TakeLessons

Hi Sheri - so sorry for the confusion. We try very hard to communicate thoroughly through our Student Counselors and follow-up emails to you. If the communication failed you, we're certainly happy to make you whole. We've gone ahead and issued you a refund for TakeLessons Live and hope you remain a customer.

Thanks again for letting us know. We'll continue to work harder at communicating the service and we look forward to hearing about your success as a student.

Cheers!
The TakeLesssons Team, San Diego CA

To contact TakeLessons Customer Support please call us at [protected]. We are open Monday through Friday from 8 am - 5 pm PT. We will either help find you a new French horn teacher, or issue you a full refund - your choice.

CEO Steven Cox- your take lessons site does not provide an opportunity to delete account. More cyber trash.

CEO Steven Cox- your phone number is NOT at the TOP of the page. Why don't you have the teachers pay you for the use of your site instead of having teacher provide money account info. - Having anyone provide financial info without a contact live person is FRAUD.

Hello,
I'm so sorry you had a negative experience with TakeLessons and the instructor. Rather than going into a lengthly explanation of why we need to receive payment before the lessons occur, I'll just apologize and commit to you to work harder at giving you an awesome experience next time. If you do need to call us, our number is at the very top of our site on all the pages, and we welcome you to give us a call so we can help you. (Please see attached image).

Thanks again and hope you give us another shot. I appreciate your business.

Steven Cox, Founder and CEO

They ask for a teacher's bank account info with NO phone number nor address on their site. This is a sign of fraud right off the bat.

Teachers are high school grads. They pose as a local service yet its a one man hack job from California

A much better name for this scam should be "Takeyourmoney" "TAKESADVANTAGE" or better yet "TAKESBALLS" for the brazen claims they make so often that if they ever say ANYTHING truthful, everything would likely fall apart for them like the house of cards that they are.

Takelessons' political and mechanical responses are just well scripted "right things to say" insincerity that THEY ARE KNOWN FOR. Both teachers and customers are nothing more than "numbers" or "bodies-ion a -room" and the very opposite of what a genuine, devoted student would ever want involved in your progress, much less trust..

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR PRESSURING CUSTOMERS TO SIGN UP WITHOUT SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO THE TEACHER. ONLY SCAMS USE THIS DISTASTEFUL TACTIC AND IT ISN'T AVOID "DISTURBING THE TEACHERS" AS THE LIAR FROM TL CLAIMS.

REAL teachers are HAPPY to talk with you up front BEFORE you sign up with them. TAKELESSONS KNOWS THAT THEIR TEACHERS WILL NOT IMPRESS ANYONE IF THEY ARE ALLOWED TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS INSTEAD OF THEIR SALESMEN WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO JACK UP NUMBERS.

TAKELESSONS LIKE TO SCARE CUSTOMERS INTO BEING AFRAID TO TALK TO TEACHERS AND AFRAID OF TEACHERS IN GENERAL WHICH IS COMICAL. ACTUALLY, IT IS CALLED PROJECTION BECAUSE THE ONLY PEOPLE YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF IS SALESMEN.

Instructors are only hired for being cheap, THAT'S ALL. If you work for Best Buy, you are expected to be a SALESMAN and teaching will not be considered and "excuse" to be paid extra. If you do not work for Best Buy and you pay for their fake "certification" kit, you will just be posting Takelessons' ads and THEY WILL NOT REFER PEOPLE RESPONDING TO YOUR ADS TO YOU IF THEY HAVE A SUCKER WORKING AT BEST BUY. They will only list your first name and initial of your last name and the phone number goes straight to San Diego salesmen who will lie through their teeth because that is what they are SCRIPTED TO DO.

Customers will end up being jacked around different "instructors that TL picks up from Craigslist advertising they will teach for really cheap prices.

Hi KylesPianoStudio,

We have the utmost respect for our teachers and know that we are very lucky to have them. We also know that they appreciate the services our support staff provides in helping them manage their student accounts and schedules. We all work as a team... teachers as well as support staff, to bring our students the best music lessons experience possible. We'll continue to work on ways to guarantee that music teachers can make a living doing what they love, which is teach.

Hi, NotAmusedIn Texas,

Thanks for sharing your TakeLessons experience with us. It’s reviews like yours that help us understand how we can continue to clarify any policies or procedures that may be vague or confusing to potential students or teachers.

We’re in a unique position in that we not only provide access to amazing music teachers for our students, but we also manage the marketing, billing, scheduling and general administrative tasks for our teachers, allowing them to really focus on teaching their students. Our intention isn’t to deny you access to your chosen teacher, but to get the lessons lined up for both parties efficiently. If we were to refer every potential student directly to the teacher, it would compromise the time they have to spend teaching, which is precisely what we want to avoid. Once you’re signed up as a student, your teacher will reach out to you, answer any questions you may have and give you any guidance you may need before you begin your lessons. (And, as you mentioned we do have the 100% money back guarantee if you’re unhappy after your first lesson.)

Please feel free to share any additional thoughts. We hope you’ll allow us to help you find an amazing music teacher in the future and we’re confident that, if given the chance, we’ll not only meet, but exceed any expectations you might have.

Hi,

Just thought you should know that they treat their teachers just as bad. In an economy where music teachers in particular are being laid off all over California, TakeLessons.com has the gall to pay at least 37% below the going rate for a private teacher.

And, if that weren't bad enough, they post pictures on their Facebook page about the masseuse they hired for their call center staff. Great, what about the ACTUAL TEACHERS that make their business go, huh?

i am thinking in becoming a teacher with this guys but the more i read the reviews and complaints about them the more uninspired I become to be part of this capitalist and legal way of exploiting both teachers and clientele.
They ask me to sign this long, long agreenment in which they state first of all that they will take 50% off the lessons I will be giving meaning they will be making money while sitting in their desk ?
This is pretty ###ed uo way of making money off of poor artists who are desperate to get student.
If they want this to really work they should at least give 65-70% to the teacher the one who will make you play or learn an instrument...

