Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I wholeheartedly agree, stay away from SPi

Posted By: former SPi on 2008-02-04
In Reply to: Cymed - former SPi MT

or you are just looking to get into a bad situation.


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

I wholeheartedly agree
The idea is to get people who want to work weekends. Do not eliminate good candidates just because they cannnot work weekends. This is why Transcend is having a problem. Plenty of people would work Mon-Fri.
I agree wholeheartedly
Transtech used to give a bonus if you sent less than a certain percentage of reports to QA but the problem was that the MT would type anything to avoid a blank and send it on without bothering to double-check.

On the flip side, a lot of people apparently didn't care about the QA bonus and they left the reports for QA to fill in because they were either not knowledgeable or resourceful enough to complete the reports themselves, so they left the dirty work to QA. Then, QA had to look up information that the MT should have looked up in the first place. And nothing was ever done about it. Laziness was rewarded at TT.

I used to work in QA at Transtech and I speak the truth. Quality work was not rewarded there. What was rewarded was sending any old garbage to the client, but when garbage was sent to QA - nothing was done about it.

I moved to a job where QA actually means something. Where quality actually means something. I never got that vibe during my employment at TransTech. They were nice people but the QA process was sorely lacking. I hope that has changed over the past year but I really doubt it.

And, no, there was no way that every employee at TransTech had at least 5 years' experience.
I agree wholeheartedly
Just wanted to let the person know that overall they are a good company, not perfect, but good enough for me to recommend them. I worked for them for almost 3 years.
i wholeheartedly agree!!
x
Thank you, Admin. I agree wholeheartedly. NM
..
I also wholeheartedly agree with this post.
x
I wholeheartedly agree. They start everyone no
matter how experienced, no matter how well you aced the testing on a tier system of pay, everyone starting out around 7.5 cents per line.

You get no respect from this company!
I agree wholeheartedly but look at CBay
they are still thriving, and more and more companies are at least dabbling in overseas, certain percentages. Not to mention, I am seeing a lot of companies downsizing, like MQ, where hoardes of people are shifting right now, and many smaller companies are getting bombarded with applications so getting a job right now is incredibly hard because if you do not accept the pay they offer, or their insurance they just hire the next MT.

Something I have discovered is health insurance is almost nonexistent anymore, I mean how did that happen in the last 6 months, and right under our noses -

my health insurance went up almost double in July, and now my pay went down due to lack of work/more difficult work...

many companies also dangle the health insurance in front of you now to take it away if you do not meet their almost impossible criteria of keeping it.

from what I see it is getting worse every month so I am not sure how we can make a difference.
Excellent post. Agree wholeheartedly. sm
The dictator must take responsibility for what is dictated. In addition, today's MTs aren't as adept at editing as those of us who had proper training, use the appropriate resources, and do not use Google as our exclusive resource.

If you frequent the word boards, you will see what I mean. A couple of days ago, an MT posed a question that her ESL doc said that the patient worked in a laundry. She wanted to change it to laundramat. The MT admitted she did not know that a laundry was a place! These new MTs don't even own an English dictionary.

I initially had a hard time dealing with the verbatim concept. After seeing several reasons for its initiation, I've happily resigned myself to light editing as client allows. I got over it. Look around you and you will also see how this industry has changed in the last 10 years. It ain't what it used to be. Time to roll with the changes.
I knew what you meant, and I wholeheartedly agree!

If one cannot trust their hourly employees to do a good job especially when on the norm there are evaluations on employees at some point time, then what have we got here?  To simply say there must be a minimum production is like saying we're slaves to the grind. 


Countless and I mean countless times when I worked on-site, I was pulled to a different area to help answer phones and even perform EKGs (yup), and I never bellyached that my typing was getting behind UNTIL the manager wanted the TAT report from me.  Oh yeah, every so often, she needed to report to her superiors what day we were working on.  What a joke! 


No matter how hard we tried, we were treated like the machines people expect us to be with not even a thanks. 


