Has anyone used FixFlash.com online remote pc services?

[reconx]

Hi guys, I was wondering if anybody has ever used this service. It looks pretty helpful.

Thanks,
reconx

[llthomas1117]

They were horrible. Seemed really nice and thorough at first, but proved utterly incompetent and irresponsible. They failed to accurately diagnose problems and installed unauthorized applications, including one beta that completely conflicted with day to day key functionality, and they also uninstalled my full version of Adobe and replaced it with a shareware wannabe...and none of these actions solved the problem -- turned out they created more problems than I had originally come to them seeking help for, and it took me about 16 hours to troubleshoot and restore the system after their "diagnostics and housekeeping". After all that, they never would provide a list of the apps they'd installed or the things they'd done in my system remotely, despite numerous requests and promises. And their managers suggested I write a letter to George Otte, the owner, which I did, detailing everything that had occurred and requesting a resolution (they'd billed me $89.95 via American Express). He would never respond to calls or to written communications. So I went to AmEx and filed a dispute. They found in my favor three months later and reversed the charges. Then "FixFlash" (aka "Tech Support Services") put me in collections for $175 with a collection agency (who could care less if the service contracted was delivered or not) and that agency has now put the only blemish I have on my credit reports for this "uncollected debt" -- even if I paid them the $175, which would be highway robbery under the circumstances, the collection action stays on my credit reports til 2013.

BEWARE....they were not only incompetent, they were unethical and do not take responsibility for the damage done by their poor service, nor will they respond to communications seeking resolution. The worst, and being remote, they really have you over a barrel...

[jimbo4211]

I had the (Dis)honor of working for these characters. (BTW, I worked for them on several occasions, and they have not paid me for my services.)

Anyways, all that is said about them, "they were not only incompetent, they were unethical and refused to take responsibility for the damage done by their poor service, nor would they even respond to communications seeking a response to say nothing of a resolution. They were the absolute worst -- and being remote, they really have you over a barrel..."
is true!!!
They almost had me do something, I thought was very unethical! Several clients of theirs had problems logging into Windows, and they charged $240.00 to re-install Windows!!

First of all, password recovery is one thing that comes very easy to me, secondly, $240.00 to reinstall Windows XP??? Come on! $150.00, tops! Buyer Beware!! So, I figured out what they do, they are knowledgeable, to an extent. Just enough to confuse a non-savvy Computer user in thinking they need this or that, then, on one occasion, which is documented by a friend of mine who called these bozos, and asked if they could repair the problem.
They said they would need to send out a technician to re-install Windows XP, just for a lost password?? So in desperation of the poor customer, they would ask for $240.00 to reinstall Windows. This certainly tells me two things, One, they don't know Jack!, and two, they prey on good, unsuspecting people who think this is OK. I'm putting my foot down and I'm saying, Enough!!! They're crooks I tell ya!
This reminds me of a movie called Boiler Room starring Giovanni Ribisi. Also, taking advantage of the unsuspecting. I'm done with them and this.

[Joel Stauffer]

I've been a subscriber for over three years. Totally satisfied. They've never let me down. The only improvement I can think of would be to expand service to 24/7.

[cdbingham]

I always take a look at a company's Better Business Bureau profile before I do business with them.

[insomnia2oo1]

FixFlash is a company that uses another company called OnForce to issue it's work orders. Any work you send towards them, just gets put back out for other technicians in your area to bid on. Usually the tech that responds to your request is based a very, very low price ... so unless you get a tech that really, really loves being in the industry, remember you get what you pay for.

[insomnia2oo1]

I've been a subscriber for over three years. Totally satisfied. They've never let me down. The only improvement I can think of would be to expand service to 24/7.

Do you own or have an interest in this company ;)

[johnnymozetti78]

yes I have and I would not recommend it what so ever!

[ffsux]

Attention, Lima Shoppers! Maik Janisch isn't the only Craigslist scammer
doing business in Lima. For 10 months (minus border hops to renew my visa),
I worked for a firm in Miraflores (Lima) that regularly advertises scam jobs
to US computer technicians using Craigslist. I signed a work "contract" to
work for them (but I didn't know until many months later when I saw Living
in Peru articles that I had no authority to sign a contract, nor that the
company had no authorization to contract with me). Anyway, I came to Peru in
September 2007. To support myself when I arrived, I had arranged a job for a
small firm in San Isidro markets Maca-based medicinal supplements to
European and US customers. I quickly learned that they were disreputable, as
they wanted me to be copying parts of other websites and pieces from
journals and medical reports into their web pages without attributing
sources, so they could boost sales of their product. I couldn't bring myself
to do this. I worked for them for only a few weeks.

