I took a 55" TV mount job for $60. In the past, I wouldn't take jobs this cheap, but I wasn't doing anything. Turns out the customer bought a mount for 2x4 studs and he had 2x6 studs. No problem, I carry a spare mount. The job takes a little longer, but looks great. Customer signs the app and I see that he's paying $151. I get $60 - $2.25 fee for supposed accident insurance - $7.35 Thimble insurance for the TV in case it breaks = $50.40. $60 is 40%. I do all the work and Hellotech gets 60%? It used to be 50%.

After using Hellotech for about 6 months here are a few observations I've made:

• If you get bad rating your offers will decline exponentially (even if you still have a good overall)

• If you cancel a job (no matter when) your job offers will decline exponentially

• If you refuse a job for any reason other than "Scheduling conflict" similar jobs will not be offered to you

• You're more likely to get offers while you're working other jobs

• If you're late (even just one) your offers decline

• If you refuse to drive to an area because it's too far away they will not offer you other jobs in the same area that pay more and make the trip worth while.

• Taking jobs that pay low and are farther away seem to get you more job offers (you become favored)

These are my observations and may not be entirely true. However this has been what I have been experiencing.

SimpliSafe - No of sensors. Sometimes they need a video doorbell which they add as a note but the rate doesn't reflect it. Ask them to contact Hellotech and change the rate. It is also important to run test mode which results in a call and calling SimpliSafe Hellotech tier 2 tech line 880-907-3219 support to confirm everything is good. So don't take offers less than 70$ (10+sensors)

Nest Thermostat:

-the wires may have too many curves and nest will not be able to catch it. Use wire stripper and wire cutter to expose a new straight copper wire with appropriate length.

- Ask client to charge nest thermostat before hand.

- don't give up if you cant make it work.. try calling nest tier 2 support. they are very good at resolving issues and take about 15 minutes

Video doorbells - .Ask clients to start charging the devices before hand. use a multimeter and check voltage (16v minimum and 20v ideal) , VA (30 VA) and amps(1.6 amps). Video doorbells require far more power than traditional doorbells. if the house if old it is likely the setup is low voltage. if it is not enough simply walk away

A/V and new TV setup - Carry extra cables (HDMI/Digital Out/Class 2 speaker wire) They come in very handy and besides the customer is supposed to reimburse you. I order cables well ahead in amazon for $5-$7 and sell for $15-$20 (atleast cheaper than best buy). one of the tips was to use a 9v batter to check which speaker a particular black and red pair belong to.

Don't give out personal numbers. If possible dial customer with *67. If client approaches you unless they are ready to hand over IT contract for small business not worth it to have you job in Jeopardy

Don't take jobs like ring flood light camera or nest outdoor camera install that requires a tall ladder. Risk to reward ratio is too high and usually they tend to have uneven surfaces. Call ahead and ask if the customer can hold the ladder for you. insurance doen't cover your injury and not worth it for measly $50 you get paid to take the risk especially if this is second job

New computer setup - if customer buys a slow computer plan ahead as you will likely spend 2-3 hours as you are supposed to install 3 softwares and connect around 3 devices. your best bet is to try and sell additional services

computer antivirus - remove all anti virus software if customer is on windows 10. As windows has its own defender, firewall, antivirus free of cost. Norton security usually costs a client $99/year and they will thank you for it

computer tuneup / clean up -

windows update

call and ahead and ask customer if they have admin access. if they don't know, ask them to do Windows+r and type in msconfig.

ccleaner and iobit are the most affective in cleaning up computers. using msconfig and cleanup startup programs

Well at least I still have my $50 mount install 400 miles away.

What is going to happen to this company?

I wonder how many remember when a Tech was called a Geek. That's why your platform URL still ends with /geek. HelloTech was around but Geekatoo was directly competing with Geek Squad on TV mountings, a very lucrative service at the time. The prior had excellent branding, SEO, and ratings. HelloTech had stronger computer services, and possibly a more pointed business plan, so when they merged around 2017 the best of them combined and continued to crush SEO for consumers while securing big contracts for installation services.

The staff from that era is basically gone and the company has structured itself differently across the board. It is a cold and efficient business machine rising in valuation year over year.

I don't think the brand is sustainable long term. It could be a great company, but it's a house of cards because they've exchanged the solid foundation it was set on by early staff and techs and replaced them with a liquid work force, demoralizing techs with lower pay, gouging them and customers with insurance and safety fees at the same time while pushing a subscription model that is quite expensive for the average person. They are basically depending on Walmart, Target, Simplisafe, Amazon, etc. to continue contracting with them while forgoing a strong relationship customers and techs.

My opinion. Curious if you have one.

I've been on the platform for just over a year. I have my own local company that essentially does the same type of work (TV mounting, home audio setup, smart locks, doorbell cameras, etc.). This year I absolutely crushed it on the app. I was making around $4K a month on the app and giving all the work from my business to my employees. They were making money, I was making money, it was great. In the last 1-2 months, it's been absolutely dead. I was getting 8-15 offers a day and now I'm seeing maybe 1-2 a week and they are all low paying and far away (almost like I've been demoted on the app and I'm getting someone else's rejected jobs). Just wondering if anyone else is having this problem. I'm in the Austin/San Antonio area, which covers around 4 million people. I find it hard to believe that the app is just completely dead. My company is seeing about 5-10 requests a day and with Black Friday just happening, I would expect the app to be poppin, but it's just dead. Curious if anyone else is seeing a similar issue.