I agree wholeheartedly! I stand my ground. USA only. sm
I have had clients threaten to look elsewhere for a lower price and I tell them, please do so. I have to agree with you here, they always come back willing to pay the rate and happy to have the quality and service I provide.

I have never lost a client forever to offshore, will never offshore, and sooner or later all MT work will be back on US soil again. Believe me, it will happen eventually.
Wholeheartedly agree - wouldn't bother with test (sm)
You would have felt really good after you left.
I agree wholeheartedly. The owner is not a timid person and has
and even though I don't work for her, I'd stand up for her any day of the week. If the original poster has an ax to grind, it certainly doesn't make him/her come across as a _professional_ by making a slanderous remark and then acting like a juvenile. It is certainly the owner's right to conduct business in a manner that is best for the company and changing one's mind about who to do business with is her right in order serve her company, clients and employees best interests.
I so wholeheartedly agree with you. Don't work for KS but work for SS - another company bashed
Works GREAT for me and I love SS. I never really care what the negatives are as I have found they are usually people that can't make their lines, don't work the hours they commit to or just overall do not care!
Agree 100% Stay away from A
nm
MDI-FL I agree we can't keep a schedule when they tell us to stay off
I agree, they tell us we have to stay off because work is low, then the team leaders are telling us to let them know what are schedules are, like we could even keep a schedule with the work load like it is.
I agree with the above. You receive no appreciation. I would stay where you are. nm
nm
Unfortunately I have to agree about Warminster. I am not even sure it is stay open at this point in
time. It seems very uncertain the way things are going and I have also heard that the accounts will be going to New York Amherst.  
i agree ...stay home a little longer if u can financially
i wouldnt trade the time i've had at home for anything
I believe you wholeheartedly....
Your debit card is another.....  Your resume posted on the internet is another way to find out about you.....  Online banking can be a great tracker and so can facebook...  the list goes on and on........ 
I'd have to disagree with you wholeheartedly.
I worked there for years and saw large groups of people leaving at least on 3 or 4 different occasions.  They are always advertising for new MTs, and a good majority of their work is VR with heavy turnover in accounts.  VR is supposed to cut down on the need for new MTs, so do the math yourself.  They always say that they're getting new accounts, but it doesn't make much difference if getting 2 small accounts and a huge one dumps them or the 2 new accounts go VR and they only need half the MTs they needed to go-live.  They are NOT one of the better companies to work for and many, many people have had the same bad experiences with them.  Just read the archives.
RE: I'd have to disagree with you wholeheartedly.
Don't need to read archives. Work there currently and do not have the problems you describe.
Yes, even without a raise, currently compared to my other choices, I would wholeheartedly recommend
As far as ESL - yes. Most accounts are 60%+ at least from what I have been offered. However, I would have to say that only on certain days do I get 60% ESL and most the time, I have an easier time understand the ESL dictators more than some of the non-ESL dictators. I guess it is kind of a wish-wash in regards to ESL. I would say even though it sounds like a lot, I think they are pretty comparible at least in my experience.

VR depends on what account you are on. Some of my accounts are phenominal and others not so good. However, they do give you the option to remove dictators (though don't seem to listen to half my requests) if their VR is bad. Plus the pay is the best in the business for VR at least from what I have seen.
I can't afford to stay with VR. If they paid more, I'd stay.
The situation sucks. I really liked this company when I started there. I know they read these forums, and they are aware that we are unhappy over VR line rates. They stroke us with cute emails and say we're the best, but I can't feed my family on praise. They're turning into another MedQuist, and so I'll be leaving.
Stay low and stay very, very quiet. Do not
ask questions, do not talk to the supervisors unless forced to. The answer will always be the same, that you are the only one who has an issue, everything else is perfect. Never mention anyone's name. This place has the mentality of the Borg, everyone has been assimilated, which means if your supervisor does not like you, or does not like your friend, you have no chance. You associate with so and so, so you are exactly like them. That quickly goes through the Borg network and every team lead, ROM, and person in management, including HR, is aware of it. You'll be labeled a trouble maker and your life will not be worth living. Any trial to clear your name will be done in the fashion of the trial of witches. You are in a dunking chair - if you drown you are innocent but it is too late by then.

