S'pore grandfather, 75, upset that granddaughter's tutor charged S$388.70 for 1 lesson & some Chinese books

A family in Singapore hired a primary school level Chinese language tutor via a Facebook group and felt that they overpaid after handing over S$388.70 just for the first lesson.

Details about what transpired were shared by the child's grandfather, Dav, 75.

Found tutor via Facebook group

Speaking to Mothership, Dav said his family found a tutor, Ms Tan, via the "Chinese Tuition in Singapore: Parents, Tutors, Agencies, Centres & Students" Facebook group, which has more than 370 members.

The first trial lesson was arranged for Sep. 21 from 9am to 11am at Dav's daughter-in-law's house.

Ms Tan, who Dav's family estimated to be in her 50s, claimed via text messages that she has more than 20 years of experience teaching in schools.

Dav's granddaughter is in Primary Two.

Prior to the class, the tutor offered a rate of S$170 for a two-hour class.

Dav said the price appeared a bit on the high side, but his daughter-in-law took a leap of faith to engage the tutor as the family was also unclear what the hourly rate was in this economy.

How much?

However, on the day of the lesson itself, the tutor claimed that the cost of teaching materials and the lesson would be S$388.70 in total. She also bought toys for Dav's granddaughter as seen in the picture with the various Chinese language books.

The teaching materials, Dav's family subsequently found out, were 11 books that appeared to be old and not particularly expensive or valuable.

Deducting the S$170 tuition fees, the books cost S$218.70.

This angered Dav, who was not home at the time when the lesson was conducted, but he was kept abreast about what was happening by his family members.

Uncontactable

Dav added he was told that after the lesson, the tutor said she had to rush off.

Text messages sent to the tutor showed she had seen at least one message asking for a refund and for her to take the books back.

A part of the message read:

"I usually pay only S$30-$50 for assessment books and would like to have an itemised receipt or proof of purchase for these storybooks.

If not, please take the books back and refund the amount, as we didn't agree to such an expense upfront. Hope you understand."

Ms Tan apparently left the sender of the message on read.

When she failed to respond, a follow-up text sent to her read: "Don't cheat people like that people's hard earned money."

Dav's daughter-in-law subsequently contacted the bank asking for a reversal of the fund transfer, and was advised to make a police report, which she did.

Goes by many names

According to Dav, Ms Tan allegedly goes by different names, such as "Ms Lee" and "Karina Tay ZY".

The only constant is that these individuals apparently used the same mobile number.

Dav said he found other postings in the Facebook group subsequently, which suggested other families may have fallen for the same ruse.

On hindsight, Dav said he realised that the tutor never showed proof of her credentials to begin with.

According to him, the tutor allegedly claimed that she is currently still teaching Primary Five and Six students in schools, while "providing tutoring across all primary levels".

Dav said he hopes that by making his experience public, other parents are wary of such a ruse, whereby individuals posing as tutors prey on the credulity of others and get away with it as the tuition industry is not as regulated as other sectors.

Mothership has reached out to Ms Tan for comment.

All photos via Dav