I'm an English language teacher here on Italki and I've mostly had very positive experiences but I'm looking for some advice.
I recently had a student fail to attend a lesson with me. I called her multiple times and sent her messages on both Skype and through the Italki message system. When she did respond, it was to say that she'd got the time wrong. I understand this and mistakes happen. However, the problem is what is happening now.
She marked the lesson as having been completed and then asked for me to complete the lesson with her on another day as she's now paid. She did this without discussing potential options with me first. I don't have the time to reschedule with her, but also, I don't know her timezone so I rely on the Italki system to work those details out for me. Further, as the lesson has been marked complete, she has the option to give me a review and I feel like I'm being held to ransom; if I don't accommodate her, she'll give me negative feedback.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I can't see any way to contact Italki directly and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what is appropriate. If a student has a genuine reason for missing a lesson, I'm always happy to reschedule, but I've always done this through the 'There was a problem' option which I don't have in this case.
I have taken more than 300 lessons on italki and to my understanding, when I mark the lesson as completed, I give the feedback of the teacher at the same time. To confirm that a lesson has been completed, first I must rate the lesson (how many stars), tag the teacher (punctual, supportive, prepared, etc) and write my feedback (Great lesson! Etc). If the lesson has been marked as completed already, the student cannot change his review anymore. That is to say, because this student has already marked the lesson as completed, she has already given her review of you, and that review cannot be changed.
The student may have not received her lesson, but this was her fault, and from your perspective, maybe you spent 15 min waiting for this student, and this student never showed up, so it used up some of your time as well. Maybe a potential solution is to give the student the remainder of the time that you did not spend waiting (if you waited for 15 min for this student to show up, then you can give 45 min to her on some future date)
You can contact italki here:
https://support.italki.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
but if you check this FAQ:
https://support.italki.com/hc/en-us/articles/206352848-What-happens-if-I-miss-my-lesson-
"What if the teacher does not agree to reschedule a lesson?
A teacher can refuse to reschedule a missed lesson if you missed the lesson without letting them know ahead of time. In these situations, your teacher should get paid. To pay the teacher, simply mark that the lesson as complete and this will transfer the italki Credits to the teacher."
To build on what Joe said, the process for marking a lesson as completed is:
1. Click the 'lesson has been completed' button;
2. A box opens and you enter your rating/review and then click 'next'; and
3. A smaller box opens and you enter your password and then click 'finalise'.
There would be no way for the student to change the review afterwards.
I may have got the words on the buttons wrong in this because when I do it I have never paid enough attention but I'm sure you get the idea.
Your student may have marked the lesson as completed to ensure that you got paid, despite the fact that she missed the lesson.
We always have the option of thinking the best or the worst, and we usually don't know the answer to either, at least not initially, so try to avoid jumping to conclusions and thinking the worst.
Communicate with the student and set up another day and time.
And there be me advice :)... probably worth what you paid for it :)
In six years and many lessons, I have never had that happen. Students just don't do that -- if anything, they tend to be more than generous. Lots of students will just pay for a lesson they missed if it was their issue.
