Student booked a trial lesson as a birthday gift for her father.
A few days ago, I received a trial booking. After the student booked the lesson, I sent him a couple of messages, but he never read or replied to them. He also didn’t complete the initial level test, so I had nothing to work with to prepare for the lesson.
When the trial started, we mostly just chatted. He seemed like a genuinely nice person. At the end of the lesson, I asked whether he understood how the subscription system worked, and he looked completely confused. He told me he had no idea about any of it. Apparently, his daughter had simply gifted him a “one-hour conversation session” with a tutor for his birthday.
I don’t blame the student or his daughter. Most students have no idea that tutors are not paid for trial lessons, or that we are penalized when trials do not convert into subscriptions. Still, I find it very disappointing that Preply allows situations like this to happen. We sometimes end up working for free and can even suffer negative consequences for failing to convert a student when the outcome is entirely beyond our control.
TL;DR: A student came to a trial lesson because his daughter gave him a “one-hour chat with a tutor” as a birthday gift. He had no intention of subscribing and didn’t even know how Preply worked. I taught the lesson for free and still got penalized for not converting the trial into a subscription.