ChaCha Inc review: Fraud and scam 57

Yes, this company sucks! In the forums, they want to hush you up. The system is always broke and they are very money hungry! They hire more guides when they need to hire more tech support. This company has their priorities out of order! I came over to my friends place to use her laptop and she hasn't even been paid and she pressed the pay me now button last night. Highly upset, I had to come over and calm her down. This happens every time. Their system is raggedy and they need to get their stuff together.

I have been working for ChaCha as a Guide, have opted for the PMN option, have gotten paid out TWICE with no problems and have had no issues using the debit card I was issued. You were complaing to the wrong people- MODS are not the people who can help you resolve your payment issues. They are IC's just like you who voluenteer to moderate the forums. They honestly cannot do ANYTHING to help you get paid. You need to deal with ChaCha directly to rectify that situation.
ChaCha is not a scam. You had a bad experience that was made worse because you took your issue to the wrong place.

There are a lot of fasities in this claim.

First of all, the forum and its moderators have NO control over whether you get paid. Them removing you from the message board did not limit or remove your ability to contact the proper authorities at ChaCha. Did you ever send a message to Feedback? THAT is how you alert the proper people of your problem. Did you ever do this?

Secondly, you DO get paid $.20 if you get paid. That sentence made no sense. You get paid $.10 unless you qualify for Top Guide pay, then you make $.20. I have been paid under both amounts just fine.

And finally, yes, there are threads in the forum about not getting paid. They are not there so that people GET paid, they are there so those who aren't can get help and support in getting their earnings. This is a rapidly growing company and growing pains are surely expected, so it is not all that bizarre that there are gliches in their system.

It is entirely possible that perhaps your bank account information was incorrect. Has this been considered before you started pointing fingers and making accusations?

enough for me to have a couple red flags. thanks for the info from both sides but i will hold out for the time being.

what happened to you sucks but stop acting as if only a few "lucky" people get paid. I've been a guide for FIVE MONTHS and I have a friend who has been a guide for TWO YEARS and weve gotten paid every single time. i've read threads in the chacha forum where people are worried because they didnt get paid but they always come back and say the problem was straightened out. and like everyone else said, the forums arent how you communicate with chacha, so no, it isnt impossible for you to keep contacting them.

I Just tried to sign up as a guide, and password and user name would not go through for the learning University, Is this a scam? Seems they ask for your personal info and then you can’t get on to site. When I called cha cha for info on this, I was told to reboot. I should have checked this company out first. I got info link from a reliable site, but should have known better.

I have the same problem all I get is the sign in password and user name and nothing. I think it is a scam and I might talk to my attorny abought them deleteing my personal Info that I gave them. I sure am going to try to get them shut down.

Your legal battle must not be going so well aye ChaCha is awesome you just didn't do it right!ChaCha!

Today is Nov. 13 and ever since election night, ChaCha has been having problems. I am a guide and though I busted my butt the first weeks and answered hundreds of questions over the required 200, I did not make "top guide", where I would be paid 20 cents a question instead of 10 cents a question. It is a mystery...how they decide who will make top guide pay and who will not...but I will tell you it saves them a ton of money by not paying thousands of guides double the money.
My primary complaint is even though this is a rapidly-growing company with growing pains, I think they are violating IRS laws by calling guides private contractors. I searched and found a description of contractor under IRS guidelines and by its definition, ChaCha has too much control over our training, activities, etc. for guides and expeditors to be considered contractors. As contractors, we have to agree that the ChaCha powers that be have full control over our 10 cent vs. 20 cent pay rate. That's a big difference when you are sitting there for hours on end making a dime a question.
Like I said, the system has had problems since last week and our questions have slowed...where they used to be back to back...now it's minutes between inquiries, if we are lucky.
ChaCha does not tell us what is going on. We have no idea of anything except they are have technical difficulties and are trying to fix the problem. And even that has been guessed at by a lot of frustrated guides. Their explanation to us has been extremely limited.
Someone needs to be regulating this rapidly growing company. Just before they started having trouble last week, they added advertisements to answers we were sending out. I tried it, as a citizen, and I got two separate text answers from ChaCha. One was thanking me and telling me my answer would be there soon, with an advertisement attached. I know advertisers paid for that...even Obama got in on it before the election. Maybe those ads overloaded the system, maybe the election did. It's hard to say. The ads disappeared for a little while. I'm not sure if the ads are back now.
Federal regulators should investigate this company and take a look at their books. I don't think they are deliberately hateful...but they shows signs of greed and sloppy management that could eventually sink their ship.
Cha Cha for now!

