Cambly
Cambly Review
Cambly <—– (Click here to Apply) seems to be based in San Francisco and they teach business English and English to children in 1 to 1 classes. They have students from all over the world (Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Poland, etc.). Teachers have flexible schedules and They are looking for native speakers including South Africans. Cambly pays $0.17 cents per minute or $10.20 USD per hour, although you can earn up to $12 USD per hour with Cambly Kids. They pay once every week with Paypal.
Please leave us your comments or review of Cambly.
45 Comments
Kin D
I’ve taught there for a few years. It’s ok if you have the right students. Time will just fly by in that situation. It’s bad if you get demading students who expect to talk like a native English speaker in a month or students who only know five English words. Time will just drage on. It’s best if you have regulars at a high English level who just want to free talk. Right now there seems to be too many tutors so my hours went WAY down. That’s why I’m on this website. haha.
Your score is very important on Cambly because that’s how you get priority hours. They’re referred to as “PHs”. Teachers on a PH get first dibs on students waiting for a tutor. Without priority hours, you won’t find many students. You must get a 5 from each student. If you get a 4, it’ll really hurt your score. With all the new tutors on Cambly, it’s super important to maintain a score close to a 5. Be careful with some regular students though. They might actually give you a 4 each time thinking they are giving you a good score.
The best thing is Cambly pays every week on time. The pay is on the low end though.
Dennis Morris
I am a Cambly tutor, and I have had nothing but excellent experiences in this posotion both with the company and with the students. I am happy to elaborate further for anyone interested in teaching or learning from Cambly. As a former university professor, I recommend Cambly at the highest level.
Eve
I saw the good statement you mentioned about Cambly
Would you perhaps remember how long it took for Camnly to accept your profile after your application was done
Jon
You spent all that money on obtaining ‘Professor’ status and work for $10 an hour?
Emily
I had a terrible experience teaching at Cambly. I had a “student” one day who was very strange, I could definitely tell something was off about him. He was testing me and acting really odd. So at the end of the lesson he starts laughing at me and tells me he is one of the founders or CEOs of the company (which upon my research he actually was) and that he wanted to test me. He laughed at me and thought all his rediculous behaviour during the class was hilarious. I got an email the next day saying he posted the whole class on a social media site in china and that it was getting lots of views. I never gave permission and really felt embarrassed. I never went back. I was shocked how unprofessional he was.
Natascha
…If it’s longer than a month since you sent your application, Cambly probably didn’t accept you. I have had the best and worst possible online experiences on Cambly. It’s a bit of a rodeo without many regulars I concluded.
So get students you want to teach and commit time specifically for them, if you have that kind of time lying around! Don’t stress too much if your rating is 4.8 plus. If you have respectful students they will help you out and hopefully give you the testimonials you’d like. I would, however, give them a week or two of getting to know you before I express that a testimonial and optimal rating would be greatly appreciated!
Express in your profile what you’re especially interested in- action movies, video games, travel or psychology, examination prep, grammar, business English…. any keywords can help you get detected by potential regulars!
I sometimes hate being the virtual Uber driver of English… I think Uber is more fair though. Nevermind the odd senseless mishaps with Cambly’s less than perfect system. I may as well try other platforms too, instead of finding myself in some chaos of random English students popping up, some like strange sprites summoned off a ouija board.
For those awkward moments with tricky classes, this site has helped other tutors-
https://printdiscuss.com/
A student told me that talking and enabling someone to express themselves is a human need and tutoring is worthy. It’s my only inspiration to do it sometimes.
Marilyn Stroup
Does anyone out there currently work for Cambly? Most of the posts on here are very old. I applied to Cambly about 2 months ago. When I check my application status it still says: “Your profile is being reviewed.” Yes, I sent Cambly an email to ask about my status. Just wanted to see if anyone else waited a long time to hear from them? Thank goodness I am not really in need of an online job….If anyone has any information – Thank You!
JS
I do currently work for Cambly. I love it very flexible. I love working with the kids. I do tutor adults from time to time.
Anonymous
I have been working for Cambly for about a year and a half. Different people with different experiences. I had a good experience as a SIDE JOB. The pay is low but that’s why you need to put this job as a side earning. I work mainly for another teaching company.
-The pay is low
-Students from Saudi Arabia, Korea, and Brazil.
-Flexible hours
-They are adding more courses and material which is nice because a lot of the students want you to evaluate them and give them courses from your own material so I had to prep for classes and for the money they pay it ain’t worth it. Some students just want to have a conversation. You have priority hours which is good to make some extra cash during the holidays and they have reservation classes that students reserve from your performance on priority hours.
