Has anyone tried Geekatoo or similar services?

[Fubs]

Hi All,

Just got a couple emails from Geekatoo whom I never heard of. After reading their description, it seems like their web service acts as a middle-man to match up customers to local computer repair shops--sorta like eBay.

I have had a couple of other companies (whose name I also never heard of) call to get us to subscribe to their similar type of service, but I never did since they wanted some annual fee, whereas these guys only seem to take a fee if you take a job from them.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has used them or similar services and what their experience with them turned out.

 

[ATTech]

The general sentiment towards these kinds of companies is that they severely underpay. Never heard of the aforementioned company, but if it's truly a bidding system, then I can just imagine the Pizza techs gobbling this stuff up.

 

[Thedog]

Not in the US so cannot use the service but read about it on techcrunch. As all bid sites it will only be cheapskates unfortunally and even if you are skilled it is difficult to stand out in those kind of bids when all of the offerers are "unknown" for the buyer...

 

[Fubs]

Thanks, I figured as much. While their fees aren't that bad, I figure I would have to deal with a lot of guys who'll do things dirt cheap, so not forth the hassle.

 

[RichmondTech]

Um, those fees are horrible. 12% finders fee, plus 1.5 - 2.9% processing fee. By the time I set aside money for taxes and business expenses, I'm probably getting paid less than a W2 employee.

Like others stated, the only ones that will get anything from this platform are the Pizza Petes of the world.

 

[callthatgirl]

I am on that Thumbtack site and it seems great, but the bids the people put in are just too low for me. It's like how I can't afford to send a tech to onsite OnForce jobs. Some of those bids are $35 a job. Really?



Instead of paying for those sites and bids, I went with hiring a sales person who works on commission to find me leads and set up meetings.

 

[geekatoo]

Hey, this is Kevin Davis, the CEO of Geekatoo. I just wanted to answer a few questions it sounds like you guys have about our service.

The general sentiment towards these kinds of companies is that they severely underpay. Never heard of the aforementioned company, but if it's truly a bidding system, then I can just imagine the Pizza techs gobbling this stuff up.

It all depends. We have customers who want something cheap, but they also want someone who can get the job done. As with any bidding system, you'll get people who underbid everyone else, but the customer will generally see that as "too good to be true". We generally have found that people pick the person with the highest geektitude score rather than cheapest price (as long as the bid sounds reasonable), even if it's more expensive than others.

What's more important is that Geekatoo will soon show the listings of those Geeks with a minimum score for those clients who want the job done now.

I think we have the deepest metrics whether Geeks are qualified that go beyond Yelp or most other websites, meaning as clients figure this out we're hoping to be the #1 destination for finding a qualified geek near you.

That means it's an investment, in that you're banking we're going to succeed or fail. If you get in early and build your score up, you'll be listed above latecomers (and it's free, so not getting jobs doesn't cost you anything). If you don't, you're letting others build their scores up so you'll be behind if we ever do get massively popular with your potential client base.

Just my 2 cents

Not in the US so cannot use the service but read about it on techcrunch. As all bid sites it will only be cheapskates unfortunally and even if you are skilled it is difficult to stand out in those kind of bids when all of the offerers are "unknown" for the buyer...

Not true. You can take skill tests, verify your college degree or certification, or do a number of things that make you stand out from the very beginning. You can make a very attractive profile and win jobs from the beginning if you make a point of it.

Um, those fees are horrible. 12% finders fee, plus 1.5 - 2.9% processing fee. By the time I set aside money for taxes and business expenses, I'm probably getting paid less than a W2 employee.

Like others stated, the only ones that will get anything from this platform are the Pizza Petes of the world.

Honestly we don't think that's terrible. No yearly fees, and a huge discount for repeat transactions with clients (goes from 12% to 3%). Plus, any clients that use your geekatoo.com/hire/(yourname) link to directly book you a la clickbooks are marked down to 3% (with the 1.5-2.9%). That's not a lot to ask for spending $0 on customer acquisition or advertising since we take care of all that.

