My friend learning ESL recently signed up for Cambly, then found out he could get a local tutor and Cambly refused to refund him. What a total scam of a company - stay away is my advice.
if u want to teach, forget it...i have 8 years experience teaching ESL at a univ in China, am an Ivy League graduate, got a score of 100 on the test Cambly gives you, and the response was that it would probably take months for them to have an opening lo...for 10 bucks an hour? Tell me that before I waste my time with your garbage...
Tell us more about your experience:I subscribed to Cambly and paid for the plan, but I was not able to find a suitable teacher for months. Most tutors I found did not have matching schedules, and as a result I could not take a single lesson.I contacted support and submitted a cancellation/refund request, but it takes too long to get a clear resolution while the next payment date is approaching. It feels unfair to keep charging customers when they cannot use the service.I am not asking for anything unreasonable — I only want my subscription canceled properly and charges stopped, because I never benefited from the service.I hope Cambly improves tutor availability and provides faster customer support and clearer refund handling.Date of experience:(Planı satın aldığın tarih veya son ödeme tarihi — örn: December 27, 2025)
I made a complaint about someone who works for Cambly making inappropriate (racist) comments online, Cambly simply never bothered to respond. The person still works for Cambly.
Unfortunately very bad! I am an English Instructor and I've taken quite a lot of time to create my profile, uploaded a video twice, got approved, and then not approved again, even though my qualifications are stronger than many tutors on Cambly. Their support team is rubbish, copy-paste emails, closing tickets without care. Save yourself the trouble — Preply or italki are way better!!!
They pay their tutors too little money. It was the case before Covid, and after a minimum 30% inflation in real cost of living in the majority of western countries - and 50%+ increase in other countries where their tutors live - they still haven't increased tutor pay.
The company is taking massive cut of student fees.They pay per second of active tuition in front of a camera which records all the data at sub minimum wage levels.They offer "priority hours" during busy times but require you to be available for a whole hour while only "guaranteeing 15 minutes", which is often filled by regular students who choose to book in that time - so it's the same as teaching your own regulars.They also mis-sell their conversational tutors to students as professional tuition leading to upset students if you don't give top-tier tuition while being paid less than any other school out there.That said, if you desperately need quick income, it is a relatively easy way to get started with earnings topping out at about $400 per 50 hours of work
I am writing to express my deep disappointment with the generic rejection I received regarding my tutor profile. I invested significant time and effort in creating a profile that highlights my skills, experience, and passion for teaching, and I find it unacceptable that such effort is dismissed without genuine review or constructive feedback.I strongly believe that my profile demonstrates the qualities of a capable and committed tutor who can add real value to Cambly’s platform. For this reason, I am formally requesting that my profile be reviewed again, this time with the seriousness and attention it deserves.As a company that connects people through communication and learning, Cambly should extend that same respect to its applicants. A fair and thorough review is the least that should be expected in this process.I urge you to reconsider my application and provide me with the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to your platform.
Another terrible on so many levels:1. They advertise around encouraging you to teach yet even more than 10 days later they do not come back with a response 2. Registering requires pics/video and they are so fussy about everything: when pointing out they have lots of tutors with filters on their pics or videos which are rubbish or description including things they did not allow me to say/write they replied 'these are old profiles'. Basically they do preferential treatment.3. Customer service does not even bother in replying to you4. The software itself is so rubbish on a tablet - you simply start kicking yourself over wasting so many days with this site achieving nothing - and yes, I am a very patient person. Really not worth it.
It's not all bad. I have been teaching on Cambly for at least four years and have had many interesting talks and met so many great students. Of course it would be great if they recognized the tutor's efforts and raised the hourly rate a little!
The customer's service was rude
I heard this from a friend of another friend who was looking to learn conversational English. They searched online and were advised to sign up with Cambly to help them.They paid for a full subscription, but when they met their tutor for a class, they realised the tutor had worse English than theirs.They were very disappointed and when they kindly asked for a refund, Cambly refused and kept their money.How awful was it to hear about their experience? I'm surprised this company hasn't been reported to authorities. Just look at all the 1* ratings here; don't waste your money in the first place.
