Lionbridge is a global company that provides support to companies all over the world. One of the many services they offer is to help companies improve user experiences on their website search. Better user experience is very important to a website because it usually leads to increased revenue for a company. Think about how many websites you've visited and soon after left because it was too hard to navigate or couldn't find the information you searched for. Well you may have stayed longer and probably bought something if this website had a company like Lionbridge to advise them on what improvements to make.
I'm sure you probably have a lot of feedback to give when you see crappy sites. Well with LionBridge you can get paid for that by becoming one of their Internet Assessor.
What does an Internet Assessor do?
The role of an Internet Assessor involves evaluating results of a web search, for appropriateness based on the search query inputted. For instance, let's say you visit a company's website and you do a search for salary. You would expect the search results to come up with pages that discuss salaries, how you get paid etc. But let's say the pages that came up were actually porn pages. Then as an assessor you would probably flag those results as bad based on a set of guidelines that Lionbride may have provided you. So that's pretty much how that works.
What are the requirements to become an Internet Assessor ?
You need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Internet usage, a high speed Internet connection, have lived in the country you are applying to work from for at least 5 years, be fluent in English both reading and writing, and have consistent 10-20 hours a week to put into this. This is a lot of time to dedicate to an online gig each week. Personally, I would rather spend that time working on My Top Free Recommendation.
Anyways, Once you are accepted, there is quite a bit of pdf manual reading. This is necessary to learn about the business. Fortunately, you are given a couple of weeks to learn the material. They continue to send more pdfs to read as you take on new jobs and different sorts of websites. So this probably is not a good fit for those of you who fail to read articles meant to help you or job descriptions carefully. (Yes, you know who you are! lol)
In all honesty though, not many of us like to do a lot of reading so this might be a turn off for some. If you are one of these people then you can look into other opportunities that might suit you better. Surveyjunkie.com, and Fusioncash.net are doesn't require a lot of reading. But they pay you for things you already do online such as watching tv, playing games and more.
Is it an international opportunity?
Yes, they do hire people from all around the world. Check the open recruitment section of their Internet Assessors job page to see if it's available in your area. However keep in mind you're expected to be fluent in speaking and writing English.
How do I sign up?
Work at home seekers must first successfully pass an exam before being able to work as Lionbride Internet Assessor. The exam consists of two parts: Section 1 has 24 theory questions and Section 2 consists of 150 practical questions.
After you've completed the application process, they contact you via email if you are accepted (or not). You can apply by clicking here.
What's the work availability like?
Work opportunities listed on the site today, my not be available next month, so be sure to double check what is available. If this Internet Assessor job for the US is not listed, then come back in a month or two to see if the status has changed. Here's a link to their job page for your reference.
How much and how do I get paid?
You would be an Independent Contractor, so all the tax stuff is on you. Be sure to check out my tax article for more insight on this.
It appears that the earning potential is nothing compared to My Top Free Recommendation. It looks like the pay is about $14.50 an hour but I got that from forum babbling. So that can be totally off and based on someone that has been working with the company for a while. Once you've worked a given amount of hours, you submit an invoice once a month and you need to keep your paperwork up to date to get paid. I would think there is a system in place that tracks this automatically where submitting an invoice would be unnecessary. But it doesn't appear that way from what I can surmise.
I couldn't really figure out if the method of payment was paypal, check, direct deposit or all of the above. It wasn't too clear on their website. I don't know why companies make us dig for this information. I did read on one thread that payments made to U.S. residents were assessed some type of bank fee.
Ultimately I'm sort of sketchy on the details of the payment situation because the information wasn't clearly spelled out on the website. Or I couldn't find it. I don't know but it sounds like they need to use their own Internet Assessors to improve the user experience of their job page, talk about irony! lol
So I am going to really depend on you my loyal subscribers to fill in more details about the payment or correct me on anything else I get twisted in this article. I will be anxious to hear clear details from you all on how this works. So far on paper this looks like a decent potential work at home opportunity. But before you go off skating off to their website, let me tell you what the bad stuff is, at least from how I look at it! So here we go.
LionBridge Complaints
– Suspect Invoicing system?
The main complaint I found was with issues with the productive time chart that keeps track of your hours and where your payment gets figured out. There are two clear camps on this. There are those who have never had a problem and do not know what people are talking about, and those who claim they have to keep lowering their time numbers on their payment invoices until the system accepts it.
It all has to do with something called minimum productivity numbers. These people claim that Lionbridge is like a slave labor force, and even though the pay may be $14.50 and hour, due to all the things you cannot count as paid time it really ends up being closer to half that. What they are saying it may take two hours to build up one hour of enough productivity minutes. There were enough complaints about this to let me know it was more than a few whiners. So that's something to consider. Maybe it's people not really understanding how the company works in this respect. Or maybe it's a case of the company making things more complicated than it has to be. Damned if I know. But I'm sure those of you who have worked for them might have some words to chip in.