-This company can be good to gain experience and earn some extra cash.
-I stopped working for about 3 months and came back as nothing happened. They keep your account open even if you stop working for a while.
-They pay every Monday. Yes, Every Week and on time.
Overall, I believe the company is a good way to gain experience teaching and can serve as extra cash for a vacation or anything else. Don’t expect to earn much but the company is pretty lay-back with cancellations and etc. It does have its pros and cons but if you are doing it for some extra cash or part-time then it has more pros than cons.
I hope this helps a bit towards an update to this company for 2021
By the way, thanks to goodairlanguage for helping me find a teaching job and get my teaching career started. I got all my information from here for all 3 companies I have worked for. I still work for 2 out of the 3 companies.
Mr Russ
This is what Cambly send to all of the students you have that have boked up to 3 weeks in advance:
“Unfortunately, your teacher canceled the session Thursday, December 03, 2020, 04:00 AM (Asia / Riyadh) for special circumstances. We apologize for what happened and inform you that your minutes have been fully refunded.”
They don’t send the once either, they send it every time they have booked in advance. I had one student received this message 14 times, leaving the student feeling upset, like that had offended me and I had gotten rid of the student. (I wouldn’t have spelt “cancelled” they way they did, or “apologise” with a ‘z’ it was the only thing that gave it away it wasn’t me.)
The fired me when I was on a break with this email:
“Hello Mr Russ,
Thank you for your participation with Cambly. We’ve really appreciated you taking an interest in our platform and speaking to Cambly students.
We are informing you that your tutor account has been deactivated from our system and the remaining balance will be paid to your PayPal account during the next cycle.
We would like to thank you for your time with us. We wholeheartedly wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
The Cambly Team”
Lovely little piece of literature isn’t it. Unlike others I have read here I know the reason:
One new customer asked me “Hey Mr Russ, do you know anything about property buying in Australia” He was from Saudi Arabia. I said yep just check “LinkedIn – Russ Tuff” then I went on with the next lesson. In the gap of the next lesson i read his response “Great I will contact you shortly”
Then I get this email stating this is against the policies of Cambly… blah blah blah. Yeah… but it was getting business for Cambly, and I have at least 20 students on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, YouTube, my TikTok account… so what, they like to be part of their teachers lives.
They threatened me with sacking me…
Here is exactly what a woman called Ari sent me: “If the disparaging language continues then we reserve the right to deactivate your account.” I said “Do it”
They cant take any criticism and see it as a an opportunity to rectify a situation.
I have four reasons to NEVER EVER work with Cambly.
1. The rarely if at all answer your teacher queries.
2. The platform has bugs all through it, although it is getting better. I stopped letting them know because I would get an automated message after a week saying “How did we go answering your email” to which I would reply “You didn’t answer it” and still didn’t get a reply.
3. Occasionally I spotted I had been ripped off in my pay. like a 45 minute lesson and I only got paid 15 minutes. I have to bring it to their attention, and then they send out a standard email that says:
“Sorry that call’s Chat Length was counted incorrectly!
Incorrect Chat Lengths do happen sometimes – usually caused by a poor student (or tutor) connection or because the tutor has Cambly open in more than one tab – and 99% of the time those chats are automatically flagged by our system and then, manually looked at and corrected by us. If one ever hasn’t been adjusted after two working days, it could be one of the 1% not caught by the system and in that case, please just reply to this message (again, only if it hasn’t been corrected after a few days) and we’ll investigate it for you 🙂
Also, if you find you were released from a PH due to an incorrect Chat Length, you can respond to this email and we will be sure to make any necessary amendments.
There normally isn’t any need to reply to this message, but if you are forced to, as mentioned above, please do include the student’s ID and exact date & time of the call in question
Hope that helps and all the best!”
I got this message twice in two weeks…. 1% my arse.
so…. they’ll rip you off, they treat you badly, they don’t listen, they threaten you with being sacked if you cause trouble, when they do sack you they tell all your students you cancelled the students, they are the lowest pay I have found yet…. why would you work for them?
They have ONE really good thing about them… just one. The pay goes in the bank every Monday night via PayPal without fail. I never had to chase that up. Just the amount I was being paid.
Just so you know… this review is done with nearly 2000 lesson for Cambly and nearly different 800 students. I am glad to have been given the boot by them. There are so many better places to go to. You don’t need this place.
Teale
I am a 16 year old girl from Australia. Do you have to say your age on cambly? Is it easy to get into the Kids program? How easy is it to cancel a call, and what if you get a call from someone who seems off? How are the security measurements? If i were to do reservations, could i control who can reserve?
