Fancy Hands is a New York-based virtual assistant company that was founded in 2010. I’ve been a member since 2012, and here’s my review.
What sets Fancy Hands apart from its low priced outsourcing competition is its use of US-based, native-English speaking assistants. 
For that, they’ve gained a lot of momentum and exposure.
Note: This Fancy Hands review is geared toward those looking to hire an assistant. Click here to learn more about how to become a virtual assistant.
Table of Contents
Fancy Hands Services
Customers primarily use Fancy Hands as a time-saving tool for small one-time tasks, like restaurant reservations, online research, set up conference calls, and quick event planning.
Adding events to your Google Calendar is free, and you can set up a credit card to have on file for your assistant to make purchases for you.
How I Use Fancy Hands
In my case, I mainly rely on Fancy Hands to:
- Respond to certain customer requests on my behalf. (This is the majority of the work I send.)
- Proofread articles.
- Check in for flights.
- Research products and companies online.
When I was shopping for a used car, I had them scour the classifieds listings on a bunch of different sites and build me a spreadsheet with the available inventory that met my criteria.
TeamWork
If you manage a large team, you can give everyone access to this distributed army of assistants through the Fancy Hands TeamWork platform.
For employers, it’s a nice perk to offer and allows your workers to be more productive on the job. The service is integrated with the web interface, email, phone, and Basecamp project management software.
Incoming Calls
The introduction of the Fancy Hands incoming calls API is big news for anyone struggling with their call volume or already using an outsourced solution like Ruby Receptionists.
With a little bit of set-up, your preferred phone number can ring Fancy Hands and an assistant will answer the call, answer basic questions, and with access to your calendar, set appointments.
How Fancy Hands Works
Fancy Hands virtual assistants are “in the cloud” – a largely part-time, on-demand, and remote workforce that handles tasks as they come in.
Submit your requests via email, the mobile app, or text and they all get dumped into a common task feed. From there, any qualified and available Fancy Hands assistant can claim it and get to work.
One advantage of this team-based approach is 24/7/365 coverage for your requests, whereas a “real” assistant would probably need to take some time off or sleep every now and then.
For example, most of my requests are handled in 20 minutes or less. (I even demo’d this live during a presentation and the response came back just after my 15-minute cutoff!)
The Online Dashboard
Once you create your account, you’ll see a dashboard that keeps track of your requests and some other stats on your profile. As you can see, Fancy Hands has spent over 23 hours on the phone for me!
I’m a pretty happy camper to have not had to make those 476 calls myself.
Fun fact: I actually broke their system — the counter stopped at 1000 requests and hasn’t updated in years!
Longer Requests
Fancy Hands also added the ability to go beyond the regular 20-minute time limit by asking your approval to burn multiple tasks on one request.
For instance, sometimes I’ve gotten a response back that says, we’d love to handle this for you, but it will take 3 tasks instead of one.
OK, that’s fine — I reply back with my approval and they got to work.
Fancy Hands Review
That video is super old, definitely due for an update!
Virtual Assistant Assistant Referral Bonus: If you want to try Fancy Hands, get 50% off your first month when you sign-up through this link.
Fancy Hands Plans and Pricing
Fancy Hands pricing is as follows:
- Once a Week: 5 requests* a month for $29.99.
- A Few Times a Week: 15 requests a month for $74.99.
- Every Day: 30 requests a month for $149.99.
*Each request has a 20-minute maximum duration.
You can save 15% on all plans by pre-paying for a year in advance. The pre-pay option is a great deal but of course is a little risky for first-time outsourcers.
Unused tasks rollover month-to-month. Since the tasks rollover, one strategy would be to buy the Premier plan for a month or two to stockpile your requests, and then downgrade to Basic until you’re running low, effectively reducing your price per request.
Virtual Assistant Assistant Referral Bonus: If you want to try Fancy Hands, get 50% off your first month when you sign-up through this link.
A Dedicated Assistant
One great new addition the company has added is a dedicated assistant option. This means you can delegate to the same assistant every time, rather than have your requests picked up by the first available assistant.
Obviously this leads to better collaboration for ongoing business processes or more open-ended projects.
How it works is you commit to a certain minimum number of hours, which you pre-pay for at the start of the month.
Here are some of the common pricing tiers:
- 25-49 hours per month = $32/hr
- 50-74 hours per month = $30/hr
- 75+ hours per month = $28/hr
If you go over, the extra hours get tacked onto the next bill. (You can work with your assistant to ensure they never go over the hours though.)
