McElroy Tutoring Advertises 10% commission only, then charges 40%--out of tutor's earnings, Internet

McElroy's rebuttal is that most clients prefer to buy their hours in packages, 25 hours to be exact, thus McElroy only collects a 10% profit. Maybe that happens in California where they are based, but in the South, people don't seem to want to fork out $800 or more at one time, nor can afford it. Thus, they pay for a session at a time, or at the most, two to three sessions at a time.

They are incorrect stating that the situation I was talking about was 10%. Do the math yourself. The client paid $50. They told me that I would only make $30. That means they made a 40% profit. Only when the client has to buy "packages" meaning hours in large amounts would they only receive 10%. Don't let them fool you. They try to act like they are better than the other tutoring companies by not taking as much commission--it's just smoke and mirrors. The other tutoring companies are at least straight forward about taking the amount they do. This company tries to play a "if this, then that" game situation, making it very confusing to both the client and the tutor.

If you need a tutor, try Care.com or UniversityTutor.com. Also, Craigslist has decent tutors but make sure that they are EDUCATED, EXPERIENCED, and CERTIFIED before hiring anyone from there.

Here's our response to these anonymous complaints, with some clarifications:

1. It's true that we no longer require all tutors to pass an interview with our founder and president, Brian McElroy. Tutors are now interviewed in person or over the phone by Vince Kotchian, our hiring manager. Mr. McElroy is still in charge of the initial approval of all tutor applications, however.

2. The complainer was hired in March 2011 and was with us for less than a year - we're not sure why she claims to have been with us for two. We have no record of a "Vicki" as a tutor with us at any time, but we do strongly suspect that we know her true identity (a tutor in San Antonio who we recently removed from the site).

3. We do in fact require our tutors to have exceptional test (95th+ percentile) scores in any test that they teach. However, since we're selective about whom we hire, we take our tutors at their word and thus don't always require that they submit verified scores.  In addition, we also recognize that high test scores are only one aspect of what makes a tutor great: communication skill, positivity, patience, kindness, and responsiveness are also very important. 

4. Our tutor rating system is a combination of student/client feedback and our staff's ongoing professional evaluation of each tutor.  It is thoroughly documented in the information we send to our tutors and on our website: http://www.mcelroytutoring.com/lower.php?url=tutor-ratings--explanations-timeline.  

5. Our company's profit for client purchases varies, and ranges from about 10% to about 35%, depending on the package purchased and the associated merchant fees (we provide package discounts). We don't claim that it's always exactly 10%; we say it averages approximately 10%. If a client only buys one hour with a tutor and no package discount is given, our profit is about 35%. Due to this, most clients buy large packages of hours, which is why, after deducting merchant fees (PayPal, Google Checkout, Visa/Mastercard etc.), our approximate average profit is accurately stated.

Our profit for the purchase the tutor mentions was 11%. We did accidentally pay her twice - which probably explains her confusion. However, she was provided with documents explaining our pay scale multiple times, so we can only conclude that she didn't read them very closely.

6. We're willing to call clients to collect payments, but since we're a small company, it's more expedient if our tutors make the calls, and we ask them to do so. In this case, however, we did call the client on behalf of the tutor - we're not sure why she's complaining about that. We also make it very clear to our tutors that we cannot guarantee payment unless the client pays in advance. 

Overall, it seems as though this tutor is slandering us in any way she can because we didn't pay her that amount she mistakenly thought she was due. The irony is we've paid her much more than she was due through a payroll error - so it's kind of mind-boggling that she's complaining at all. We're proud of our company (10 years in business and going strong) and would rather have a disgruntled tutor attack us online than compromise our principles by paying her the amount that she incorrectly believes she is owed. 

We would also like to point out that we have continued to maintain an A+ rating from the BBB (Better Business Bureau) since 2009.  