Me
Cambly are CRAP….You have to put up with Men Masturbating in front of you..Some students who are on the site do not even want to learn English and can not even speak English at the lowest level. I was fired after 1 year because they said some students had told them they did not like the way I taught them..LOL..So why book classes with me if you do not like the way I teach.. They are just interested in making $$ and do not help the Tutors with any problems. If someone cancels a class a second before they are suppose to start you will NOT get paid a cent. CRAP COMPANY….Do not bother with them.
Malika Salim
I enjoyed working for Cambly and had excellent feedback rating and guess what? I got an email this morning stating that my account was being deactivated. I feel very upset as I had a number of sessions arranged today with regular students. They will be messaging me and waiting for me to come online. I suggest that Cambly should at least give tutors time to inform regular learners before the deactivate accounts and also an opportunity for tutors to discuss problems with students in order to help to resolve issues. As, we live in a world where we talk and discuss and try to resolve issues and as teachers/tutors we encourage students to talk and discuss and resolve issues and not to take one side or view.
Joel
Cambly customer service is just about the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Somehow, my tutor account was totally deleted. I’m not even sure if I was fired or what, if anything, I did wrong. This month was my 3-year anniversary on Cambly. I had logged over 18,000 chats earning more than $47,000. As far as I knew everything was fine. I had about 3 weeks of Priority Hours booked and many reservations scheduled. I had a small and loyal following of regular students, many of whom I had known for years. It would have been nice to at least say goodbye. I guess I’ll never get that chance.
wellerman
Strange one. I would want to know more.
Joel
https://www.facebook.com/groups/641422843116945/
wellerman
I don’t do Facebook, Joel.
franny
How awful !
I'm a peacock, you gotta let me fly
As a Cambly teacher the thing that really grinds my gears is the lack of functions on the website. One example is the students can click “wait in line” to work with you. The teacher sees this but has NO way to communicate with a student that they have actually no intention of working with them.
So the student waits 10, 20, 40 minutes to work with you like a flippin lemon, then you log off to go do whatever and they are left hanging like “wow thanks”!
It’s so unbelievably rude!
Adena W
I’m trying to complete my tutor application for Cambly and got through the speed test just fine, but when I get to the profile setup page, I’m unable to type into any of the text boxes or select any of the list or checkbox options. Is anyone else having this problem? I tried on another browser, but the Cambly website is only supported by Chrome. My Chrome browser is updated and working perfectly with other websites. Any ideas?
Some Hooman
Cambly is almost really good…..almost!
One single thing stands in the way of this being a great place to study and work. Students who reserve lessons should have to pay for them. As it stands now students can reserve teaching slots from weeks out then simply go on their phone and cancel them 60 seconds beforehand, and the teacher gets zero! Cancellations are endemic on this platform, which is why I no longer take reservations. I used to plan my day around 10 – 15 reservations and would regularly have several cancel at the last minute. Then, as a teacher you are left in the situation where you have 7-8 hours of your day tied to the computer but now your schedule is now full of holes for which you are paid nothing. The pay is already low but this grows old pretty quickly. Now I just take priority hours from the night before to avoid reservations as much as possible. Many, many new students that I work with ask if they can make long term reservations with me which I politely decline.
Overwhelmingly the number 1 student complaint about Cambly is “I can’t find a long term teacher”, hmmmm, I wonder why?
Jeff Sandman
I second this! It is really difficult to take this platform seriously as it doesn’t take its teachers seriously.
If you book any service from a person in daily life you will normally have to pay for it. Could you imagine the reaction of a plumber, dentist, mechanic etc. if you booked then cancelled 5 mins before the appointments? Wouldn’t be too impressed. I’ve still got an active profile on Cambly but don’t use it much anymore, between the low pay and the cancellation rate it’s not really worth the effort of logging on.
LIz Dorsey
I have done my video and am ready to submit to Cambly. The message always says I am not signed in. I have tried changing passwords, email addresses, signing in through facebook–you name it, but I always shows me I’m not signed in. I have attempted to contact Cambly but no luck there. How do I finally upload my introductory video?
Anisa
Hi all I.would like some advice pleAse..I.would love to be a TEFL tutor how do I go about studying?where can I apply?how long is the course for and which is the best course I read about the 120hours course is this the right course?I am from South Africa and have teaching experience.as well..Please advice urgently..Thank you all
Tom
Cambly arbitrarily deactivates accounts for no reason, I had a 4.88 rating with lots of students.