I have been a teacher at takelessons.com for about 1 year as a Spanish teacher. Though the site is most known for music, you can find all subjects being taught there. There's actually great freedom in what you can teach. I don't remember being screen to be a teacher there. Perhaps they did, I don't know. Classes are offered in person or online through their their online module, which is easy to use, and comes with screen-share. For example, I am strictly an online teacher. When I first started with them, I did not get any students. But as I worked on my profile, I began to get students. Soon so many inquiries were coming in that I stopped taking new students (won't come up in searches), since I was happy with the amount of students I already had. What I like about takelessons is that it's easy to use, and pays every week reliably. You can get students from anywhere in the world where there is internet. What I don't like is that student's cannot buy one lesson at a time. They have to buy packages of five lessons or more. So a lot of students ask questions before committing to a package, obviously because they will be putting some real money, and want to know if it's a good fit. But you won't really know until a lesson takes place. Sometimes, you just don't click with a student, and they seek a refund for the remaining classes (which is handled by takelessons). Another sore point is the minimum cost for a lesson is $15 an hour. No one can charge less than $15. So this keeps the prices somewhat artificially high, there's no race to the bottom, and it takes some freedom from someone who's willing where living cost is low and is willing to teach for less than $15 (of which takes lessons gets a good cut of). It seems they don't get teachers from outside the USA, so perhaps its part of their business model. Takelessons takes 40% cut from the first five lessons, each package after that you earn 10% more until you reach 90%, which is good when long term students kick in. All in all, it's a decent deal for both the teacher and the student. Taking and giving lessons online eliminates the cost of transportation in both time and fuel, the stress of traffic etc. So there's a great deal of 'saving' going on through the online classroom. If they eliminated their package requirements I suspect they could be doing a lot more business. Some people only need one or two lessons.

I meant I have a 4 year degree and have been teaching for 17 years.

The only reason I found this message board is by accident. It has come up on the top of the search engines and I was searching to make sure my profile was turned off because I have 50 students! I am a teacher with Take Lessons, I have been there since 2010. I have never worked for a better company. They have even sent me Christmas cards. I have my own company too. I have been teaching for 4 years and have a 4 year degree, but you don't need one to be a music teacher. Experience is what you need. Not learning about history and math. It was waste of my money. And the high costs of lessons helps to keep a teacher working when she is not actively teaching. It takes time to learn and implement curriculum. I'm very shocked to see all of these negative reviews. Yes I hear complaints from customers all the time. But I find that customers requests are out of line too. If someone cancels for a birthday party, should the teacher go without pay? And also, I have made $1000's of dollars from them, they are always there to discuss any concerns I have, and work with me every step of the way. Now I don't know how things have differed from when I started, but I told my boyfriend to apply to be a teacher and he did not get hired. He has a much larger background in theory then I do, and didn't go to school. I thought I would be able to get him through the door. But it doesn't work like that. And teachers make mistakes too by the way, even the most educated. I think you all need to take a step back, and think about what your rant is about. Companies of very large sizes are bound to have some complaints. But I wouldn't stay with them as long as I have if it weren't a good company. If you dont want to pay for lessons then do some research and find free tutorials. I'm not leaving my name because I am afraid of the negative feedback I will get from all of you for stating the truth. I have an established business.
Take Lessons Instructor.

Dissatisfactory service for GMAT tutoring, he was very unprofessional and missed classes. Don't think I'll take them again.

I'm a music teacher and I've been a music professional for 20 years. They take 40 percent for the first five lessons. I am very disappointed with the screening of my students through this company. They also lack in travel cost and distance so when I'm trying to qualify customers they harass me and my students or potential clients and they promote another teacher to them. It's a waste of my time. I use a monthly commitment theirs is weekly. It's very poorly managed. Thumbtack is a far better system. I might add they set me up with a criminal. So they don't screen customers. They are only interested in making "the buck".

First, these posts are OLD, it's September 2015. Second, It's a service, no one has to use it. I'm a teacher with, and am pretty critical on most things where people tend to have to reign me in when I find things to be "scams".

Pay is higher for the teacher than is stated on these complaints. The cost for the lessons, less than is being claimed here. Plus, as the teacher continues with a student, pay increases by percentage up to 90% as the lessons continue.

The fact is, a student can pick their teacher based on the experience the teacher has. Can the experience be a con? Sure, but the student can ask questions from teachers before having to commit to hiring them. Some teachers might turn off the questions feature, so the smart student might pass them right over then. Point is, it's up to any student to know who they are hiring as a teacher before they commit - that's just good sense.

Teachers are also able to allow background checks. It's only 20 buck now, reasonable. Students/parents of students would find this comforting, at least more so than not. Again, since TakeLessons is a formal entity, there is an additional accountability factor there some people might say. At the very least you have to assume TakeLessons is not looking for lawsuits.

Teachers also can't be prevented from teaching outside the service. Having the service is a bonus, not a take away for teachers.

So I call this one out as NOT a scam. It's an option, a choice. It may not be for all teachers, it may not be for all students, but TakeLessons seems to be doing a reasonable job at this moment in time.

Attn. Take Lessons.com We are the consumer advocacy group that has made Thumbtack.com's life a pure living hell. After reading all the negative comments on this thread (and many others throughout the internet) We have decided to turn our attention towards you.We can promise you this will not be pleasant in the least bit. We are a powerful group of intelligent people who stand up and fight for those who have been ripped off. Your business model and current method of operation sickens us and we will now deal with things our way...Be ready.