DO NOT use Preply - DO NOT support modern slavery
1) Teacher don’t get pay.
They keep a 100% commission (yes 100% !) of the first lesson. 33% for the nexts.
Here is the problem : they allow many customers to book a first lesson for a one time job (a one time traduction, one time prononciation explanatory, one time lesson). The student of course don’t know that you are not pay and they weren’t planning to get more than 1 hour. Then, you work for free. Preply are aware of this situation but… they encourage it. Why not ? They keep 100% all the time.
2) Teacher can’t choose their students.
Once your calendar is visible, any people can book it directly. You don’t have any saying.
A student who wants only 1 hour lesson ? No choice, you have to accept it.
You don’t teach for children but a child book ? No choice.
3) Teacher can’t cancel a lesson without being penalized. There is only a limited number of times where you can cancel a lesson. After that, your profil will be penalized. Preply push you took make money « don’t cancel a lesson, move it! » Not simple as that. Many students ask me « I am not free for my next lesson, can you cancel it ? Hm… I can’t cancel, neither move it - because the student got recurrent lessons for exemple and they already have lessons planned in the futur.
You can’t be late, you can’t cancel. Wifi problem ? Personal problem ? You have to teach.
4) Preply can block your regular students without any reason.
Once you have made the effort to work for free to get some regular students and to keep a small amount of your effort… this isn’t the end. Preply can ban your students without any reason.
It did happen to me. 2 of my regular students where having lessons from the same campus. Preply thought a student made a double account and banned both accounts.
I made a complain and Preply lied to me. « we give the chance to the student to explain himself ». By chance the student gave me a copy of Preply’s email and here is the way Preply communicate :
« We want to notify that your profile is permanently blocked from the platform for violation of our referral policy of the terms. The decision is final and can’t be disputed. We reserve the right to discontinue the communication as well ». Wow !
5) Preply support is part of the joke
100% chat and they change every time the person you are speaking to.
Here is they favorite line « we understand your frustration but you know our rules ».
Teacher must work as Preply want without any saying and any pay.
I contacted them a lot about it and they kept saying « this isn’t disguised employee ».
Hey ! Of course not ! They don’t even pay the teacher. This is just some modern slavery !
I realized that many tutors are from poor countries. Preply use them.
I have the chance to not depend of this platform to live. Some don’t have this chance and have to accept all their demands.
Why ?
Because YOU students are using this platform, so the tutors don’t have the choice but to use it.
Are you a language lover ?
Choose a platform that RESPECT the teachers.
And for any reason support modern slavery.
Learning and teaching should be fun and not such a restraint !
Once you pay for subscription, even high rated tutors are becoming neglective and untrustworthy. Either they keep cancelling classes or showing up unprepared. Preply, on the other hand, only offers you to transfer your balance from one to another until you find someone who would bother to provide you an average class. And untill then you probably will spend all of your money for this possibility. You can't request any refund no matter how much you are disappointed
Stay away... bad experience as a parent of a student.
Be very careful when buying hours. The app will tell you to buy more hours at a discount, and that you can refund unused hours... but it doesnt tell you of the fineprint which can stop you from refunding hours. I think this is unethical and unfair and want to caution any parent/student to not fall victim to such malpractice. Very disappointing that a good business idea has to resort to such dubious ways to make money. Finding alternatives, do let me know any good ones out there.
It’s a horrible app. The tutors are not reliable and keep canceling the classes. Preply is worse because they refuse to refund the money that you’ve already paid for even though their policy said “fully refund”.
Preply is a fantastic language learning platform! The diverse range of skilled tutors, flexible scheduling, and personalized lessons have accelerated my language skills like never before. Thanks to Preply, I'm confidently speaking a new language.
I am extremely disappointed with the deceiving auto refill and refund policy and the uncaring and dismissive customer service. Avoid the auto-refill at all cost! It was intentionally made for money grab. Read the other reviews of this topic!
I would use other services out there that do business honestly and with care to their customers.
It is sometimes seen that teachers have a fake education, because... they don’t understand simple things. I took computer education classes, but they couldn’t explain how the browser works.
But if you study English, you can find an inexpensive teacher just to talk. But not everyone has good internet and this is a problem.
SCAM!!! do not use. They charged me for a lesson that i cannot book and are requiring me to subscribe for weekly lessons instead of just booking one. and I can only use my lesson I paid for by trying a different teacher even though I like my teacher. They say you can get a refund if your not satisfied and Im speaking to an agent and they are not responding to my request for a refund