The ratings system needs work.
The ratings system sucks! You can try to help on a question that has been "sitting" for a while and get a negative rating for taking too long (as well as not get paid). You can "opt out" of a question and get a negative rating. Customers will rate you before a troubleshooting process is even complete.
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AnonY Mouse commented
So recently there have been a lot more read and runs. I have never seen so many as of late. The rating system is clearly not working. You want us experts to give a 100% response rate. I don't think that is going to happen until we get a 100% accept rate.
I think its time to revisit the auto accept feature. The customer will still have the option of rating even after the question times out. But if the question times out - then the expert gets paid. At least this way there would be no more read an runs which is a huge problem.
I know that JA did it this way by design. They would rather get 100% of the question value then 50%. It makes sense from a business standpoint. But it sux for the experts. Because not only do we get 50% for any question, but we only get paid for 50% of our answers, so its more like we are getting 25%.
It is impossible to make ends meat on this site anymore. I am so tired of work 14 hour days 7 days a week for peanuts. I think I would do better cooking burgers at McDonalds now. And that is just pathetic. 2 college degrees and 20 years experience wasted.
JA YOU SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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anonymous commented
Oh god yet again, A bad rating for no reason. I gave the customer a correct answer, in this case there was no solution for their problem. So I told them this and gave them several alternatives. Instead of being happy about my honesty, they rated me bad service. The service I provided was not bad, they just were not happy with the answer.
Why do we have this stupid system it accomplishes nothing. You get bad ratings get banned, all because you gave true and correct answers.
A system a punishes experts for doing their job is not a good system at all.
I know that nobody from JA reads these things so nothing will change. But here is an idea. IF a customer chooses one of the negative ratings, it goes to the reply to expert and does not count.
Inother words do away with the bad ratings, but instead give the expert a chance to either opt out or continue to work with the customer. Then if the customer decides the expert did a good job they can rate positive.
DUH this makes so much sense and will provide such a better experience for both the Customer and the Expert. So for this very reason that it would improve things and make more money for JA. They will not do it. But instead will do the oposit.
Stupid Stupid Stupid JA, Wake UPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
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Anonymous commented
This new Rating system is going to cause a lot of good valuable Experts to be removed from JA.
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Anonymous commented
JA doesn't care about it's experts and this system is proof. Anything to please the customer until they take their deposit away. The only time JA notices experts is when a huge amount stop answering all at once, exactly like what happened the day this system was introduced.
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anonymus commented
Example 1:
Customer Asks
What is 1 + 2?
Expert Answer:
3
Rating - Bad Service
Example 2:
Customer posts a 3 paragraph question about why 1 + 2 is important and the relationship of the + operation in mathematics, then asks, What does 1 + 2 equal?
Expert Answer
4
Rating: Excellent Service
From the above examples it shows that customers can't tell the difference between a good or bad answer. Too much power is being given to customers, and it leads to abusive customers who just want to rate the expert negatively because they get a moral boost from it, it makes the customer feel good that they have the power to make someone else feel bad. It is clear that the ratings customers are giving have nothing to do with the answers that are provided. For all we know the customer that rated bad service, had ordered a Pizza Delivery and the Pizza was delivered an hour late and it was cold and stale. So they rate Bad Service because they happen to be reading their question at the same time.
The problem is that customers are not asked to provide a reason for the negative, A negative rating should not count against the expert unless the customer provides a justified reason for it. A customer saying it is not a good answer, is not justified. We are all experts, we all had to pass background checks and tests, It is clear that we give great and correct answers. So there is no need to punish us with bad ratings.
Either make the customer have to explain why they are giving a negative rating. Or get rid of the first 2 options all together. So only OK - GOOD - and EXCELLENT are the options available.
What is the point of having a rating system anyway? If the customer gets to choose to rate or not anyway, it is just pointless to have negative ratings. A customer not rating is the same thing as a negative rating. Yet the negatives hurt the expert a lot more. So the customers see our percentages, and see that we have a bunch of experts with less than 50% positive ratings. Makes us look like a bunch of idiots.