I am on that Thumbtack site and it seems great, but the bids the people put in are just too low for me. It's like how I can't afford to send a tech to onsite OnForce jobs. Some of those bids are $35 a job. Really?

Come check us out. We have better ways to determine whether or not someone is skilled or not, and we're finding that people aren't necessarily choosing the cheapest bid, but whoever looks the most skilled to fix their problem. When you're talking about $400 to fix a printer, yeah that's too expensive. But when the difference is $40 for a kid who just got out of high school with no work experience, or $70 for someone who routinely fixed printer issues for years, they just want to know that the person they pick will fix the job.

....

I'm trying to build a site that makes your life easier. No system is perfect but I'm going to try to get as close as I can to coming up with a system that works for you as well as clients and allows us to take a fee that you guys think is fair and/or would be what you spend on customer acquisition.

Anyways, take care and I'm here if you have any questions!

Cheers,

- Kevin Davis
CEO
Geekatoo.com

 

[callthatgirl]

I have a few, will put in the other thread though to keep it all streamlined.

 

[ljtechservices]

tried the predecessor of onforce, computerrepair.com.
never enough tickets to come through to make it worth my while.
Also the tickets coming in for a repair to be done at a time they specified bugged me.
Ticket comes in at 10, they want you there by 4. by 10 my day is filled up.
Didn't like being bugged to pick up a job that I already refused either.

 

[Knightsman]

not to step on any toes...

But I find it odd, that Geekatoo would join, and a new thread would show up about someone trying it. all within the same time frame.

 

[Fubs]

Nothing unusual, though I'm surprised that Geekatoo trolls TN. I only posted because I received two emails from them (despite never having submitted anything to them) requesting I bid on two potential jobs.

One was to find a used Macbook and another was to fix a broken power button on an HP laptop. Since I never heard of them before, I felt it prudent to get a third party opinion.

 

[Knightsman]

Nothing unusual, though I'm surprised that Geekatoo trolls TN. I only posted because I received two emails from them (despite never having submitted anything to them) requesting I bid on two potential jobs.

One was to find a used Macbook and another was to fix a broken power button on an HP laptop. Since I never heard of them before, I felt it prudent to get a third party opinion.

I guess it is plausible then they found their name off your post. They have posted twice now promoting the company. Nothing against them, just other companies have been flamed for the same thing.

 

[geekatoo]

not to step on any toes...

But I find it odd, that Geekatoo would join, and a new thread would show up about someone trying it. all within the same time frame.

Actually, I found this board after searching for Geekatoo on google, so it was the other way around. Check the timestamps.

 

[geekatoo]

I guess it is plausible then they found their name off your post. They have posted twice now promoting the company. Nothing against them, just other companies have been flamed for the same thing.

Just trying to solicit some feedback from real, actual techs who are in the trenches, and a post about what certifications you guys value so that we can accurately weigh each one. I won't be plugging the site after that, but I'll be checking in to see how things are going and responding to any questions or concerns if that's alright with the peeps here

 

[rsavoia]

I visited the site today and I have some serious concerns about this.

Instead of boring everyone with another long diatribe on this topic (there are already plenty of them at OnForce, the ACRBO LinkedIn group, The Force Field and here at Technibble) I am going to list them as bullet points in the form of questions to give everyone some food for thought.