I've never had a problem getting paid, and I have the Pay Me Now option. In your complaint you never said you contacted Feedback. That is the proper channel to go through. Feedback goes straight to Headquarters and if you didn't do that then that's why your problem isn't resolved. Also, alot of people don't understand why they have problems accessing the University or doing the training, and most of the time it's because people are using IE instead of Firefox.
Anyway, the company is not a scam, you can read about them on the CNN dot com website, as well as on Crunchbase.

Have been with ChaCha since the beginning, have not had any problems with payment, contest or not receiving my .20 per text(Which by the way is what TOP GUIDES make). I have been supporting a family on this income and will continue to do until the end. Mods on the forum have no say so over what goes on besides the forum. The forum has clearly stated TOS which you broke and were rightly banned for. Maybe had you have handled the situation correctly you would have gotten results. Now you will have to wait the clearly described 45-60 days to hear anything from ChaCha. ChaCha On!

One person's mishap doesn't mean the entire company is bad. For those of you who are on here hating on ChaCha, why don't you just log out, cash out and cancel out. We don't need your negative BS. Holla!

I have been with ChaCha since August. I have made good money with them only working hours a day. It is NOT a scam nor is it fraudulent. They have issues like any other company but they work them out. I am sorry what happened to you but if you would have contacted the company versus just posting in a forum full of just other guides (the Forum states: For guides, By guides) you may have gotten your answer. It seems like you have said some pretty strong statments about a company that is blowing the doors off the information industry. Hope you can back them up. ChaCha On!

ChaCha is definitely not a scam. I've been here since day 1. I've made tons of money in my time here and never had an issue being paid. To earlier posters, there was a glitch in the University that caused people to be unable to log in. You give your info so that ChaCha, like any other reputable business, can make sure you're legal to work in the US and you set up payment method so it's ready to go. I cashed out over $4, 000 several times with no issues at all. Don't take the rantings of one person, who did not follow the proper channels, seriously

I work for ChaCha and I am also suspicious there is something fishy going on and I think the company is run by idiots. As someone above mentioned there have been 'traffic problems' and you can barley get 200 questions in 1 week that it takes to make top guide (to get paid .20). Then some people actually did manage to pull it off and did not get their .20 cents! I am one of them! I have contacted them through e-mail probably over TEN TIMES never receiving a response. How is this possible? How can this company get away with this? They 'hire' you to do a job at a certain rate and DO NOT PAY YOU that rate and do not respond when you ask WHY you are not being paid that rate? I plan on filing a formal complaint as well.

I accumulated earnings of over $100 and was waiting to have them send me the check until I needed the money. Today I logged in to my account to find that not only had they "wiped" my statistics clean (back to zero on ratings, searches etc...) but my money disappeared too.

I am not a fan of ChaCha... and will continue using Google as always.

I've made several thousands of dollars since April 2009 on ChaCha. The pay has dwindled, but you can still make cash if you put hard work into it and you're good at what you do. The people saying it's a "scam" are just downright wrong. I'm sorry you didn't understand how payment and such worked before you signed up, but it's not their fault that you didn't read the fine print. The fine print says that they can change the rate you're paid at, for one.

