1. How do I get help with my homework and assignments?

PlentyofTutors offers you 3 main ways to get help:

1. Post to General Public - By simply selecting "ASK", you can post your question to the general public. This means that everyone can see it, both students and tutors. This can be a great option because it means someone could answer your question for FREE. However, if it doesn’t get answered for free, tutors will be able to bid on your question. This will create competition, and ensure that you pay the absolute lowest price for an explanation to your question.

2. Email 1 or more Tutors - Select My Tutors, find a tutor that you like, and select "send email". You can then decide which tutors you want to send your question to (you can send your question to every tutor with the click of the mouse). You will then receive quotes from tutors telling you how much they would charge to explain the answer. Select whichever tutor you like, and award them the job.

3. Connect Live with a Tutor - Simply click on My Tutors, choose a tutor that you want to connect with, and select “live chat”. You can then talk with the tutor via a chat window and an interactive white board that you can write on.

2. How much does it cost?

By posting your question to the general public, you could get answers for FREE. However, if you use the services of one of the tutors, then you either: a) pay the rate they charge if you are receiving live tutoring, or b) pay the rate that you and the tutor negotiate, if you are receiving an explanation through email.

3. What is escrow?

When you are ready to hire a tutor for an email exchange, you have to be willing to pay the amount of money that you and the tutor agree to. But instead of paying the tutor the money first, and then waiting for an answer, your money is put into what is called "escrow". This means that PlentyofTutors will hold your money while you are waiting for your answer. Once you receive your answer and you are happy with it, the tutor will ask you to release the money you put into escrow. Once you release the money, the tutor will then be paid.

This system is put in place by PlentyofTutors to protect everyone involved in the deal. You are protected because the tutor cannot receive his/her money until you release escrow. This ensures that you get quality answers for the money that you pay. Now, if the answer is of good quality, please release escrow right away.

4. What if I don’t like the service I received?

At PlentyofTutors we are committed to making you happy with the service that you receive. If you receive service that you are not happy with, the first thing you should do is contact the tutor who provided the service to see if they can help you. Quite often, the tutor can provide further explanation to help make you a happy customer. If you accepted a bid from a tutor and you feel like the work provided was not worth the money, select "My bids", "Accepted Bids", click on the bid in question and you will see a button labeled "Report tutor to admin and stop session". Please use this button to report a concern you have about a tutor. If the problem you have is with service that you received through live tutoring, then please email us at question@plentyoftutors.com. Please include any material provided by the tutor if you have it, and we will investigate your complaint right away. You can be rest assured that if the service you received was not up to our high standards, you will receive a 100% refund for that tutor session.

Note: A valid, current PayPal account is required in order to obtain a refund.

5. How do I know if the tutor I am about to hire is any good?

There are 3 main ways to make sure your tutor is good:

1. Tutor Ratings - This is really important! Check out the tutor's rating by clicking on his/her profile. A good rating means that other students liked the service that they received. If the rating is bad, you might want to try another tutor.

2. Tutor Bio - You can also check the tutor’s bio by clicking on his/her profile. Here you can find information like what education and how much teaching experience a tutor has.

3. Free Live Session - When you click “live chat” to talk to a tutor live, you do not have to pay right away! You can chat with the tutor for 3 min for free. If you don’t like the tutor after that time, simply end the session and go find another tutor without paying a cent!

Remember to rate all tutors that you use, so that other people can learn from your experience.

6. What is a study group?

Let’s say instead of paying for help, you just want a place that you and a few classmates can complete assignments online. By forming a study group, you can post questions, answers, and files to your group. Then all of those posts can be easily accessed from your profile page. You won’t have to go looking through all the other posts on the site to find your group’s posts.

Groups can be public (anyone can view posts), or private (you must be accepted into the group by the owner).

7. What about putting money into my account?

The security of the money in your PlentyofTutors account is extremely important to us. We use an industry leader in the area of online transactions, PayPal. We have also enlisted the help of the world’s second largest digital certificate provider, GeoTrust, to provide another layer of protection for your money.

8. Is using this site cheating?

This is a great question. Online tutoring is relatively new, but tutoring is not! Tutoring is a valid education tool that can help you become a better student, and get better grades. Nobody would question you if you met a tutor at a local library and paid for tutoring. Well, why should you have to go to the library? Receiving tutoring online is absolutely just as legitimate as receiving tutoring in person, face to face. In fact, it is actually much more efficient than traditional tutoring because you can access help online, at your own convenience, anywhere that you have internet access!

9. Do you have a policy against cheating?

Yes we do. We absolutely discourage students from handing in work that is not their own. Please review our academic honesty policy for more details.