Brian
Yea I had the same thing happen “deactivated” with loyal regulars whom I cannot communicate with to tell them what happened. Luckily I had outside contact with a small number….but the others…no way to say sorry and goodbye. The company of course is protecting itself by dropping you without notice because when they deactivate a teacher who is popular with regulars they could lose those students due to their dissatisfaction with their tutor’s treatment…which would be fair play but they do not play fair. They say they are only protecting the interests of students…eehhh…how did that protect the interests of my regulars who were happy with me????
michael quigley
ditto with reference to Cambly; good ratings, favourable feedback, regular students, a lot of hours worked, no warning, except a blunt letter of termination. Puzzled and dismayed – but I will get over it. Michael
onlineteacher
TEACHER BEWARE! Although talking to people from up to 10 countries in one day can be exhilarating and a wonderful, out-of-this-world experience, rarely does a tutor receive enough talk time to receive $10.20 an hour. Additionally, you must cancel your hours 12 hours in advance FOR ANY REASON (sickness, death in the family, etc.) or else you will be suspended for 3 days and not allowed to choose priority hours. If you do not get to select priority hours, then you won’t be paid a minimum of $2.50 per hour. Also and more importantly, very few calls come in otherwise because your profile is not advertised well on the tutor page if you are not on a priority hour. Thus, when you are suspended from the priority hours, it is as if you are going for 3 days without any income. This is very rough.
In addition, ratings are not always fair. People may rate you low just because they don’t like you even if you provide the best experience possible.
Teacher Tina
Hello all, can anyone tell me what the hiring process for Cambly Kids looks like? I have received the email from their company, with the lesson plan, the instructions on how to record a demo and an onboarding quiz. Once you have submitted all of that, are you required to do some, if any, training? Thank you in advance for your response, it means a world to me, since I am both new at this online teaching as well as a non-native speaker.
Wellerman
Hi Tina, One thing to remember about Cambly is that it’s a part time job, and the opportunity to earn a few dollars extra in your free time. Take no notice of the post which makes it sound like hell. Using the Priority Hours is a must if you want to stand a chance of getting some calls. They advise teacher’s to cancel at least 12 hours before, but if something comes up, you cancel, simple as that. If you do this on a regular basis, you will not get the chance to book Priority Hours for a few days, but who would want to teach for a few days anyway after a ‘death in the family’!!. All you have to do now, Tina, is wait for your account to be activated by Cambly, but the waiting time can vary, so be patient. Good Luck!
Teacher Tina
Thank you so much for your advice. I have recorded and submitted the intro video and the demo the other day. Hoping for the best 🙂 About that waiting business… I’ve been waiting for 51talk to launch me for two months now. Guess good things come to those who wait 🙂
Wellerman
Sorry to disappoint, but no, it isn’t a frame for a referral plug. I’m genuinely happy to work for Cambly. Automated response? Yes, at first, to acknowledge your query, and then they reply within two days. I do treat it as a side job, hence, ‘ a nice little part-time income’. What were you complaining about anyway? Probably not enough calls or access to Priority Hours. You have to earn that right…as I have. 😀 Maybe you should reapply: Feel free to use the link:
https://www.cambly.com/en/tutors?referralCode=dave350
Greg Rodda
Dave,
I am new to the online teaching game and thus looking for an online school to get started with. I am an English speaking South African with a very neutral accent.
I liked Maria’s review (Jan’2018) as I am looking more along the lines of conversational English with students from other countries & not being limited to China/Asia.
But when one reads conflicting comments/reviews on the various companies it then gets tough on who/what to choose.
Kid regards
Greg
EnglishAngel
There are many reasons why people have the right to complain about Cambly. Firstly, deactivating a teacher in the middle of a session isn’t professional. Secondly, they’ve been known to point fingers at you if you don’t tolerate the verbal abuse of a student. They’ll side with the student. I am glad you had a positive experience with them, but don’t discount the problems other teachers have experienced. Good day.
Mark Dullea
Be wary of Cambly. Never treat as anything more than a ‘side job’. There is no communication with any person there available to you. All queries/ complaints will be met wiht an automated response. Also, disregard the ‘referral hunter ‘ above- its pathetic how some will go to any length to get that precious referral bonus! ‘I can’t believe some of the negative comments…’ Really? Why not? Oh yeah, right- the post is simply a frame for a referral plug….
Anne
Very true!
Wellerman
I can’t believe some of the negative comments about Cambly, I am very happy to be working for them. Okay, the money could be better, but the flexibility compensates for this. I like the rolling salary counter that you see rise after each lesson throughout the week. You are paid promptly on a Monday by Paypal transfer, and it’s not difficult to earn $100+ per week once you’re established, which is a nice little part-time income. Unlike the Chinese companies, you can cancel your Priority Hour without a problem, but have to try to cancel it 12 hours before. Cambly Kids is just in its infancy, so you can teach ages 5-14 if you prefer that to teaching adults.