Oh, and by the way, I've answered over 30, 000 questions for them. My traffic is almost always back to back. I can set myself to available any time I want (except rarely when the system is having issues) and immediately start answering questions. Yeah, the pay is low, but it's definitely far from a scam.

This may have been a good way of making money but they have pretty much become a con company. Their pay structure for transcribers, the lowest level, is such that they don't tell you how much you get paid per transcription beforehand. A certain amount of money is set aside to pay all "guides" and the transcriber gets a portion of that based upon how many they transcribe compared and how many points they earn as compared to the total. Right now it works out to around .73 cents a transcription. Yes that is cents. Then they make you "earn" $100 before paying you. So in order to get paid you have to transcribe around 13500 messages. it also takes almost an hour to transcribe 100 messages, so you make 73 cents (once again cents) per hour. They are severely taking advantage of those needing money.

@ScamStayAway

I've seen you on quite a few sites, each time writing the same thing. But there's a BIG flaw in your statement. You did the math wrong. you said it takes an hour to do about 100 transations. And that's at .73 cents per transaction. Yeah, that adds up to $73, yet you say it only adds up to .73 cents. It sounds to me like you just like going around busting companies' balls when haven't got a leg to stand on. I've done quite a bit of research for ChaCha before decided to go with it, and to be honest, ALL of the problems I've seen were user errors. Occasional there'd be a complaint about the system, but um... even systems for the biggest Fortune500 companies have glitches and problems, so don't go there.

From the reserach I've done (and it's been extensive), ChaCha is a sound, legit company. Are you going to get rich working for them? Of course not, but you won't get rich doing ANYTHING from home. But it certainly is a nice supplemental income.

DO NOT WASTE YOU TIME WITH CHACHA! Although ChaCha is a legit company, that's not to say that they don't RIP-OFF their employees! CHACHA does not count as a supplemental income. You can work hours upon hours and by the end of the month you will have enough to buy ONE cup of coffee from Starbucks. ChaCha is a complete joke and if you are contemplating working for them, I beg you to RUN! After working for them I refuse to ever text them again for information.

Lol I think it's funny that my truthful comment about ChaCha was downranked. It is not a "scam." It pays very, very little. That's completely different. It's pretty much not worth signing up for it now because you have to work for points that aren't worth as much as the "cash" guides get, but those who got in before December 1st can still make a pretty decent amount. I can make $500+ a month, which is nothing to scoff at. ChaCha has never not paid me. The people getting "fired" are ones who game the system or don't do their job adequately, and the people not getting paid are the ones who didn't set up their payment system right or misunderstood how it worked.

Again, however, let me reiterate. ChaCha is by no means a SCAM or a FRAUD. It is a legitimate work from home opportunity. The pay rate is just low.

Please, take your wonderful independent contractor services somewhere else and stop complaining if you don't like the terms, but don't act like ChaCha scammed you out of your money if you signed up expecting to make a lot and didn't read what you were agreeing to.

http://www.formspring.me/ChaChaH8

ChaCha is confusing at first because it's a very unique company and there's a lot of stuff to learn and they don't really do the best job of explaining how everything works. That's why some people might have their facts wrong.
But it's an internet job. You can't expect there to be no glitches, especially at first. What I would do is just stay calm, go to "feedback" and contact them that way. The forums are meant for interaction between guides, not interaction between you and your boss. They don't see that as you trying to get paid, they see that as you trashing the company in front of all their employees (whether you're trying to or not).
All I'm saying is you don't need to shy away from ChaCha altogether, but go into it knowing that there may be problems but there are steps you can take to fix them.

One thing they NEED to change is the $100 payout rule. That makes absolutely no sense to me.

