I'm still a registered provider for OnForce. I understand that if you live in North Carolina they might seem like big money. In a state that has wages you can ACTUALLY LIVE ON, they are a joke.
I get these work orders from them and they are so insanely low paying that I have to ignore them. My usual rate is $75 per hour. They send me stuff like 'Drive to the next state, arrive at an auto dealer within a 20 minute window or you will be docked, find the service manager to get keys and password'. do you know how long it can take to find someone in a car dealership? Apparently not OnForce. Then they finish up by saying the hourly rate is $65, oh but we're only paying you a half an hour and no travel time.
In another instance they wanted someone to drive to 4 separate A&P grocery stores, install and network 4 Dell computers and set up printers for $120. That's a $500 job for a normal consultant.
Now I know OnForce is simply a clearinghouse for other companies to have work done, but they have a responsibility to separate the chaff from the wheat and not waste our time with these cheap-### business people and petty managers who are of the opinion that everybody owes them everything all the time.
If you want me to stand on my head with a broom stuck in my a** and sweep the walls, you'd better be prepared to pay me well. I have people to pay and my own obligations, and don't give me this crap about arriving in a ten or twenty minute window or you'll start taking even more money out of the job.
Don't waste your time with OnForce. Just a bunch of Yuppies who don't care who they or their clients victimize.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I thought I was the only one. They suck bad.
I disagree. First of all, Onforce is not the one that negotiates prices for the jobs you get. They are basically the middel man that helps you connect with companies that need technicians. If a job shows to low for YOUR standards, then you simply submit a conditional and state what you would like to make. Obviously if someone is willing to do it for that price or they bid a rate that tops yours, that tech will get the job. Nobody is forcing you to take a job. Also you rate the buyers. OH and by the way...the buyers are not onforce. They are you and I, if you choice to be one. And another thing, if you build a good working relationship with a buyer, they will continue to send you work. AND not route it to other technicians. You become their #1 tech. See PPNs.
If you are charging 75.00 an hour, and you can't find work, then you might want to think about becoming a buyer yourself, and see if you can find clients that will hire you for 75.00 an hour.
All I can say is good luck. And don't blow it for us that are working this as a second job, whom are actually making a living off of this great idea.
Let's get one thing straight, Onforce does not use techs. They use anyone that will pass their phone interview. The people they use likely will have no training or insurance. As a professional, I don't charge by the hour. I charge by what I know and by the job. Just because I know how to repair a $1000 TV in 30 minutes doesn't mean I should make $35.00. Research is done on the make, model and symptoms before any call is run.
ONFORCE will take anyone who can use a screwdriver and has eyes they want to boast that they have the most technicians signed up and can provide the man power with the skills needed at the lowest possible price. If they make 1.00 x 1, 000, 000 That's a million bucks in their pockets.
They always favor the buyer and the technician can get dropped or suspended, no questions asked, they are just another drop in the bucket.
If they lose a tech today, another jerk will sign up tomorrow
I agree. But we as techs need to create some type of Union to avoid those rediculous prices in the market. Come tech colleges, we need to be fair with each other. Let get united and set a good market price for all buyers. Let's not let them rip us off. They get the big contracts, the ones with billions, millions, thousands... but we only get ones, tenths or maybe hundreds in a work order. Lets make our service valueble. Let's make the A+ be a required certification for any IT tech and enforce it ourselves. Thanks.
***Things OnForce Buyers ALWAYS demand but NEVER PAY US FOR:***
1.) Spend time and gas to pick up part(s) from a shipping place, FOR FREE.
2.) Spend time and gas to return bad/old/used part(s) to a shipping place, FOR FREE.
3.) Process complicated and time-consuming red-tape paperwork after the job, FOR FREE.
4.) Attend online orientation, with or without online training and usually online testing afterward, and often required to attend conference calls, or spend time ordering parts for the Buyer online or on the phone, or researching Service Manuals or schematics or layouts, floorplans, or blueprints that the Buyer has been too lazy to prepare in advance... all of this even before going to a job which is usually only a couple of billable hours, and of course all of this pre-work is FOR FREE.