Maybe this explains why the question volume is down. Would you trust a site where all of the experts have a 30 - 50% positive approval rating? I sure wouldn't
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Anonymous commented
perts, why don't you start by rating yourself before you rate the expert.
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Anonymous commented
I believe you guys need to fix things in there because with the rating system you have may leave you with no ex
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Keith commented
I was an HVAC expert from Sept 2012 to Feb 27,2013.
My account WAS disabled for allegedly violating section 8 with a customer who was not even mine!
This fact alone evidences an innacurate action was made.
I was helping airheatman who was unfairly rated,which I had done for several experts without trouble.Airheatman was unfairly rated,I did this successfully for gurutech prior to this and nobody said a thing as to my breaking any rules.I had zero warning,no 2nd chance after being informed what I had allegedly done.Despite my pro actively monitoring my status several times a week with every mod from Maria to Laurie to Gina to Adam,due to continuous abuses from billy1961 who was actively abusing the peer review process yet nobody would/could stop it, it was referred to admins who would stop the expert bullying,yet never culminated in anytthing constructive.
I was continuously assured that the admins were friends not to be feared,that no one person has that kind of pull and no capricious terminations were made or imminent, though the handwriting was sadly on the wall the whole time.The scenarios that unfolded with billy1961 were endless and baseless.I felt the zero effect of the endless barrage of specious assertions billy made(over 100 in the 6 months)evidenced no basis was ever found or I would have been warned/notified.
The entire experience would have been wonderful if not for billy's constant abuses and justanswers allowing it to continue was online was subjected to shills,fake customers who rated poorly for no reason as were gurutech ansd warmneighbor,if you will read our pm's to another you will see the widespread belief that billy was manipulating stats and abusing peer reviews etc. I had excellent ratings gone uncredited,I had bad ratings that were promised to be removed,yet never removed.I was willing to answer any question the mods asked of me, even knowing some where a stretch,they said just do your best,I was attacked by billy at every turn,the reasons are obvious in hindsight and if anyonne cares to review the first 50 negative reports, billy was making them due to my ability to "steal" answers from experts who responded prior to me. I wish I could do it all over again, I would never even look at pending questions, despite my seeming successes there, they only turned out to be a loss as my account was terminated through manipulation and deceeit. I was in no way tryingh to make any financial arrangement with the customer, it was not even my customer!I never had any warning, just a termination out of the blue,despite my being online easily 12 hours a day,6-7 days a week,taking questions noone else would. This job was important to me,I constantly made efforts to maintain this status and stay on top of anything that might end up with me doing anything that would jeopardize my status with JA, as in after every specious rating or negative peer review,I read a phone interview after my beginning as an expert, and a manual emailed to me never arrived.I had a 91.7% rating the day I was let go. I had many bonuses that last month, I was so shocked to learn I was suddenly out as feared all along and assured was not possible or imminent.
I was such a company man, refusing customers requests to pay me in addition many times and saying just use us and my being part of a team was my bag! all to no appreciation. ask gurutech and warmneighbor,look at our mail and see their concerns billy was doing to them what he was doing to me, its all on the pm's -
Chris Rogers commented
Having come from the background of Google Answers, where Researchers were paid regardless of rating (unless the customer asked for a refund), I was astounded to see that here customers are responsible for deciding whether Experts get paid or not, and are required to make an effort to see that they are. I was and remain incredulous at the unprofessional begging by Experts for positive ratings. At GA we were prohibited from soliciting ratings or tips. However, this system certainly reinforces that begging behavior. I confess it is a huge disincentive to put in the time and effort to provide a quality answer, when the customer can just ignore whatever buttons are there, take the answer and run. There needs to be a better system than requiring such effort of customers who come to be served a good answer, not be required to serve the Expert a good rating.
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Anonymous commented
This is an old ongoing problem. I think JA/Pearl has tried to improve it.