About the same time as I left that job, another company Peru Veloz S.R.L. in
tax records (a.k.a. Peruveloz.Com) that I had found in my online search for
work in Peru via Computrabajo sent me an email; there is still an ad there
looking for new employees. In all the material given me, I learned they were
a call center selling services to US homes and businesses and were looking
for a call dispatcher. I interviewed with George Otte, President, and owner
of Peruveloz.Com (email: gotte at fixflash.com); his full name is Jorge Eduardo
Otte Polo, age 26, upstanding member of the Coral Gables, Doral, and Miami
Beach Chambers of Commerce, and graduate of FSU. He's Peruvian, US Resident
Alien, RUC# 20512738428, who lives with his Mom in South Florida when he
visits every month or so, but in his apartment in Miraflores with his
teenage prostitutes when he's here. He applied for US citizenship, but INS
turned him down because he had some legal problems (violations of local
ordinances -- loud parties, orgies, and a few DUIs); he still trying to get
them to review his application.

Anyway, I learned in the interview with George that Peruveloz.Com is really
a front end for an entity called FixFlash.Com, supposedly based in Miami at
169 E. Flagler St, Suite #1012; I subsequently learned that FixFlash.Com is
really a brand held by a firm named Tech Support Services, Inc, masquerading
as Geeks-OnSite.Com, Geeks-on-Site.Com, FixFlash.Com, TSS.cc,
tsscomputerhelp.com, tftnet.net and Tssmiami -- all of which are operated
out of Miraflores, but are all one and the same held by one Jorge Otte. I
agreed to work with FixFlash and signed what I was told was a contract to
work at Peruveloz.Com. The document was never notarized, and George Otte's
signature was a photocopy; he even gave me a copy of it once for bank
transfers. George Otte had convinced us all in person by his word and text
on those papers that we were bound to never divulge the true location and
situation of FixFlash.Com. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it at the
time, but subsequently learned that Peruveloz..Com had no authority to sign
a contract with any Peruvian tourist, and that as a tourist here, I had no
authority to sign any contract in Peru. The contract is therefore quite
likely null and void.

In any case, Peruveloz.Com is located in the upscale, heavily touristed Lima
district of Miraflores. It is in a penthouse suite on the 14th Floor of
Calle Bolivar #150, in Apt 1401 to be precise, in all of about 30 x 30 feet
total in a high rise building directly behind the Atlantic City Casino, with
a balcony overlooking Miraflores and the Pacific Ocean. Sounds luxurious,
but it really is not. Inside, there are three Peruvian technicians of
dubious backgrounds, and now, thankfully, an American technician, who says
he is certified, though I'm not sure of what. I'm not being critical of him,
its just that I don't really know anything about his certification. I know
that the Peruvian technicians had no recognized certifications whatsoever,
and none of these technicians receive any additional resources, training,
materials, texts, nor can or do they attend attend training seminars. These
technicians do all of the remote tune-ups on US home and business computers
using LogMeIn Free, sometimes 4-5 computers are connected at one time with
any one technician.

The sales reps were about 7 folks in all, sitting in the same room as the
technicians. The make up of the sales team are American, Canadian, and
various Peruvians who grew up or lived in the US or Canada. They were a
bizarre group of travellers. There was an alcoholic who had been jailed in
Lima for quite a while after bringing in a garbage bag of cellphones "for
his friends", and often worked completely sauced; another who is still in
jail for shooting a Lima taxi driver after FixFlash work one Friday night;
another employee was an on the job LSD freak; and so on. None of these folks
have current Peruvian visas. They're just hanging out, some for years, and
plan to pay the $1/day when they leave. The rest of the firm is made up of
really very pretty, young Peruvian women who carry out various types of
administrative work. All staff work at this sweat shop from tiny cubicals,
just enough room for a TV-sized monitor, mouse pad, and cup of coffee. I
lucked out and got to move to my home office early in 2008 and I did all of
my calling to techs via Skype, and logging into servers in Miraflores and
Miami remotely. Only one of the sales reps has any computer certifications,
but previous employment references were never checked for anyone. All the
sales staff speak good, fairly understandable, mostly Spanish accent-free
English, let's hire 'em!!.