5.) No gas/travel/distance pay. You'll regularly drive 30+ miles one-way to a 1-hour-billable job, FOR FREE.
6.) If there is a printer to be maintained, the expect you to supply the condensed aircans, FOR FREE.
7.) You will be expected to supply your own CAT5e cabling and RJ45 fittings or RG6 and fittings, network jacks, etc, FOR FREE.
8.) Before the job, you'll often spend time on the phone chasing down customers for a solid appointment or be forced to re-sell the job for the Buyer, because they didn't close or finalize the price and time with the End User, FOR FREE.
9.)...
If I've failed to mention anything else that these cheap, ungrateful, unrealistic, lazy 'Project Manglers' demanded you to do FOR FREE, please let me know and I'll add it to the list.
I havent been paid for jobs 7 months, 5 months and 3
wrong post, how the heck did that happen?
I have worked for Onforce for serveral months now, always fighting with them about what is paid time and what is not paid time. They are clueless as to what state and federal labor laws are. They are also constantly violating them.
The AT&T contract for HP warranty work is a joke. Here is a quote from one of the SENIOR buyers.
"In the entire history of this project, we have NEVER had the need to have recovery disks on-site to complete the scope of work. For the customer to have full functionality of their PC they may need to have their unit recovered but the SOW is for hardware only. We are not concerned with the customer's software. The "Code Purple" is an issue with the tattoo. If the tattoo was properly performed and the disks are bad then the customer needs to contact their manufacture for new disks."
This is COMPLETE B**[censored]. But since this is their thinking, they suspended me for 1 week for not fixing the customers issue because HP did not supply the correct restore disks to the customer to complete the repair.
Not concerned with customers software, I think this guy needs a new job... that is complete and total crap.
This ticket was closed for full amount per HP, who agreed to pay for the work as it was their error in the first place.
However ONforce would not pay for the ticket because I did not go onsite to do work without parts. The ticket should have been closed for site not ready. But someone couldn't remember this and wanted to argue with me
In this economy, we need anything we can get to help pay our bills. We have a full-time computer service agency and business has really fallen down over the past 2 years. We have been able to supplement our income with OnForce and it has really helped. In order to really succeed with them you have to develop relationships with the better buyers and totally ignore the ATT and MPD type offers. If you get a call to travel an hour to service a big tv fror $45 and take a helper with you at your expense (don't dare have a logo on your new vehicle or on your dress shirt) ignore the call! Those calls are for the bottom feeders who will do anything for a buck. All you have to do is make an offer at a decent price and hold out. you will get the jobs. I got an offer the other day from IYogi from across the pond, they wanted someone to go to a location, replace the motherboard on an hp system, use your own XP cd with the code on the customers computer, reload the os to a clean device manager and restore the users files for $65. I made an anonymous call to IYogi and they told me they could provide this service for me for $299. I checked their feedback and found they have been trying this for a long time. Anyone who has tried this know the codes are different and doing what they ask is really a EULA violation. We all need to stick together and hold out for fair fees for hard work.
While I certainly can agree that the job descriptions can be a bit off and the pay not matching the reality of the job, there are other issues as well with this company.
Recently I took a work order where the job was 2 hours away. That's 4 hours travel. I only charged for the time I was on the job, which as less than 1.5 hours.
The Buyer and EU expressed satisfaction with the job. I was even standing there when the EU told the Buyer on the phone he was happy and all was working good.
Then, the next day, I get an email from OnForce that I am permanently suspended for 'circumvention violation'. OnForce claims that I represented myself as an OnForce tech rather than the Buyer's tech. This was absolutely not correct! Never would I do something as stupid as that.
Trying to figure this out since OnForce is not willing to discuss it further and gives no recourse or arbitration at all. The last EU told me while I was there that prior to me the Buyer has been sending the same tech from (city) on many previous visits. Apparently the EU got to know this tech pretty good who has to drive much further than I to this job site. It is possible that he intimated to the EU at some time that he was OnForce and the EU thus knew so was I? So perhaps the EU in discussing me and my work to the Buyer after I left may have mentioned me as an OnForce tech and the Buyer flipped. I don't know. What I do know is that I did not and never would mention it.
