I've had a similar issue in the past. The teacher would frequently cancel last-minute. Of course, since the class didn't take place, one can't leave a review.

However, if you, the student, immediately report a lesson problem instead of confirming the lesson, you can state that the teacher didn't attend and didn't give notice, and that therefore you want a credit refund, not rescheduling. I'm curious why you didn't use this option after it happened more than once. That way, the teacher can't first report that there was an "agreement" and make you reschedule the lesson. It won't show up as a review, but their attendance rate statistics will reflect the missed lessons, which, in my opinion, is fair if this happens more than once.

italki won't block the teacher or stop them from teaching right away. However, there are various steps the teacher would have to take to explain what happened to support and it would serve as a warning not to make a habit of it.

Hi Ann, we've talked about it in the last lesson which did take place, the teacher acknowledged it and said he's sorry about it. Unfortunately it did not improve. I hope it will get better but personally I've had enough.

I don't want to report the teacher to Italki support - I don't want him getting blocked or anything like that. I just thought that the reviews are a place where you can leave such feedback also for other users. But apparently it just does not work for these cases.

I'm sorry to hear that this has happened to you. Have you talked to the teacher about it? If that was me, and it had happened repeatedly, I think I'd contact italki support and complain.

Yes, Adam, once you get used to the system and have some not-so-positive experiences with teachers, you learn what to look for beyond the overall score (most people have 5.0 or 4.9) and reviews. If the teacher frequently doesn't show up to lessons, I'm pretty sure other students will stop booking lessons with them, which in itself is a predictor of quality (ratio of lessons to students).

That's interesting, Adam. That's usually one of the statistics I look at. It's displayed right next to the number of lessons per month for the past three months. It's not the same as a review, it's true, but it does usually mean something's not quite right if it's consistently anything other than 100% every month, in my experience.

Also, reviews will get buried by new ones and few students look through all of them. The attendance rate stays displayed in the same place.

If you're unhappy with the way italki deals with the issue of missed attendance and reviews, perhaps you can write to them to suggest an alternative.