smartech

jmanrta

Does anyone have any experience working with Smartech as a Field Technician. Basically I would be doing warranty hardware repairs on people's home desktops and laptops. They provide free Dell certification. I would be paid a flat rate per repair.

I am little hesitant though because it's 1099 and I'd have to use my own vehicle(wear/tear and gas can be costly), but on the flipside I have been out of the IT workforce to work on some personal issues, and need a resume filler.

So does anyone have any experience with this company or one like it?

Essendon

Cant help much but one of our regular members, earweed, posted this thread about a similar company called Syntechs or something. The most bizarre experience ever, you sure want to ask around before you join a company as a field tech.

jmanrta

Yeah that does seem really dubious. I am really reluctant because it's 1099 so who knows when I will be paid, plus I want to know how many jobs average I can expect a day. Just hoping someone has experience with this particular organization.

Could definitely use the resume filler.

jmritenour

Let me state that I'm not a tax professional by any means, but as far as fuel costs and vehicle maintenance, if you keep track of your mileage and document it, you should be able to claim it on your taxes at the federal reimursement rate of 50 cents per mile. IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates

earweed

Never heard of smarttech. I recently hooked up with onforce which has a better reputation and a better set up than the other company I was with. Not many jobs so far. I've only done 1 virus removal so far and have missed out on several jobs that have been snatched up by other local techs quicker to accept the job than I was. A lot of these field tech jobs like that will try to basically lowball you so you make very little. It may be good resume filler but not much income.

TheSuperRuski

earweed wrote: »

Never heard of smarttech. I recently hooked up with onforce which has a better reputation and a better set up than the other company I was with. Not many jobs so far. I've only done 1 virus removal so far and have missed out on several jobs that have been snatched up by other local techs quicker to accept the job than I was. A lot of these field tech jobs like that will try to basically lowball you so you make very little. It may be good resume filler but not much income.

Actually you just have to get a little more exposure. I`ve only been on OnForce for a few months now and the beginning months the work was decent. I do a lot of retail IT work and around the holidays they don`t want any kind of tech work going on unless its like mission critical so it slowed down for me. All i can say about OnForce is hang in there. I just received my PowerPro status and i have already received 4 easy HP jobs like 80 bucks to help with a memory problem a user was having. That warranty work hardly ever pays that much.

As far as smartech i haven`t heard of them but OnForce offers free dell certs as well. They just started a deal with MAC certifications since Apple is booming in the industry at the moment, like 25% off cert test and things like that. As it was stated you can write off alot of the wear and tear you endure using your ride so it can be a good thing for the moment until something better comes along. And it would look better on your resume, i think, than nothing.

N2IT

A guy I work with started doing this on the side when he wasn't at the office. He has been nailed with some printers lately, mainly maintenence kits. However he did have a cable job that was scheduled for a saturday, but that fell through.

Sounds Good

do these field tech jobs provide training or are you suppose to already know everything?

atenza

TheSuperRuski wrote: »

Actually you just have to get a little more exposure. I`ve only been on OnForce for a few months now and the beginning months the work was decent. I do a lot of retail IT work and around the holidays they don`t want any kind of tech work going on unless its like mission critical so it slowed down for me. All i can say about OnForce is hang in there. I just received my PowerPro status and i have already received 4 easy HP jobs like 80 bucks to help with a memory problem a user was having. That warranty work hardly ever pays that much.

As far as smartech i haven`t heard of them but OnForce offers free dell certs as well. They just started a deal with MAC certifications since Apple is booming in the industry at the moment, like 25% off cert test and things like that. As it was stated you can write off alot of the wear and tear you endure using your ride so it can be a good thing for the moment until something better comes along. And it would look better on your resume, i think, than nothing.

How does OnForce work as far as tax purposes go? Do you have to be incorporated?

+CNENT+

There is no guarantee how many jobs per day you will get with them, even if they say 5-6, that to me would be a high end, and they are just telling you whatever so you accept the job. I had a friend that use to work with them, and you may work 1 job in a day, and then you may be working 6 the next. You can never tell. They tend to hire people per hour at least where I live, so I would expect that if they have any hourly people you are going to be doing less, because it's cheaper for them to pay them the $10-11/hr then you $25-30.

earweed

Sounds Good wrote: »

do these field tech jobs provide training or are you suppose to already know everything?

You have to know everything already.

TheSuperRuski

atenza wrote: »

How does OnForce work as far as tax purposes go? Do you have to be incorporated?

No you don`t gave to be incorporated to use onforce. i was thinking about the idea of incorporating but never got around to it. When you file your taxes i believe you just file them as sole proprietorship. I would consult a tax lawyer if you had any confusion about it.

Sounds Good wrote: »

do these field tech jobs provide training or are you suppose to already know everything?

Yea, like earweed said you are expected to have some experience in the work order you are pursuing. They offer some training to join whats called PPN`s but you would still like to know what you are doing before hand. for example there is a PPN for a company called vital network solutions and there training walks you through pretty much everything you have to do for them and the tools you need to buy. If you are confident in your skills and have all the necessary tools you can go for it.

Sounds Good

earweed wrote: »

You have to know everything already.

what if you go to a client and you don't know how to fix it?

TheSuperRuski

Sounds Good wrote: »

what if you go to a client and you don't know how to fix it?

It depends on the issue. If it is something that needs to be escalated, or you need to order a part, you will still get paid for your time and effort. But if its because you over extended yourself or you don`t have a tool you said you have then its up to the buyer but probably you wont be paid for the visit.

earweed

Bad thing about this on force thing is that it's first tech to accept the job. If I don't respond QUICKLY it gets accepted by another tech. I've only landed 1 job in 2 weeks and I just got lucky with that one. I just barely missed one today and was at my computer when the email alert came over and quickly signed in to accept it and was 30 seconds too slow and there were 4 techs ahead of me in queue to accept the job.

TheSuperRuski

earweed wrote: »

Bad thing about this on force thing is that it's first tech to accept the job. If I don't respond QUICKLY it gets accepted by another tech. I've only landed 1 job in 2 weeks and I just got lucky with that one. I just barely missed one today and was at my computer when the email alert came over and quickly signed in to accept it and was 30 seconds too slow and there were 4 techs ahead of me in queue to accept the job.

Yea that is a major annoyance. i swear some people get alerted before i do. There has got to be people that have OnForce up and signed in all the time cause, like you, i`d sign on right after getting the email and/or text message and be the 2nd or 3rd tech there by 3 - 15 seconds. I`ve got in good with a contact/Buyer so i get some exclusive request work orders but the main ones I`m hardly ever the first one there.