1. There are already a net load of these platforms out there that offer the same "services". Aside from the mascot and obviously cute site, what makes this one different from the others?
2. It is a well accepted notion that "bidding" platforms initially spawned and currently sustain the pizza tech sub-culture that is killing the profitability and reputation of IT field service. How can a business using this same model possibly purport to defeat that without going against its own model?
3. Tech help at 74% off? How can that promise to customers possibly attract qualified techs who place a real value on the services they offer?
4. I noticed the map on the front page: One hour response for $, one day response for $$. The message: The faster the response time, the cheaper it is. That goes completely against the business model and COB of most reputable techs. How could this possibly work for them?
5. For the percentages (or anything) you charge the tech, there must be a value or service for which they pay those fees. It needs to be something substantial that makes it worth giving up their posted rates (plus a fee) that will actually improve their COB vs. billables. What are those specific advantages and are they enough to offset the COB of marketing and maintaining their own clients?
6. The bidding model works for some areas of IT, such as the government sector, because the low bidders are leveraging their COB and billables for an exclusive contract with a guaranteed volume of work to offset those costs substantially and keep them profitable. The more volume, the bigger the discount. Volume. Most of these service platforms attempt to use the same bidding model, but by the job with no exclusivity and no volume. Those low bidders have nothing to offset their COB with, so they take a serious hit on their rates. This is why the bidding model doesn't work for the level of tech whom you purport to seek. Have you considered this and, if so, what can you really offer those techs that will benefit them in the short term?
7. Where is the customer in all this? How does this really protect them?

There are many other concerns, but this should get you started.

 

[ljtechservices]

I visited the site today and I have some serious concerns about this.

Instead of boring everyone with another long diatribe on this topic (there are already plenty of them at OnForce, the ACRBO LinkedIn group, The Force Field and here at Technibble) I am going to list them as bullet points in the form of questions to give everyone some food for thought.

Rick, Excellent as always.

 

[cmonova]

@Rick...Agree pretty much with everything said except:

The bidding model works for some areas of IT, such as the government sector, because the low bidders are leveraging their COB and billables for an exclusive contract with a guaranteed volume of work to offset those costs substantially and keep them profitable. The more volume, the bigger the discount.

Being someone that does do govt bidding, rfp's, rfi's etc...low bidding will not win you contracts. Now that does not mean some people don't try it becuase they do but typically they will not win.

 

[Paul Rodgers]

@Rick...Agree pretty much with everything said except:



Being someone that does do govt bidding, rfp's, rfi's etc...low bidding will not win you contracts. Now that does not mean some people don't try it becuase they do but typically they will not win.

Not to derail this but what exactly are government contract wins based on?

 

[rsavoia]

@Rick...Agree pretty much with everything said except:



Being someone that does do govt bidding, rfp's, rfi's etc...low bidding will not win you contracts. Now that does not mean some people don't try it becuase they do but typically they will not win.

I didn't say they do win contracts. I said companies that bid for contracts can offer bids (period) because there is an expected volume of work to justify the potential costs involved in adjusting their rates for the bid. Sure, it doesn't mean they will win the bid ( I never said they would), but they can make those adjustments because they are basing it somewhat (in part) on the expected volume of work as opposed to one single job or event. Some companies bid low based on the assumption that they can make it up in volume.

In other words, the point I was making was that bidding (not lowest bidding, bidding period) on an expected or even guaranteed volume of work is less of a risk and therefore makes some business sense. Bidding on a single work order for a one-time job is a lot riskier and less profitable.

 

[cmonova]

Rick...I was just reading the whole discount thing you were talking about and did not understand that in the govt sector bidding or why anyone
would do that...that's it....

@Paul
There are alot of variables that go into getting awarded a contract but typially they will specify certain things like:

Evaluation Criteria:
1. Evidence of the firm’s ability to perform the work as indicted by profiles of the principal and staff’s professional and technical competence and experience.
2. Capability to provide professional service in a timely manner.
3. Cite 3 past performance matrixs comparable with statement of work
3. Cost to perform each labor category

Then they can say things like "cost factor does not carry as much weight in scoring as past performance" or something of that nature. So when you
see that they are really saying "We will pay whatever it takes but we want competent people doing the work. Good thing about that is typcially
businesses won't try to lowball becuase it will not help them one bit.

Other agencies will actaully say "4 years contract valued at 40 Million" so they are basically telling you that when you submit your cost that it can be right around 40 million. Again, anyone tries to lowball will be out of luck.

And rates are generally based on GSA rates that you have to submit yearly. So you can't submit a rate of a Network Engineer being $95 an hour and then when you go to bid only bid at $65...You might get away with it once but you'll get caught.