ChaCha Inc / Fraud and scam

So I heard about ChaCha from a friend who only used their texting service to have questions answered. I found out that they also 'hire' people to answer these text questions. So I signed up and took their tests and became a 'Guide'. I answered around 500 of these text questions at .20 cents a piece over the course of 23 hours 49 minutes and 1 second, earning 100.00.

Now their rules state that you have to earn 100.00 at least by the 15th of the month in order to receive a payout or the money will rollover to the next months payout schedule. I registered on July 14, 2008 and had earned the money by July 28, 2008 way before August 15th.

So before the 15th came I made sure that everything was set so that I would get paid. My bank account was registered and I was at 100.00. They say right on the payment area that it will take 5-7 business days from the 15th before money is processed for payment.

The 15th rolled around and a lot of people got paid, I continued to wait for the 7 business days but nothing happened, no payment, nothing. So on the 8th business day I contacted them at an email address I had for them. I waited a day so we are now on the 9th business day and tried again. Nothing. Later that day I posted a thread on the message board about not getting paid. I finally received a post back on it.

Now remember it said 5-7 business days in the payment area and also in the 'Knowledge Base' an area to find all the answers to your questions. The post I received is 'It takes 7-10 business days for a payment to be processed.'

This was the last reply I have received from a 'Moderator'. So the 10th business day came and went and still nothing. So I posted another thread asking for an explanation as to why I hadn't been paid. No one from the actual company would reply to it. So I added 'If I am not paid by Tuesday (which would be September 2, 2008) I will be contacting my state Labor Board.'

Now this seemed to get a rise out of the 'Super Moderators' they sent me a warning that I was threatening them and my post was deleted. (Seems more like they were afraid of other 'Guides' getting any Ideas from it). So I replied in email to the 'Super Moderator' and asked for a response as to why I wasn't getting paid.

No reply.

I again posted a thread asking for an explanation as to why I wasn't getting paid. I got an email telling me again that I was threatening them and my post was deleted.

So at this point I am pretty pissed.

I reply back again to the 'Super Moderator' and inform them that because I can't post anything on the message boards about getting paid and finding out when I will get paid that I will be contacting the IC3 and my states Labor Board.

The reply I received was astounding. 'You have been permanently banned from the message boards for violating the rules. You threatened a moderator in an email message.'

How the heck did I threaten a moderator for telling them that if someone from ChaCha didn't reply with a valid reason as to why I wasn't getting paid I would report them?

Ok so now I am banned from what was the only method of communication to people over ChaCha that could do anything about this. Great.

What did I do?

I have currently filed a complaint with the IC3. Considering that it is Sunday and Monday is a holiday I will be unable to contact my states Labor Board until Tuesday. On Tuesday I plan on contacting the Utah State Labor Board and asking where I should go from here.

I will keep you posted.
(That is if ChaCha hasn't already taken over the world and deletes this post)

As for my recommendation about ChaCha. Go for it if you don't mind making them richer while you use your personal resources to do it and you not getting paid a dime for it (unless your one of the lucky ones).

It's not a bad job sure you get to work at home, (by the way you now only make .10 cents a message instead of .20, if you get paid.) you can work the hours you want, you get to sign on and off whenever you want, and best of all you get to do this all for FREE that's right you don't ever have to worry about making a dime!!!

Honestly I am not the only one with this problem there is a thread on people not getting paid that is reset every month that currently has 51 pages of people not getting paid at 10 posts a page. We're looking at 510 posts plus posts under those posts of people that haven't been paid.

How a business has gotten away with it this long beats the hell out of me.

Good luck to all those who are currently with ChaCha, I hope this is enough information for you to get some ideas about what steps to take to get the money you rightfully earned.

Fair warning to all those considering joining them, I wouldn't recommend it the stress and nightmare isn't worth your time.

Keep watching for the results of my legal battle against them!