ChaCha Inc. Probably Will Not Receive Money For Work Carmel Indiana
I started working for ChaCha in mid-August and have since earned $38.40 that I believe I'll never see. Not that this is a huge amount of money, but I've worked so many hours to earn it.
There are two payment options with Chacha: You can either get a debit card through an internet bank and get your money directly deposited at any time, or you can get ChaCha to send you a check on the 15th of every month if you have at least $100 on your account.
Making only ten cents a question (I go to school and work another job full time, so I don't have enough time to answer 300 questions a week to make the twenty cents a text message), it takes a long time to earn such an amount. Knowing this, I decided to go with the direct deposit option. Doing this, you have to sign up with the bank that ChaCha is affiliated with in order to receive your debit card. I filled out an application and tried numerous times to contact the bank in order to get my account set up, but to no avail. They claimed that they needed documentation proving my date of birth. I faxed them my driver's license twice, which they proceeded to lose both times. On one phone call I was put on hold and never gotten back to, and another time the bank clerk told me to call back later because her system was freezing up.
Due to all of this trouble, I recently decided to try the other ChaCha payment option of receiving a check after earning 100 dollars. Before I clicked the button, I received a warning that I thought very little of that told me that I would have to directly contact ChaCha if I wanted to swap payment methods back to the bank. I wish now that I would've thought more about it.
I figured that I would be able to use my Christmas break to answer enough to questions to earn the rest of the 100 dollars and receive a check, but it seems that now many ChaCha guides are receiving very few questions to answer or none at all (like me). I know this because I have looked in the forums and poured through pages and pages of posts with people stating they have the exact same problem. Now I have no clue how I will ever receive the money that I originally earned. I was hoping to keep working in order to earn some extra Christmas money, and it looks as though that isn't going to work out either.
Lissa
Starkville, Mississippi
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Bridget Ilene Delaney
Lake Charles,Louisiana,
United States of America
Facts are Not Correct
#5UPDATE Employee
Wed, January 18, 2012
First of all, the minimum for payout is $150, not $100. It is easily found at http://searchu.chacha.com/tipsheets.php?id=71
There are two payment options. They are pay me now and pay me monthly.
Pay me now is the one that requires an account with IB. Pay me monthly does not. There is not a $2 fee every time the debit card is accessed from IB. There is a $2 every time a payment is processed from IB. There is a difference!
Pay me monthly uses your CURRENT bank account to pay you monthly. Payments start being processed on the 15th and take about 5 to 7 days to process. It is a good idea to give it 10 days because of holidays and days banks might be closed. It is not only on ChaCha's side, but also on your bank's side. This si the one that requires a direct deposit form.
Most likely, you are not filling out the forms correctly. Go to ChaCha's Search U and search "payments." then read about setting up your payments and set them up correctly.
Look at yourself first, then the company.
Also remember that you are not hired by this company. You are an Independent Contractor.
antiparadox
Arcadia,Indiana,
United States of America
First IB
#5UPDATE Employee
Wed, January 04, 2012
John is correct, in addition, you can also chat with First IB employees online to fix the problem or call them directly. They stated there was a 2-3 week wait period for my account activation when I called them as they were backed up and also needed more verification. I faxed my DL, SS card, Passport, and Health Insurance card and also sent an email, and it was all set up withing 7 days.
Banks are always difficult, you have to be persistent.
John
Carmel,Indiana,
U.S.A.
Response to not getting paid...
#5UPDATE Employee
Fri, December 12, 2008
This is an easily resolved issue for Lissa (sp?) to be paid by following the recommendations to set up payment method and follow through with account set up for the "Pay Me Now" option or the "Monthly Payment". Both of these methods are direct deposit to the account holder, the former requires set up through the First Internet Bank of Indiana (which she apparently attempted) or the latter, by completing account information for her personal account, and funds of $100 or more would be deposited monthly.
Guides are not able to answer sessions unless they sign on through the guide application and await sessions. By choosing interests and categories, specific types of questions are sent to guides. The number of sessions can vary based on the guide category and interest choices and time of day they sign on. The number of sessions received can vary greatly, from a few a day to thousands in a week.
Since it appears Lissa would like to receive her pay sooner rather than later, the "Pay Me Now" option would appear to be the logical choice for her. The suggestion would be to reset her option in the Guide Application and reinitiate contact with the First Internet Bank of Indiana to set up an account. The requirements for identification, while cumbersome, are mandated by the Patriot Act and will need to be followed.
Guides are advised to provide feedback through an internal mechanism in the Guide Application for follow up and resolution of issues. If there are still problems with the payment process or the bank, this might be another avenue for follow up regarding the pay issue as Lissa has not exercised this yet.
If there are continued challenges setting up payment method, there is an additional choice, opting out of the Guide Program. In this instance, a final check is sent to the Guide upon receiving the request to be removed.
The vast majority of guides (thousands) receive their pay in a timely and efficient manner, but on occasion there are some issues.
Thanks,
John
Polowhatever
Starkville,Mississippi,
U.S.A.
ChaCha Inc. Probably Will Not Receive Money For Work Carmel Indiana
#5Author of original report
Thu, December 04, 2008
I forgot to mention why I was so upset about not being able to simply swap back to the other payment method. I messaged ChaCha a couple of days ago to ask about not receiving questions and have yet to receive a response. From the way people in the forums talk, I'm unlikely to ever get one. This is why I figure it would also be hard to change from one form of payment to the other. There is only one comment box we can use in order to get in touch with ChaCha. We are not even offered a phone number.