Since hellotech is clearly not all what it ought to be for techs and customers alike, what Are some alternative platforms that usually pay more? I mostly do hang TVs and tried taskrabbit in my are, they pay like half of what HT pays for a tv hang job. I’m not trying to make this stuff a full time gig, just side work to pay for the absurd gas prices and some other fun related stuff.

Has anyone seen the new menu when declining offers? It's not bad, but I wish they would incorporate the Job Board in the app. Most of my job offers don't pay enough, for example a security system setup with sensors and like 4 outdoor cameras for $65. I would take the offer if it paid more, but when declining the offer and selecting "pay too low", will I be offered it again? It would be nice to be able to say what amount I would be willing to do the job for.

I started in 2016. For a good year or two I was averaging 15-20 jobs per week. Now i'm down to a few per week, mainly because I refuse to take $50-60 jobs.

Favorite type of job: "Printer won't connect to wifi"

Least favorite job: Smart Thermostat where they already tried to self install.

Is anyone still working? I heard a lot of people had paused? (Not accepting Jobs)

I still get requests but I stopped March because of COVID. when one customer & his wife started coughing non-stop while I was there. It crossed a tipping point for me. I finished up held my breath and walked out.

How are you guys doing?

Going into peoples homes recently is a serious health risk that I couldn’t afford. the clients are uncomfortable and so am I. It was a bit too much. Maybe 2021!

So, apparently, this new partnership that requires a drug test is for Comcast. And according to HelloTech, those on opioids are good to go, but those on medical cannabis are SOL, even with doctors recommendation, and even if it's legal in your state.

So just a heads up for other partially disabled techs who decided to NOT get involved with opioids, HelloTech thinks you made the wrong decision. 🙄

What happens if I mark too many jobs unserviceable? Like if I mark 75% of my jobs unserviceable, will they kick me off the app? Right about now 75% of the jobs I get are just plain unserviceable. It's not my fault either.

Do you all think HelloTech is a dead platform walking? Since we lost the SimpliSafe contract in mid-2022 I have seen very few job offers direct from HelloTech. (Keep in mind I don't do TV mounting or video doorbell installs, which are more popular in most areas). In the past few months I've only gotten the occasional (1-2 per month) networking support or A/V setup job but with very low pay, under $100.

All I've been getting are the Xfinity partnership jobs but the work orders are always wrong/incomplete so they are a nightmare to complete. Normal HelloTech jobs like computer support seem to have disappeared entirely.

HelloTech feels to me like it is on life support, especially since they keep pushing the HT Home Member subscription service so much. What are your thoughts..?

FYI, Hellotech lost the simplisafe contract. Ontech now has it, hence the absense of simplisafe jobs in the app. I looked into ontech, and the jobs are now hourly based rather than per job based. You would have to apply for an actual position at the company to be an installer. It's no longer a subcontractor gig. I'm pretty sure hellotech also lost the walmart contract cause I haven't gotten any tv installs in months.

I need to rant here for a minute just to get this off my chest. Let me tell you a story that illustrates just how cheap Hellotech has gotten.

I get a ticket for a Nest doorbell and an alarm system. Because it's a package deal it only pays $95, but whatever. When I get there I find that she has an entire basket full of other items to install. Window sensors, smoke alarms, Etc. All told there are eight extra products which when charged at the normal add on rate of 42 bucks comes to almost $340.

I call them up and ask them to add the services to the ticket because it was not on the app. They tell me that those services are all included in the original ticket so it's the same price, but since there will be extra labor involved, they can offer me an additional... Wait for it...

$30.

Yes, they wanted me to do about $310 worth of labor for free. I politely declined to finish the ticket, which I think shows admirable restraint. A word to the wise: If you pay cheap, you're going to get cheap service. That's going to cost you more in the long run in repairs and damage to your reputation.

Moved

So the only thing I can think that it's because I'm a woman. I have five star ratings but the job gets cancelled and then immediately relisted.

I had this job for Friday at 6pm and then all of a sudden I got the notification it was cancelled. I immediately checked the HT job board and it was posted there with preferred (first) time Thursday at 4pm. I texted the job # to the hotline but when I checked the app I saw that it was already "claimed" for Thursday at 4pm. So I'll probably get a text reply later saying the job is unavailable now.

I'm pretty annoyed and quite frankly pissed that HT would cancel the job on me and offer it to another tech for a day earlier. The services were the same, only the date had changed. Why didn't HT alert me of the rescheduled time & at least give me first dibs on (re-)claiming the job? I think it's ridiculous that the job would go back into the general queue for just a time rescheduling.

Must I now call every customer the second I get the job to confirm details & check if they need to reschedule? I think if I remember correctly the customer has to explicitly say to keep the same tech at the new time. If they don't mention this, then it just gets cancelled and goes back in the general queue like it's a new order. (I usually call customers 1 day before to confirm things for the next day.)

I'm pretty unhappy about this because it was a 3 part bundled SimpliSafe install: smart lock, doorbell, and security system. The payout from this 1 job would have been worth about 3 normal jobs.

I was wondering if there's any possible way to just perform the details that were on a work order and just get paid for that.

Background: I called the customer to confirm details on an Abode security system install. Work order said only security kit and a camera needed to be installed. Customer called back and said 5 cameras needed to be installed, 4 outside.

I just want to install the security system and the 1 indoor camera, I don't want to deal with drilling & mounting the 4 ext cams.

Is there any way I can just complete what was on the work order? I really don't want to have to mark it as unserviceable since the cameras weren't mentioned on the work order.

EDIT/UPDATE: The customer ended up ordering the wrong system, so they didn't have me install anything since they'd be sending it back. However, they were super generous and gave me a tip just for me showing up there.