I was still placed below people who have not paid a premium, and have not done anything, sometimes, not even a photo.

When I complained about this, they blamed it on their algorithim, saying that it was designed to be fair to all tutos- This is RUBBISH!

Please avoid and try something else and con't waste your time and money on this carp site.

Avoid this company. They're rubbish

I am having a lot of problems with First Tutors as a tutor.

1. They are more interested in being paid the tutoring student's fee before the session than help tutors.

2. In two occasions i had 2 payment's issues with 2 students. The last one owes me £200. I contacted First Tutors by email and they said they can't do anything with it!! They asked me to make a claim at court and who is gonna pay the extra charges??

So, tutors are not protected against any unexpected issue, so be ready for it!

3. One of my students provided a feedback without starting her sessions because at the end, she changed her mind!

I asked first tutors to delete this feedback and they said they trust in student's feedback integrity...and what happens with tutors?

Without tutors this company wouldn't exist so pls, be aware, take care of tutors and treat them how they deserve to be treated!

4. I feel really disappointed and angry at this lack of professional behaviour and empathy with tutors.

I have been with First Tutors for 10 years now, so i feel that they are taking advantage of tutors and students in some way and they are more interested in money than in providing a competitive/ excellent service.

Excellent tutors there are few , (i consider one of them because all my students get the best marks in their exams), so if they don't take care of their tutors, the level of tutoring will get down and students won't trust in them.

I feel familiar with other reviews on this forum, i have also had to work sometimes for "free" to please students, charging a little rate to make them happy, being with them 1-2 years, (most of my students are with me long time), and after, i ask these students to write a good review for me and some of them they don't do it after being successful and get the highest marks in their exams.

So, all this hard work for nothing!

And then, there is a TOP tutors list in wich you need to upgrade and pay £30 to be listed at the top of the list.

If not, students won't see your profile, (even as in my case, i am fully qualified with 15 years of experience).

So, i advice First Tutors to create a new policy to protect tutors against difficult students and make some obligatory rules:

1. Make payment before every session.

2. Provide feedback.(Before publishing, tutors can check this profile and if they don't agree with it, they can proof the issue with it and be hide or deleted), without being shown any bad review with red colour on profiles.

So, happy tutors become happy students and not on the contrary.

It needs to be balance and equal the level of service for students and tutors.

I was targetting engineering exam and I found INFOMATICA very good...They have a staff of best and experienced teachers who guide you through the toughest subjects in the syllabus.

I found the service easy to use. The tutors respond quickly and I was able to find a suitable tutor within a few hours after discussing my needs through the private message area. Many tutors to chose from with different hourly rates. Quick response from customer service too.

bewarre of this one, you will lose your money and not get any help as well. use reputated companies even if it is bit more you invest for now, for your children.

I can see from other review sites that I am not the only person who feels tricked out of their introductory fee. No where on the website does it make CLEAR that the price you pay to first tutors is AS WELL AS paying the tutor directly. I paid £24.99 just for the EMAIL ADDRESS of a tutor. I selected an online session simply for the tutor to look through a problem question for university that would take no time at all. I was robbed of £24.99 for nothing. They state that it is to 'keep their prices reasonable' but I do not think £24.99 is 'reasonable' to charge a student (I paid for it, my parents did not and could not) simply for an email address. It is not clear anywhere that this price is as well as. Avoid like the plague. I will never ever use this website again.

I feel that this company provides a service biased towards their student clients with no commitment towards their tutors. I feel that this company should publish reviews from ethical and truthful clients only.

I agreed a discounted price for 2HRS lessons. Only after the first class, the client asked me via email to provide them 3HRS of my time at the price of 2HRS as this is how it is done in HONGKONG (the client recently immigrated from HongKong). I suggested that it will cost them extra (as we only agreed a price for 2hrs class & not 3 hrs) and hence I got a review saying that I care more about the money than the welfare of the student!!!

I explained the situation to the customer services and requested them to remove the FALSE feedback provided by this client. The customer team said that they cannot remove the review as it is NOT A QUESTION OF WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS WRONG, but client’s opinion and that they do not have a right to remove this opinion (eg it is not rude, racist or untrue). I was shocked as the staff FAILED to see this as an UNTRUE review! The client provided incomplete information (which was not untrue) and it was accepted by the company. I provide the company with complete information of the situation which proved that the clients' review was UNTRUE. For that reason I felt that the clients review should have been removed (including the stars) from my profile.

Further, the staff ignored the fact that this client made an attempt to obtain my contact details without purchasing it which is against the rules of the website. They ignored the fact that I gave a 50% discount on the introductory lesson and agreed for more discount on further lessons. They also ignored the fact that the student’s parents asked for tutoring GCSE maths but the student expressed his intensions of doing AS-level maths. The staff ignored the fact that the client did not make their intensions clear before the first class and try to enforce 3hrs of service at the price of 2hrs only after the first class. The staff ignored that fact that the student thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and said that NO ONE HAS TAUGHT HIM IN THIS WAY BEFORE. The student also mentioned that his PREVIOUS tutor gave him formulas and asked him to memorise them, which clearly shows that this is not the first time this client have made changes to their tutoring arrangements.

Paid my money for a tutor, no show, no communication First Tutors unwilling to do anything about it so I've lost my money or should I say First tutors have it for doing absolutely nothing! AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!