In any event, it seems like the job requires quite a lot of time and energy for little pay. Fortunately you don't have worry about with the other opportunities that I recommend like Surveyjunkie.com and Fusioncash.net.
– Non Paid Continuous Training.
The fact that they keep sending you pdf updates and manuals to read, shows they want their workforce to be up to date and competitive which is great. However not paying you for that time, can get a bit old after rather quickly. I have no problem whatsoever with not paying for INITIAL training. Some companies will pay you during training which is great, but the reality is many do not. So I can swallow that. However not paying you to read frequent updates that get sent your way, is like workers having to clock out to read a memo from the boss. Even McDonalds pays the workers for mandatory meetings when there is a procedure or menu change! I can see if these updates come all the time, that this would be frustrating and time consuming.
– Walk the walk and talk the talk.
How the hell are you going to offer a service on improving website user experience and your job page fails to provide some of the most basic information that work at home seekers would be seeking? That just doesn't make any sense to me. So hat's a con because a lot of people may not apply just because of the fact that you fail to provide them key bits of information. It would make me wonder why are they hiding this stuff?
So is LionBridge Legitimate?
Based on what I've seen on the web, this looks to be a legit work at home opportunity that has a decent pay scale, but a few questionable practices. I'm not saying not to look into this further, but do it with your eyes open and I would suggest some comparison shopping with other companies in this field. (We'll review those soon.) Just know, like most of these things, it may not replace your income. But it might supplement it and be one of the multiple streams of income that I always preach you should have. If you want to learn more about an online opportunity that can replace your Full-time job then feel free to…
Check out My #1 Free Work At Home Recommendation!
By the way, they also offer a similar work at home opportunity described as Social Media evaluations. To do that you must be an active Twitter user. Anyway, I did not look into that part, but if you are interested, here is the link.
If by chance this opportunity doesn't appeal to you, feel free to check out Surveyjunkie.com and Fusioncash.net which are all great opportunities that I recommend. You can also check out our work at home jobs page which is updated daily with various opportunities that may be better suited to your needs.
Well I'm looking forward to any feedback you have about this company. Take care and good luck.
I don’t know how many times I’ve applied to their jobs. They don’t even acknowledge receiving my application nor do they ever contact me, and I’m more than qualified. I’ve given up.
…I can’t even get through on the phone number they provided, I’m thinking It’s a personal information scam or something.
I have completed my application to Lionbridge work at home. But submit application tab is missing . I mailed to lionbridge team and i followed the instructions sent by them,that also not helping me to find the submit application tab
I think the way these companies operate makes them employers by definition. They use the contractor thing to justify clipping people’s payments because they took 90 seconds longer than they should have on a particular job. They aren’t a “scam” in the usual sense but they aren’t all that upstanding either. It’s another Uber situation waiting to happen. You aren’t supposed to be tracking your independent contractors’ hours and you aren’t supposed to be supplying them with invoice forms that you require them to use.
A year or two ago I ran across a copy of their guidelines, with their name and their graphics on it. It made me feel good.
I know people have issues with the independent contractor status. But honestly if you think of it from a business standpoint it makes sense. You also get a lot more tax benefits as an independent contractor that you couldn’t leverage as an employee. So it’s a gift and curse. But I think it can benefit both the company and the worker if you know how to leverage it.
I went 99% of the way through Training with LionBridge Crowdsourcing before I decided the job wasn’t for me.
I have several reasons to look for work elsewhere.
I found them incredibly unprofessional in their communications… sending me the wrong dates, then sending me corrections 48 hours later after some of the time had lapsed, then sending me warnings for not meeting dates, which they had wrong…
I also sent them two emails with questions about what I was reading that were never returned.
I was using their training software and it crashed many many times, I did not get any definitive answers on how to fix it and was told that some of them are temporary errors so I could try again in an hour.
Also had to redo some of the training as it would jam at the end and not record the results as completed.
I was writing the exam today and again it jammed 3 times over 6 questions of 35, then threw a 503 server error.
I double checked the directions and I’m using it correctly, I was told to log out and log back in but after 5 or 6 logins I get the impression this company is not for me.
Felt like too much time wasted, and a really frustrating experience, I have enough going on in my life I don’t need to be wasting time troubleshooting a tech companies software or getting hassled for their incorrect dates and times.
I was trying my best but getting no give back from them. I’m so desperate as to put up with it. I’ll go elsewhere thanks.