So what's at FixFlash in Miami? Nothing, it's a shell. A technician of ours
from Indianapolis suggested that as he was coming to Miami on vacation
anyway, he might stop by and visit. We repeatedly reminded him that he was
on vacation and urged him not to come. He would have spent a long time
trying to find us in vain. There is nothing related to FixFlash.Com at the
Miami address except George Otte's uncle Don Cross' investment firm, where
the firm has a single SQL server offering out its CRM tool where Lima sales
reps are logged in via web access
each day. Anything sent there by postal mail is faxed to the office in Lima
by George's mom. Such a cool system isn't it. All the US resident clients
think that FixFlash is a local computer repair firm in their town -- I mean,
they found FixFlash in the Yellow Pages, they must be local right? Not. All
the FixFlash technicians (about 180 of them) think FixFlash is a big
national US firm with offices in Miami.
Even PC Magazine was proud to talk about the firm in their review of
FixFlash a year or so ago; I wonder if they would be so proud to review the
firm if they knew the truth about the company and its people.

As I'd been in the Accounting and Network Administration end of things, I've
been privy to and given access to just about everything, the details of the
people and the business. I know that the pay that techs get has been pretty
miserable for many, though bearable for some depending on one's needs;
things in Lima are on much worse scale than in the US. I'd been lucky in
that I had some external assets to help subsidize my income, but frankly, I
just don't know how the rest of the staff can survive. The company maid
makes $1.25 an hour, the computer techs make about $4 per hour, the
admin/sales staff see $2.70 per hour; the sales folks get some commissions.
The sales manager makes $9.35 per hour. Of course, everyone gets paid in
cash under the table. Some receive the cash in US bank accounts. The firm
didn't issue tax documents to us, we were never informed that it was illegal
for us to work in Peru. The whole thing was/is just illegal. Its a
big deal/steal for George Otte. He didn't declare our presence to anyone,
not even Peruvian agencies (according to online public info searches here,
Peruveloz has no employees or contractors). Attempts to send inspectors to
his offices have failed thus far, as George pays them off at the entrance to
the building. He has paid off the Sunat and the Ministry of Labor inspectors
thus far. He is grossing far more
than a million annually from his computer repair brands , but he hasn't
declared any staff to Peru's government, IRS, or Florida Dept of Revenue,
any US contractors to their State's government tax bureaus, nor registered
in any US state except Florida, according to accounting documents, despite
rapidly increasing sales and new Craigslist ads coming out in a bunch of new
cities.

FixFlash today serves these US metro locations: Albuquerque, Atlanta,
Augusta, Austin, Babylon-Bay Shore, San Francisco Bay Area, Boise,
Belton/Grandview, Boston, Broken Arrow, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati,
Clearwater/St Pete, Cleveland, Coeur DAlene, Colorado Springs, Columbus,
Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Dupage County, Fayetteville, Ft Worth, Herndon,
Houston, Hudson Valley, Independence, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Johnson
County, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Lewisville, Little Rock, Manassas, Mesquite,
Miami, Middlesex Cty,
Minneapolis, Nashville, Oklahoma city, Omaha, Orange County, Orlando,
Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Provo, Reno, Richmond, Sacramento, Salem,
Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, South King County, Sparks, Spokane,
Tampa, Thousand Oaks/Simi Valley, Tucson, Tulsa, Ventura County, West Palm
Beach, Wichita, Wilmington, Winston/Salem, and Worcester.

As for field technicians, I was an HR recruiter for a while and I know how
that works too. All the job opportunities are advertised on Craigslist. The
ad titles are changed so that Craigslist doesn't catch on that the firm is
misusing that firm's website for nefarious reason. FixFlash/Peruveloz never
calls job references to check on a technician's status at any of their
previous employers. They are
looking for people with a lot of technical PC experience at one location and
not those who floated around from job to job. They do like folks who claim
to have certifications, like A+, Microsoft, etc, but no one here quite knows
what those really are. The FixFlash president, George Otte, is supposed to
be a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Certified Systems
Engineer according to his latest CV, but I would really question this, given
his responses to many situations. Without knowing anything about the
FixFlash technicians, some could be just looking for an opportunity to get
inside client computers to gather personal information, but this FixFlash
firm doesn't check on anyone's references nor does personal background
checking on anyone at all. I'm sure that the firm's 11,000 US clients would
love to know that.