You are welcome to apply using the link : https://www.cambly.com/en/tutors?referralCode=dave350
teacher
Cambly is unethical in the way they handle business by firing tutors with no prior warning. They will fire you then replace you with another as quickly as you were fired. I was in the middle of a session with a 10 year old child when my account was deactivated. I had another child who was a regular student of mine who requested me for additional sessions and I had no way to let him know I was fired. It just so happened he was an hour late for a session he had with me that very same day. So it’s possible he could have been left thinking I’d blocked or abandoned him as punishment for being late.
I recommend Tutlo, which is basically the same as Cambly but pays more. $11/hour and their students are in Poland.
peter
Cambly is removing tutors without prior warning?
Brooke
Cambly randomly removes tutors and will not tell you why. They say the have re-assessed their needs but will not give you any feedback or allow you to dispute any claims.
Jessica
Right…Think of things this way…Cambly is based out of San Francisco….the same place that has legions of homeless living in the streets and in RVs because almost no one can afford the rent there….Why?? Because most people there make at least $100 an hour…and these are the people that hire you for chump change….Check out the rents in SF on craigslist one day for fun…these people want you for the equivalent of $8 an hour after your non talk vs talk time is factored…This is an American company not a Philippine, not based in Haiti, Egypt- lol. This is an American company based out of one of the richest cities on the planet….. Yet they have no problem paying you less than $10 an hour….What does that say about them….? These are NOT good people ….these are opportunistic scumbags. No better no worse. Treat them like a 10 whore that sometimes give or throw you an extra thrill ‘on the house’..but will never give a damn about you nor their students…Typcial bottom feeders..and the worst example of Americans…They activate /deactive/put your account on hold for 3 days……Hey, it’s all masturbation…hand wrapped from the worst ilk of corporate elite; with typically more overactive hands than heart.
Noel
Are you retarded ?
Maria
I’ve had a really good experience tutoring with Cambly. The pay isn’t amazing but you can work as much or a little as you want any time you want. The majority of my students are already conversational and would like an engaging and friendly native to gently correct their grammar and pronunciation as they chat. The students are mostly adults from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey or Brazil. However, I get to meet many people from many different countries.
When I first started I signed up for ‘priorty hours’ which advertised me on the front page on their website and helped me to attract new students. At this time, I spoke for roughly 45 minutes an hour ($7.65). However, this gig used to be a way for me to gain experience as a newly qualified ESL teacher after I came home from my salaried job so this wasn’t a problem for me personally.
After a couple of months I gained popularity on the website and made the full $10.20 an hour with back to back reservations. I quit my salaried job and I now work 40 hours a week on this platform. I’ve tried another Chinese platform which paid more but I really detested how they treated me like an employee despite being a contractor. Also, I missed the flexibility of Cambly and the fear of being charged from my paycheck for being sick scared me. Cambly is much more laid back- I’m allowed to make mistakes and I don’t have the company constantly supervising my lessons which makes me feel less nervous. I think they would only check up on me if a student had a cause for concern about me or for monitoring reasons.
Also, I think it is important to note that cambly accepts tutors who are native speakers. They check this through an application video you send to the Cambly team introducing yourself- not by asking for a copy of your passport! There are many tutors from South Africa on this platform for example. I will admit though, I think the fact that I am female and British plays a role as to why so many students call me.
The only thing I don’t like about my job is the free trial students. A minority of them aren’t serious. They flirt, ask for free lessons outside of the platform etc. I’m allowed to end the call if I want to but they are a pain to talk to in the first place. This has become less and less of a problem the more my base of regular students have grown.
In summary, it’s a great first ESL job. I feel like I’m being paid to talk to my friends half the time. I’ll probably move on to a higher paying job in the future but for now it is perfect for me.
https://www.cambly.com/en/tutors?referralCode=maria985
AndyESLTutorSA
Wow what a review Maria. That is very thorough and it leaves one in no doubt about the company. Godspeed and good luck in all your endeavours.
PS thanks for the referral code.
Jean Davis
Good Day
I would like to inquire about the availability of online English teaching positions with your company. I am a native English speaker living in South Africa. I received some of my schooling in the UK and lived there as an adult for a number of years. I have just over a years experience in online teaching and am presently busy with my t20 hour TEFL course.
Please advise of any present positions available with your company and whether you require a TEFL certificate prior to hiring.
Kind Regards
Jean Davis