Hey Rose,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry to hear about all the issues. Fortunately there are many other fish in the sea so I don’t blame you for looking elsewhere.
I’m waiting to take the exam, which is now three parts. According to correspondence I’ve received, I will be given the study materials at the same time that I have access to the exam. (They recommend spending a maximum of two days completing the first part, as parts two & three are more difficult.) One must pass the part of the exam before receiving access to the subsequent part (pass part 1 to reach part 2, pass part 2 to reach part 3, pass part 3 to get hired). Pay is $13.50/hr, & the pay dates seem to correspond with what previous commentors have said. It is paid via direct deposit, & there was no mention of associated fees. A 1099 must be faxed or emailed to them upon hire. Taxes are the worker’s responsibility. Workers are not employees of Lionbridge; they are contractors. Effectively self-employed. They are adamant that they are to be informed if one has previously worked for Leapforce, as it can cause conflicts within the exam process…or something. Not informing them is grounds for terminating the contract. Contracts are for one year. It isn’t clear to me whether one can continue working for them beyond that. Failing the exam results in never being eligible to take it again.
This is most of the current info I have on the job, & some of it is different than what was posted 2 & 3 years ago here. I just thought I’d offer the update. Off to check out the rest of your site. Thanks!
Aly, thanks for the update. Keep us posted on how you do. Enjoy the rest of the site. I’m sure you’ll find it useful.
Truthfully, I think this job only works out for quick and accurate readers. I see below that some people took 40 hours to do the exam? Jesus! I read the guidelines once (162 pages), referred to it during the theoretical, and glanced at it a couple of times during the practical exam. It took me a grand total of 10 hours to study for and take the tests. If you’re a quick reader and typist the tasks literally fly by. I can see how LionBridge would be onerous if these qualities aren’t in your skill set, but if they are this is a decent job.
Thanks for sharing your insight Jenny!
TOTALLY A SCAM
AFTER SPENDING 2 WEEKS STUDYING THEIR DOCUMENT THEY DID NOT HAVE THE COURTESY OF SEND ME MY TEST SCORE…IF THEY HAVE SO MANY APPLICATIONS THAT THE CANNOT HANDLE WHY THEY STILL ADVERTISE THIS TYPE OF JOBS ONLINE???
=====================================
Dear MA,
Thank you for your interest and application for the work from home position with Lionbridge.
We regret to inform you that you were unsuccessful on this occasion and therefore we will not be processing your application any further at this time.
Unfortunately we are not in a position to provide individual feedback at this stage in the recruitment process. This is due to the large volume of applications that we receive.
However, we do appreciate your time and effort in applying for this position and would like to continue to hold your details on file for any suitable future vacancies.
If you do not wish to be contacted in future, please let us know.
Thank you once again for your application and we wish you every success in your future career choices.
Kind Regards,
Lionbridge Recruitment Team
Ma, I understand your frustration but the company isn’t a scam because you didn’t get in or they wouldn’t give you your test score. That’s life in the job market. Sometimes you get in and other times you don’t.
Stop taking it so personal. Just move on to another company which there are many. We list new companies daily here:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/jobs
We also have other recommendations that can be started today:
http://www.workathomenoscams.com/recommendations
So you have other options. But running around calling this company a scam isn’t helping you get a job.
Just passed the Test!!!
it was way harder than I expected.
so much is left to opinion even after following the guidelines.
if you want some tips on passing send me a message I can’t really post them on a public space
you can email me at “paul at lymekick.com”
just take out the space and change the at accordingly
good luck
Paul
Congrats Paul! Keep us posted on your experience with them if you can!
Sorry you would need to discuss this with a tax professional in your area.
I’m working for them since 6 months ago (from Italy).
Always got payed in the exact day they told me.
The people that has not been payed and tell its a scam, well, they just didnt understand how to work so they got kicked out from the program. totally normal.
you cannot expect to receive money if you do a sh**ty work (when they also give you the possibility to work at home and with a quite good wage).
both thumbs up for me.
I don’t think it seems scammy at all. But it definitely makes you jump through a lot of hoops that seem unnecessary. However judging by what you and others have said, if you can survive the initiation process, it’s definitely a legitimate way to make some money. You sound like you’re doing pretty well with it! So congratulations and thanks for sharing!
I think, not only do they want to make sure you’re capable of doing the work but that you will stick with it. If you’re willing to spend the time reading and learning the guidelines then in most instances you will stick with the job.
You’re preaching to the choir about that. I purposely direct folks to read my articles. The folks that do usually make money or avoid a scam. Then there are folks that just aren’t willing to and then complain they can’t find anything legitimate or they’ve been scammed.
