jrs397
Evansville,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, January 22, 2011
I agree with what everyone has said so far. ChaCha is,by far,the biggest waste of time I have ever been involved with. I get a monthly disability check but was looking for a way to earn some side money,so I signed up back in November to be an Expeditor. I got 2 cents for every question I answered (not 10 or 20 as I have seen some people say in previous posts) or sent off to another guide. The thing that ticked me off about them was their performance guidelines. It's almost like they set the bar so high because they secretly hope you fail. I had to maintain a 95% or higher Expeditor quality score and a quick answer percentage of 58% or higher. The thing is,they didn't credit me for every answer I gave. Sometimes I would answer a question personally instead of passing it off to another guide and I would still get a 0% rating for that question. Then in some situations I would not know the answer to a question and would not be able to find one in their seemingly endless database of previous answers so I would pass it off to a guide. Again,I would get a 0% rating for this. After two months of working for these no good so-and-so's I received a message from them that my contract had been terminated. The reason cited was "Section 16 of the Independent Contractor Agreement," I went back and read this Section 16. It said nothing other than they or the contractors reserved the right to,at either of their discretions,terminate the arrangement between ChaCha and themselves. Call me crazy,but here in America "just because we can" or "we just felt like it" don't seem like valid excuses to be let go from a position. I e-mailed them asking for a specific reason why and so far have not received an answer. In any case,I'm glad I don't have to work for them anymore. They treat their employees like crap,the pay is a joke and I learned from this experience. If something seems too good to be true,it probably is.
John
Carmel,#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, December 02, 2008
ChaCha provides work at home opportunities for those wishing to work as individual contractors and has successfully provided income for thousands of people. We take great pride in our text message product and our guide contractors who support the business. The options provided for payment are pay me now for those wishing to access their funds anytime, sending funds to the First Internet Bank of Indiana following a guide initiation of account set up and the bank's issuance of a debit card. The other option, pay me monthly provides a single payment when account balance exceeds $100. The funds are deposited by electronic transfer to the guide's pre designated checking account. Thousands of guides are paid monthly. There are over 35,000 guides and the vast majority of the payments are processed without issue. ChaCha's Guide Support team follows up proactively with Guides whose payments did not process due to incorrect account numbers or discrepancies in personal data. The completion rate is particularly successful given the mobile nature of our workforce (for example, students and others with personal information changes). Impacts to payment completion can vary, but common impacts to timely payment are guides not entering correct account information upon set up of their banking information, failing to complete W-9 information required as an independent contractor, or not providing the First Internet Bank of Indiana with additional information as required by the Patriot Act when setting up their pay me now account. For guides who are no longer independent contractors with ChaCha, or in rare cases where a manual payment must be processed, a check is forwarded to the guide address on file. Again, as in the payment methods outlined here, most checks are timely, received, and cashed. There are occasions where checks are returned by the postal service due to wrong or insufficient address based on the information provided initially by the guide. In those cases, without contact by the guide awaiting payment, ChaCha holds the check and funds until hearing from the guide through our reporting system. We encourage guides with payment issues to contact us to reconcile pay issues through an internal issue notification process located in our guide accessible application and KnowledgeBase. While the process is sometimes more time consuming and less seamless then the normal pay processes, ChaCha does make every effort to resolve and pay guides in a timely manner. In this particular Guide's case, follow up was initiated by ChaCha as the payment was forwarded via manual check in September. Our records indicate this manual check is still outstanding. Attempts to determine current status were unsuccessful due to the guide's refusal to discuss the situation with a representative of ChaCha.
Sally Lynn Walker
Long Island City,#4UPDATE Employee
Tue, December 02, 2008
ChaCha hires independent contractors (guides) to answer questions at the rate of .10 or .20 cents per question answered. Never in my experience with ChaCha have they denied payment to anybody. I have been paid on the 15th of every month since I have been using ChaCha, and friends of mine who also "guide" have never reported any problems with payment. Most payment problems generally stem from user error; either missing or incomplete account information. Perhaps this user should look at all of the details he/she entered and check them for 100 percent accuracy, as he/she is quite alone in this experience.
Concerned
Chattanooga,#5Consumer Comment
Fri, November 21, 2008
Im disabled and tried most of these work at home scams and chacha.com is one of the worst. I worked for this company for over 3 months, had great feedback and worked long hours. But recieved $56 at the end of 3 months. Buts its not just me, look at the forums at Wahm.com. which btw is another waste of anyones time , especially those looking for at home work.
Concerned
Chattanooga,#6Consumer Comment
Fri, November 21, 2008
Im disabled and tried most of these work at home scams and chacha.com is one of the worst. I worked for this company for over 3 months, had great feedback and worked long hours. But recieved $56 at the end of 3 months. Buts its not just me, look at the forums at Wahm.com. which btw is another waste of anyones time , especially those looking for at home work.
Julie
Minneola,#7UPDATE Employee
Thu, September 25, 2008
Wow, I am sorry to hear you had such terrible experience with ChaCha. I have been working with them since June of 2008 and have had very few problems. First of all I don't like anyone having access to my bank account. I chose the pay me now option so I could get paid anytime I wanted. It's also instant. I had an issue on time but still got my money. They even fixed it so the correct amount reflected my earnings. It took a few days but it was taken care of. They were having trouble with the system and it was on the banks end of it. I guess I'm lucky. Did you ever try to switch your payment method? I know this takes a while like 30 days or something. That's horrible if you never got you money. I would be upset too. It seems they have made some changes since you quit working for them. As for the only getting .10/question now that's true. However, to make top guide you must complete 200 questions/wk with a 95% accuracy to make .20/week. That's a snap in about 3 days work. I was very upset at first like a lot of other people. Personally though I love ChaCha and it has allowed me to pay extra bills and pay for extra stuff I normally didn't have the money for. Good luck and I hope you get your money.