Cambly Reviews

Pros

Great flexibility. Ability to build your client base easily and quickly. Their support team is stellar.

Cons

The pay is abysmal. It's not survivable if you're trying to do it full time. Part time for some extra cash is good enough.

Pros

I really love the flexibility.

Cons

The pay is low, but the pay-off is that it's so flexible!

Pros

I can't think of any other job that would allow someone to talk to people all over the world like this. I'm sure it sounds weird to my friends when I say something like, "I was talking to this lady in Nepal the other day. . ." They do have lessons that you can use. There aren't always answers to these that will help you. The flexibility is the biggest plus. If you want to tutor, just get on the computer and see if a Priority Hour is available.

Cons

The pay is low. Talking to strangers is stressful. The ratings system is also stressful and inscrutable. Why does your rating suddenly go down? And really--what are you supposed to do about it? You have no idea why someone rated you badly, but apparently they did. This is so disheartening.

Pros

They keep track of my fees and they do my marketing for me. I have tutored online independently, and I can tell you that having Cambly do these makes a huge difference, because it allows me to focus on working with learners, my passion. The people who answer tutor queries and requests are usually helpful and courteous, but the turnaround for response is not speedy. I would prefer online chat for tutor help.

Cons

There is no online chat help for tutors, only an email submission, and the turnaround is 24-48 hours. That is not adequate in the few cases when a tutor finds that the learner has serious issues, like suicidal talk, or the occasional abuser who opens their camera on full-blown masturbation. Given that this happens very rarely and they do provide a cut-off that can be used immediately, it has been workable for me--I have been with them for 4 and a half years and only encountered serious emergencies and abuse 4 or 5 times. Still, you have to realize that you are on your own out there. Also, they have reduced their level of services and moved to a less expensive platform in the past. In my experience, this could be an ongoing 'business model', but it is workable at this point. There are more outages since they went to the lower budget platform, but they usually get them resolved within a few hours. They are pretty tight about their policy of tutors not communicating with regular Cambly students on FB or other platforms, which I think is unnecessary, impractical, and treats tutors too much like we are all potential rip-off artists. But I think most of us comply, mostly. I would probably have a similar policy if I ran a business like Cambly. I should add that I have seen no pay increases in 4 years, but this is not my main source of income, so it isn't my first concern. I have seen other tutoring services that allow the tutor to set their own fees, but for me, the convenience outweighs the financial considerations.

Pros

Flexible Schedule, Nice students, New friends

Cons

No compensation for last minute cancellations, or cancellations in general. Low pay, anxiety inducing ratings each week. You can be fired without notice depending on this "anonymous" rating.

Pros

Flexible hours but boy, do you pay for it.

Cons

The pay is low and you don't get paid if a student calls you to let you know they won't make it for class.

Pros

Cool students and fun to teach them

Cons

Low pay and low pay and low pay