The learning experience here, for us, is that we'll now be even more explicit with our communication with tutors about our policies and test them on their understanding of those policies, to prevent similar misunderstandings. We invite you to contact us directly if you'd like clarification of any of our policies.

"We require our tutors to have recently scored in the 95th percentile or above on any standardized test that they teach." LIE--They don't require their tutors to take a test. 

  "It's Economics 101: If an employer wants his/her employees to excel at their jobs, the employer should pay the employees what they are worth, and always reward them for achieving exceptional results.  For this reason, we pay our tutors quite well:  some of our Ph.D. tutors (minimum 10 years experience) make as much as $100/hr or more.  This is because we only take an approximately 10% administrative cut for the company, giving the remaining 90% cut directly to our tutors." LIE --They actually take a whopping 40% cut for themselves!

"Because we keep our overhead low,  approximately 90% of the gross profits from our tutoring sessions goes straight back to the tutors themselves" LIE --Forty percent, NOT ten percent!!! 

"While a "master tutor" is sometimes necessary (if you are trying to improve from 96th to 99th percentile, for example), other times you simply the services of a skilled communicator who might not necessarily know the correct answer to every single question on the test (if, for example, you are trying to improve your score from 50th to 75th percentile).   This is why we offer 5 levels of tutors:  Junior, Senior, Master, Executive, and Ph.D. " LIE-- Tutors decide what level they are by what they want to charge.

McElroy Tutoring is a business that should not be trusted. They false advertise and then try to rip off their own tutors by paying them less than what was promised. First, I'll address the false advertising. According to their website, "every tutoring candidate must pass a rigorous, thorough series of interviews with our staff, including a personal interview with our founder Brian McElroy, before he/she can become an official member of the McElroy Tutoring Team." That is a lie. I was with the company for two years and I NEVER interviewed nor spoke with Brian McElroy.

They also mention that their tutors have exceptional test scores (95 percent and above). I have two master degrees but I was never asked about test scores, nor asked to complete a test.

The ratings for tutors is also bogus. Tutors decide if they are a "Junior Tutor" or a "Master Tutor". I have enough experience to be a PhD tutor but I live in the South, and nobody here is going to pay $112/hr for tutoring. I listed myself as a Senior tutor because the prices were more inline with my city's demographics. If you look at the PhD tutors, several of them only have their bachelor's degrees. Furthermore, the rating scale they give the tutors: 9.3, 9.7, etc. There is no formula for that. They just make up a number. I was a 9.7 and though I appreciated the rating, I have no idea why I was given that.

The reason I joined McElroy Tutoring to begin with is that Brian advertises that unlike other tutoring companies that take high commissions from their tutors, his company only takes 10% of the tutor's pay. To quote from the site, "Also, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.  Because we keep our overhead low,  approximately 90% of the gross profits from our tutoring sessions goes straight back to the tutors themselves." LIE. He mentions it a second time on his site as well, "This is because we only take an approximately 10% administrative cut for the company, giving the remaining 90% cut directly to our tutors." What a bunch of hogwash. That is false advertising.  

I was supposed to make $50/hr. My first paycheck was accurate. The second paycheck they tried to rip me off by telling me that I only earn $30/hr, when my clients were paying $50. That's a 40% commission for them. So much for the 10% that he advertises. When I mentioned that I was paid accurately on the first paycheck, they told me that they accidentally paid me twice.


Brian McElroy also advertises "Because we take care of all the billing, and do not limit their employment options, our tutors can afford to focus on the most important goal:  simply becoming the most skilled educators they can be." Another LIE. When I had a client who didn't pay ahead of time, they wanted me to contact him and ask him for the payment. Why the heck are they earning a commission if they aren't even "taking care of the billing"?

Consumers can find good tutors at a number of different sites: Care.com; UniversityTutor.com, or even CraigsList (though you have to be a little more careful I'd say). Tutors can use these sites as well and they are not going to charge a penney for you to post on their websites. Do yourselves a favor--stay away from McElroy Tutoring--they are a shady company.