What: Fancy Hands provides work for researchers and virtual assistants, paying by the “task,” which may take a few minutes or a few days

Expected pay: $3 to $4 per “task”

Husl $core: $

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: National

Requirements: a computer; high-speed internet connection and research skills

Review:

Fancy Hand’s concept is good. Both individuals and companies can off-load some of their daily tasks to Fancy Hand’s virtual assistants. You might have the assistant find you a better cable company, for instance. Or you could ask them research who might provide a particular product or service in your neighborhood.

The catch is that each Fancy Hands “task” is assumed to be a 20 minute job, for which the client pays only about $5. That means the worker gets less — apparently about $3 to $4 per task. And numerous workers complain that the tasks are not 20 minute jobs. They’re likely to take an hour or more. This puts their pay well below minimum wage.

The miserably low pay earns FancyHands a thumbs down from $ideHusl. 

If you want to be a virtual assistant both Belay and Worldwide 101 offer better pay and get better reviews from workers. Those who want to provide research or other services, should check out Fiverr. But be sure to read our Fiverr review before you structure your offer. 

What their virtual assistants say:

“You can literally work all day on a $6 task because you’re going back and forth with mentors that don’t actually read.”

“Pay is less than minimum wage. You might get three dollars for an hour or more of work. If customer asks a question AFTER YOU FINISHED A TASK, the task reopens and you don’t get paid until you respond. If customer wants more work on the task, you lose your money until you ABSOLUTELY 100% satisfy the customer. So, a 5 min. task that pays $1-$3 can actually take you HOURS to finish, or you forfeit your money!!!!!”

“After really trying everyday for 3 months, I managed to make a total of $200 because they cheat and take back half your money, force you to use their money transfer services instead of direct deposit or Paypal,  and allow customers to make completely unreasonable requests that are impossible to complete. They need to review the tasks BEFORE offering it to workers. Some tasks may include asking you to do something that borderlines on illegal because the managers don’t care, don’t review the tasks before posting, and just want to get your money!”

“The upside is you can work whenever you want and choose your tasks. Choose wisely or the task will continue to grow. Cons: What many clients, and some of the mentors, consider to be a 20 minute task borders on the absurd. Many tasks are not clearly defined. Asking a question opens the door to rude responses from some clients as well as mentors. If you have a robot-like work style you may break through a minimum wage income with the expectation you supply professional level service typically expected of Business & Marketing MBA educated personnel. Today I received a re-opened task from December 2015 (3 months ago) with the client asking for additional help. I politely responded and asked the client to open a new task at 8:30 AM this morning. Now at 5 PM and three mentor responses later I have not resolved this. This craziness is not uncommon.”
 
“If you can get a task through all of the necessary approval hoops, you’ll eventually get paid for it. Ability to select a task, assuming someone else doesn’t select it first. I’ve been working on 2 tasks now that have both been closed and was going to be getting paid for them only for them to be reopened and having to basically start over with approvals and all.
Tasks pay $2-$4 on average, management claims all tasks will take between 15-20 minutes when in reality they take at least an hour. “Large tasks” for more money are rarely approved and for minimal increase at best. All tasks have a time limit where it will be taken away from you if not completed and allow another assistant to be paid for your work. Tasks are ridiculous in nature as well. For example, call 20 different companies and jump through all of these hoops and get $3. If it takes more than 20 minutes you can message a manager to get the task split into a larger task which bumps up the price a little, but not much. It’s basically a sweatshop. All of the negative reviews are spot on.”