Unfortunately reading is like a disease to most people. It requires too much work even if it will literally make folks money.
It’s good though because like you said, it weeds out these people.
I’ve been working for LionBridge for a few months now. It seems scammy at first, I’ll give you that. Lots of paperwork to send in, and the wait for pay. But it’s totally legit. My first was about $125 (about a weeks worth of pay) and though the last few months I’ve only been able to work the minimum of hours, I’m still getting about $6-700 a month, and it’s sent directly to my debit card, on the 3rd, without issue. Just wanted to clear that up 🙂
We include cons for a reason. This way if one of them is really deal breaker than at least you know and can make an informed decision. So it’s up to you to take what you’ve read and act accordingly. Just weigh out the risks vs rewards and take it from there.
I worked for them up until today. Like previous poster said – they expect a lot of your time and you only get paid for half of it. I am an intelligent person and a quick learner. But I feel they expect you to read A LOT of material and for us to just “know” it instantly without any help from them. I was constantly told I was too slow and so I started robbing myself of time and only logging what they expected for each task – and I asked them repeatedly what I could do to improve. Their response – “read the general guidelines” which I did 3 times. If a company expects a certain standard they need to help employees in every way to reach that goal IMHO. But I am guessing since so many people want to work from home they have plenty of suckers daily who apply and can fill my spot. But they lost a person who was willing to put in the time and do the best job possible if they just would have given me some direction. I feel like the past 4 months was a HUGE waste of my time!
Now on the flip side I have a friend who has worked for them for 3 years and has had zero issues. I guess I am a bad fit but I have seen several sites with posts like my experience…..
Thanks for sharing your honest experience with this company. I think it will give folks some stuff to think about. Sometimes a company isn’t a right fit. Now you know this isn’t the right one for you. So you just move on to the next one. That’s the great thing about this industry, it’s like dating. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. And fortunately you’re on this site where we cover many more. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for sharing. At least this opportunity is working for your friend and I’m happy you shared that too.
Eddy, I agree with Javakittyct. Before I quit in October, I worked with the company for a little over a year. I felt like some of the tasks had an unrealistic time frame to complete them in. I also sent them an email two or three months after I started to ask if they had any tips to improve my time, and I was referred to the guidelines as well. I came to realize that I would have to adjust my time every month to fit their parameters, or my timesheet would be rejected. I never had problems with getting paid as some people have, my problem was the lack of work available in my area. They make you well aware of the fluctuations in work availability, but having very little work these last few months was a deal breaker for me. The position is a great opportunity for someone who is okay with the ups and downs of available tasks. I would definitely recommend downloading a timer to your desktop that allows you to see your time as you work, because the time passes quickly when working on these tasks.
Hey Dani,
Thanks for sharing your experience. This is good information to know. It seems to be one of those positions where either you’ll enjoy it and do well. Or you don’t. I guess the only way for folks to know is to try it and see if it’s the right fit for them because for some it seems to be.
Either way it’s great to hear real feedback that is constructive. Thanks!
I start to suspect this is a scam, pleas read all; once joined (after the exam) i have received a mail with lots of link to read (not manuals) that refers to the company website where you find rules and other directives. One of those grabbed my attention:
Productivity Expectations:
The Tasks per Hour levels below are the productivity levels you should use to report your time. You should ensure that the time you record reflects the time you spend on the tasks and is within the productivity levels set out in the table below.
Let me explain, in a more clear form: “You should ensure that the time you record is within the productivity levels” this will mean that you will get paid by item and not by hour, simple as that. Since they advertise a pay-per-hour job this would be sufficient for a fraud complaint.
MOST IMPORTANT:
(Sorry for caps) What made me smell smoke here was not (only) the above directive, but rather the fact that once i asked more information i didnt receive an answer while generally i was receiving prompt and corteus answer to all my other questions about the exam and the job, fortunately ive found this early after the exam!
Uh, I still don’t see why this is a scam. Seems more like mistakes in their copy than anything. The fact of the matter is most people who have worked with this company are getting paid for their work.
Maybe our definition of scams are different. But to each their own.
hello Eddy,
The company claim to pay-per-hour while instead they pay-per-item. Look the fact, you work 10 hours and deal with Y items, lets say for example X is 500 and Y 240 however the company expect that 240 items should be completed in 336 hours and asks you to lower your timesheet entry to that level to be paid. I do not say they are not paying i say that the effective payment is not as stated, i say that to work for them you are forced to declare that you did less hours than what u actually did.
Hope this clarify, thank you.
Awww, that does seem a bit shady. Now I see what you mean. I wonder if that was purposely done or a misstep in their website copy. Either way that’s definitely an observation worth noting that they should be able to explain if one emails them on it. Good point. I totally see what you’re saying now.
