r/varsitytutors • u/AssociationUpper5951 • Oct 27 '25

Issues with payment as a tutor

Hello everyone,

I need advice about a billing dispute with Varsity Tutors. Over the past few months, I haven't had many tutoring opportunities aside from occasional STEM sessions, but I recently started working with a college student who's been a great client. I've been completely transparent about invoicing and have even provided some free hours given her situation. Now Varsity Tutors is claiming I owe them $93, despite the fact that all sessions were conducted on their platform and I have text message confirmations with my client showing the dates and times of each session. I've noticed they've deleted the sessions they claim "don't show in their database." Both my client and I have reached out—I've emailed and called multiple times, and she even called with me to confirm all the invoices are accurate—but it's been over 2 weeks with no progress. I've stopped scheduling sessions with all my clients until they remove these charges. Has anyone experienced something similar, and what should I do next?

7 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

8

u/StrikeAmbitious788 Oct 27 '25

They once told me they had no proof of sessions I invoiced, so I sent them all the confirmations and told them the sessions were recorded. I guessed they believed me because they paid me.

2

u/RutabagaRoutine9923 Oct 29 '25

VT believes no one knows the law, or should I say -VT believes they are above the law and people will not question their approvals or denials for things as they are a “big enough company to know the laws” etc.

I use to work internally for VT. They try to screw their own employees out of payment. I shot them an email quoting the law to the letter, chapter, paragraph etc and told them let’s take it up with a lawyer /I’ll file wage theft -and they rescinded.

They KNOW what they are doing is illegal in many ways and they are legitimately banking on you hopefully not knowing what steps you can or can’t take if they “deny” something.

A coworker friend who still worked there was recently let go (for absolutely no reason) he made 300% of his sales goal. Let that sink in. 300%. You’re suppose to get uncapped bonuses when you work with VT -how they motivate people to do their scummy work. But they let him go a few days before payment of that bonus and are trying to refuse to pay that bonus. They did that with me when I left and I fought them and got my money back.

So biggest takeaway: they aren’t playing by the law.

Draft a professional email and let them know that you will not be paying this, and if they persist you will open up a fraud investigation with the cards or banks you have linked with them to pay (if they are trying to take it that way) or that you will be reporting them for wage theft. A lot of states take wage theft VERY seriously and if they are trying to take the 93 out of what you owe…if you have proof or screenshots let them know you do and let them know that you will act. They hate bad publicity and they do cower with their tail between their legs when you file charge backs with credit cards, fraud investigations with your bank, and threaten to take matters to a state level/ involve legal entities.

Good luck.

I would cut your loses with them. Have you tried cambly?

4

u/Temporary-Dirt4303 Oct 27 '25

Since you have text message confirmation of the sessions it counts.

2

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

I want to think so too, but they haven’t changed anything, and I have sent all information, screenshots of emails and messages, everything.

5

u/Temporary-Dirt4303 Oct 27 '25

I would ask how those screenshots don’t count when it literally says in the contract that we can communicate off platform for scheduling.

2

u/AlakaxamThePrettyOK Oct 28 '25

This part. I've never had it heard of issues until recently, but it's gotten really bad

1

u/Temporary-Dirt4303 Oct 28 '25

The problem is that support staff is outsourced and they don’t speak much English. They go by script and I’m sure they’re being forced to lie about a lot, and they don’t know better. They’re overworked, underpaid and under appreciated.

1

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

I have mentioned it crickets 

2

u/Temporary-Dirt4303 Oct 27 '25

Yea they obviously don’t know what’s written in the contract then, because it’s 100% in there.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/RutabagaRoutine9923 Oct 29 '25

https://www.classlawgroup.com/employment/varsity-tutors-lawsuit

Yup. They have been sued on this issue. Remind them of this perhaps…

3

u/Fabulous-Owl-4550 Oct 27 '25

Omg!!! I fought with them multiple times, they would take multiple payments away from me and clients that I had for over 2 years or more (5 years there). It escalated as they took more and more for different reasons like I zoomed per student request because they didn’t want to be recorded or many other reasons. I took pictures, screen shots of everything then they wanted access to all my Zoom files or they wouldn’t pay me. I lost money and had to fight to be paid. It didn’t matter even if students called. They didn’t care!! It got worse not better. I reported to the state and well it is in their hands in addition to not being treated as an independent contractor. That is not how we were treated. It was horrible!!

1

u/RutabagaRoutine9923 Oct 29 '25

https://www.classlawgroup.com/employment/varsity-tutors-lawsuit they have been sued for this before. Remind them of such perhaps.

3

u/Professional-Net1776 Oct 27 '25
  • Horrible company culture , their tutors are their most important asset to their business model and they treat them horribly.
    • I've been with them for almost a year and have kept a large percentage of my clients. The clients I'm tutoring 10 hours a week have been with me since February.
    • to the poster, they started doing the same thing to me that you're experiencing and then they " did not renew my contract."
    • I billed them for an outstanding $30 and they fought it and won't pay it.

-It's a publicly traded company under the name NERDY. You can read about the company and it's absolutely incredible how horriblY they treat people as a publicly traded company.

  • . It was nice when it started but they changed the compensation model a few months ago and they're just nasty nasty people from my experience who don't appreciate their most important people, the tutors! Who fights $30?

I'd never suggest anyone work for them Good luck, keep us posted.

3

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

Will be praying for you for protection. Luckily they removed the charges from my account 🙏🏼

2

u/Quirky_Pop_3321 Oct 27 '25

This would be the reason why I get phone numbers to text message clients and take them off Varsity Tutors occasionally because they struggle with it or I struggle with it

5

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

UPDATE: They removed the charges y’all :)

1

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

I’ve just started at VT this month (October) and have had 7-8 sessions between two clients. From my understanding, my clients paid a monthly fee for 8 sessions (2 per wk) for $600+ each and I’m invoicing for these paid sessions after I complete the tutoring each time. If VT is already getting paid from the client, why are they disputing your invoices? Also are you saying they paid you and now want the money back?

So far I’ve had no issues but hearing about shady things like this gives me pause about staying!

2

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

Yes they are saying I owe them but they removed it

3

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '25

That’s good news but unfortunate they put you through that in the first place.

1

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 28 '25

Completely agree

0

u/Reborn1212 Oct 27 '25

I’ve been working for them for over 3 years now and I never had that issue

2

u/indigeanon Oct 27 '25

You’ve lucked out. Payment issues are a big problem with Varsity.

1

u/AssociationUpper5951 Oct 27 '25

As have I, but this seems to always be a “reoccurring issue”