I disagree I worked for ChaCha for a month and a half and checked my grading everyday and every day I scored 100% but yet I received an email that my grade was constantly low and they terminated me immediately without warning or explanation as to why when I checked my grade it always said 100% but they stated in the email I was graded 63% it didn't make sense to me and then on top of that I had over 16, 000 expeditor points and over 8, 000 queries and now they are saying I only made $154 for those queries wtf? They deleted my queries but kept my points now I have no proof that I actually did 8, 000 the company picks and chooses who they treat well and Expeditors are treated like slaves that clean up the questions to make the guides jobs easier but are paid 2 cents per queries that is hardly fair we work just as hard and sometimes answer the question for the customer without it having to go to a guide. ChaCha cares nothing for the Expeditors and doesn't have their well being in mind and how hard we work to clean up the question for the guides. I wrote to feedback and asked both for an explanation as to why I was let go but also about how they came up with the 63% grading when I clearly received 100% every week for a month and guess what with no reply I think the guides are treated better than the Expeditors they are treated like low class that mean nothing to the company.

Contact the Better Business Burea and the IC3 if you think ChaCha defrauded you out of HARD earned money, the IC3 will investigate them also contact the Federal Trade Commission they will investigate them and possibly sue them for the money they defrauded you if they find you have a legit claim on ChaCha I have contacted all of them because I have yet to be paid for the month and a half I did work for those slave drivers don't believe the employees that work for them of course they are going to say you are wrong and just disgruntaled employees when we are just common people just like them that want the money we are owed by them and they are incorrect I wrote feedback maybe 5 times in the past three weeks as the BBB told me to do and still heard nothing so I tried to resolve the problem with them through feedback but feedback never responded so after the third time writing them with no response was when I decided to go ahead and file complaints fair is fair and we should be paid just like the rest of you are getting paid. ChaCha needs to have more compassion for their employees before they are out of business or lose employees.

The key is that this is an INTERNET JOB. If you want to work online, from home or from wherever you are, you have to take what's out there. If there were awesome jobs online that paid $10 and hour, everyone in the world would work them. This is a job of convenience, and convenience doesn't always pay well. I love ChaCha. It's totally legit, and it's well published that this is not a job that would make you millions. Go through the proper paths of feedback if you have problems, and everything will work out!

Aside from how they conduct their internal business, ChaCha's external interface also can bring many questions about how they conduct business. The following was submitted as a concern to the FTC (http://www.ftc.gov):

Questions sent to ChaCha, (below ###) and have not been answered to date. Aside from the search for "I am 12", other searches of "I am 11", "I am 10", "I am 9", "I am 8", "I am 7", "I am 6", and "I am 5" all produce results where the questioner states they are a particular age (under 13), the answering person acknowledges the number as an age, responds, and in many cases even encourages the questioner to continue to submit questions. This is a concern, as mentioned below, because, ads are received by the questioner, regardless of if they provide age or not or have time to consent to lengthy and complicated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which may not be available via cell phone. Given the nature of the medium, at least a phone number (via text message is relayed to ChaCha and is necessary to be used in response via answer and ad).
###########################
Why does ChaCha’s Terms of Use at
http://answers.chacha.com/footer/terms-of-use/ state that “The Site and the Services are not permitted to be used by anyone under thirteen years of age.”, yet a casual search of "I am 12" on http://www.chacha.com/answers returns more than 10, 000 answers, many of which are provided to questions that clearly state the questioner is 12 years of age?

In addition, why is it that a text response will be given to a
question, along with an advertisement, within a time frame that would not even be realistic for a lawyer to interpret and understand the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy at
http://answers.chacha.com/footer/privacy-policy/, let alone a 12 year old (or younger) lured into using the service.

In addition, why does ChaCha blatantly advertise their service at http://answers.chacha.com/about-chacha/, yet hide the “Terms of Use” and “Privacy” links at the bottom of the page in small print, mixed along with other links associated with the site?

Thank you in advance for your sincere response.

