Help At oDesk

I've come to the conclusion that a lot of things that might trigger a blog post are less than positive. I usually find that when I'm motivated to make a blog post that I'm complaining about something and I really hate to admit that. However, I just had an experience that motivated me to write and was not negative. On the contrary, all I can say are good things.


So what happened? Well, I had been forced to stop accepting new clients through oDesk because I could not get paid through them. I live in a small area some might call it will rural, I have no scanner, no copier, and no local Kinko's. ODesk requires you submit a signed W9 form before you can receive payments you have accrued, it's the law and though bothersome it is important.

Now, that was a quandry for me, because not even a postal address was included in their information page. Being who I am, I did not bother to go through the chat system and get help, I just searched the forums, and gave up oDesk as a lost cause for the time being. I did not want to, but could not think of an alternative at that time.

As it happened, a project came but I would really liked to have bid on, however I couldn't because I object to working and not being paid. After I thought about this for a little while I decided to do another search on the forums for a possible answer to the W9 problem. I found a possible solution, and deviated from my norm by instantly opening up a help ticket. I even went further and used for live help chat function.

I was greeted politely by an oDesk staff member named Barbara. She inquired as to the particulars of my problem, expressed sympathy over the problems I had getting paid because of my lack of a W9 form on file.

When I mentioned that other sites for whom I wrote for accommodated persons like myself who did not have the means to fax or e-mail or scan, she asked how they accommodated users like me. She further explained the question was in order to improve the oDesk user experience.
She offered a snail mail address, and also explained why certain policies were in effect, she even ventured an opinion (making sure I knew it WAS only opinion) as to the possibility of my W9 form being accepted without a signature.

Now, I did exactly she suggested and e-mailed the form, as well as used snail mail to send and sat back to wait figuring it would be at least a couple of weeks. I didn't have long to wait.
Literally, the next day I went to my account on oDesk and found that she had indeed been correct, and the form was accepted.

So, why would I blog about this? Well, it could be the speed of response by accounting whom I would like to thank as well, but it isn't. It could be the ever so polite and very helpful staff member, on the live help session, yeah that's part of it, and big part of it.

It was the fact, that this live help staff member who doubtless had many other duties to take care of, not only took the time to let me know she understood and even sympathized with my problem, but went even further to suggest possible ways within the oDesk policy to handle it. Not all that she suggested suited me, but she took the time she doubtless did not have and used everything she knew to try and resolve my issue and did it politely.

It just goes to show that a little care in handling people goes a long way even if they are only a provider. I can now bid on the job that interested me, and will do so happily because I will also be paid.

Note to self: the help function is there for a reason, so next time use it before giving up totally.