GoStudent - from an ex-tutor

[TommyAbroad]

Dear All,

Following another post I placed in a Mumsnet thread which mentioned GoStudent, I thought that some of you might be interested in having more information before you make any choices about tutoring for your child.

I have been a tutor on GoStudent for just over a year. This company is manned almost entirely a bunch of salesmen and entrepreneurs (not educational experts.) To be clear, the tutors are NOT employed by GoStudent. We are regarded as "freelancers" or something woolly, to allow GS to avoid paying a fair wage, or providing any benefits whatsoever.

I could type a whole essay here, but in short:

Fees you pay, and what the tutor gets
Your 30 quid for just 50 minutes? As low as just 12 of this goes to your tutor. GoStudent take around 60% of the fee. Given that these rates paid to tutors have just gone down even further, along with the abolition of basically all achievable bonuses in the last six months, means that you have a wide choice of underpaid, undervalued and VERY unhappy tutors on board. The tutors have requested meetings with management about pay, and this has been rejected out of hand by the company. The pay has not gone up (even for inflation) for over two years.

Matching your child to a tutor
They claim to do this, but do not. Requests from parents for a tutor are simply passed around WhatsApp boards for the most part, with the "Programme Managers" hoping to find anyone at all to accept the student. Anyone, it seems, will do. The "Programme Managers" are all on commission, and don't seem to care a jot (with certain exceptions.) There seem to be no educational experts left within the company, many of the PMs don't even know the names of the teaching qualifications in the UK.

Sales and parents' contracts
GS will attempt to pressure you into a contract for a minimum of six months. What they will press for the hardest is a three-YEAR one. This cannot be cancelled, and even when it expires, it turns into a three-month rolling contract from there on. This means that you'll still need to give three months' notice, even after your child has left school and no longer needs it. On the very few grounds that they allow you to cancel a contract early, they will demand personal information such as your payslips, proof of unemployment and the like.

Trial lessons, and the tutor you get
You may well get a brilliant tutor for your trial lesson, and you are convinced to join the company as a result. But they very often then deliberately allocate you to a different tutor (this never used to happen) who is on a cheaper pay-scale, despite your first tutor being still available. You won't get a choice over this.

Pausing a contract
Yes you can... but it simply adds those months onto the end of your contract.

Your lesson credits
These have to have been booked by the next month's renewal date, or you will lose them. No rolling over credits at GoStudent.

Customer Service
Appalling. There's nothing more to be said. Once they have your money, you better expect no calls back if you have a problem.

The Platform
For the most part, doesn't work. They have their own classroom called "GoClass" (that replaced Zoom) which constantly has bugs. Video not working, audio not working, interactive digital whiteboards not working, and they are completely incompatible with Apple devices.

The Communications, Tutor and Student
They have, once again, their own software (that replaced WhatsApp) for this called GoChat. Or "NoChat" as the tutors have dubbed it, because messages often never get through. As a result, lessons get missed, and communications are lost.

Safeguarding
The less said about this the better, or I may get into hot water. Ask them if they check the tutors' DBS certificates annually, for example.

Finally, sackings.
This company is as vindictive as hell towards anyone speaking out publicly, or "rocking the boat" over issues such as pay from within. I have been summarily sacked this week (along with five others) for joining the protest against the company changing the rules over trial sessions and pay at just six days' notice for the tutors (they now get nothing for these, and are expected to act as "Salesmen" to get the student to take out a contract.) I had the temerity to send "poo emojis" on the internal message boards at such announcements, and was sacked with immediate effect by phone. Not only that, it was demanded that I do not speak to any students, parents or fellow tutors following my dismissal. They must be joking.

Please everybody, there are many platforms. Better platforms. More reliable platforms. Cheaper platforms. Go elsewhere.

Best Wishes, and thank you for reading,

An ex-GS tutor, who is now VERY happy indeed to do my tuition privately, not through this bunch of sharks.

Has anyone successfully been able to cancel their subscription with them?

We’ve had countless problems with the platform and missed and cancelled lessons & communication in general so we’d decided to terminate the service after being with them for a year only to be advised by them that our ‘contract’ with them ran for 2 years. This was never made explicit and reading back on emails / messages from them never mentioned. My daughter actually finishes school in June so we’d essentially be paying for a tutor for a child who no longer needs tutoring.

I’ve received 1 email from them and they’ve ignored my replies, currently getting advise on this from a legal perspective. To anyone thinking of joining GoStudent do think very carefully, customer service is non existent (you can no longer speak to anyone) and once they have your money they’re really no interested.

No they will not cancel my contract after numerous attempts to cancel.

@SarahAnnabel did you actually get to speak to someone?

Yes I have spoken to various people in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. I don’t have a good grasp of Austrian consumer law where I took out the contract but I definitely feel I was mis-sold the services and my expectations have not been met.

