“absolutely terrible site, should avoid at all costs as they don't care about their tutors whatsoever and only exploit them for as much money as possible, scam website!!”
“I think tutorspot is a SCAM and Patricia was the opposite of helpful, and she was also rude and horrible. I spent a few hours signing up to tutorspot.co.uk like I do for other legitimate tutoring websites like tutorhunt, tutorful and tutorfair (all of which are good in my expereience). Then I got a text from Patricia saying, "We have a student for A Level Further Maths. But first you must complete your profile, and your profile must be unique and different from other sites." This is rude because if it's true then she is withholding the opportunity for me to do tutoring, which is my livelihood, over something petty. Moreover, it's nonsense because my profile already is unique and different from other sites.
Thirdly, we have been texting back and forth - nothing escalated yet - but just her saying repeatedly, "you must make your profile unique before your profile goes live". And me replying, "but my profile is unique, what should I change?... Please can I give you a quick call to discuss this?" Then she replied with, "We are too busy to take phone calls at this stage", which is the most nonsensical thing I have ever heard. Even extremely busy people like myself have time to take a 2 minute phone call. If Patricia has time to text then she has time to take a phone call.
My guess is this website is a scam. I wonder if and when they'll ask for my bank details and pin number...”
“I worked for Patricia's other tutoring agency - Tutorspot - for 8 months. I first got in contact with her because she called me, I'm assuming because she found my details on another agency and sold me on this excellent company she ran with loads of happy clients. I wish I had done my research.
Firstly, the tutees were few and far between and they all had to come through Patricia - if she didn't like you, you didn't get tutees. It was a very strange business set up that should've raised more red flags than it did.
The students I worked with were all very pleasant, as were the parents I was in contact with. Patricia was the reason I left tutoring with her company. She was unprofessional, patronising, and generally unpleasant to work with every step of the way. I would receive almost daily texts from her, micromanaging me and chastising me like a child when things weren't done her way. Sometimes if I didn't reply to her texts quickly enough, once in less than an hour, she would call and ask why things hadn't been done.
One time she refused to pay me for a lesson she was paying for because the lesson did not occur. The lesson didn't occur because the student did not give any notice before not attending. Despite it being in the contract she had written herself that students must give 24 hours notice if they are unable to attend, otherwise payment would be taken as usual. I pointed this out to her and she found this outrageous.
Do not work with Patricia, IPS Tutors, or Tutorspot.”
“I was contacted by the owner on a different tutoring site, on a students account requesting tuition. Once contact had been made she revealed she was from a separate company and wanted me to join said company.
In any profession working with children, safeguarding is key, and having a worker posing as children on competitors sites to recruit seems wrong.
Poor business practices, much better alternatives are available.”
“Rude, Unprofessional, Scam. Absolutely terrible working experience. Patricia actually refused to pay me for month because I accidentally cc.ed the wrong person in an email (seriously?). I was forced to go to Citizen's Advice Bureau who advised me I had to go to Court. Only upon threatening legal action was I paid a reduced salary. Avoid IPS Tutors at all costs!”
“This is a shady little business run by a woman named Patricia. She is a 60-something baby boomer who is poaching tutors by pretending to be a parent and requesting lessons to then make contact (e.g. via the website Superprof) and then pushing very hard for you to fulfil lots of paperwork obligations to a tight deadline. I of course, did not partake. Instead, I decided to look up reviews and when I declined her requests and told her such (email below), she replied with the following:
Good afternoon Patricia,
Having arrived home and conducted some research on your profile and reviews of your company online, I have decided that I would like to decline your offer to work with your agency.
Thank you for your invitation.
Regards,
Dxxxx
Hello Dxxxx,
Thank you for your email. I am sorry about your decision. I do not have
a profile online, and I think what you will have seen are from tutors
who were disgruntled because the clients were extremely unhappy with them. I have run IPS Tutors for 10 years, and we have thousands of
extremely happy Tutors and clients working with us. We receive a lot of
referrals from clients and Tutors alike. I am aware there are some
disgruntled tutors who chose to write some negative comments, but quite honestly, I receive so many positive comments from clients and tutors, and I don't have the time to find out how to have the comments removed. I have families who ask me to provide Tutors for all of their children, over a period of a few years, and many Tutors who have worked with me for the full 10 years we have been in operation. This would not happen if I were not giving a good service to both Tutors and clients.
Kind Regards,
Patricia
Not content with that, she followed up again, within a couple of minutes of the last email:
Hello again Dxxxx,
For your information, I had a very successful career in the city of London, and was very well respected in the industry I worked in for over 20 years before starting IPS Tutors
Kind Regards,
Patricia
So, you judge for yourself. I think that I dodged a bullet and the tone is consistent with other reviews online. Buyer beware! Use tutorhunt or first tutors, or superprof or any other good service and find real teachers direct.”
“Don't use diabolical service, ,no one ever gets back or tells you whats happening, am convinced she writes her own reviews , both email and telephone not returned, If you have a 6 weeks of your life to waste by all means use them, could be longer of course .. but am voting with my feet, who knows Patricia may see this and get back , but then again !!.”
