This is just a general question and not one intended to answer any thoughts or address any feelings I have about anyone I’ve engaged with in the past. Nor should it be taken as implying such. But, has anyone an Italki had a tutor you’ve been unhappy with? If so, what do you think is the best way to deal with dissatisfaction with an Italki teacher? Should you just tell the person privately of your dissatisfaction? Should it be made public, but not reported to Italki management? Should the person be told and should the person be reported as unsatisfactory to Italki management? Or, should you do none of the above, and remain silent? As in restaurants, like most of us do, should you simply „vote with your feet „ and never use the person again?
If the teacher were rude, I would say something to somebody. But usually I vote with my feet and say nothing because the teacher is not actually bad - it's just a clash of styles perhaps. I learn better in some ways, and not others.
But I agree we SHOULD say something if the teacher is REALLY bad.
And I HATE the 5-star voting system. It's really awful to have to assess a teacher EVERY lesson. Maybe ONE assessment after a package of 5 or 10 lessons would be better (if you are on a package).
As someone who has taught and taken a few lessons, I can tell you that a response depends on the degree of dissatisfaction.
If the teacher broke the contract, as in didn't show up, was very late, was rude or obnoxious, and generally did not perform the duties in the expected way, then leaving a negative feedback publically would be fine.
if, on the other hand, the teacher was not a good match, as seems to be a case for many people, it is not a fault of the teacher. Until you take a lesson, you have no way of knowing how well you'd work together.
even if you leave a negative review, what will you say? He didn't smile enough? talked too much? didn't talk enough? rubbed you the wrong way? these are not reviews that are helpful to others because they are not generalizations, they are very subjective impressions. Like someone says "I bought strawberry ice cream and it turned out I hate strawberry flavor, therefore it is an awful ice cream."
We all have different personalities, so just because we click with some and not others doesn't make them worthy of a negative review.
On the other hand, if your review can help others in determining whether they'd like to take a lesson with that teacher or not, then that's truly a helpful thing.
besides, there are so many teachers on this site, voting with your feet is not that hard.
all of you who vote with your feet? don't you feel even the tiniest responsibility to tell the future students of this teacher that they suck big time?
I'm looking for an english teacher and everywhere i look i see either positive or neutral feedback.
what are you scared of by publicly criticizing a teacher?
I just stop working with them but usually won't write a bad public review unless it was truly unacceptable behavior.
This evening I was looking at another teacher profile and an irate student had confirmed a lesson in order to have the chance to write publicly that the teacher had "no-showed" several times! I laughed but sympathized with him. A teacher not showing up multiple times would really irritate me.
I think students should be able to leave a public comment that the teacher did not attend when they state such a problem, because if not, all people see are positive reviews, and until recently, the attendance rate was not highlighted on profiles.
I never had big issues with teacher or tutors that attended the appointment. I was frustrated by those who didn’t show up. The vast majority however are reliable and serious persons.
I have another concern: the quality of the connection! So many teachers have old computers with bad audio, slow WiFi connection. Skype blocked by local governments. VPN too expensive. That’s awful. I renounced going on with some good teachers because they had terrible Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom or whatsoever.