I too fell for the sales pitch.
Everything you have mention I suffered
I luckily got out of my 12 months contract without penalty

Never ever use gostudent in it's current state

@clubnirvana - how did you get out of it? I can't even get hold of them except on Whattsap and they don't seem to be able to do anything.

I managed to cancel the 2 year sneaky rip off. Changed it to 1 year. Then cancelled as the tutor kept changing the lessons. I still paid for some, but I never got those lessons as the tutor moved the lessons to next summer. So on the whole a general rip off. Paid hundreds for the 1 lesson we got. Nightmare. They said they would contact me earlier on the thread, but they never did.

Still no word from them. I’m considering just changing my card details at this point 🙈

Gosh this is a proper scam isn't it?! How is it legal.

No idea. Just been looking at their trust pilot reviews. Lots of people in the same boat.

I spoke to my lovely tutor about it last night and it would seem that they’re not getting a great deal either and many of the parents she works with are unhappy too (with them rather than the actual tutors).

I'm the OP who got all this chat going. Nothing has improved in the four months since. Nothing. GoStudent have in fact made redundant large swathes of the UK staff, leaving basically just commission-driven sales staff. Support is impossible to get a hold of - I'm still in touch with a bunch of my old colleagues on there, even those tutors have been waiting 24 hours for urgent requests for help when the platform does what it does best. Which is bug, fall over, disrupt lessons, and p*ss every user off - both student and tutor.

They'll take your cash, and that's where their interest in your child's well-being ends.

The platform is truly dreadful. Also the total lack of transparancy over length of contracts. As I said above I'm willing to stop payments so they'll actually get in touch with me

Is this something OFSTED could be used for? Maybe with this thread included? I know they are only just starting steps to regulation but there are really valid points here affecting the students. How are you meant to fund another tutor when these are not providing yet still taking money?

I don't have a child with them, I'm only still on the thread because of alerts but I am finding myself saying "avoid Gostudent and consider x,y,z" due to reading it. I think this thread is a good starting point for all agency consideration.

If not getting communication back from somewhere I stop subscription payments until they do. Its simple enough to set it back up. I genuinely thout one had gone bust and another was a scam when not communicating.

Regardless to where they operate from, its the country that they are operating in that is the rules to follow. I only have a basic understanding around contract laws, t&c. They are either clueless or very clever at making a profit. I genuinely can't tell.

I’m not sure tbh but I might contact them although I have a feel that because it’s online it’s not covered. I’m not sure if Mumsnet still promote them but they really should stop until they’re investigated.

The tutoring in the OFSTED opening report does recognise online platforms

If OFSTED were to inspect them, I'm 100% confident that GoStudent would get hauled over the coals. If not get shut down, even. Not because they don't care a jot about students (which they don't, it's all just about making money), but more because they claim they do - and don't. All this "carefully selected tutor to meet your child's needs" stuff is not true. Students get passed around directly between tutors (by-passing managers, if there are any left) on the WhatsApp groups like hot potatoes.
"Who wants this student?"
"I do."
"Done."
No vetting to see if the tutor would suit them, nothing. It's appalling.

Oh dear, I didn't see this thread, today is my son's first class. We signed up for a 6 month fixed contract. Hopefully, it all will go well.

It's v sad though to read how low the tutor gets paid.

Thank you for letting me dodge a bullet. I’m desperately looking for a tutor for DH who is studying as a mature student at degree level and wanted some support from a tutor (he is doing distance learning) and made contact with this company. DH was hesitant thank god, they rang constantly after my initial enquiry to ask when he would sign up. Now I will tell him to avoid like the plague.

Ah, okay I'll contact them

Definitely send them an email to say you are cancelling. State valid reasons why in the email .

I got no reply, so I then cancelled my direct debit. I then get an exit type interview from someone working for gostudent.

Be careful not to vent anger on them, otherwise they will put the phone down on you.

Hope for the best you get an operator who's sympathetic to your valid reasons to leave gostudent.

Thank you. Just by coincidence I have a new card so the details they have are out of date so am sure that’ll trigger them to contact me.

This sounds like a nightmare - I am a private tutor, but thankfully my employers treat me fairly. There are perfectly fair tutor platforms around, I will avoid this one like the plague

@wallowinginmywellies - my lovely tutor, via Gostudent, sounds like she'd agree with you.

I can’t believe mumsnet have this as their number one recommendation on their article about the best online tutoring platforms. I just requested a trial lesson based on that then read this thread afterwards so I won’t be going ahead with the trial or signing up! They sound like an awful company and not one mumsnet should be promoting (I’m assuming it’s a paid promotion). Thanks for the heads up.

It's our pleasure to help. Just avoid it like the plague.