Refused to show certificates and ID
She was paid £100 upon the very first meeting to spend 2 hours with our son. As we had a long conversation by phone, so I did not mind. To be honest I had some slight reservations after the conversation because she'd suggested she wished to attempt to teach my ADHD son from 1.5-2 metres distance away. I tried to cancel because that was not workable. During my attempt to cancel, she started saying this is like that other woman who changed her mind....In any case ignored that commentary and I suggested I buy her a visor and she was fine with that. She was provided a brand new visor. I would definitely say she is hard work! She wanted to leave with the visor and I assured her it was better if it stayed in a brand new plastic bag which was bagged up and tied in front of her. I said it would be less exposed than I hfs travelled in public transport with it. After the first meeting I asked for ID etc and she was very indeed very tricky about providing eg. certificates or even a DBS. Normal things other tutors are aware parents will require. I still never got her ID so I met her on trust but she operated as if she owed me no ID or certificate. I pass. To much effort here. Follow your gut! Thats' the moral here.
THIS IS OUR ACTUAL TEXT MESSAGE FLOW WITH PRIVATE DETAILS REMOVED SO YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF OBJECTIVELY:
TUTORPRO:
Hello Mrs Asen, this text is to confirm that I will be seeing your son Shore tomorrow in the afternoon for tutoring from 2-4pm. Could you please provide me with the exact address? This is my new number by the way.
MRS ASEN:
Hi again, I wanted to double check that you have received my text this morning. You asked for my new number and this is the one to save for the future. Please confirm via text you have received this. See you and your son tomorrow afternoon!
TUTORPRO:
I only just received your messages now. Thanks for those. Yes I will send my address right now see you tomorrow
Flat --------
London
London
SW3 -------------
United Kingdom
TUTORPRO:
Great, see you tomorrow afternoon.
TUTORPRO:
Ms I---------
Sort Code 0----------
Account 4---------
TUTORPRO:
Hello F-------, it was great meeting your family. This is to confirm that I will be coming for a tutoring session this Friday the 21st in the afternoon for two hours. Do you prefer starting at 3 pm or 3:15 pm? I have received payment for last Friday. Could you please pay me two sessions in advance by Wednesday that covers this coming week and next week? Thanks.
MRS ASEN:
Hi I------- it was lovely to meet you in our first session. I look forward to continuing with you. I fully understand that the money coming earlier would be helpful to you. I am sorry I cannot pay one week in advance as I am having to travel suddenly. You will always be paid immediately the lesson finishes do not worry about that. You can also send your terms and conditions if you are worried about cancellations. You said 72 hours notice for cancellations which is fair or the client pays for the lesson. However, if you have to cancel with less than 72 hours notice what is the penalty for the lost time of the client? A free class perhaps? FYI - In my absence, my husband will continue classes, even if I am away. I would also like to have all your certifications that you have showed childcare.co.uk. This is of course standard, so it is nothing personal. But please do send me ID, certificates scans, address proof etc… Thanks
TUTORPRO:
Unfortunately I won't be able to continue any sessions without advanced payments. I would also need to arrange childcare in advance and I cannot cancel others if a parent cancels for whatever reason. I know tutors who have a cancellation policy which states once the payment has been made for half termly there is no refund regardless of reason for cancellation. Never have a read in the terms and conditions that a tutor provides a free lesson if he or she has to cancel. Don't forget tutor cancelling means a loss of income as no tutor would take the money if cancellation is done by the tutor. Also do keep in mind that commitment to regular sessions is very important for the child.
MRS ASEN:
Thats fine. It’s good to have your word on commitment. I agree to pay you 2 lessons up front as you asked for but now that we met you (like any interview) I will now need to have your documents, certificates (DBS, qualifications etc).