This dedicated service is most similar to other US-based virtual assistant operators like Time Etc.
The Fancy Hands App
Unlike many other VA services, Fancy Hands is also accessible through a dedicated mobile app. It has a very slick user interface with nearly all the functionality of their browser-based site.
You can check on view your usage statistics, track existing requests, and submit new ones via text or voice. Very cool.
It also allows you to take pictures that might be helpful to your VA or choose an existing photo from your library.
Fancy Hands Alternatives
Wishup is a great alternative with highly competitive prices.
I tested Fancy Hands against a few of their competitors, both in the US and overseas. The trial pitted them against Red Butler, Efficise, and My Tasker (no longer offers a task-based plan). Please click here to read the full review of my test.
I’m still maintaining my subscription and have actually set up a cool automation with Zapier where I can send them tasks automatically based on certain criteria.
One other company worth checking out is OkayRelax. This is the service I use as a lower-priced dedicated assistant option, which I’ve found really reliable for recurring tasks where a login is needed.
Your Turn
If you have any experience with Fancy Hands, please share your review below!
I would NOT recommend Fancy Hands.
They wanted me to pay or to use a task in order to update me on a task that I already completed and paid for. The part they ordered did not show up, and in asking what happened, they refused to help me and insisted I pay for them to check. Their VA’s are alright but their customer service is APPALLING, the worst of the 3 companies I have tried, totally unhelpful. I will never use them again.
Which were the 3 that you tried? Thanks!
They used to be good at the beginning but can no longer keep up with the competition. They are US based, if that matters to you, but you can find assistance via Fiverr and get better results even with US based VAs.
They don’t even offer posting blog posts, which is super basic VA work.
Their customer service is also very low level.
And last, proofreading is not even at the level of software tools.
Note that when you sign up you have to keep your account to not lose your task credit. Again, with Fiverr and the likes you can get what you need when you need it. And if you need VA service every month, there are much better options out there.
Avoid, this company is not what it once used to be.
Well it is 2022 and not a thing has changed with this company. I worked with them for less than a week and got paid $11.11 for one day and in the middle of completing a task a few hours ago my account was disabled out of the blue. They owe me over $130 in tasks I’ve completed but after reading all these comments I’m pretty sure I’m better off not holding my breath!
I complete my tasks pretty quickly, I literaly sit by my desk all day sometimes forgetting to eat or even take bathroom breaks for fear of pissing off mentors. My clients have been happy with the work I do for them and always write back to tell me thank you.
The problem is “fancy hands” not the clients. Sometimes I complete my tasks and even when I wake up the next day I still have a huge list sitting there that a mentor have not checked even though I completed it HOURS before. Then sometimes its as simple as forgetting a period in a whole research paper and they send it back to be added then that sits there for HOURS again waiting to be approved.
I was hesitant to even apply here because I was told they are ALWAYS hiring. Common sense should tell us if that is the case that means they are also always “firing” people. I’ve refered to their “handbook” everytime I needed to so I know I didn’t do anything wrong to get my account disable for especially since I almost always stick to tasks asking to make appointments or reservstions. Also the very first day their system was buggy and so many people could not get pass the onboarding section of “orientation” and NO ONE helped them out. I guess I should not expect more from a company that hires you less than 4 hours after submitting a application.Very unprofessional website good ridance to bad rubish!
Very disappointed in the business model. Could not spend my tasks fast enough. Asked to suspend, they only “reduced my charge to a monthly $7.95” to “maintain” the tasks I had in backlog… 107 to be exact. Talk about throwing good $$ after bad. I finally canx’d the d*mn service. What a crock!
The services provided by the assistants was reasonable, but not always great. For instance I had them review Home Warranty services for me, which someone did, but not thoroughly. I took their recommendation, much to my chagrin and eventual cost and aggravation, as the company they rated highest was actually a massive scam with 3K+ complaints with the BBB. My bad for not double checking, but that defeats the purpose, yes?
Basic data entry and such, they were pretty good, but some of the assistants would really milk the tasks for as much credit as they could. Not that I blame them, but really?