Anyway, OnForce does not care apparently whether I did or not. They simply cut me off just like that. Well, I wasn't making much through them anyway, as some of you obviously would know. But being dumped like this unjustly just burns me up.
Peace.
yeah thats the ticket go union.. and soon enough you will be making wages like you dream but dont cheer because soon after that you will have priced your self (with the union help) right out of work just ask all the other unions Autoworkers, airline workers, you name it. Onforce is as fair as can be sure maybe they are a little bias to the buyers but if you do the work you agreed to 99% of the time you will be paid for what you did and what the market shows is fair. Go be a tech for one of the buyers you know a computer company or what have you and I bet you don't make the wages you can via onforce.. you will have more steady work for sure but go be a tech for 40 50 or 60 k and when times get tough you get laid off. Take a printer tech for example a good printer tech. And dont laugh everyone looks down on a printer tech. But really a good printer guy is hard to come by . Sure any monkey can change a fuser/MK rollers and such but get beyond that and they are lost and a good printer guy I can count on can usually move forward and repair almost any hardware but I can take the most high end server guy and in most instances he can barely turn on a printer let alone fix one.
you all are ### about say getting $45 flat fee to go put a MK in a printer $45, 55 65 for 10 minutes worth of work what are you complaining about and really why should someone pay you more most printer jobs can be completed in less than an hour and if they cant it is a rare instance or face it your a monkey not a tech.
It is true onforce is all to willing to let anyone with the abilty to login and take a couple silly tests and they are a tech. and they think they can get $75 per hour and if it takes them 3 hours to swap a motherboard or 3 hours to do this or that they want a spend limit increase or they bid real high the next time . when again lets face it if you took that long you are again a monkey and not a tech.
ONFORCE IS A SWEATSHOP, CALL IT FOR WHAT IT IS
JOIN US AT ONFORCESUCKS.COM TO HELP US FIGHT AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION OF WHAT WE HAVE ALL KNOWN AS THE IT PROFESSION.
A number of technicians who came before me were brave enough to stand up to OnForce and point out their unfair practices. To retalliate whenever anyone stands up to them or bring up their unfair practices, they suspend or kick them off their so called marketplace.
I have been with OnForce since they were computerrepair.com and I watched them becoming a sweatshop. A number of small businesses and individuals see the platform as a way to make a quick buck, but they miss the larger picture. Company like Pomeroy and AT&T could have hired an IT force to complete their work orders or subcontract directly to small IT firms. Instead they turn to the OnForce sweatshop. In months to come we will boycott all IT companies that do business with OnForce. We will spread the word about their unfair practices and injustice and how they have destroyed the IT profession.
We will expose the secrets behind this giant sweatshop. We will provide other alternatives to OnForce, companies like Gurus2Go and others that deal with technicians directly.
We are taking a stand, we say no to OnForce, no to IT Slavery, no to flat rate fee, no to IT slave master like Pomeroy, no to the destruction of the IT profession.
I am not a technician, why should I care about this issue?
You should because when you hire a company to come to your business or residence, they give the job to a third party tech on OnForce and advise the tech to tell you that they represent the company. For example AT&T charges up to $200 to service your computer. The technician who comes to your house is not an AT&T employee, he is paid $85 flat fee to provide the service to you. Think about it, if you were dealing with the tech directly you could have paid him/her $100 and in turn you would have saved $100. AT&T get paid $100 by simply having a rep route the work order through OnForce. I bet you didn't know, you feel stupid - don't you?
I am a technician on OnForce, why should I care?
You should because you would have generated more revenue if you were dealing with the providers directly with an actual contract. If you are an individual technician, you could have been hire as an IT specialist with high wage, benefits and a secured job. Because of OnForce sweatshop, more and more high paid IT jobs have disapeared and technicians have been laid off unfairly by company like Pomeroy. See how Pomeroy ripp off their workers with their unfair accounting and payroll practices. Right after they went ahead and join OnForce, now they can continue to abuse technicians with the flat fee rate scam like they have done to me
We will create a technician directory to allow small IT firms and individuals to do business without the middle man. OnForce get 15% for every work order submitted by a buyer and 10% from every work order completed by technicians.
