I have been thinking of getting ds a little extra support for some areas of literacy which he has been struggling with. I contacted a few agencies though I have to admit that I did not read all of the small print. I spoke to one agency over the phone and they sent someone over to speak to me in person. Looking back perhaps this should have been a warning sign of a hard sell, but I just saw it as customer service. Anyway she was very nice was good with ds but was not the tutor herself. She went through the program which sounded v good and got ds to do some writing, she said this would help assess him. She didn't directly mention money so I had to ask. It was v expensive working out around £43 an hour which I thought was a lot, but I would have been prepared to pay if I really thought it would help ds. But these were the deal breakers signing up for a minimum of 3 months and paying a month in advance and paying a £70 deposit before even having a tutor assigned. I said that I was def not prepared to pay a deposit or any make any kind of payment to them at all until I had had some details of the tutor and their experience etc. and I had judged for myself whether they were suitable or not. The woman acted v suprised and seemed to think I was being most unreasonable, but I just couldn't hand over that much money without having had something other than just words and assurances first. It had started to feel that it was all about her collecting the cash and I didn't feel comfortable was I wrong? She didn't even take ds work when she left I suppose without the cheques she had lost interest.