ChaCha

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I hav the sprint instinct n iv tried for so long to txt to chacha n it doesnt work... im not saying chacha's a fraud or nething... wat my guess is is tht sprint did somthin so sprint users can't use chacha... either sprint is involved in some sort of conspiracy or my phone jst dsnt work... but thn again, i thought i got a "smart phone"... if someone has a reason for my problem id like to kno... i would txt chacha for the answer but, well u kno...

I can't believe some of the comments I read on here! I'm a guide for ChaCha and I'll admit I was a little bummed when the amount for questions went from .22 to .12. But hey, before I was only making .10 a question so I'm still making more than I was. And to the person who said they didn't want to answer a Physic's question for .10...DON'T! You have the option of answering whatever questions you want and even choosing what categories you want to answer them from! I skip questions I don't want to answer all the time! And I love ChaCha! No, I'm not a top guide and I probably never will be since I don't have time to answer a million questions a week! But I've made 20 to 50 dollars every week since I've started and in this economy, you can't complain about an extra 100 to 200 dollars a month! It's easy money and it's not meant to be a JOB. It's mean to be supplemental. If you don't like it then get off ChaCha, get a real job and let those of us who DO appriciate extra money work!

Wow people, chill. I'm a measly expeditor for ChaCha and I'm still happy with just making some extra money. If you're so miserable, work at McDonald's and then you'll know real misery. For the amount of work you really have to do (hardly any) the pay is worth it. Quit whining or find another way to make money.

Calling 1-800-2ChaCha is completely free and will give you unlimited questions. Text all your questions to 242242 or call 1-800-2ChaCha.

ChaCha is great, I just started using it a lot recently when my friends can't decide where to go for lunch. but the limit is approaching, so question: does the number you call for unlimited questions have a fee? it is a 1-800 number...

As for the payscale people can complain all they want but it is actually not bad at all. People that work hard still get their rewards that ChaCha gives out be it $5 or $20 each week to thousands of top guides. Or what about the random drawing they have that get us extra money? I've never won but I'm not bitching. I agree with ChaCha someone should not be paid .20 to answer a conversational question! Why is no one mentioning that we make .22 cents on some questions? Because you want to complain about your "job" and then when a friend or family member asks you what you do for your extra income you boast ....riiiiiiiiighhhhhhhttttt

I cannot believe guides are on here complaining. I love ChaCha. Yes sometimes I have to force myself to do it but it is like any "job". ChaCha is unique and provides a FREE service. How many other companies out there allow this without wanting money? None. I have worked for ChaCha nearly a year now and have to say I am a mother of 2 young children and need this job. I set my alarm clock every morning and have a work schedule hanging on my wall. I can break when I want too. From just one week of working and self motivation I can now pay nearly 3 of my bills without it coming from my husbands pay check. Anyone that thinks it is easy is confused. You have a lot of reading and studying to do and really care about customer service and satisfaction. I cannot believe ChaCha contractors will slander ChaCha's name but the minute you do not have enough money you will log on and happy answer some questions!

whomever is using chacha as a steady job and pipssed because they arent being paid well enough should get off their asses and go find a real job. its for people who just want a few extra bucks. its not slave labor... it would be like donating plasma for your steady income. its just some extra money for the bars. stop being so lazy and contribute to your society.

I do not understand how all of these guides can say ChaCha is dying when the trafic has been steadly climbing?

Here it is half a year after some of the negative comments, and ChaCha is still going strong. Yes, there are glitches. Yes, sometimes it is slow, but ChaCha is still a great way to make money. I made $40.00 today. I worked where and when I wanted to. I have no regular job. Without ChaCha, I'd be screwed. So, don't read to much into what the haters say. Yeah, sometimes ChaCha can be slow and glitches happen, but it's still easy money. Yes, I am a guide and NOT an employee of ChaCha.

ChaCha is not available internationally (AU, UK, or CA) .

