Unfortunately, the cons far outweigh the pros, and most of the cons stem from questionable policies that Tutor.com has put in place. The bonus system is akin to holding a carrot out of the reach of a donkey, as the company puts a goal in front of you that is rarely attainable and based more on luck than skill. Bonuses are based on your number of sessions and your average student review, but one or two bad reviews will crater your average and all but eliminate your chances at getting a good bonus. And most of these bad reviews have nothing to do with your skills as a tutor, but depend more on avoiding any students that don't want to work, want you to give them answers, get confused by the company's policies, etc, which often leads to unfairly-earned 1-star reviews. While the tutor doesn't get in trouble for these sessions, Tutor.com has no objection to letting those sessions tank earnings potential for bonuses.
Tutor.com's asinine time-limit philosophy--which is largely in place due to their contracts with schools/universities--hurts both the student and the tutor. The time-limit seems arbitrary and there's no countdown clock for the student--in fact, the student is often unaware that there's a time limit at all and the tutor is not allowed to mention it. Tutors are supposed to bring the session to a natural ending place within the time limit, but that's not feasible with a lot of assignments, especially essays. Students often get confused about why the session is ending, sometimes getting frustrated or agitated, which leads to poor reviews. And tutors aren't allowed to even say that our time is up! If you mention the time limit, you get marked for it on your next review session with your mentor. So students are kept in the dark and have to log off and log back on to connect with a tutor to finish their assignment...and rarely do they get the same tutor, so an essay can be edited with the aid of many tutors, which likely produces inconsistency throughout the paper.
Also, instead of being able to decline sessions if you aren't familiar with the subject matter, it's preferred that you accept the session and google the material. This isn't fair to either the student or the tutor.
Add this to the other complaints--lack of available hours, low pay, useless support website--and the negatives far outweigh the positives. It's okay to work for them short-term, but eventually you get tired of losing money due to their policies.