We will reveal more as this website unfolds.
Source Links to Pomeroy unfair practices:
http://www.topix.com/forum/com/pmry/T8OUC73OHR7I8V7HS
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http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_P/threadview?m=tm&bn=27978&tid=5897&mid=5898&tof=2&so=R&rt=2&frt=2&off=1
http://www.matcarlson.com/
OnForce Links:
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/URL removed/
http://blog.onforce.com/2005/12/29/onforce-name-change/
OnForce has been very successful at creating a sweatshop enslavering IT technicians and allow major companies to hire them as subcontractors paying them less than 1/10 of the current market value. The system allows buyers to set up their own prices and of course the more competition between hungry providers/slaves, the less are the prices. For example Promeroy (one of the major slave masters on OnForce got me to do a job where the scope was simply to change a switch and fix outage issue (a simple fix they call it). When I got there, it was a disaster, there were cables everywhere. Apparently the workers there at MACTEC Engineering did a quick fix by using two small routers and a Netgear switch (a complete mess). In addition there were some compatibility issues with the replacement switch (it failed to work with the original switch of the exact same model). It took me almost 4 hours to resolve all the combining issues. The original rate for the job was $65.00 so I asked for a spend limit increase which is common on OnForce when the job is out of scope. Promeroy, the IT slave master at OnForce failed to increase the spend limit, they wanted me to close out the work order for $65. OnForce took Promeroy side as their name implied and tried to influence and force me to close the work order for $65.00 saying that I agreed to complete the work for $65.00 when in fact the work order is completely out of scope and was fraudulantely posted in order for Pomeroy to get cheap labor. I have been using this platform for years since OnForce was computerrepair.com and I watched OnForce becoming the force of sweatshop by allowing buyers to set up flat rate fee, some buyers like Promeroy take advantage of this feature by fraudulantely posting very complicated / high paying job as simple part swap job under the radar. I refused to accept the $65.00 and told Pomeroy that slavery is over. OnForce later suspended my account permanently as I expected and now it's time for me to fight back. I know OnForce is only interested in defending buyers because in their eyes they bring millions of dollars to the system and they are watching for their 15% cut. OnForce couldn't care less about any technicians. Technician like myself who have made them what they are today. Technicians are as important, if not more important than buyers on the platform. A number of technicians have complained about the platform and got suspended and taken off the platform. I know there has been so many before me, but unlike them I will not sit here complaining and do nothing. I am smart, a web activist, a web designer who is willing to work hard in seeking justice and in me finally all those who have been victimized will find a voice. As predicted they did exactly what I expected them to do permanently suspended my account because I refused to be treated like a slave by Pomeroy or OnForce.
This post is a scam, they are posting these comments and links over and over with different names. don't go to the links
It is true isnt it?
Onforce is a scam company. They DO NOT CARE about the technicians or there clients. There hand is always out for money they didn't earn. The client doesn't care if the tech gets payed or not. VITAL Network Services is a total scam. I worked 8 solid hours on a network system and they only payed me $90.00 Do Not Work on VITAL service calls, you won't get paid.
Other clients are just as bad. Your best bet is to steer clear from Onforce and get a real job.
Just one rip off after another!
I used to do calls for VITAL for over 5 years. They paid well when they hored ASP's. But now they have gone to OFF-Force, I am no longer able to get calls. One of the bigg concerns I had before even signing up is I know McDonalds & StarBucks calls are snake pits. You get a simpole ticket like replace a part & you end up being theire 6+ hours running new wiring, troubleshooting every problem possible. I spent 2 hrs one time troubleshooting a Dial-In p[roblem because AWS couldnt get dialed in. MGR was able to dial out ok. Fianlly AWS rebooted their device & what do you know, it worked. If I had been doing this for OFF-Force, probably wouldnt have gotten anything but the initial amount. SORRY, I dont work for FREE.
I asked what happens if I reach their time-limit and they wont authorize any more time or money. Can I walk away & still get paid for what I have done. No one would answer that & I know the answer is NO, you dont get anything. Once again, I DONT WORK FOR FREE !