That was only a glitch in there system, which is now fixed. I am not a guide, but an expediter, so we get paid 3 cents per question we categorize. And that is easy and good money. Don't hate on chacha!

ChaCha sent me over 60 texts over 30 minutes telling me that I was close to the 4 text limit for a 72 hour period. I will NEVER use ChaCha again.

Most guides went from making $6-9 dollars an hour to making $3.60-5.40 an hour. Minimum wage is not possible any more there. It is a nightmare. Many of the more active guides are looking for different jobs. Independent contractor is really a euphemism for slave labor wages. Disgusting company.

Listen to the Guide below. It's true. ChaCha just cut their pay... except for those who could not do the required work. They have just introduced a new payscale that punishes their Top Guides. They have yet to communicate with their IC's and have pretty much ignored everyone. There are over 3,000 posts from disgruntled Guides on their forums, many of whom have quit. Nice way to reward your workforce ChaCha! >:(

That flushing sound you hear is what little quality ChaCha had going down the toilet. They just changed their pay scale, essentially cutting everyones pay in half. I'm sorry, I'm not answering some freaking physics question asked by a college professor for ten cents. ChaCha likes to add "fluff" to their answers thinking that makes the customer happy. What would make the customer happy is accurate answers. They just don't get it. Yes, I'm a disgruntled guide who got their pay cut.

ChaCha is a great place to work for. They have had problems this past November and December, but they have cleared up. Traffic is back to back now.

Wes, ChaCha forces the Guides to give the customer 2-3 days of weather forecasts and added information they didn't ask for. I would love to give you just what you asked for, but will have my QC rating dropped because of it. ChaCha is notorious for TELLING their customers what they want.

You get what you pay for!

ChaCha hasn't answered anything i've asked them...i ask for an address, i get a completely different business in a different city...ask for the weather for just tomorrow, get three days worth anyways...and all this just to wait for 20 min for an answer?? I'll take my chances and pay for that kgb thing instead, free is only worth it if they can get it right...

It just became pretty clear to me that paid ChaCha employees, not contract workers like the guides are, are spending hours surfing the net for forums like this and then responding to them as if they are guides, to try and convice people how wonderful ChaCha is to their guides. Don't believe them. They have a few select guides, maybe 40, out of 35,000 that get the majority of the questions and the rest sit around behind their computers unable to do anything else while they wait for a question to come in every three or four minutes - if they are lucky. I once sat at my computer for 3 hours and got 6 questions. It is not worth the amount of time you have to spend. I would not be suprised if ChaCh ends up with a class action suit against them from guides and former guides like me. Don't waste your time on it in the hopes you'll be able to make a bunch of money at home. It won't happen. Their latest tactic to to claim that they have set higher standards for questions which gives them the unlimited ability to count any and all questions they want as unacceptable by quality control reqardless of whether they are right or not to keep their quides at ten cents a question. At ten cents a question it is a total waste of time. Don't be swayed by their stories of how wonderful they are. They're not wonderful at all, except, like I said earlier, to a few select guides.

Someone above said to complain on the forums not here, obviously this person doesn't realize that ChaCha censors their forums so if you complain there it is taken away and no one else see's it. They are terrible to their guides. The do everything in their power to keep their guides from making money. Don't work for them if you can possibly find anything else to do.

This is a place to let the public know exactly what the company is about and up to. It is not here to praise them. ChaCha has just introduced new features that will take away more of the dwindling traffic from Guides, and places it with their Expeditors. Note that the EX's do not get more pay either! EX's will also have their QC docked for sending some questions to Guides. Sure sounds like a company I want to work for.

This is a place to celebrate ChaCha, not to bring it down. Complain on the forums or elsewhere, it doesn't belong here. ChaCha has stated this to guides in the past, during the Palm campaign.

