Are Any Of Those Work-At-Home Offers For Real?
DENVER (CBS4) - Collette Freemen learned the hard way.
"I just thought I could get some data entry in at home while I'm looking for employment and just be able to do something and you just don't know which one to do," Freemen said.
So she found what looked like a good work-at-home offer online. It wasn't.
"I signed up for one, they wanted a dollar."
Desperate for work, she provided her credit card number.
"And it ended up that they actually charged me over the amount and right now I'm trying to dispute it because I got charged for more and I haven't received the packet."
Compare that with Don and Sandra Aulds of Thornton. They love their work at home jobs.
"I like it," said Don. "I get to meet a lot of people, talk to different people."
He's full time, his wife Sandra is part-time. But she started working for Alpine Access first.
"I mean I'm here for my children still. I don't have to go out of the house," Sandra said. "If anything happens, they can come home, they know where I am, I'm here, the teachers know where I am."
They don't make the big money that some roadside signs claim. It's about $9 an hour regular pay, but they can make more by working extra hours and holidays.
"I work for a cell phone company," Don said. "It's full time. It's 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. I take incoming collection calls. And basically it's when people use their cell phone it'll direct them to us. And we take payments, set up payment arrangements for them to pay at a later date."
Don is a retired Dallas County, Texas, sheriff's officer. He and Sandra moved to Colorado because they had family here and fell in love with it. Working from home has worked for them, but they know they, too, could have been scammed if they weren't careful.
"Over the years I've looked into probably 30 or 40 different companies and none of them panned out," Sandra said.
But last year she applied with Denver-based Alpine Access. The Denver-Boulder Better Business Bureau has no complaints about Alpine Access. BBB spokeswoman Jean Herman says there are some simple rules when looking to work at home.
"Where is the real business located? I mean if they're really recruiting people, they have an office, a location, a staff, an accountant, a lawyer, a real business," Herman said.
Real businesses don't seek money up front, said Herman.
"If you have to pay up front anything, or if you have to decide today. If this deal is only good today, run away."
Alpine Access does require $35, however, for a background check. They say that's because it got expensive paying for the checks on all applicants. Even Alpine Access' CEO says up-front money is a sign that something's amiss.
"I'm an employee and I shouldn't have to pay my employer and I don't," Christopher Carrington said.
Don and Sandra said they understood the necessity of the check and the payment. Alpine Access does pay wages during training. It also offers benefits like time off and medical, dental and vision care.
Don and Sandra may not be raking in huge money, but they're able to keep expenses low.
"It's the cost of gasoline I'm saving, the extra expense of having to buy another vehicle, especially if we were splitting in two different directions," Don said.
Then there's eating lunch at home and the fact that they don't have to spend money on clothes for work.
Herman points out that applicants should ask questions.
"And you want references from local people who've used the company," Herman said.
Carrington offers this advice: "Ask a company, who are they serving? What are the companies they're serving? And if those are customers you recognize that probably points to some legitimacy."
Alpine Access does work for Office Depot, General Electric, J. Crew, Exxon Mobil. In fact, with some companies they have brought jobs back to the United States from overseas.
"There's a real movement in the marketplace to bring offshore jobs back on shore in the call center space, specifically to work at home," Carrington said.
He says the companies that contract with Alpine Access are looking for Americans to answer the phones.
"One that has a local dialect. A local culture that understands the needs and requests of the client. Having people work from home gives that to customers who are calling."
And so the company is growing -- 28 percent last year. They believe they will grow by 50 percent this year. That means they expect to hire 4,000 to 5,000 people around the country.
What do you need? For most people it takes a high-speed Internet connection and a personal computer that's free from clutter. And you have to be serious about making it a profession.
"People first and foremost need to be very dedicated to the position and this is not just anything from home," Carrington said. "This is a real, true profession from home and so they have to be self-motivated and be able to kind of manage themselves, kind of get up in the morning, get on the phone, work professionally."
Additional Resources
Below are a few links to work at home companies with good records:
-- Written by Alan Gionet
