Before I start, I would like to say that I have an account with many different work markets, such as Onforce, Field Nation, Field Solutions, and Work Market. Although I don't always like their pay rates, I do take jobs periodically and have always received positive ratings through them all. I've only had one really bad experience through Work Market, and that was a client who wouldn't pay. However, they finally paid, only after Work Market received so many complaints that they finally suspended their account. One thing I like about Field Nation now is the fact they will post your ratings to you Facebook if you want them to.
As far as Geekatoo goes...I will probably never work with them again. My first experience with them will probably be my last, and I have even told them this. I just wish I would have listened to my gut instinct, my wife, and several of the reviews I had read, before taking one of their jobs. As a matter of fact, I may not even get paid for the work I have performed after this review, but it is well worth it if it saves some of my fellow techs a headache like I experienced.
Thursday of last week, I received a text from a number that I didn't recognize: "Hi, I'm from Geekatoo. A client...Can you help?". The texting kind of gave me a bad feeling to begin with.
We finally agree on a different date than the customer originally wanted. Before leaving Tuesday morning, I call the client to confirm he would be there and received his voice mail, so I left a message and headed to his home. On the way, I stopped to call him again and received his voice mail again. I finally arrived on site, rang the doorbell, and identified myself. I was then told that the laptop needing service had been stuck in repair mode after he tried to boot it up just before I showed up. I explained that I would allow it to try and finish booting while I worked on his virus issue with his desktop. Although the desktop had 8 Gig of ram, it was so slow that I finally decided to run crystaldiskinfo in safe mode to see if the drive might be failing. While the desktop was rebooting, I check the laptop (approximately 30 minutes later) and it is still stuck in repair mode. I manually powered it off, booted it with a thumb drive and began a HDD check and went back to the desktop. After running crystaldiskinfo, I noticed several errors with the drive and explained it to the customer that my performing a virus removal on it may cause the drive to totally fail. He wanted the virus removal done anyways, so I did what he asked. After about another hour, I checked on the laptop and seen the drive was ok. I then rebooted the laptop and went into repair mode and ran a chkdsk. While the chkdsk was running, I continued performing the virus removal and had the customer test it out once I was finished. He was satisfied with the removal but kept asking why it was still so slow, so I had to begin explaining to him that it was more than likely the HDD issues I had told him about earlier. The only thing I couldn't do that I normally do during any virus removal is delete the temporary files from the user's profile. However, it was going so slow that I told him he would have to call me when it finished and that he could still use the computer while it ran in the background. Before leaving, I checked on the laptop, which was still running the chkdsk and repairing allot of issues. I instructed him to call me later, as it wasn't even a quarter of the way through due, to all of the errors it was fixing and the fact that I had tried to call Geekatoo's technician technical support twice during the time I was there and received voice mail both times, after being placed on hold for 15 minutes each time.
Later that evening, I get a call from the client saying the computer had finished performing the chkdsk. I instructed him of what to do and the computer booted fine, but he could not access any of his pictures. I had him explain to me everything and came to the conclusion that he had the cryptolocker and his files had been encrypted. Of course, he went on to say that the computer was fine before I arrived and the only issue they had with it was losing internet connection!
During two whole days, I continuously try to get technical support at Geekatoo, only to be sent to voice mail every time after being on hold for more that 15 minutes each time. After each call, I would get someone on their chat option and be given an answer of someone will call you but there is no guaranteed time.
Two days later, I finally get a text message telling me that the customer wanted a new technician and that I did not complete the job! After several texts back and forth and explaining all I wanted was to talk to a live person in tech support, I finally get a response of "This form of communication isn't working quite well, we'll have someone give you a call." I responded with "I've been trying to get someone to call me since I was on site yesterday.
Alex, from tech support, finally called me and I explained everything to him, including my getting the run-a-round with getting tech support for well over 30 hours. Of course, he apologized and told me that I would get paid for the virus removal and that he would call me the first thing this morning. Of course, that never happened as well. I called in twice today got nowhere, other that he was extremely busy and it's hectic around here today.
Of course they sent me an email confirming they would be paying me for the virus removal, since they finally confirmed that I did complete the job, but that I would not get paid anything regarding the laptop.
My take on Geekatoo is this: They lie to their customers when they say "We have thousands of Geeks across the country ready and waiting to help you. Every Geek must pass a background check, and to ensure that you’re getting the best support possible, we verify our Geek’s credentials by reviewing pertinent information such as education, employment history, and professional certifications.", as non of this was ever performed on me. I was approved immediately after signing up! If you run into a problem on site, you will be ignored indefinitely, as they are extremely understaffed and only worried about new sales.