These people are a shameless in-your-face crooks. I’ve never had a more adversarial experience with a customer care (w exception of my local Brooklyn based fitness gym bullies). They will try to avoid honoring their discounts and then they will try to secretly steal from your balance while you are not paying attention and when you call them out on it, they will accuse you of gaming their system and of lying. Then will request you to produce your bank statements to prove your innocence and when you do so, instead of getting profuse apologies from their higher management you’ll hear a bunch of excuses about their buggy system and 0 effort to recompense you for the distasteful experience you had to go through at their hands. Also, their customer service is one person (named Edgardo) who calls himself a COO and has no business being in customer service trade. He is just awful. I have it all documented via email transcripts if BBB cares to look. I ran away from this service so quickly I left a bunch of money deposited with them untouched. I never heard from his manager despite requests for it and emails to management.
Their primary business of assistance is all pretty on the outside but the service itself is very very slow and cursory done with no documentation available of the actual work/research done. My detailed and easy task wasn’t picked up for days before I just had to do it myself. And they charge for phone waiting that they encounter, which should at the very least be a discounted rate service as you can do other stuff while being on hold.
Avoid them at all costs – there are tons of other virtual assistant services that are probably more aligned with the concept of serving their client instead of looking to secretly steal from them.
ps. unsurprisingly their workers hate them on glass doors reviews where they rank in at around 2.5 stars.
Not worth the money. They don’t do tasks and their work product is overall poor.
I a customer of theirs for 9 years. Over 5 years ago they were pretty good, but the quality of the work then started sliding. In the past two years, occasionally you would get some amazing work, but most was terrible. I would NOT let these guys proof read anything and even if you spell out what to do in the simplest of terms, they miss the mark. If you submitted a link of something you were looking to price check, they could compare shop. I found such disappointment.
My mistake was not cancelling sooner. I had a ton of credits and felt I should use them before cancelling, but ultimately was throwing my money away. The quality of the work was so poor it was a waste of my time to even make a request. Not only did I have to type up detailed instructions to try to idiot proof the request (as they kept making errors costing time), but in the end I had to re-do the task myself.
Tasks take 24-48 hours to be “picked up” according to their customer service. What happened to having most tasks done quickly? Occasionally one is done fast and that is shocking. Most things take 24 hours… or are never done at all. That is right- they ignore your requests!
I learned the hard way, don’t assume they will ever do a task. If you need anything done, do it yourself. I had them NOT do tasks for over 48 hours, and then I had to complain to get the credit returned (as opposed to having someone in the company assign it to a person.)
They’re excuses for not doing work included:
– Not having enough people available,
-Not having people that can work with Mac products like Numbers or Pages (although they didn’t even offer to do it in excel or word instead, and I could convert it.
– Being afraid of terms like “law”, “legal”, “risk”, etc.
But even simple requests were ignored (and the ones done often had errors.)
Some of my tasks they never completed included:
-finding senior social groups,
-looking up available low cost transport options for a senior,
– Identifying HDR TVs less than 72 inches wide,
– Finding housekeepers available near an address,
– Call AT&T and find out what TV and phone bundles they have.
– Remove duplicates out of a spreadsheet.
When you want to quit their service, you loose all the credits for which you already paid. In the end over $120 worth of credits were forfeited, but at least I didn’t waste any more money for credits for jobs they were not going to do anyway.
It was a great concept but it is poorly executed. You’d be better to pay a real person for any work you want done.
Absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever done to earn money. Totally demeaning. Mentors were rude. Assignments got kicked back for small things. In total I made $12 for about three hours of full on work spread over many days. Avoid.
I have been using fancy hands for several years and have mostly had great experiences. While I’ve had them do some basic research or data gathering, I’ve also found some strong writers.
The author should update the post and let the readers know that Fancy Hands has changed a lot since all the negative comments were posted.
I have been working for Fancy Hands for quite a while now and I make atleast $9/hr. The mentors are friendly and cooperative and they understand your problems during emergencies.
I have mixed feelings about the service: I like that i know how much I’m spending, something i’ve been nervous about when using services like Fin or Magic. The tradeoff though is that tasks generally take longer to complete, OK if time allows, but not OK if trying to schedule appointments or something. One aspect that wasn’t mentioned in this review is that Fancy Hands has a live request feature where you get billed by the minute in trade for getting on-demand, live assistance. I’ve used this feature a few times and like it although I find that i need to check in with the assistant after waiting a while just to find out what’s going on. In the end, I think what really appeals to me is the unit-based billing options, I can submit a non-urgent task and while it may take a while for it to complete, I know the meter’s not constantly running.