Functionally working as all of the Accounts Payable department for many
months, I had some kind of relationship with almost all of the US field
technicians -- many of techs spoke with me on the phone/Skype. The harddest
part of my job was lying to them and clients about our location/situation.
When asked how the weather was in Miami, we were told to say, beautiful! I
had also had to take monies from technicians who showed up late, no showed,
or messed up on the job. Many times we just refused to pay the technician,
even though he/she had been on the job for 12 hours or 3 days! It wasn't
because there was something in the contract that allowed FixFlash to do it,
but George really didn't want to paying the technicians unless they were
simply perfect. There were a bunch of technicians who said they would be
suing the company for these actions, but how do you sue a non-existent
company? If you're in Houston, how do you get $200 from a company in Miami,
who's not even in Miami to begin with? It was done, simply because George
Otte could get away with it. There is nothing on the web,
anywhere linking Peruveloz to FixFlash or Tech Support Services, Inc, and
there is nothing linking George Otte to Peru Veloz or Peruveloz, except in
Peruvian tax databases.

Management at Peruveloz royally sucks; every tiny, little speck is
magnified; the firm is thoroughly micromanaged. The days are full of crap
about what is going wrong, rather than what is going right. Management
spends 80% of its time clamping down staff actions that impact 1% of gross
rather than spending time making staff feel good about themselves and their
jobs despite no recognition and thoroughly horrible pay. Morale is poor,
everyone is on edge, many are worried, whenever management is in country.
Employment is very much a revolving door. I
never bothered to set up folders for most staff in my Outlook because they
were constantly starting and then quitting. The same is true for onsite
technicians; many hang on for a month or so and then have a deduction levied
on them or some other pay dispute, and they go by the wayside.

Along with the micromanagement, comes complete overbearance. The staff are
independent contractors, not employees. They are not on salary, and do not
expect to get called at 10pm at night to be asked about having paid someone
an extra $12.50 because we rounded differently or asked less than an hour
from taking vacation to upload a file to JetPay in the US to run the
company's billing. George called me and other staff on our cellphones at all
hours. He acted this way to all of our technicians and all of our clients,
completely unavailable.

Technicians aren't fired or terminated. All of the "contracts" are still
valid, supposedly to scare them into not creating another FixFlash type
organization to compete against them. When someone is eliminated, they are
simply removed from the directory of onsite technicians; their record then
calls them inactive techs and suddenly they don't get sent any of our jobs.
There is no explanation to the technician, letter of thanks or good riddens,
they are just phased out! No letters go out to techs at all ever, in fact.
How do you send a letter to anyone from Peru anyway? Regular mail from here
is horrendously slow, expensive, and downright unreliable. George did bring
a box of client letters to go out around Xmas went he went to Miami for the
holidays. Wouldn't it have been nice if he had thought of his US "staff"
too?

They had me doing the work of two full-time workers and refused to add
additional workers. In my last week of work during the summer, George
refused to pay me back pay owed for time over forty hours for the last four
months – some weeks had I worked more than 100 hours. George runs the firm
using a bunch of credit cards and a Florida bank, Gibraltar Private Bank &
Trust, where George once worked full-time as their tech support guy. We all
worked really hard, but with so very little to show for it, enough became
enough for me. A few technicians got caught in this dilemma, as they hadn't
received paychecks. Those expecting PayPal were fresh out of luck. George
had maxed out his 2nd Amex card in 2 months and though he had funds in his
personal checking account, he expressly forbade me from writing checks out
of it, so anyone expecting PayPal payments in my last week was fresh out of
luck. When the whole pay dilemma hit the fan, he balked, and I refused to
work until he paid me. It was then suggested that I resign, and so I did.
There are some techs who hadn't seen a check because Checkfree didn't send
it
or got it lost in the mail. It happens every month to some, and I did my
best to figure it out, but some techs were still always left hanging and may
not end up getting checks until the end of next week, month. I heard from a
tech yesterday that August paychecks had not yet been paid. Still the
company is growing by 8-12 technicians weekly now, as the firm tries to
avoid having to use Onforce.Com technicians for its jobs -- kind of an Ebay
for computer tech jobs in the US. Those techs arrive at your house or
business in the US and say they work for FixFlash. Of course, they're local,
so FixFlash is local, yes? Not.

