Beware... I went to an orientation and was told by one of the owners that you can make $1400-1800 working from home as an independent contractor. The big catch for them is that you have to pay them $550 to work for them. They say that it's to lease their equipment and tools. They will not allow you to use your own tools and equipment to work for them. It is a requirement that everyone who works for them must pay $550.00.
One lady in orientation said she already owned a foot pedal and headset and she was told that it didn't matter because the foot pedal and headset are bundled into the $550 price including the Voice Scribe software that you must purchase in order to do work for them. They will not contract with anyone who does not purchase the Voice Scribe License from them, foot pedal and headset for a total of $550.00.
They tell you that you are your own business but then they go on to tell you that if you want time off that you must request it in writing. I'm sorry but an independent contractor should not be told when they can take time off. I was required to attend their training sessions at my own expense.
I was provided with a detailed Procedures Manual on how the work should be performed. I was also required to come into their offices in Gilbert Arizona to attend training sessions. They do not pay you for this time, and you are required to attend. This all reeks of employee status and not independent contractor. They also review your work on a weekly basis and you get a written review of your work. If you don't transcribe 60 minutes a day for them you will get a telephone call from them.
They also assign you a personal voice mail box, which reeks of employee status to me and not independent contractor status. They pass down to you their share of Social Security Taxes, Medicare Taxes, unemployment insurance and worker's compensation insurance by telling you that you are an independent contractor with your own business. They pass these costs down to the stay-at-home moms who work for $2 - $4.00 per hour.
You can consider filing Form SS-8 Determination of Worker Status for Purposes of Federal Employment Taxes and Income Tax Withholding to have the IRS assist you in making a determination, even though you signed a contract.
Do not contract with this company. I am making $4.00 per hour and I have to wait until my contract is up otherwise they will charge me $250.00 if I give notice before my 3-month contract is up.
They make you sign a contract of which you don't get to review beforehand. I asked one of the owners if I could review a copy of the contract and I was told they don't like to give the contract out. You don't get to read the contract until you're ready to sign.in other words, you don't get time to read it. If you want to work for them you have to sign it right then and there. Then they don't make you a copy of the contract for your records. I barely had five minutes to review the contract before they were breathing down my back to sign it so they could get me to pay them $550.00.
They specifically target moms who stay at home with their children and then have them work for less than minimum wage $1.10 per page, and you must transcribe, verify, and then re-listen to the audio before sending them back.By the time you get done with that you will find that you will make $2.00 - $4.00 per hour.
The times that I have been in the office very few workers smile. That should have been a red flag to me but I was drawn in and feel scammed. Now I have no choice but to continue struggling making $2.00 - $4.00 per hour until I finish my contract and then I have to give a 5-day notice or else I will get charged another $50.00.
I did not listen to my gut feeling when I felt that I was being scammed but I fell for it and now I have to pay the price for it. But I hope that other stay-at-home moms will not get suckered. They tell you that you can finish 60 minutes of audio including verifications, proofing and re-listening in 4 hours and that they have transcriptionists who are actually doing this and are making $1400-$1800. I have yet to see or hear of one transcriptionist step forward to actually prove, and not just give it lip service, that they are making this kind of money and doing it in the time that they say you should be able to do it in.
The place is a revolving door of transcriptionists. Just in the past weeks alone they have had at least five (5) orientations full of at least 20 people at each one and of which probably 16 of them get suckered in for the $550 fee. So it's a numbers game for them.
The $550.00 that you pay is supposed to include the use of the Voice Scribe license but then you don't get to own the license because she says it costs her $1,000 for each license. So when you quit, you are required to give them access to your computer so that they can remove the Voice Scribe software. Because of the high turn-over of transcriptionists it's like a revolving door where Transcription Express gets to re-use the license to give to another unsuspecting stay-at-home mom and charge them $550 for it and sucks them in by telling them they can make $1400-1800 doing this full-time. They don't tell you that full-time constitutes a 12-hour day every day. When unsuspecting transcriptionists discover they don't make money, they quit, and the revolving door continues, and TEI continues to thrive in taking people's money and getting away without paying their fair share of the taxes and making people work for almost nothing.
If they were legitimate they would allow people to be true independent contractors and work for themselves using their own equipment and tools and not require them to pay $550 plus $250 termination fee plus require attendance at training sessions that they don't get paid for and then wind up making $2.00 -$4.00 per hour.
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