Have you emailed them about this to see what they have to say?
I think ive sent them about six e-mails asking for clarification about their above statement, always no answer was given. in short words the company let you report your timesheet however the timesheet must match with the company expectation to be processed and paid, there are many comments on the web confirming this situation.
Would be interesting to ask to the people that worked for this company (not their employee pretending to be workers 🙂 how much they was paid and if they had to lower their timesheet entry to match a lower hour value.
Interesting how they haven’t responded. That’s definitely not a good look.
I’m not sure if you’ve actually spent a lot of time on this site to read the discussions we have on various other companies. But the folks that respond to our blog posts are real people. They’re not paid people of the company’s we review because the feedback we usually get usually reflects both sides of the coin which can be good and bad. Your comment is on this site and you’re obviously not an employee. So that’s a testament to that. People that have good experience with a company and share it doesn’t mean they’re an employee of it or just trying to mislead people. So please keep that in mind.
In any event, I look forward to hearing from other people that have had the issue described. We also welcome employees of LionBridge to clarify their stance on this too.
Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks again,
Let me share my experience with Lionbridge with all of you.
I’m not sure if the company is a scam or not but surely they have attitude, communication and management problems.
I applied for a job in April 2011 and got a message in June that they’ll need some more time.
At the end of July, I asked them what happened with my application… never got a respond so I messaged them again at the beginning of August to delete my data from their system – my subject was “withdrawing application”.
In the middle of August their reply was: ” sorry to inform you but we have reached the target quota ” with the subject: “Re: withdrawing application”. 🙂
… two days later received the very same message again… and four days later once again the same message…
I replied to all three “we have reached the target quota” messages that I’m not even interested in the position anymore and asked them to delete my data.
Two days ago (24 August) they wrote me a message saying: ” We are sorry to hear you are no longer interested in this position. We will keep your information on file in the event that you wish to re-consider.”
Scam or not, they have no idea about professionalism…
Good luck to all of you
Thanks for sharing your experience. Sound like another example of too much technology instead of real people answering these emails. Unfortunately stuff like this isn’t isolated to Lionbridge. It’s a sign of the times. It’s like trying to get someone on the phone from your bank or cable company where they have you jumping around in circles with these phone prompts instead of just having a live person pick up the phone to address your issue.
Stuff like this doesn’t make a company a scam. But it definitely leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. Either way, thanks for sharing. I can sympathize with your frustration.
Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts about this company. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for sharing your experience and feedback.
Hi there, I have been working for Lionbridge for 3 months now, from Italy.
Payment to me is made 45 days after the end of the month, so I get paid around 15th of June for time worked in April. I get paid directly in my bank account, at 9 euro an hour, which after tax is about 6euro/h, a normal wage around here (unfortunately).
– Company is American, not Irish, but it has its european base in Ireland like many others (e.g. Hertz, Avis, Xerox etc.) because of better tax system for foreign companies. Nothing strange there.
– The offensive/porn waiver the comment of R.Magic mentions is nothing strange either. The company asks you if you wish to receive tasks that concern specifically the flagging of material for adult content; e.g., tell me if this picture is porn, yes/no. If you opt out you are not penalized just you won’t receive those tasks. However it can happen that a normal query turns out porn results (I think it happened to us all to end up on an adult material page by mistake), so they give you the waiver to accept because, should it happen that you see some adult material even if you opted out of it, they are not to be held responsible. Also they are writing hey, even if you accept to receive adult material related queries, you can’t go navigate on illegal sites by yourself and then claim it was a task from us. So nothing strange, nothing funny, just legal stuff. They actually ask you, when you are carrying out tasks, to report illegal sites (under US law, so underage pornography/bestiality),
– Concerning the opening of a gmail account, aside from the fact that I believe one of their main customers is google, they use gmail services to interface with their working platform. I log in with my gmail details (which I already had before working for them) and when I log out, of course I get disconnected from my mail too. Just a choice of widely available platform? Maybe it has some fancy features I don’t know about? Whatever, it does not seem weird to me.
– Reading materials, productivity, and standards. Ok, now that is the main issue I have with them. I can understand the point of view, they want as good a worker as they can get, and there are probably thousands of applicants to choose from. However, I found it very annoying when first they assured me that in my first month I would not be expected to meet productivity, and 2 weeks later I received an email asking me to review my timesheet because I was way below productivity. Of course I was, not only I was new – and some concepts are not easy to grasp! – but a new rater is required to comment on every task, so I couldn’t possibly comply with their productivity, which seems fairly high to me too. I emailed to ask explanations, I got no reply, in the meantime I carried on working by the end of the month I must have raised to acceptable levels because my timesheet was approved with no need to “adjust” it. Weirder again, the first quality rating I received was 2 stars – a step before immediate dismissal – 2nd rating was 5 stars – as good as it gets – and last month was 3 stars – you’re not doing great at all. So, which is it, am I a good, awful or barely decent rater? We’ll see.
