Appen

I recently signed up to Appen looking for work and I applied for a search engine evaluator job from Project Yukon. While trying to access my application, I could not locate the job on my Dashboard the next day and also had trouble doing the other tasks. I was told I had a VPN but I never installed one on my computer and contacted customer support.

Today I was trying to sign into Appen after receiving an email to finish my application and was given an "Access Denied" message. Appen has not contacted me back yet in customer support. I'm disappointed that I was subjected to this as a new member, I recommend finding a job on another site.

Besides low pay, I was NEVER paid for Project Mashel. I wrote at least 12 times and included notes on my invoice but I never had any responses whatsoever. I will now file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and anywhere else I can find.
I'm also going to insist that all of the pictures and videos I sent for the project be immediately returned to me.

My own experience with Appen scammers. I tried to apply as a translator. First of all, a translator would receive more serious questions than ''have you done any translations''. He would be asked about his education, requested to submit a copy of his education papers (in my country translation is an MA course), asked questions about language combinations, computer assisted translation tools he uses, fields of expertise and years of experience. He would be requested to submit a CV and, if that CV is interesting for the potential employer, asked to do a test and, if successful, be offered a job (a freelancer's contract or a staff position). Some employers want to see your references, that is only for top class jobs, in most cases you just prove your education and experience. Those are legit employers. Appen just asks ''have you ever done a translation'' and accepts yes for an answer. The same way they could ask you if you are an astronaut. After some bureaucratic procedures they offered a project. Ok now I will start working - but guess what? There is no project, instead they announce that now they will ''evaluate'' me for 60 days. They have not received my CV or a copy of my MA paper and I have not taken a test - there is nothing to evaluate! I told them to get lost, blocked their email and look forward to never hearing from them again.
Besides that, Appen boosts its non-existing reputation by flooding the web with fake positive propaganda articles and censoring the comment section of these articles.

Acting like a tyrant, treating you like a robot, mail reply depends on their mood, poor support, cut pay for no reason, avoid at all cost.

Pros
Nothing much really. Good only for those who have plenty of idling time to do something than just sitting around.
Cons
They simply cut 2 day pays on May 6 and 11 without given reason on May 18. I requested immediate contract termination on the same day but continued working while waiting for approval. Today they gave the approval dating back to May 25,2017. They will not pay my work on May 29-30,2017 before they informed me of their back dated approval to my request for termination of contract. The non-payment behavior is against labor law in Thailand. This will be reported to the Thai Ministry of Labor accordingly.

Acting like a tyrant, treating you like a robot, mail reply depends on their mood, poor support, cut pay for no reason, avoid at all cost.
Social media evaluator (Former Employee), Thailand June 5,2017
Pros
Nothing much really. Good only for those who have plenty of idling time to do something than just sitting around.

Cons
They simply cut 2 day pays on May 6 and 11 without given reason on May 18. I requested immediate contract termination on the same day but continued working while waiting for approval. Today they gave the approval dating back to May 25,2017. They will not pay my work on May 29-30,2017 before they informed me of their back dated approval to my request for termination of contract. The non-payment behavior is against labor law in Thailand. This will be reported to the Thai Ministry of Labor accordingly.

June 6,2017

There are way too many technical difficulties for this to be a profitable job. You spend more time going back and forth via email and you don't get paid for that. They also won't pay you for the time you worked unless you "complete a full day". I've never worked with a company that wouldn't pay you at least the time you worked. That is completely unprofessional. You won't even get paid that much for all the work you put into it. And of course, you don't get paid for the training you are required to do in order to get this job. The structure is completely ridiculous. Go with someone else when you are looking for a job.

I was excited to start working on crowdsourcing projects for Appen. However, I found it impossible to earn more than $3/hr. Consider: most assignments are to pick between 2 different search results (lists just like you see them in search engines). You have to scan both sides and pick the best rating it also and highlighting elements on the page, which defined your choice. It takes at least 30 sec. 30 sec if you have it on roll. It took about 1 min for me. Then, you submit your choice and the nextbone comes up. You get paid for all satisfactory choices you made from 10c to 15c a choice. Before you get access to the assignment you have to complete qualification test (7-10 similar judgement choices) and training. This takes another 30 min. Now calculate: your pay is 10c a minute plus unpaid test and training. This is a joke.