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Ryan commented
As "experts," our expertise is not respected if we allow the customer to determine what a correct answer is. That is why they are coming to us.
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Tom commented
You have a very good point. Recently I have had two negative ratings and they both occurred before I could actually engage with the customer. I am not clear whether opting out at that point is effective????? Another part of this which is confusing, is that on my question page the client"s posting still appears, and JA says that the customer is still waiting on a response from the expert.
I look forward to hearing more about how we can prevent these bad ratings when we have not engaged in a chat.
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drblue commented
copied anothers post here as it is best put
The current rating system discourages me from attending questions having probability of negative answers. In most cases, the expert may not get a chance to convert rating because the customer doesn't respond at all.The customer may leave negative rating due to many reasons, which doesn't include in JA policy for negative removal, but is NOT the fault of the expert.
1 - Due to the delay in getting his question answered.
2 - Negative but correct answer.
3 - Delay in response from already attended expert due to time-zone differences.
4 - Cust is not aware that he will get refund if he is not satisfied with the answer or service.
5 - Cust may be in a bad mood or frustrated due to the issue in discussion or some other reasonFor all these, the innocent expert is being punished despite his unpaid effort. More frustrating is that people who know the situation very well(JA team) is not doing anything on the matter.
Hope JA will do something soon.
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drblue commented
there has to be a better balance than what we have - we need protection from customers, every bit as much as they need protection from us. JA/pearl get 1/2 of the fee for my answer and do not seem to protect me adequately from unscrupulous buyers who either have no intention of paying (which I dont really mind) or leave negative feedback for me not telling them "what they want to hear" (completely unacceptable). we need a solid peer referral system so that negative ratings can be removed after appeal. I am sure current category members could help out with this process....
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Robert commented
I have been getting poor ratings after full in depth explanations. Just because they don't like to hear the truth shouldn't mean they give you a poor rating. There should be some kind of mandatory statement for form for negative feedback. I spend a lot of time answering questions and it seems like 50% of the time people also don't even leave feedback. it is very frustrating.
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Maggie commented
i agree even though i have no votes left. I have suffered from the rating system and for all those reasons and have spent a lot of unpaid tiime
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Muhammed Shaheen commented
The current rating system discourages me from attending questions having probability of negative answers. In most cases, the expert may not get a chance to convert rating because the customer doesn't respond at all.
The customer may leave negative rating due to many reasons, which doesn't include in JA policy for negative removal, but is NOT the fault of the expert.
1 - Due to the delay in getting his question answered.
2 - Negative but correct answer.
3 - Delay in response from already attended expert due to time-zone differences.
4 - Cust is not aware that he will get refund if he is not satisfied with the answer or service.
5 - Cust may be in a bad mood or frustrated due to the issue in discussion or some other reasonFor all these, the innocent expert is being punished despite his unpaid effort. More frustrating is that people who know the situation very well(JA team) is not doing anything on the matter.
Hope JA will do something soon.
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Greg commented
This is getting me down and making me lose interest in helping ,i did this many years on other forum for free, and got more out of it iATN for one, my rating there is excellent.but since I'Ve been working here I've not had time to help over there.
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Glen commented
I agree the rating system needs fixing . Yesterday i did a info request and the customer came back and gave me a poor rating and this shouldn't be allowed. Im a newbi here but have worked on alot of questions. But not getting paid for something like 40% is a joke Just because a customer doesn't want to come back and accept a answer and pay us. I would like to spend more time working on here but it's getting hard with customers rating you poor to get out of paying or just not paying
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Greg commented
The rating system is not bad in some ways, as it makes you get back to the customer and try and convert them, but we have to change the poor and bad system to need more help and once the customer pays then he can decide if the help was bad or not with the Neg and Pos.
As i do a lot of old question and these are the only ones that give poor due to time or they are ****** off with waiting to long even though you gave them the correct answer.
Befor this system i never got below 99.3 now it in the basement with some cats at 96