As a tutor I've been able to experience both sides of this platform through conversations with my students as well as my own personal experience. Cambly's system makes it difficult to make a decent amount of money due to the low pay and rules and regulations. The servers are horrible, resulting in technical issues that tutors are ultimately punished for as Cambly will claim you weren't online when you were. Students are also charged different prices depending on their region and most are paying way too much. The platform controls how many hours you receive and places tutor's profiles in a particular order. Regardless of your high rating it is nearly impossible to maintain a steady schedule. Definitely not worth the stress.
Cambly is disconnecting tutors while they sit in front of their screen waiting for a lesson to come and then falsely claiming that they could not detect their presence online. They are then penalised financially and in their ratings. It saves Cambly from paying the minimum fee of 2.25 USD for having them sit there for an hour with no lessons.
As a qualified TEFL teacher, I found myself in a difficult position due to the pandemic and, like many others, turned to Cambly as a temporary solution. There are some positives—the flexibility and immediate availability of work were a lifeline when I needed it most. However, the reality of working for Cambly is deeply concerning.The pay rates are appalling—$10 per hour is disgraceful for qualified educators who invest time and effort into their students. Worse still, Cambly offers little to no support for its teachers. I was verbally abused by a student and, upon reporting the incident, was met with a threat of termination if I took the same course of action again. Instead of protecting its teachers, Cambly prioritizes its bottom line, disregarding the well-being of the people who keep the platform running.Many of the teachers on Cambly are in vulnerable positions, relying on this income to survive, and yet they are subjected to working conditions that could be described as exploitative. While everything appears fine from their headquarters in California, the reality for their global workforce is vastly different—bordering on what can only be described as modern-day slave labor.Something must be done to hold Cambly accountable. Teachers deserve fair pay, protection, and respect.
One of my friends signed up for lessons with Cambly and I shudder to think how they had the worst experience ever.Not only were they overcharged, but the tutor they encountered had absolutely no idea how to teach and told the student how they were doing this job as a side gig. The student gradually got the idea that the tutor was completely unmotivated and only cared about making $ (which, when the student researched, was barely anything anyway, like way below any minimum wage).What a horrific experience for this person who trusted Cambly and then got patently ripped off, leaving her to join a more reputable platform for her studies.They should be able to award 0 stars for this sham of a company that is only there to make profit and doesn't give 2 hoots about any student's learning journey,
Finalement, j'ai le remboursement de Cambly. Après quelque relance la demande. J'ai abonné Cambly 1 an mais je ne veux plus continuer l'abonnement. J'ai annoncé une semaine avant la date d'expiration, mais ils ont continué le prélèvement. Quand je pose la demande, sa réponse :Hi 65ae9d95c1b223b05781334b,We'd love to hear what you think of our customer service! Please take a moment to answer one simple question by clicking below.How would you rate the support you received?Good, I'm satisfiedBad, I'm unsatisfiedHere's a reminder of your last message to us: ...Thanks a million!Cambly Team J'attends toujours le remboursement.
Cambly are stealing from tutors. When a student doesn't show up to the lesson, the students lose their minutes but the tutor only gets $2 for waiting "10 minutes".We've wasted 30 minutes of our day, and only get $2 while Camly gain the minutes back of the students, they've already got the students money through the subscription yet they take from us...even though this is our livelihood!Moral of the story, don't support this money stealing low life scumbag company.
Awful company to work for, the pay is truly terrible and has been the same for ten years (inflation doesn't exist In Cambly world). They randomly watch your lessons then send you "encouraging"emails telling you how you can "improve", they will also fire you without any notice and any explanation Students don't turn up and you get a $2 for waiting and using a thirty minute time slot. A total joke of a company.
I tried to apply to work for this firm and 7 others at the same time. Due to their very bad software it was impossible to become a tutor with them. I repeatedly tried to get some sense from their badly trained staff but finally gave up on joining them as all the customer service team would do was to sent me the same faulty link, over and over again. They also did not read my emails properly.