[airaid]

Update for anyone looking into this company. I found their craigslist posting and applied for it not knowing any better. Next day I recived an email from flashfix.com . Looking at the header of the email I found this IP address 200.110.42.26 as well as 64.202.165.218. So the email came from Country: Peru State/Region: 15 City: Lima Latitude: -12.05 Longitude: -77.05 via an IP lookup. Routed to mail server in phoenix az.

[trblshtr]

I just recently used Geeks On Site to repair my Mac, and I was really happy with the results. The tech showed up on time, knew what he was talking about, and got the job done. I really could care less if this company is located on the moon. First of all, as a professor of International Business, I can assure you lots of companies are multinational, this is nothing new, nor illegal. Secondly, do your research- lots of businesses get creative with their business practices, but have a team of attorneys to advise them on keeping well within the lines of the law. What is seen as "shady" by some with little experience in corporate America, may be considered "savvy" by others.

[macdoctor]

Our publishing company used Fixflash on several occasions. We found them to be above board- the Fixflash service reps were polite and helpful- and the Fixflash onsite techs were courteous and intelligent. We will use Fixflash in the future.

[crunchie]

Our publishing company used Fixflash on several occasions. We found them to be above board- the Fixflash service reps were polite and helpful- and the Fixflash onsite techs were courteous and intelligent. We will use Fixflash in the future.

You also pay through the nose.

[macdoctor]

What? We found their rates reasonable, and after doing some comparison shopping we found some others cost more. We first used them a long time ago and were pleased, so we will remain their customer. They take care of our IT needs, so that is what matters most to us.

[crunchie]

What? We found their rates reasonable, and after doing some comparison shopping we found some others cost more. We first used them a long time ago and were pleased, so we will remain their customer. They take care of our IT needs, so that is what matters most to us.

Considering that it is highly probable that you and the original poster of this thread, are one and the same person, I highly doubt it :).

[adelacare]

Considering that it is highly probable that you and the original poster of this thread, are one and the same person, I highly doubt it :).

I am less interested in who works for this company- and more interested in who was fired from this company- seems like a lot of you just could not make it long term...

[jholland1964]

You think this is an ok company...take a look at their W.O.T. ratings:
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/fixflash.com

Warning! This site has a poor reputation.
Phishing or other scams
Excessive pop ups, slow computer, viruses, error messages, email setup, printing problems, software and more.

and also this report on them from Ripoff Report
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Computer-Service-Repair/Geeks-On-Site-FixFla/geeks-on-site-fixflash-com-g-448q8.htm

[busterbrown]

I just recently used Geeks On Site to repair my Mac, and I was really happy with the results. The tech showed up on time, knew what he was talking about, and got the job done. I really could care less if this company is located on the moon. First of all, as a professor of International Business, I can assure you lots of companies are multinational, this is nothing new, nor illegal. Secondly, do your research- lots of businesses get creative with their business practices, but have a team of attorneys to advise them on keeping well within the lines of the law. What is seen as "shady" by some with little experience in corporate America, may be considered "savvy" by others.

Sir,
You couldn´t be more correct! Many companies are multi-national or trans-national. But what distinguishes the cream form the crap, is the overall company rating and general practices of the company. These complaint forums really have little impact. Same goes with the BBB. If you are a paying member with the BBB, you will get a good rating with none to few complaints. Complaints forums are counter levied by persons of the firm or friends of the firm who log-in and countermand the complaint. Any business in operation is bound to do right sometime, so one or two "cudos" does not wave a green flag for me. I need to see the percentages of good reports to bad reports. This is more helpful. But I live here in Lima. I worked for this company. If you were here, I could take you to their office and introduce you to the owner (if he is here in LIma), manager, and employees. I am not vengeful to the company nor do I wish any harm to it. But I find a multi or trans national company hiding its true location suspect, and after working for them for 2 weeks, I understand why. You were lucky, you received good service. But what do you tell the other customers who did not receive honest value and service for their hard earned money? It´s pretty difficult to sue someone who is living in another country. So this is only a word of advice. Be careful with this company and good luck for future repairs.

[JemB]

Just dont use remote pc services for repairs and diagnoses
whatever anyone says this kind of work can simply not be done effectively
by remote. ask about get a good local tech or tech company. word of mouth or local reputation is a much better choice.
big companies that generally pay poor rates are almost always a bad option especially by remote as you have nowhere to go if it all goes bad.
Remember the old adage: pay peanuts - get monkeys!