Remember, a ROM never makes a mistake and never tells something that isn't true. They are perfect (and nastier than a pack of hiennas.)

If you run out of work, it is your fault. You are just lazy. Can't make enough to take care of your family? Too bad, you need to work harder.

And forget getting an answer from management. It doesn't
happen. So, as before, stay low and very quiet.

And do a good job? You can be assured that if you do a good job, do what you are supposed to do, and stay quiet, no one will even recognize your name. They have no idea where you work, what your schedule is, or that you even belong to Transcend.



Stay away from

Stay away from OSI then...
Will promise you the world, but then it crumbles beneath you!
Stay away . . . stay far away! (sm)
Not only do they offshore (& offer you the opportunity to earn pennies editing the accounts you worked so hard to develop normals for, etc), but they're one of the companies that docks your lines for the ENTIRE report if you make an error that the client complains about. TRS does that, too.

Make certain about the pay dates -- the employee handbook said they pay the Friday following the end of the pay period on Saturday (i.e., 6 days), but the pay schedule I received showed they make you wait 13-15 days after the end of the pay period.

Were you offered transcription or SR? I've heard good things about the Dictaphone platform they use, but the general opinion seems to be the SR part doesn't work. They offered me 8.5 to transcribe (to start) but 3.5 for SR.

Also do make certain to factor in the several hours you'll spend in uncompensated time printing out all their documents and downloading all the stuff from their FTP site. They don't supply equipment because the recruiter said that 25-50% of the units arrived damaged. Strange -- other companies don't seem to have that problem. I spent 9 years with ddi --> MQ, had probably 5 computers sent out in all that time with nary a problem.

In conclusion, make absolutely certain what you're agreeing to. Personally I find the huge corporations unpleasant to work for -- why should I transcribe to pay layer upon layer of executives, vice presidents of this and that, etc.?
stay away

they have had problems with pay and work load.  I had to find a new job.


I will stay and see if I can do it
depending on the requirements of part-time and as long as I can have flexibility to make my schedule when I want it!
I'd stay away...
I was recently offered a job with them, it was for a QA position, allegedly, but then it turned out to be editing on a voice recognition account. I accepted and started getting set up with downloading software, I'd email with a problem and not get a response for days, if I got a response at all, then I'd discover that the guy was responding to me via Yahoo Messenger, not email, even though I haven't been logged on to Yahoo for a week and he didn't bother to tell me that I could expect any communication from him to come via Yahoo. I'm not particularly impressed with the level of professionalism displayed by these people.

Pay is pretty low, I think they start out their entry level transcriptionists at some ridiculously low rate, it was 2 or 3 cents/line, but I heard it's gone up to like 5. I was offered 7 cents/line for transcription and 3 cents/line for editing with five years' experience.

They claim to have a bonus/incentive program, but I asked for specifics and was completely ignored.

They require you to work three days doing five jobs a day at no pay as an "evaluation period."

They were going to sell me a foot pedal at a discount, I sent them a check, and the guy claimed that he'd send it as soon as their shipment arrived and I'd receive it in two business days, but a week and two days after this shipment allegedly was arriving, I still hadn't received it. No email informing me of why, when it would come, etc.