@DaniVandal
Basic Math Lesson
.73 cents -> that is a fraction of a cent (note the decimal point)

To convert it to Dollars you would divide it by 100 (remember 100 cents in a dollar)
.73 cents / 100 cents/$1 = $.0073 -> Simplest way to divide by 100 is more the decimal two places to the left (if you need more of an explanation just ask)

To calculate an hourly rate based on 100 transcriptions multiple the rate per transcription by 100
100 * .73 cents = 73 cents/hr -> you move the decimal over to the right two positions

If you want it in terms of dollars
100* $.0073 = $0.73/hr -> once again move the decimal place over two positions

Hmmm, not sure what to make of all this yet. I've just signed up to be an Expeditor and just finished taking my "expeditor test". I'm sure they could easily be paying their "contractees" much more than they currently are with what they are making. But I'll keep you guys posted on my experience goes (if I passed). I hope for it to be a helpful secondary monthly income from easy, fun work.

There's so much info being stated here that's either misleading or patently false.

To start, ChaCha puts its terms and conditions right where practically every other website (including this one) puts them: at the bottom. Seriously, scroll down to the bottom of this page. ChaCha's terms are RIGHT where the terms for this site are.

RE: underage users asking questions - ChaCha puts out a user survey that you must answer in order to be able to continue using the service. If you're under 13, you can't continue to ask questions. Many people state in their questions that they're an age other than what they really are for pure shock value, like "I am 6 and Pamela Anderson is naked in my bed. What should I do?" It would be ridiculous to take these all at face value after the company has already complied with COPPA and required the users to furnish their age, and then denied service to those under 13. If users choose to falsify their age, that is NOT ChaCha's fault.

Also, if you were having your answers graded down, or if you were let go for not having 100% quality, you WERE making mistakes. ChaCha has always overturned the 0% grades I have gotten in error. It's likely if you were being graded down repeatedly that you were making a small, easy-to-make mistake consistently. It's a complicated system to learn and it can be difficult to master and stay on top of. ChaCha does NOT just terminate people for no reason.

seriously dubious company. I wonder how many THOUSANDS of people have never received their rightful earnings. They make you jump through hoops to get paid (forcing you to open some stupid online bank account if your earnings are less than $100)...and my guess is that THOUSANDS of people quit working for ChaCha long before they reach $100...and who is going to go through the hassle of opening a bank account for the sake of $40/50/60?

I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and I urge everyone else to do so if they're unhappy with this company's business practices.

@new york city boy:
Where are you getting your information from? It sounds like you're making wild assumptions and accusations without any proof. I've never heard of a person not being paid unless they either entered the wrong information for direct deposit (which can, of course, be fixed easily) or they didn't understand how the payment options worked. They don't force you to open a "stupid online bank account" - they offer you a choice between being paid monthly via direct deposit (they only pay you once your account balance has reached $100, in this case, which is very easy to achieve) or being given a debit card and being able to cash out whenever you want. The First Internet Bank of Indiana (https://www.firstib.com/), through which their debit card works, is a reputable bank, and I've actually spoken to people who have switched over to using it entirely from their other banks because it's more convenient. I'm not sure on what grounds you're filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Also, if you quit and submit feedback to close your account, you'll automatically receive the balance from your account within several weeks, even if it's below $100.

One more thing, as an update - ChaCha now allows all of its users (even new hires) to choose between their "points" system and their "traditional" pay system. Their "points" system has been greatly improved, so you're no longer being paid out of a collective pot, which I agree was a lousy way to do things. They've recently been offering tons of contests, and I know of people who made over $1000 last month, which is nothing to scoff at.

It's sad to see all of these accusations that, like I said before, are either misleading or just untrue being thrown around about a company that ALWAYS pays its workers. Of course, it has drawbacks. You aren't going to make $10+ an hour. It's still possible if you work fast to make $5+, which isn't bad for a job where you can completely set your own schedule and work wherever, whenever, and as much or as little as you want.

