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Airtasker

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  jaedee on 30/10/2018 - 08:24

  +2

  hey there

  I have been on airtasker for over 5 years now (working as a designer).. and lately it has taken a steep downhill slide with both the influx of unqualified/unskilled workers, low ball offers and their recent 22% fee hike.

  I would be wary to give someone a good refereal for airtasker. Its a struggle to try and get traction/feedback to start with. You are competing against alot of randoms that are their to make a quick buck. Unrealistic low ball offers for work required and airtaskers recent price hike for fees make working below minimum common practice.

  I am in the design field and the influx of offshore taskers or backpackers over in oz for a 'working' holiday has wrecked the freelance design market.

  The current highest designer on airtasker is a clip art cowboy.. He accepts jobs for $30 with unlimited concepts and revisions (and uses clipart for unsuspecting clients). I recently had my account suspended (and threatended with a permanent ban). Simply because i pointed out to someone on airtasker that airtaskers highest feedback designer had attached a clipart example of his work.. It turned out that the clipart cowboy designer reported me cause i pointed out that his artwork was clipart (had a screen grab from tineye.com of the site he ripped off the graphic he used). And this client wanted original artwork he could trademark (something that you cant do with clip art)..

  Its a good site for random jobs, but the headache of trying to get these jobs and airtasker taking a 1/5 of your income is really off putting. Give it a go… But dont expect a fair wage for your work.. I have worked well below minimum wage a number of times from unreasonable clients with unrealistic expectations of timeframes and level of quality of work

  • 

    Euphemistic on 30/10/2018 - 08:47

    Thanks for the response. I'll probably be aiming at local hands-on jobs, so wont have the same problem with offshore taskers.

    Yes, the 22% fee is high, but compared to getting personal insurance and worrying about collecting payments it might be a reasonable trade off. I also understand that I would be up against those who have no idea how much it costs to run their 'business' or how much it would cost to drive across town to make $20 income.

    Still, might be worth signing up to see how it goes - especially starting out with low expectations! Looking forward to some more feedback.

    • 

      jaedee on 30/10/2018 - 08:55

      I have had a bunch of non payments too (clients flake on tasks and dont pay/keep work done for them)… airtasker tends to side with the clients posting the jobs.
      Give it a go (but be wary of unrealistic budgets and work required.. and dont be afraid to jack your price to what you feel is reasonable for work required). Its better to start from a reasonable budget.. rather than low balling stuff to get a task and end up out of pocket for unreasonable budgets/clients.

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  blonky on 30/10/2018 - 09:08

  +2

  From a user perspective, I found most people I've hired through Airtasker were unqualified/had no idea how to do the basic job. Good prices but quality varies and no regulation. I find you can't trust the feedback as most people pressure you to post it before they leave the job so ends up being skewed positively

  I would also get ridiculously low quotes from people new to the platform who just want to build feedback - imagine having to work below min wage with no guarantee of future work; not sure if this is what Airtasker intended

  • 

    Euphemistic on 30/10/2018 - 09:53

    imagine having to work below min wage with no guarantee of future work

    The joys of the gig economy.

    not sure if this is what Airtasker intended

    Probably not, but they are lining their own pockets well at others expense, just like Uber etc.

  • 

    HighAndDry on 30/10/2018 - 10:24

    imagine having to work below min wage with no guarantee of future work

    There's no "having to" though, unless Airtasker is employing slavers that I don't know about. But you're right - Airtasker (and similar platforms) really does allow people's greed and cheapness to get the best of themselves. If you asked someone honestly, they'd understand that going for the cheapest price on these sites will almost guarantee an unqualified and unskilled person, but a lot of people will do that anyway because… cheap.

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  ihbh on 30/10/2018 - 13:27

  I needed an qualified electrician to install a number of LED oyster lights recently. He made around $150/hour net of AR fees, working straight through over 2 hours. It didn't include his time traveling there and back.

  I'll use him again if a need comes up (he only lives 15 mins away, although the initial work was elsewhere), outside of AR, so give this some consideration if the work you're looking for can be repeat business - e.g. gardening work.

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  87percent on 30/10/2018 - 13:28

  Advertise your services on Gumtree is another option

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  EFC94 on 30/10/2018 - 13:56

  As has somewhat already been stated, people love getting lots of stuff done for a low price. I've done some mowing work on AT and numerous times I've shown up to find a well overgrown yard that someone wants looking perfect again for $30/40.

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  Euphemistic on 03/12/2018 - 09:14

  Just a follow up. I’ve been quite selective and picked up 3 jobs, offering on about 8-10.
  First job was a waste of time and effort. Mowing and snipping for $60 (less fees) figures I’d dip my hand in to get a review and ended up about $12 per hour. The yard was 80% knee deep weeds and took 2.5hrs of constant hard effort. Still, I said I’d do the job for the price and stuck with that, admittedly not overly happy about it Lesson learnt
  Second job was much better. Installing posts. I bid over the persons budget, but under some others by a fair percentage and ended up with around $25/hr and a good review.
  Third job was again just over the persons budget and for 1.5hrs well worth my time, especially since I was already in the area for another job.

  So, lessons are: ask for more details on the job, be selective in your offers, don’t be too concerned if your offer is over the budget and don’t expect all jobs to be a winner.