It pains me to write this (lengthy) review having worked with Sandra for over a year for Spanish lessons. As you'll see from my previous Yelp reviews, I usually only leave positive reviews (I've written 14 reviews, all 5 stars). I tend to not write any negative reviews in order to not impact anyone's business. This one, however, is warranted.
I found Sandra on Yelp, and saw all her glowing reviews. She has great energy, so I got sucked in. There were some red flags, but I ignored them because she was so personable and complimentary during our lessons. The red flags: She immediately asked me to leave her a positive review on Yelp after about two lessons. When I hadn't by the following week, she asked me again. I felt pushed into leaving her a positive review. She's extremely pushy. At the end of every lesson she reminds you to pay her in advance via Venmo for the following week's class. I understand she is a freelancer, and this is to avoid people from cancelling on her, so I completely understood and respected this. That is why for over a year, I immediately paid her after each lesson for the following week's lesson. I never missed a payment, yet she ended every lesson by reminding me to pay her on Venmo. Her lessons were via Zoom/Skype for about 55 minutes, and the last 20-25 minutes consisted of a writing component. During the writing component, she would shut her camera off until the end when I'd read her what I wrote. It seemed odd to me to pay someone $60/hour, when for about 20-25 minutes of that time she wasn't participating in the lesson. Thus, I eventually asked for our lessons to be solely speaking lessons for the full hour. During many of our Zoom/Skype lessons, she was interrupted by someone on her end. A few times she was vaping but tried to hide it by covering the screen with her hand. I never said anything, and that's my fault. She was very personable, I felt bad saying anything or discontinuing working with her. Multiple times she would email me last second, asking to change the date/time of our lessons. No problem. Except the one time I had to change our lesson to the following week due to needing to fly to the east coast for my mother-in-law's funeral, she didn't give me a refund. I told her since it was less than 24 hours' notice she could keep the $60 and I'd rebook for the following week when I returned. I never thought she'd take me up on the offer, but she did. My fault.
I then told her via email I was going to switch to every other week lessons instead of weekly. She said she understood. Until our next lesson, when she tried to see if I would book for the following week. Extremely pushy. At that point in time, I realized enough was enough. My husband, friends, family and other language tutors had been telling me since about month one of working with her that I was being taken for a ride by her. I finally no longer felt bad in discontinuing working with her. Despite that, I sent her a very kind email (see picture) telling her I'd be discontinuing my lessons with her, but that it had been a pleasure working together and I'd be happy to refer people her way. I asked her on a Monday for my $60 back for the Wednesday lesson I had pre-paid for. She replied (see picture) saying she doesn't issue refunds. First of all, it's not a refund. I never had the lesson. Second of all, it was my understanding she needed 24 hours' notice. I gave her over 48. I replied to her (see picture), and she never responded. After over a full year of working with her, that's how she chose to end it.
I hope she feels great about getting to keep that $60 for the lesson I never had. I truly mean it when I say, find another tutor to work with. She will make you feel as if she cares about you, but she only cares about the money.
Sandra - please do not reply as you have to others about why you have your "no refund" policy. I've addressed that above. And the end of the day, you know I was a very reliable and respectful student, and you know not giving me the final $60 for a lesson I pre-paid for and never took after over a year of working together wasn't the right thing to do. As I said in my email, it was actually despicable. read more