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I'm glad to see this thread revived because I must have missed it before. I, too have been looking into work at home opportunities lately...not only necessarily call center jobs though.
I suggest you all join a work at home discussion board. I joined 1 a little while back & learned a few things & I just joined another the other day.
I recently signed up for Alpine Access b/c I was curious. The application process was hours long and boring. They sent me one offer to answer questions about xbox and said the pay was $9.00. They also sent me an offer to work a seasonal position in tech support (chat) for turbotax for $9.00 an hour plus the possibility of getting a bonus(don't know what the bonus structure was). They also said that I had to pay a $45 fee for some kind of background check (I think that was the amount) for the turbo tax job.
If you have to pay any fee it is a scam. Don't fall for it. No reputable company is going to charge you a fee for a background check.
I looked into this when I first got layed off. The 45.00 fee for background check was what turned me off. If you want a background check YOU pay for it why should I pay for it? Most companies pay for their own background checks. Not to mention the entire cost of set up ie:certain kind of headset, computer system etc. Bal-oney. I'll just keep pounding the pavement thank you very much.
I work for Convergys, they were an on-site call center, but have expanded to work at home. The hourly rate is around 9.00 depending on experience, but the bonuses you recieve are not hard to attain and can reach up to $900.00 to $1,000.00 a month depending on how good you are at selling products. They are a legit company, have a good structure and are trustworthy. I have not had any issues with my pay and I have noticed that bonuses are guaranteed, they are not based on meeting other metrics like some companies bonuses are. In one month I cleared $3500.00, that was a few hours of overtime, about $950.00 in bonuses and then a full month of working at my hourly rate. We are hiring right now so take a look at it.
Can someone test this and tell me if its legit, I am a college student and might want to try this?
I have heard of Convergys and they are a legitimate company as is LiveOps, West at Home (I did some training with them) and Alpine Access. There was one company I was looking at but didn't like the fact that I was responsible for paying for my drug screen.
While I do hold a full time job, I have been doing some contract work through oDesk and Elance over the past couple weeks. It keeps me busy and puts a few bucks in my pocket. I don't like that some competition is from overseas and will work for $2/hr. I have deteremined that many companies are willing to pay more for Americans, though. Can I run my household on it? Maybe, if I was doing it full time. I just want something I can do on my own time when I feel like doing it. Amazon Turks didn't pay enough.
You need to make sure you really check their requirements. I looked into Alpine Access and you need to have a desktop computer hard wired to the internet, a regular landline phone, a headset for work, a headset for training, etc. etc. No laptops or wireless connnections were allowed as well as no internet based phones. For me that meant I would have to buy a new computer (we only have laptops) and pay a monthly fee for a landline (we only use a cell to cut down expenses). Too much money for $9/hour. If you already have these items, then it might be OK for you.
Also, make sure you understand if you are going to be an employee or contractor. Contractors get a 1099 at the end of the year and it is totally up to you to pay all your federal, state and local taxes quarterly as well as paying the complete amount of social security and medicare, which is more than 15% of your gross income. Plus your tax returns get more complicated, so you either have to pay for an online form (usually the "deluxe" version) or pay someone else to do them. You have to keep track of each and every expense that you might want to claim and claiming a "home office" deduction is much harder now as it requires that that the equipment, as well as the space in the home is used exclusively for the job. They are really cracking down on that deduction. When I was a contractor I found for the very little deduction that I got it wasn't worth the greatly increased chance of getting audited, even though I had all my records and receipts. Although I did spend much of my time in the field, I still had to do some of my work from home.
The higher paid positions are those who are educated in IT. Corporations create mobile contractor postions where it makes little sense for them to tie a person to an office. I work (or worked depending on your point of view) for a company where I was tied to an office where I was the tech support for the tech support. Over time I was taking calls on my cell and at home off my normal schedule. A couple of years passed and they made me an offer to become a contractor (at the same time they were doing RIWFs around the building and outsourcing). I took it. I have a PC dedicated to them at home and an IPad when I'm out and about. If they need my services in another country (there are some things you cant do over the phone or on the computer when they simply wont follow instructions - I'd have to find an old thread that explained India contracts) , they email me business class tickets. So I'm a 1099 contractor. Thus there is no standard workweek, but I do have a base pay. I created a LLC to deal with the tax issues. There are pluses to the 1 minute commute across the house. The only minus I miss is the lack of physical interactions that I used to have in an office enviroment.
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