So VITAL if you fianlly realize what crappy service you are getting & get tired of complaints from AWS, you can come back to us Techs who have worked for you for years providing good service. Until then, enjoy the problems I know you are going to have.
hello has anyone heard from Cilicon Solutions in a while? I used to run calls fro Cilicon Solutions and Vital and they both did not pay us in full? Any update or anyone know where these guys are located?
On 12/29/10 onforce de-activated almost 1/2 of the techs signed up there, anyone who was a forum member was de-activated. Techs had been posting dissenting opinions over the past months in the private forums, onforces's response was to de-activate all techs with forum access and force them to request a re-activation review in an effort to lock/weed out techs who didn't tow the CEO's "attaboy onforce" line, the offical reply from "Allison" & "Toby", who were the supposed onforce tech reps was "It is our platform and we will do what we want".
The motivation behind the 12/29 move was to wipe out any form of tech dissent on the "platform" before the business goes up for sale, the original founder of onforce (computerrepair.com) has started a new platform "Work Market", set to go live this month, which will most likely cause the demise of onforce in the next year or two... so the rats are scrambling to sell and jump ship.
A lot of business of this type, including gurus2go.com are bought and sold over and over again. Basic business model is buy it, make it look better without spending any money, sale it, cover your tracks and on to the next victim.
Form of a good business like this is to be owned by a major tech company like HP/Dell, and they try and grow the business into something.
The former owners of gurus2go.com had this model but decided it wasn't profitable enough so they sold it to people who have never been in the tech or IT industry before. It's a big disaster, hopefully they will pull it together before screwing everyone and selling.
This post is addressed to the person with the ID onforcetech.
iYogi takes feedback very seriously. You have mentioned an incident concerning us that you believe is an big EULA violation. Please give us the details of the date on which you called and the full name you used in order to get this information.
Also please provide us the name of the person who contacted you from iYogi and the date on which this call was made. We would like to investigate this incident. We have very robust quality processes that restrict violations of laws and we would use your feedback and results of our investigation to review our processes and put further checks, if necessary.
We would be happy to keep you informed of our findings and actions taken however we do need detailed information from you.
If you'd prefer to write in directly to us with this information then please send an email to customerservice@iyogi.com.
Regards
iYogi
Nothing will be resolved in this forum, it will take legal action, which I have every right to do, in the situation im in at this moment there is not resolve tried that directly, have very good documention an other interesting data that will support my case, anyways
Yeah
To become a member you have to register, which seems fair as I in the process of doing this search get to see, wow im not the only 1 that just so happen to have a complaint.. looks like there"s a substantial number of people who have been let down in 1 form or another by this company..
So I now understand now.. there escalation team is the management and the folks that control the aws.. which by the way.. after my recent talk with them about having no option but to sue them..
Several days after my cell phone went into a boot loop situation.. with out going to much into detail of what a bootloop android device is..
Lets just say, they tried an hope there malicious malware would cause me to a, if I dont anything, expect me to buy another phone and live with the fact that my dead? not happening.,. b. hope that I could recover from such an event caused by there malicious push via there app.
Well it wont matter at that point either, because I have all the data backed up 2 weeks earlier, either way you get the idea.
This company will be exposed for what they really are.. im mean don't be taken in with my events with these folks.. read on with others complaints.!
We can't be liars. plus I hate liars so much I record all my conversation, its my right to do so, as a small business in this day in age.. you better.
Anyways that's my story, & there's more.
Un excusable and at this juncture un forgivable as well.
Engineer007
Onforce sucks! They are cheats, and side only with the businesses. I am one of the few techs on onforce.com who is actually educated, licensed, certified, and have diplomas for my career field, and they still have no respect for anything to do with the me. They immediately take the business's side, and now have even gone as far as to ignore my messages completely. I'm having to contact the company who hired the company I did the work for on onforce just to get my payments. Avoid this platform. Whoever gave them the A+ Better Business Bureau rating is obviously paid off, and never really looked into the business much at all.
Doing the same to me