Here's an easy idea to follow, read ALL the terms and conditions before you actually sign up for things online. Chacha's policy is clearly stated in their terms of use, it's really not that hard to follow if you actually take the time to read it. As for those who quit before they make the $100, they had the option to receive a debit card from the bank ChaCha is affiliated with and they instead chose to link to their own account which requires a minimum $100 account balance. If they are too lazy to work to make that amount, and didn't clearly read that before signing up for the program, then that is the users fault and not the company. If they lay out the rules for you, and you choose to skip through them and click I agree without reading, then that is your fault. The company clearly states that it is not meant to be used for full time income, and states it several times, although users who have enough time can bring in a fairly good amount if they are consistant, work normal business hours and are accurate in their answers.

CHA CHA HARVESTS THOUSANDS OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS FROM PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY ARE PROVIDING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER FOR 1099 PURPOSES ONLY TO FIND OUT THEY CAN NOT EVEN WORK AS AN 'INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR' OF CHA CHA UNLESS THEY PASS TESTS.

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS DO NOT TAKE TESTS. EMPLOYEES TAKE TESTS.

CHA CHA IS JUST ANOTHER REPUBLICAN RUN OPERATION MAKING A FORTUNE ON THE BACKS OF POOR PEOPLE. THEY ARE REALLY AN EMPLOYER.

Okay I see all of you saying you are paid 10 and 20 cents a text, but I am only making 2 cents a call, when I joined I did so because I saw an ad that said I would make 10-20 cents, why am I only making 2?

I am also only making 2 cents per answer which could only end up being about $2/hour even for the quickest typer. What's going on?

To "U R REALLY A CHA CHA EMPLOYEE" - that is a total crock. ChaCha guides are independent contractors, absolutely not employees. You have to pass a test to become a ChaCha guide, but other than that, you don't "take tests."

The company is not making a fortune. That is just ludicrous. They do NOT do anything shady with Social Security Numbers - where is the proof? In my nearly 1.5 years of working for ChaCha, I have never seen anything at all to indicate anything of the sort. If you're going to make those sort of ridiculous assertions, you should probably provide something to back them up with. You also might want to try looking up the difference between an IC and an employee.

Different guide roles are paid different amounts. Generalist/specialist guides make 10-20 cents per answer because theirs take much longer to answer, on average, than the queries handled by transcribers and expediters. How much you make depends on how fast you work. $2 an hour is on the low end. A lot of people make $4, $5, sometimes $6+ an hour, which is pretty decent when you consider that there are no costs associated with it (if you're already paying for internet service) and you can do it as much as you want, whenever you want, from wherever you want.

ChaCha does not pay much, but they are a honest company and it is fun work. I am a guide.

I was a guide and do not waste your time. It only pays you enough money to go to the store and buy some cookies and soap. Every query is like a mini research paper. You can sit there and any questions upon end and won't get paid for your time. Is it a scam? No, but the pay isn't worth it. They are violating labor laws. You get paid about 1.50 an hour and that's if you're a robot who sits there and cranks out questions. I still haven't gotten paid. They moderators just try to shut you up in the forums. Find real at home work,

Anyone who says this is a legit business or job is an employee of that company and is being paid (maybe) to say that. IT IS 100% A SCAM AND YOU WILL NEVER BE PAID! Try it if you want to waste your time, but I am telling you this is unequivocally a scam.

I have been working for ChaCha for 5 months. I have averaged about $250 to $300 a month. Have gotten paid EVERY time I've requested a pay. When I had ONE problem with the bank, I contacted the bank and they fixed it.

Anyone who is disgruntled with ChaCha just wasn't smart enough to read everything they were given, or read it and understand it. Every time I've needed help with ANYTHING the employees have helped.

I'm not getting rich, but NOBODY is getting rich these days. Blame your government, not ChaCha!

This is not a job for someone with no patients, some days are slow and you end up waiting for questions. Some days there are technical problems that make the customers mad, so then you're dealing with swearing teenagers who didn't get the answer they wanted.

But, ChaCha is legit. They are a new company and changing all the time, and LOTS of the changes have been because of Guide feedback and suggestions.

When ChaCha takes over the world, your face is going to be red.