(1) Close to minimum wages -- you're better off advertizing your tutoring services on your own. I think they started me at about $9-$10. You get ripped off in comparison to what they charge the students.
(2) They have no interest in you as an individual -- tutors are identified as Jennifer S. or John P., etc.
(3) Many of the tutors and mentors are not experts in their tutoring area -- I've seen many tutors transfer simple questions to other tutors and go in the wrong direction on simple calculus problems. Most tutors get away with it because tutor.com is not supposed to give answers to students' questions. The management tries to get you to get the answer from the students, not show them how to do the problem correctly. Most tutors end up wasting a lot of time on a problem that could takes 5 minutes if they were allowed to show the steps to the student.
(4) You get a lot of abusive students who ask you questions without knowledge of any basics.
(5) The management and the mentors constantly get on your case about time limits or trying to show the student the steps to do the problems. Instead you have to kiss the management's ass and wait like an idiot for the student to write something that makes some kind of sense on the interactive board, which is awful to write on and to communicate with the student.
(6) The management is more interested in quality control and high student ratings than in giving students sound problem solving techniques and correct information.
(7) If you kiss the management's ass and don't argue with difficult students, they might let you stay. If you show too much independence, you're likely to get fired and get cut off from any communication with the company.
Getting fired from tutor.com was the best thing that happened to me. Now I see students in person, get paid twice as much and don't have to deal with ignorant mentors and quality control police. Tutor.com is like a big conveyer belt that recycles tutors without regard for their individuality or depth of knowledge. There are other places like brainmass.com or liveperson.com that allow you to share your knowledge and set your fees and where you're not some faceless tutor working in sweatshop-like atmosphere of tutor.com.