TUTORPRO:
F----------, as you are aware, childcare.co.uk has verified all of these things on your behalf so there is no need for you to have a copy. That is the point of them doing the work and there is a reason why it is not openly available to parents on there. I've never been asked to provide proof of my address before by parents nor tutoring agencies and this is not something I need to provide. I have also consulted other professional tutors and I have comments as the following :
"She is asking for far too much personal info. She wouldn't get to see her child's teacher's certificates or proof of address. I wouldn't even show her them on your phone and certainly wouldn't give her photocopies."
"Yes, definitely no copies to be left with her!"
"I've never been asked for my address before. I think that would be the part of her request which would unsettle me really."
To be honest I have had to spend a lot of time outside of the session handling communication with you and I'm afraid I don't have the time or energy to do so.
It sounds like you have doubts so perhaps it is best not to continue? Anyway if you don't make payment by tomorrow midday I will definitely not be continuing lessons. Also, the 72 hour cancellation policy means I would need to know before 3 pm today whether this Friday's lesson is cancelled or not.
MRS ASEN:
I actually asked for certificates as any employer would. Also a DBS is essential. I don’t even know your surname. You do not have to give proof of address you can simply give me a verifiable ID. I really need that as you can understand. So I would like to have 1) Photo ID (driving licence or passport 2) DBS 3) I need evidence of your qualification as a tutor. A private tutor is not a school. If you applied to work in a school you would need to show them these. I am hiring you as an individual I have never met in my life I need something to reassure me as to who you purport to be if you are to work with my children. You have been to my house you know my home so I’m not sure what is the personal information I am asking for. Child-care do caveat by asking parents to make there own enquiry. They are not legally liable because they have checked your documents. It is still incumbent on a parent to do their own due diligence. Consequently, I don’t think I am asking for anything unusual. As I said, I have had tutors before who are always keen to provide verification without any discussion. Clearly, prior to meeting you I did not ask for these as you were coming for an initial meeting which lasted 2 hours and you were paid £100 immediately. However, subsequent to that I must have verification of the docs listed above. It is not Child-care.co.uk’s responsibility. They list that they checked your documents just to boost your profile on their site. They will never accept legal liability based on the fact that they checked your docs if a parent did not also do their own due diligence.
TUTORPRO:
You are not my employer, even tutoring agencies explicitly state they aren't my employers. For everyone's health, I was very hesitant because of covid to come and do the tutoring in-person. I made an exception and came to see how I can help. I have decided I will rather work with other clients whom I can form better relationships with and less complicated to manage so it would be best that we leave it at this. Do we agree that our tutoring arrangement end here? I really hope you find someone more suitable for S-------.
MRS ASEN::
So no certificates no DBS no ID?
TUTORPRO:
It's not that. I have those. It's the headache dealing with your constantly new demands and requests. I have never ever had so much problem and never had so much time wasted outside of my tutoring sessions. I was hoping it would get smoother but it went downhill and I can't imagine what else will come.
MRS ASEN::
mmmm not sure I follow?
Time wasted how?
TUTORPRO:
Thank you and goodbye. I wish the best for your family.
MRS ASEN:
No DBS, no certificates no ID? That’s a problem for me and I will always ask for these as it is prudent to do so. You are asking me to just accept you into my home and interact with my child with autistic trait / ADHD (a vulnerable person) without ID. That could never happen. I am not at all angry about it just baffled by your reaction and your tutor friend saying I should not get to see evidence of certificates as I don’t see the certificates of teachers in a school. It’s just very bizarre to say such when I am not operating with a school but an individual. What would a parent have to go on? You are getting annoyed for basic requests. I am surprised. I wish you all the best and your new 11 month old baby too. But my final word if there is no ID, no DBS, no references, no teaching qualification or education (eg. Degree, BTEC, training courses) and a lot of discussion around that it’s a red flag. So I cannot continue. Kind regards.
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Overall
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Communication
Response from tutorpro
Responded
It really is a shame that I have not had much chance to work with the child to help him out with major gaps in his learning. The parent is too time consuming to deal with and unfortunately I do not have the resources to do so for only two hours of tutoring.