So far, the problems I have with them are: lack of communication, amount of time you must dedicate to improving yourself as a rater – a thing you do not notice in other jobs because you normally get trained and improve while you work, instead here it’s your own time that goes into it – and productivity standards which seem very high, but then in 3 months I am meeting them so I guess they are not that high after all. Also the lack of an automatic hour registration system is absurd, they have your login details, surely they could come up with something better than you manually inputting your time.
I find the work itself somewhat boring, and one that requires a lot of concentration, so for me it would be difficult to put in more than 2 hours/day. I need a job, I can’t do any physical work right now, and I have spare time aplenty, so it’s a good chance for me at the moment, but it would not be my first choice.
I have applied to them and was wondering about paying taxes in Italy…. I haven’t got a patita Iva… any help would be great. I have a part-time job and would like this as a second job to make up a half decent wage!!
Hey Eddy,
Just thought I would put in my personal knowledge here. I worked for Lionbridge too. I no longer are with them but work for another company doing the same thing called Leapforce. The bank fees that people are talking about is a little outdated. Lionbridge never charged a fee for processing or anything. Some American banks were charging fees for processing the direct deposits (wire transfers) that were being sent as payment. Before I parted ways with the company last year, they had opened a bank account in America to process the payments and I no longer had a fee charged by my bank.
I did not have problems with keeping up my task per hour and very rarely ever had to adjust my invoices. There are time limits applied to the task meaning the different type of task have a certain amount of time they are supposed to be done in. In my experience, sometimes they take longer but my time usually balances out in the end.
My main complaints were disorganization and lack of communication from the company. Hopefully, this has improved since I have been gone. I would still and do recommend Lionbridge to other people. I know if you are not in college or have not had some college, you most likely will not get hired at Lionbridge or Leapforce.
Thanks for sharing your comment. Honestly it seems more like a grudge rather than an objective feedback. But nonetheless it’s good for people to read. By the way this review wasn’t a paid advertisement by LionBridge. Anyone that has actually read our site for a while knows we review various companies so people can make an informed decision and chime in their experiences with a given a company. So thanks for sharing your “experience”.
Hello Ed.
Funny you should mention the Irish (?) company “Lionbridge”, since I found it through this very website website (i.e. yours) some months ago.
However I’ve so far never worked for that company, much due to what I read in its own documents.
From my experience, if “Lionbridge” is not a scam, it’s a bad and slow paying company and their projects seem to be dubious.
PROS:
I wouldn’t know.
CONS:
1.)
The company offered me USD 21.97 per hour but as you mentioned, one is supposed to pay tax oneself.
According to my calculationes, that would result in a measly hourly wage of about 5 USD.
2.)
The company will pay the first “salary” only after 60 working days (!) from the time of the receipt of an invoice and after that after each 30 working days, which is also a too long time.
“Payment will be made 60 working days from the billing date for your initial payment. Please allow 3-5 working days for payment to clear the banking system and reach your account. Payments subsequent to this will be made 30 working days from the billing days. Note some banks impose a charge for you to receive an international transfer; you may want to contact your bank branch to ascertain the cost of this.”
3.)
The company has a VERY strange document called “Waiver for Search” (read more here and further below).
This is what it says:
”
Please be advised that it is possible that your specific requirements for providing services to the Search team may at times require you to access, download, or otherwise view pornographic or other material that is normally prohibited by Lionbridge’s Electronic Communications Policy and its Code of Conduct. For example, pop ups with adult material/images may appear from time to time on your screen when you browse the internet and look at different websites.
Lionbridge understands that this is within the scope of the services you provide to Lionbridge. To the extent your access to otherwise prohibited pornographic, sexually-prohibited, or materials is directly related to your job duties you will be permitted to have qualified access to these otherwise prohibited content and material.
Certain projects, however, may require exposure to adult material. Should you become an internet search consultant, you will be given the option as to whether you wish to have exposure to such adult material. If you chose to opt-out from these types of projects, then you will not be exposed to such adult material and you will not have to work on any tasks that are related to such content. In addition, you will not be disqualified from being considered for future search projects. However, although you may opt-out from these types of projects, it is still possible that you will be exposed to adult material. Lionbridge, for example, cannot prevent pop ups with adult material/images from appearing from time to time on your screen when you browse the internet and look at different websites. Lionbridge disclaims all responsibility for such events occurring and any such exposure you may have to adult material.