10. Are there any other fees?

If you deposit $10 or more into your PlentyofTutors account, there are no fees associated with that transaction. Unfortunately, we have to charge a small transaction fee of $0.50 for every deposit that you make that is less than $10. This fee helps us cover the transaction fees that we have to pay in order to process your deposits, and keep your money safe.
Other than this, the only fees are those that you and the tutor negotiate together.

11. How can I check my current balance?

Select "My Tutors" and the select "My Payments". Here you will find your current balance, your deposit amounts, and any amounts that you have paid out to tutors.

12. What is My Voice?

This blog is setup for visitors of PlentyofTutors to share their thoughts or opinions on just about anything (keep it appropriate please). Got an opinion? Let’s hear it!

13. How do I know if my question has been answered and/or I have a new bid?

The easiest way to know when your question gets answered is to access your question, and click on "alert me when new answers/bids are posted". When you select this option, you will get a personal email each time an answer has been posted or bid placed. When you receive the answer you want or accept a bid, you can turn the alert off by either clicking on the same link again, or deleting the alert from your profile page.

14. When do I use the report abuse link?

If you think that the posted material is in violation of the PlentyofTutors terms of service, or community guidelines, then please, report it.

15. When a question or answer is reported for abuse, is it automatically deleted?

Reporting inappropriate material is something that has to be done in order for users to have a safe environment in which to post questions and answers. Posts that have been reported will be examined promptly and deleted if necessary.

16. Question not answered here? Something not working right?

Please email us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions to improve the site. We love to hear from our users!

question@PlentyofTutors.com

Tutors

1. How can I tutor students?

PlentyofTutors offers you 3 main ways to tutor students:

1. Post to General Public - By simply selecting "ASK", students can post questions to the general public. Most questions posted to the general public will be biddable, which means that you can place a bid on the question. If a student accepts your bid, then you would provide the answer through our email system.

2. Email 1 or more Tutors - Students have the option of emailing their question(s) to either one or multiple tutors, so that tutors can email back a quote for completing the answer. Students will likely choose to email tutors that have high ratings from past clients, so it is important to provide quality work to be rated higher. The highest rated tutors will be displayed on the PlentyofTutors main page.

3. Connect Live with a Tutor - Students will be able to view all tutors that are currently online. Once they select a tutor to chat live with, the tutor and student will be able to chat via a chat window and a virtual interactive whiteboard. The session will be timed, and the student will be billed according to the rate that you have set.

2. How much money will I make for tutoring?

As a tutor here at PlentyofTutors, you are in complete control of setting your own rates for your tutoring services. If you are doing an email exchange, you and the student will need to agree on a price before you complete the work. If you are doing a live chat with a student, you determine what your rate is (usually set to a certain amount of money per minute). The better your quality of work, the more money you can charge!

3. What is escrow?

When students commit to hiring you and everyone agrees on a price for your services, the agreed upon amount of money is then placed in escrow. This essentially means that a third party (PlentyofTutors) holds onto the money until the transaction is done. When a student places money into escrow, this indicates to you that the student has committed to the funds that you agreed to. Once you provide the student with the answer, you will also request that the student release the escrow funds to you.

This system is put in place by PlentyofTutors to protect everyone involved in the deal. Tutors are protected because they do not have to provide answers until they are sure that the student has committed funds to escrow, and students are protected because they will not release escrow funds to a tutor unless they receive what they paid for, good answers.

4. What if a student does not pay me?

If you don’t get paid for some reason, you should report the matter to admin. Select “My bids”, “Placed/Accepted Bids”, and click on the bid in question. Select the link near the bottom of the message titled, “Report student to admin and close session”. This will alert us that there is a problem and we will investigate promptly.

5. How do I get paid?

You will be paid every week by a deposit into your PayPal account (note: please make sure your PayPal email ID is correct in your personal profile).

The amount we owe you will be calculated based on completed tutor sessions every Sunday sometime between the hours of
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm. You will then receive a deposit into your PayPal account the same day before 11:59 pm.

The amount of money paid will be all money earned for the week less a fee charged by PlentyofTutors to use our service.

Note: a valid PayPal account is required in order to receive payment.

6. What fees does PlentyofTutors charge tutors?

PlentyofTutors does not charge any registration or membership fees to be part of our site. PlentyofTutors charges a flat rate of 26% of all income received from tutoring, whether it be from live tutoring, email exchange, or from a bid awarded to a tutor.

7. What about income tax?

As a tutor, you are considered an independent contractor. This means that we do not have to withhold any income tax from your earnings at PlentyofTutors.com. You are responsible for claiming any income you earn from us to the appropriate tax authorities in the jurisdiction that you live in.

8. How can I check my current balance?

Select "My bids", and then select "My Payments".

9. Question not answered here? Something not working right?

Please email us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions to improve the site. We love to hear from our users!

question@PlentyofTutors.com