I did not expect this parent to want to present the chain of events on here. So in order to provide a clearer picture for everyone who may be interested in the review, here I would like to add what is missing to give a better context.
12 August 19:07 - Missed call from a number I do not recognise on a Wednesday evening.
12 August 19:11 - I called back and found out it is a mother who found my number from childcare.co.uk. Call duration 1 hour 43 minutes 23 seconds. Mostly off topic about her and her family's life overall, only perhaps 10 minutes on her child who I eventually tutored two days later on the Friday. She already mentioned she has extra visors at home for non-family members, which shows she didn't buy one for me specifically after the call having taken place. I advised that there is a 72 hour cancellation policy and she agreed to it verbally on the phone. Also made her aware that I ask for payments in advance to secure tutoring sessions. I was advised I would be paid at the beginning of the session.
13 August - Texts back and forth confirming first session arranged for Friday afternoon for 2-4pm.
14 August 12:08pm - Call duration: 19 minutes 26 seconds. Call came the day of the session on Friday, less than two hours from the start of the session. The mum calling me to ask for clarifications on social distancing and unsure whether the session could take place at 2pm and also questioning the length of the session. She advised me her child would wear a visor and more than happy to do so. I would also be given a visor to minimise infection. I advised I would assess her child in-person and felt more comfortable with both parties wearing visors. Again, she was aware of the 72 hour cancellation but did not seem to care. Who calls less than two hours before a session to challenge something discussed in the initial conversation two evenings before? I advised throughout the call that I was preparing my way there and that I would need to postpone the session to 3-5pm instead to make sure I had enough time. She agreed.
14 August 2:55pm to 5:35pm - I was there for the 3-5pm session. Everything generally went well. The child was warming up to me. Definitely has special needs. Parents were lovely, especially the mother. I was not paid during this session while I was there, so no, I was not paid immediately. However, my bank account received the payment later that evening. Also I mentioned that advanced payment is necessary to continue future sessions. She agreed to this verbally. I was asked to show her my CV at a later time.
Then, the rest of the conversations were by text and already posted in this review I am replying to.
My feedback is the following:
This client is troublesome. She mistakenly believes that I am her employee but clearly she was very briefly a client of mine. As far as I am aware, I was never given an employee contract to show that I am somehow an employee. I was looking into presenting my terms and conditions to her in September once we have established that the child is making satisfactory progress.
Childcare.co.uk does a rigorous check on documents as far as I have experienced on my end of a service provider. However parents do not have to undergo any checks so the risk is really on me going to a stranger's home. Should I require that she provide me with her and her husband's passports, DBS and credit reports? Actually Childcare.co.uk should perhaps look into verifying parents in some way to ensure tutors' safety.
I have met the father, mother and the child concerned. They were all happy with me from the initial session. I was also happy to proceed with the child. But because of the very demanding and changing nature of the mother, I suggested we stop tuition if she wasn't happy with some things anymore. One big reason I did not want to provide all those very personal documents was because of the energy-consuming and time-consuming nature of the interactions with the mother. Another was because providing a copy of those would pose an identity fraud risk, as advised by many independent tutors I have contact with.
Outside of tutoring contact time this was how time consuming it was for me:
Phone conversations so far totalled: 1h43m23s + 19m26s = 2 hours 2 minutes 49 seconds
In-Person conversation: 40 minutes
Texts and preparing responses to them: 2 hours
Consulting other tutors how best to handle this client: 3 hours
Thank you, but no thank you. You are not the client for me, so am I not the tutor for you. I am sorry that things didn't work out between us in the end. Let's leave it at that. I can only imagine how challenging it has been for you to make sure your son gets a good education. Again, I wish your son the best and may he have the brightest future he could have. I genuinely hope that you find a group of people who will be of great support to him throughout his development.