Qualified access to otherwise prohibited content and material requires that you do not share, display, distribute or otherwise publish or draw attention to these materials with other persons or Lionbridge independent contractors, except as related to your provision of your services to Lionbridge.
Please note that your qualified access to sexually explicit or otherwise offensive materials does not permit you to knowingly or willfully violate any law with respect to pornography or child pornography or otherwise, or any other company policy not specifically addressed by this notice or harass any pther persons or Lionbridge independent contractors.
By accepting the terms outlined in this waiver, you agree that you have read and understand the above and are willing to abide by these terms. You also agree that you will not hold Lionbridge responsible for any material, offensive, explicit, or otherwise, that you may come in contact with.
”
ADDITION
From the start I had to make a test – “exam” – (without getting paid for it of course), regarding avaluationg maybe so “Lionbridge” could see if I was fit for the job. It turned out I did well on the “exam”.
For some reason the company demands that their workers registers a Gmail account, which sounds fishy to me.
Is the business idea all about making more money for already too wealthy and powerful “Google”?
Many other scams seem to circle around “Google”, writing “Adwords”, etc.
“Lionbridge” attached a few pages with their e-mail to me:
1.)
the “Consulting Agrement”…
“The Consulting Agreement highlights a number of points which you will need to read carefully and accept before we can proceed any further with your application. All the information is explined under these headings Scope of Work, Payment of Services, Non Disclosure and Trade Secrets, Ownership of Work Product, Warranty Termination, Compliance with Applicable Laws and Independent Contractor. An important secion is the Non Disclosure and Trade Secrets and this is to ensure that you do not communicate sensitive information about the projects to third parties, etc (…)”
2.)
“FAQ”
Nothing strange about that document, really. The exception that underlines the rule.
3.)
“Search Waiver Document” (as quoted above)
“The third attachment is our Search Waiver Attachment. You will need to read this document carefully. You will also need to accept the terms of this document in order to proceed with your application.”
/
Regards,
R.
PS!
How come you chose to let this company advertise in the first place?
Scam, scam, scam. I was asked to put in as many hours as I could for 3 weeks in a row. I put in over 185 hours for those 3 weeks, using 2 weeks of my vacation from my other job. They rejected my time, which I kept with a digital timer. Then when I tried to reach someone via email I never got a response. I ended up getting paid for 63 hours, never with any explanation to as of why. Then when I complained they released me and said I could never be rehired. Don’t work for this company. You have to spend about 40 hours studying to pass the test, then after that it is a disaster. I filed a complaint with The BBB, but since you are a contract worker there is nothing they could do. This is why there score is not an F.
Hello Ed hope all is well, I just signed up Ill let you know how it goes.
Sounds good Pete. Keep me posted. Good luck!
Hi Eddie,
Like Shannon, I too work for this company currently. Everything that you said is true about the integrity of this company. The only thing is that they give you less than two weeks upon sign up to pass the initial test. It does require a substantial amount of reading to get a grasp about the rating process. I’ve had several small personal issues with them when I was first hired as a contractor. As with many companies mistakes are made – they twice lost my W-9 tax form although it had been saved in my profile. Someone failed to do their due diligence on their end, plus there was a lack of communication between their workers. Two copies of this form were there all the time in my complete profile documentations if someone on their end had bothered to look.
The issue regarding pay is that you must complete 30 hours of work, (and have it approved by their dept staff) each month in order to receive pay for that particular month approx 10-12 days the following month. If you work 32 approved hours in June, you can then request to receive your month’s pay by between the 10th – 12th of July. If you do under 30 hours for the month, you would have to wait an entire month to receive that month’s check. In other wards if you work 28 hours in June, don’t expect to get a check in the mail for that month’s work until the end of July.
They do have very high expectations concerning your work quality. They do have a quite a bit of learning material available to you to improve your skills. However, with regard to passing their online quizzes, (designed only to provide further knowledge to you as a rater and NOT a job requisite) anything below 80% score on these online quizzes is considered failing. Again, these quizzes are only designed to help the rater improve his/her skills. Still, can you imagine a real life public school education scenario? A grade of 79 would be considered failing?
My one issue that the company has to do with the # of tasks that they expect you to complete per hour. There are many different types of tasks – some take longer to complete than others. There is one type of task in which you are expected to submit 32 per hour. However, what is clearly spelled out on the directions for this task – involving the rater usually reviewing videos and then making an assessment as to its validity; is that you would be allowed to watch up to 4 minutes, (of what could be up to an 60+ minute video) allowing you to form an opinion and then provide feedback. I was always good at math and watching even 2 minutes of each video would not meet the requirements of submitting 32 such tasks per hour. I have a feeling that they tailor every raters’ expectations towards their best/most experienced workers, which is in a way unfair. I also understand that they do have expectations for everyone. People are people, many are less than dishonest. If they could I imagine that some people would try and take advantage of the company -submitting as few tasks as possible and still expect to make the $14.50 per hour.