My point is that no Guides have any business bringing these problems out into the public. They need to stay in the forums. Turning people away from ChaCha is definitely not going to get anyone any questions. I have never gone on the forums saying I hate that people complain, I just HATE it when I see people on public forums complaining. It really looks bad and in my opinion each and every one of those Guides should be deactivated. Oh, and as far as being 'lucky' goes, I have come across numerous Guides who were adamant that they have their C&I set up right. Then I would look over them, spend days on end helping them set them up right, and then they would get back to back queries right away. What a coincidence.

I have been with ChaCha for 2 years now. I have seen their ups and downs. They are a new company, so please give them a break. As for the 20 question limit; you can call 1-800-2ChaCha and get unlimited questions. The only difference, is that you speak your question instead of text it in. But you still get a text back with your answer. In my opinion, it's easier than texting in the question. Pay no attention to the Guides that are out to bash ChaCha. They are exactly who we don't need working for us. No matter what, I'm here for ChaCha. They have helped me through these hard times. There are no jobs out in the "real world", so I will stick with my awesome job, that I can work in my PJ's and work whenever and however long I want. :) <3 ChaCha!

Wendy, you are just one of the lucky ones. Read the forums again. Even the mods can't figure out why some people are getting questions and others are not. They have even admitted to looking over people's C/I's and finding nothing wrong with them. HQ has left the poor mods and admins to the sharks without offering any answers or help. We're not whining. We're voicing a very legit problem. Plus, how do you explain IS questions that go unanswered for hours or not at all. Yeah, it's all us Guide's fault.. oops, I mean it's yours. Pssh.

I get so sick and tired of everyone whining and complaining like they are in grade school. If you do not like working for ChaCha please do us all a favor and leave. Wow, are you really complaining about the $2 fee for PMN?? Well then stop crying and switch to PMM. Complaining about no questions? Maybe instead of wasting your time here, you should be setting up your C&I the RIGHT way. Don't like the rules on the forums? Don't use them! THAT would do us all a favor, as I am sure the Mods get tired of people who ignore the rules. The way you all complain about ChaCha, you do not deserve to work for them. Just leave and let those who care about ChaCha and are not out to be hateful get all the queries. Oh, and if you want to come speak to me, I am Sassy8722 on the forums. BTW, ChaCha is awesome. I get 200+ queries a day, and ChaCha pays my rent. It also keeps food in our stomachs and I am so grateful for that. Thank you ChaCha!

Listen to the Guides. I am a Guide as well and used to easily make $500 a week. Those days are gone... unless you get a magic ticket in the queue. Their system is very buggy and HQ refuses to aknowledge the problem. Proof is that many had back 2 back questions over Christmas and are not getting a thing now. I feel sorry for the advertisers that sponsor this company. They are lucky if their ads are seen by potential customers. There have been questions that have gone unanswered, even with waiting and willing Guides. We just never get them. That means no ads are sent. Sadly I see ChaCha dying by the middle of 2009 if nothing changes. Maybe sooner. The mixture of disgruntled Guides and customers is a deadly cocktail.

You can call ChaCha unlimited at 1-800-2ChaCha.

I have unlimited text so why the limit of questions? It wolud be logical for it to work that way i have so many questions and such a little limit! It still is very cool though! Yes that is me below\/

How come I can ask only 20 ?'s a month it should be unlimited!!! i need it

I love Chacha's usefulness. I do wish they didn't have a 20 answer limit, but I also recognize that its a free service, so I can't complain. As for negative posts being removed from the Forums, a negative post is just as useful as a positive one. It gives people the ability to weigh the pros and cons of a service and decide with a more informed mindset. I disagree with the removal of any information relevant to the performance of a service, product, company, or group.

I am a ChaCha Guide and even with all the problems that ChaCha has had recently! I love working for ChaCha! It allows me to stay home with my children and be the best mother I can be! For those of you complaining about the 20 questions, try another service and I guarantee you will back to ChaCha in no time. There is NOTHING like ChaCha!

