“Don't use diabolical service, ,no one ever gets back or tells you whats happening, am convinced she writes her own reviews , both email and telephone not returned, If you have a 6 weeks of your life to waste by all means use them, could be longer of course .. but am voting with my feet, who knows Patricia may see this and get back , but then again !!.”
“This is a shady little business run by a woman named Patricia. She is a 60-something baby boomer who is poaching tutors by pretending to be a parent and requesting lessons to then make contact (e.g. via the website Superprof) and then pushing very hard for you to fulfil lots of paperwork obligations to a tight deadline. I of course, did not partake. Instead, I decided to look up reviews and when I declined her requests and told her such (email below), she replied with the following:
Good afternoon Patricia,
Having arrived home and conducted some research on your profile and reviews of your company online, I have decided that I would like to decline your offer to work with your agency.
Thank you for your invitation.
Regards,
Dxxxx
Hello Dxxxx,
Thank you for your email. I am sorry about your decision. I do not have
a profile online, and I think what you will have seen are from tutors
who were disgruntled because the clients were extremely unhappy with them. I have run IPS Tutors for 10 years, and we have thousands of
extremely happy Tutors and clients working with us. We receive a lot of
referrals from clients and Tutors alike. I am aware there are some
disgruntled tutors who chose to write some negative comments, but quite honestly, I receive so many positive comments from clients and tutors, and I don't have the time to find out how to have the comments removed. I have families who ask me to provide Tutors for all of their children, over a period of a few years, and many Tutors who have worked with me for the full 10 years we have been in operation. This would not happen if I were not giving a good service to both Tutors and clients.
Kind Regards,
Patricia
Not content with that, she followed up again, within a couple of minutes of the last email:
Hello again Dxxxx,
For your information, I had a very successful career in the city of London, and was very well respected in the industry I worked in for over 20 years before starting IPS Tutors
Kind Regards,
Patricia
So, you judge for yourself. I think that I dodged a bullet and the tone is consistent with other reviews online. Buyer beware! Use tutorhunt or first tutors, or superprof or any other good service and find real teachers direct.”
“Rude, Unprofessional, Scam. Absolutely terrible working experience. Patricia actually refused to pay me for month because I accidentally cc.ed the wrong person in an email (seriously?). I was forced to go to Citizen's Advice Bureau who advised me I had to go to Court. Only upon threatening legal action was I paid a reduced salary. Avoid IPS Tutors at all costs!”
“I was contacted by the owner on a different tutoring site, on a students account requesting tuition. Once contact had been made she revealed she was from a separate company and wanted me to join said company.
In any profession working with children, safeguarding is key, and having a worker posing as children on competitors sites to recruit seems wrong.
Poor business practices, much better alternatives are available.”