I still would recommend this company. I found them through an advertisement at another home job site, sorry Eddie. This site, homejobstop.com is legit. It is quite true that you have to be fluent in English. I could be mistaken, but I think that you have to be 18 in order to work for them. Supposedly many college students from around the world work as contractors. I don’t believe that they take 15 year old kids looking to find work for the summer. You submit your resume, and if they approve you are then given a massive 125+ page manual to study. The only thing that I disagree upon from the article written by Eddie is that you only have about a week or so to study it completely. They recommend at least 20-25 hours spent immersing yourself in the manual. Once they present you the actual quiz, (in two parts and you must pass the first part in order to receive the second part) you have about 3 days to complete and submit it back to them for correction. In addition you MUST have a gmail account as all communications are done through gmail. Yahoo mail or anything else is not compatible. You must also use Mozilla Firefox as your browser when performing work. For whatever reason using IE or any other browser is not completely compatible with the company’s servers.
Besides what Shannon previously wrote, I hope that this further enlightens other people toward this work from home opportunity.
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for filling in the details and providing some more missing pieces. You’ve provided some great insight for a prospect to consider especially the whole tasks thing.
Seems like they have pretty high standards and I can’t really blame them for that.
By the way homejobstop is one of the companies we have recommended and reviewed: https://www.workathomenoscams.com/2008/01/03/homestopjobcom-review-scam-or-the-real-deal/ So I’m glad you found it to be a great resource.
Thanks for sharing such in-depth feedback about the company. I’m confident it’s going to help a lot of people.
P.S. It’s Eddy not Eddie. 😉
Yes again this is one that I have experience with. I applied and it took a few months to get the invite for the test. I passed, but the test can be hard if you don’t really read over the materials. My aunt failed it. They do not let you retest as far as I am aware. You are right about the starting pay. They pay by direct deposit monthly. That part is a little strange as if you hit a certain number of hours you are paid the following month on the 10th, but if you fall short they pay towards the end of the month/beginning of the following month. I never had any problems with my invoice. When I would work I would have a timer on Firefox and a task counter that I had gotten for ChaCha. This really helps you keep things straight. Yes you are not paid for reading things over, but I really didn’t feel taken advantaged of about that since the pay is so much higher than other WAH opportunities. Plus, it is not like you are spending massive amounts of time not being paid. They do require that you work 10 hours minimum a week as long as work is available, which it 9 times out of 10 it was. I’m not sure how strict that is as I have missed it a few times with my rough pregnancy and toddler. Anything I missed?
Shannon
Hey Shannon,
Thanks for sharing your experience. This definitely shed some light on areas that were dark to me. Are you still working with the company?
Yes I am.
Oh cool. Would you still personally recommend it? Was there any downsides you’ve noticed that I didn’t share or tips to help others with it?
Yes it is one of the best paying jobs around for WAH that doesn’t involve a phone. They even have bonuses from time to time. For me there really isn’t a downside other than not having enough hours in the day! lol The only tip I can offer is to take your time and carefully read over everything.
That’s a good point because most of the high paying work at home jobs require being on the phone. So that’s a great observation. I totally hear you about there not being enough time in the day to get to all these money making opportunities. What a great problem to have. lol
Wow I am nervous hearing all the Cons,,,,I am currently in the hiring stages, I read a few of Jeffs comment but not too much….I am now debating if I want to continue, any well spoken ADVICE please Like ASAP…
Yes again this is one that I have experience with. I applied and it took a few months to get the invite for the test. I passed, but the test can be hard if you don’t really read over the materials. My aunt failed it. They do not let you retest as far as I am aware. You are right about the starting pay. They pay by direct deposit monthly. That part is a little strange as if you hit a certain number of hours you are paid the following month on the 10th, but if you fall short they pay towards the end of the month/beginning of the following month. I never had any problems with my invoice. When I would work I would have a timer on Firefox and a task counter that I had gotten for ChaCha. This really helps you keep things straight. Yes you are not paid for reading things over, but I really didn’t feel taken advantaged of about that since the pay is so much higher than other WAH opportunities. Plus, it is not like you are spending massive amounts of time not being paid. They do require that you work 10 hours minimum a week as long as work is available, which it 9 times out of 10 it was. I’m not sure how strict that is as I have missed it a few times with my rough pregnancy and toddler. Anything I missed?
Shannon