ChaCha is for many a supplement to thier income, however I am a stay at home mom who wants to stay home and although I rarely answer more than 200 question per week that 40.00 is gas money for my car without having to put my daughter in daycare. I love to ChaCha because it has a personnality and allows me to be creative with my answers- but I am one of those guides that does not just make up answers I really try to find the correct answer for the client. It has slowed to getting one question about every 8 minutes on a good day. It is frustrating because it seemed so perfets for a while!

ok well um..why wont it answer any of my questions it keeps sending me this message saying you already used up your 20 questions i only get 20 questions thats stupid we should get how ever many we want

To all the whiners and complainers, I wish that, instead of setting out to give ChaCha a bad name, you would just leave! As for the forums, it is clearly posted in the rules that the forums are not a place to just sit around and badmouth ChaCha. At what job can you sit in the office and complain all day? Do of course the negative posts are going to be removed, so that when someone visits the forums actually looking for help, they won't have to weed through the hundreds of crybaby posts just to find what they are looking for. As for being Top Guide, it is not that hard. You have to maintain a 95% feedback average to become and stay Top Guide and answer at least 200 queries per month. 95% gives you plenty of room for simple mistakes, so if you are not making Top Guide you are being careless. And yes they do tell you what they base your grade on: presentation, accuracy, and citation. Of course the customer is not going to want a quick, crappy answer, it makes ChaCha look bad, which is why this system is in place. For the $2 fee the bank charges you, big whoopty doo, change to pay me monthly and there are no fees at all, it's not like ChaCha is trying to steal your money! My gosh people, grow up. And instead of wasting your time complaining, you could be working on that Top Guide goal now. I reached mine the day before the week started and i have two small children, so it CAN be done, and quiet easily at that.

ChaCha is dying i came back after 3 months when they implemented the system of .10$ ( i was averaging over 1000 questions a week) with about a 98% feedback then i started getting a bunch of bullshit QC's and they refused to pay me my .20$ a question so i came back on today (they didnt deactivate my account for some reason) and I was wondering if it was just me about the 1 question every 15 minutes. Well it was a good 3-4 months chacha as a top guide to bad y'all are douche bags and did exactly what everyone told you not to do, just goes to show its about the people not youre shitty ass company.

Sorry to vent, but I can't on the ChaCha forums, ChaCha is dying a slow death, and about 70,000 independent contractors will probably out of one of their jobs. It's sad to see a once great work from home site flounder and gasp for air. Oh well, these past years have been a great run.

Also, ChaCha has frozen the hiring of any new specialist/generalist search guides. The general consensus among users is that they do not like the new ads and 20 question limit being imposed. A comment I received as a guide in response to the new 20 question limit went something like this: "But after 20 questions I don't get answers, so why use cha cha? I can text google for free too, but I like cha cha better cause you have personality." Well that personality is going to disappear. Oh yeah, and if guides want to get paid on demand, they must surrender $2.00 of their accumulated pay every time they cash out, and have their money deposited in a ChaCha affiliated bank, the First Internet Bank of Indiana. Man, if you could just read the forum, you have to read between the crap posted by senior guides on damage control to find any information about what's going on.

ChaCha is ChaChaChaChanging. Pardon the pun. But not for the better. ChaCha has enacted a 20 question per month limit, and is transitioning away from guided questions, since they are not profitable. ChaCha guides are paid $.20 per answer, as long as they maintain a top guide status (i.e. 200 searches per week with 95% accuracy and completion, a closed rating system where guides are not told why exactly they may have failed to achieve top-guide status), at the very least 5/6ths of the guides do not qualify in any given week and make onl$.10 per response. ChaCha also has an internal forum for guides in which posts questioning problems, or those with dissenting views at the very least have those threads deleted and at the most are fired. Prior to the addition of the 20 search per month limit, a guide could easily receive and answer 50 questions per hour, currently a guide is lucky if they receive and answer 10. I'm a guide who needs the money I make, but I'm not allowed to voice these dissenting views for fear of my account being deactivated.

It seems to me though that Chacha is not meant to be a primary job. It's just something to supplement one's income if a person has a lot of free time