Dear tutors, please be careful if you are looking for any
assignments from any tuition agency. For your information, anybody
can call themselves a tuition agency. Most of these "agencies" are
not registered. Some are actually "co-ordinators" whom they paid a
sum to an agency in order to be one.
Please remember to keep the number, name and address of these
agencies who hand assignments to you. 1 such "agency" is actually
located in a factory in Toa Payoh. They require you to go down and
they will ask you to sign an agreement on the spot. The agreement
is actually a photocopy of some paper with very small words. Such
agencies are inhumane to their "employees". This agency did not
know the exact location of the address of the tutee and lied about
it. Most of the tutors would prefer to teach in places nearer to
home, so upon knowing it and rejecting the assignment, the tutor
would be asked to pay the full amount. or a lawyer's letter would
be sent. I would suggest contacting the "lawyer", if they ever have
one.
Another agency with the name of Bowen, located at No. 10 Prince Rd,
#01-54, (133849), somewhere near Bukit Timah. The administrative
staff apparently did not know how to explain in layman's term on
how to get there. This agency did not have any agreement with the
tutor how the money will be paid and it did not bother to inform
the tutor of termination of assignment. Many tutors would have
experience the same plight of refused entry upon arrival at the
tutee's home. The agency had already collected the money for the
first lesson from the parent and refuses to split with the tutor.
Which means, they would have collected the money on your 1st month
by the forth lesson. If the parent decided not to continue after
the 4th lesson then the tutor would not be paid at all. They
collected amount is $16.25 to be exact and they claim they paid $10
to the dispatch rider and had no money left. Can someone suggest a
better excuse for this agency?
For those with tution experience, they would know that the first
month payment is 50%-50% for most agencies. If there is no verbal
agreement, then logically how should the money be paid? When
contacted, the adminstrative staff just push the blame to her
"collegue". When questioned about the credibility and if the
"agency" is registered under Singapore law, the staff apparently
hang up. How can an agency be credible and responsible if the staff
did not understand simple English and avoided simple questions like
this?
From a point above, I mentioned that some of these people are
actually co-ordinators. While the agency take half the first month
pay from you, these co-ordinators have to pay to some agencies in
order to be a co-ordinator. A rational co-ordinator would of course
collect the money first before telling you the termination of an
assignment so that they can get the money before you do. So they
would claim "it's your problem with the parent" while the parents
would claim "it's your problem between you and the agency". Where
and who can the tutors turn to?
I hereby would like to urge students giving tuition and had bad
experience to speak up. Do not fell shy as many people had the same
experience. Many of us would blame it on luck and think it's just a
small amount we lost, but there are definately more than 1 person
cheated and there are not just 1 agency around. It could be you or
your friend or your relatives being cheated next. Be a dear and
send this out to your friends. Feel free to contact me or post
messages. Thank you. Have a nice day! 
