Anyone making money at home?

I have heard of opportunities to answer the phone for various companies at home - I understand that all that is required is a good computer and phone service, and a little training.

Anyone know anything about this?

Love and pain-free days to all,
Holly

I can't help Holly, but replying so it goes back up to the top

I do not do it myself but I have heard of this company: http://www.alpineaccess.com/external/index.html

I just took a peek. Don't be put off by the video game come-on. They have customer service lines for other things, too.

Let me know if you decide to try them out.

I don't have experience actually doing this, but a few months ago, a temp agency tried to hire me to do this. It was legitimate, but I decided against it ultimately because the pay was so bad - barely minimum wage when all was said and done. I would've lost money in the long run as (in CA at least) it counts against you when you are receiving unemployment benefits. I would've needed to earn more than the amount of benefits I receive weekly, and the pay was not enough for me to do that, so I decided not to do it.

Not a direct reflection on the company hiring people to do this, but the temp agency that wanted to hire me was really agressive - almost offensively so. It did make me wonder if the original company - the one using the temp agency to hire people like me - was that agressive too? or if they just had a quota they needed to meet and I was part of that quota.

Leslie, thanks for that link. I went through the application process in hopes of getting a job with that company. Their website looks pretty legit. Looks like they pay $9 and hour, and you are an actual employee of the company, not an independant contractor.

I used to make lots of money from home. Nice, new, crisp $100 dollar bills, but some guys in black suits took my high dollar copier and paper and ink supply. However, they did give me some free room and board in exchange for a few years. And then they wanted me to pay taxes on all of that money I made. How rude.

Hal

I cannot do it at the moment, but in the past I have been working from home.
Working as Counsellor, it was possible to do it in my own setting - however, I realise that this is not something that you can do without a proper professional training.

On the other hand, more recently, I have been working from home tutoring foreign students from time to time, and this was very enjoyable as well as quite profitable.
It was not something I planned, but I was just asked and decided to try it and it worked out fine.

I think if you feel that you have any teaching-tutoring experince in any subject - including art and music - you could perhaps consider such an idea as well.

The benefit is that such tutoring can be made more flexible, but you must mention this in advance when setting up the terms. I mentioned this when we discussed the finacial arrangements, that becasue of my health there will be times when I will need to cancel at the last moment, and this was agreed. But in fact it did not happen very often, and we soon worked out some alternative days to make up for it.

Sadly the same kind of arrangement is impractical in terms of my counselling practice since counsellung requires much more strict boundries and commitement in terms of set counselling time, and duration of the therapy itself (which can take very long time).

These constraints are the reason why I am not doing it any more, since I am just not preapred to offer this level of commitement and it would be too devastating for a client to have any cancellation as they strongly depend on each session. They need their Counsellor's presence each week, on the same day and on the set hour and this is vital to the process.
Writing about it made me really sad that I cannot do this - I loved the work and yes, it could be done from home.

Tutoring, however, is a different matter whereby you can pass on your skills to others in less structured cisrcumstances, specially when you've already schooled your own children.
Senna

Hal-
Gee that would be funny, if my situation weren't so serious...

Lynelle, what happened? Did you get hired with them? It sounds like they don't take very many people, and then only those with a background in finance or banking... or am I misunderstanding?
Thanks,
Holly

Holly,

Just trying to get you to smile. Senna's idea on tutoring is a good one. I have done this. Contact local schools and tell them that you are willing to tutor in your favorite subject. There are always kids that need extra help. I have also taught piano and organ at home, but one needs a music background to do that. Craft classes are good also. All you need are alot of interesting ideas.

Hal

Holly

The idea of your teaching art classes is a pretty good idea - you are so VERY talented. I am certain that there are several adults who would pay a fee to some time with you each week and learn the basics. I would if I lived within 50 miles of you. Give it some thought.

I went through all the steps except one or two, and this morning had an email screening me to be an xbox game support tech. I declined, solely based on the fact that you can't take vacation time for the first 30 days. In my resume I specified I wanted employment for August 9, but I guess I'm lumped into the batch right now.

Really looks and sounds on the up and up. Plus, I 'm in the middle of moving, and want to wait until I get internet and phone set up in the new house before I commit to anything. The job they offered paid $9 and hour.

I found a website where people were reviewing their employment stories with that company, and since I am very familiar with a call center environment, I could see where some of these people were coming from. You really are working in a call center, just from home, so you need to be ready to take call after call after call, and you need to be ready to get assigned a crummy shift, and prepared to work at least one weekend day. Their website is very upfront about that. If you go into it with eyes wide open, it could be a great set up.

Plus, it is customer service, and people are calling because they need help. Right off the bat, some people are going to be irate. It's the nature of the business.

It's not going to be a cake walk, but it is going to be $9 an hour, it is going to be from home, and it is going to be kind of easy once you know the policies and software.

Just my two cents from my impression so far.

Do you have to pay a fee? I think I remember there was somethings you needed to purchase ahead of time (possibly a headset for your telephone).

I am going to consider this for myself.

edited to add: I won't do it if there is a selling requirement.

Yes, you do have to buy a headset and one or two other things I already forgot about, and you need to pay for a background check and possibly a drug screen (I think it was $45). I don't know what drugs they are screening for, but some of us may need to let them know we are on prescribed pain control meds.

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects those of us who are disabled with migraine and/or fibro, etc., and you can have prescribed medications and be ok. It is the illegal drugs that are obviously illegal.

I don't have a headset yet or any of the other required hardware (again, I forgot what those items are), as I am not seriously considering this until August.

Leslie (and everyone), I would encourage you to go through the online steps/screening to get a feel for it. There is a video welcome and a mock-call training session that imitates a live call. I have not paid a dime preparing for employment with these people and I gotten pretty far into the application process so far.

I do not think there is selling, it's all customer service. The calls are coming in to you, and you offer support and service.

So this is not only an answer center for game techs or computer geeks?
Holly

Right, they have other accounts. One is 4 services in one (credit card, cell phone plan, travel arrangements, and I can't remember the fourth).

hpilgrim wrote:So this is not only an answer center for game techs or computer geeks?
Holly

But it is partly a helpline for computer problems? I could do that and would enjoy it. Also, the customers might appreciate a tech whose first language is English, for a change. Part of the reason that I became a techie is that I couldn't get any phone help I could understand.

Chris