Apparently there were some issues in the past with paychecks bouncing, which I hear has been fixed, but I don't know. I had an oogy feeling about them from the start, and I only accepted the offer as a "just in case" type thing, in case none of the other companies I'd applied to offered me a job.
Stay?
It's been slow but due to them overhiring. I'm still new at this so when the work slowed down I freaked. Do you have any idea what months are the slowest?
I would stay put- sm
If I were you, I would stay put. I was doing 250-300 lph at MQ, they have now adjusted my lines and am now doing 130-160 lph. No benies. You are actually doing pretty good and I make 10.25 cpl. I had one day I made $12.40 for one hour. I would stay put if I were you, at least you know the system and the doctors.
I'm still there, but trying to stay
Which isn't easy. QA program isn't exactly fair from a money standpoint as they don't give you any context from which to learn from the presumed errors in order to get to 100 percent. They only tell you the word you got wrong, no context, no copy of the report. There's no way to challenge or clarfy what QA says (I've tried). If there is an error that's in a macro or normal, you'd never know in order to change it. QA needs revamping, and QA rules your income potential. As they say on M-TV NEXT!
I would stay with MQ
x
definitely stay where you are at.

You have the best position right now.  Working for nationals or otherwise at home is just bad nowadays.  I would really like to be in-house and paid hourly, and I am keeping my ears and eyes open for a position.  Take care.


Stay away
I worked full time for them and never had enough work.  The pay is horrible and the VR is the WORST!!!!!!!!!!  SO glad that I left!
almost all ESL and going to VR stay put nm
nm
stay away!!!
They are a horrbile company to be associated with in any way!  They lie, they have horrible ethics and...I could go on and on!
Stay away!!!!
I worked for them a while back and they care more about the almighty dollar (quantity) rather than quality.  They give you a primary account and then will take it away from you with no notice.  They say they want everyone to be cross-trained, but how in the world are you supposed to make any money by switching accounts all the time?!  Also, they have been known to cut your pay without notice too.
stay away.
They are moving to hourly.
Stay away from MQ
Seriously! I've worked for them in the past and they're the devil. Think about it, they have their OWN board on this site. I've worked for both.
So they need to stay w/ your co. x3 yrs.
Smart lady, wish I worked for you.
Stay away!!!
Please do not even consider working for this company. I noticed there are new names under the job placement ads. I have no clue if Mary Beth is still working there or not. I had a horrible experience with this company. It's not worth your time. You never get paid on time. They start you off at 4 cents per line while you are on QA. It took me almost 2 months to get my first pay check. Not worth your time. Heavy turnover. Look elsewhere quickly!!!!!!!
Stay away from TTS
Went from TTS to Trans Tech due to many issues. Couldn't be happier. These are great folks, good pay, and best of all open lines of communication.
Stay away!!!
Please do not even consider working for this company. You will be sorry.........
So why do you stay then? nm
x
Stay away...
The pay is low, the editors overworked, the company not who they claim to be. They do dock for errors and for being late on work, at the editor's discretion.
Yes, stay far away
They don't pay their MTs
You are exactly right. I would stay, if that were

However, when transferred to many different accounts in 1 day, it just isn't worth it.  I can't make any money this way.  Grass isn't greener, no, but money is green!  That is what I am worried about.  I want to come to work, put in my time, and leave.  Not get called every time I sign off, asking me to do more.  Oh, I don't mind that every once in a while, but it happens at least 2 or 3 times a week!  I have a family too!  I have been here a long time and I am the one who is getting moved off the account first, or so it seems.  Cause I check the status the next day and there are new numbered MTs typing the work that I should have been typing!  So, they overhire for the account, let the newbies stay on the work that I have been typing for several years!  Then call me when they are in a bind.  I don't think so.  This is not the way a business should be run.  What ever happened to seniority?


I used to back OSi 100%, but I am finding that all the things I have read about them in the recent past are true.  I am devastated, as I feel I have gone above and beyond for them and they start taking our benefits away, or changing so it is nearly impossible to acheive them. 


Let the mentees do it.  They are being promoted to team leads, over top those of us who have 20+ years experience, and I have an MT out of school for a year telling me how things are to be done.  It is crazy!


So, I guess I have multiple gripes.


Regarding KJ&M - stay away because
your money. She is a very picky, picky person. She micromanages her IC MTs and calls you all the time!