Horrible. just horrible! there is no customer service. there is no way to actually talk to someone if you are unhappy. i gave a simple task, find a doctor with a 5 star rating in this area of the city that takes oscar. not too hard. no , didn’t get any of it right.
i tried to call and find out what happens to my roll over time if i cancel and no one would talk to me. apparently they have phones to do their tasks but not to actually speak or take care of their customers. sorry but this company is a bit of a scam since they keep charging you while you are try to cancel. don’t waste your time and $. and it takes just as much time to text them what you want as it would to do most tasks. they never actually did the tasks i asked. just emailed me back how i could do it. really bad company.
Terrible service. I received a very low quality of service for about half the tasks I created – even after providing very detailed descriptions, some of the agents would do something entirely different from what I asked. I canceled both my husband’s and my accounts. I was subsequently charged a premium subscription for 1 month on 1 account and a regular subscription on both accounts for months after. I flagged the issue and all they did was refund me for charges made to the current month and then did not allow me to use the credit for the months I had paid but did not use (I had approximately $157 in unused credits). On my account, there was a tally of how much time I had been saved by the tasks, and it totaled 15 minutes. I paid $120 for that ($30 x 4 months). TERRIBLE. Their customer service policies are awful, they will not refund your account, and the service I received was very poor – ended up having to do half of it myself.
Also – the last straw that made me cancel the account was that one of the assistants said she canceled an appointment for me, but did not!!!! I was charged $150 for that appointment. So I paid Fancy Hands $120 for unused credit and to get charged $150 for their incompetent liar of an agent. This was in an email I sent to FH and they never responded.
I worked for FancyHands for 3-4 months before they disabled my account, which they gave no reason for other than “Your services are no longer required.” (Unfortunately being hired as an independent contractor allows them the ability to do this)
I think FancyHands has a great concept but a lot of what I’ve read from previous reviews is true. Here’s the ultimate break down:
First, there is absolutely no training other than a “field guide” which is just a large typed up document. You do not get one on one training, or even have a personal mentor (someone you can go to with questions). Your only other option is a “forum board” where you can post questions/concerns that can be answered by managers or other assistants. Your other option is to email a manager directly and get a run around response – basically the blind leading the blind. So you’re left to make a decision on your own (which is never the right one) and then get reprimanded for it after you already asked for direction and received none!
Second, the tasks get posted on your “dashboard” (which someone mentioned is similar to a marketplace) where EVERY assistant can see any information you posted, (ie log in credentials, account numbers, etc.) and choose which tasks they wish to complete. There was never any credit card information posted and you were not aloud to complete payments for clients unless you had special permissions. (one good thing for ya)
Third, EVERY SINGLE CORRESPONDENCE had to be “approved” via a “mentor” before it was sent to the client (which was just another typical assistant but with special permissions, and from my understanding got paid 10 cents for each response mentored). Even if you just have a simple question, your question has to be reviewed by the “mentors” before it’s sent to the client. Though I understand the need to screen these interactions in some way, the problem with this, is that it could take anywhere from 2-12 hours before one simple question is sent to the client, plus however long it takes for the client to respond. So I could have started a task and then by the time the client responds I am already in bed and the task automatically unclaims itself from me before I even have a chance to review it. (Then I do not get paid for time spend waiting, asking questions, reviewing, and the next assistant who claims has all this laid out for them)
Now, as a FancyHands assistant you also have some type of ongoing “score” which they very briefly talk about, and say they are still working out the kinks. Yet your score is effected by everything you do – if a task gets unclaimed for you, if you don’t respond to a task within the first 30 minutes of accepting it (yet it will take 4 hours before the completed task is ever sent to the client by a mentor), etc. Of course the negative actions affect your score more than any of the positive things you do (like receiving a 5 star rating on a task you completed)
Someone else mentioned that you really have to work 24/7 and end up making much less than you should. MOST tasks are $3 a piece for 20 minutes of work, only coming out to $9 an hour (which it’s more likely to come out to $7-$8 dollars an hour after all of the additional time spent messaging managers and clients). So I’m not sure where some of you heard that we made $11 / hour. Maybe that was before I started?
Another issue is that no one screens these tasks before they are posted to the dashboard/marketplace. So many tasks came in that either did not make sense, or really needed some clarification. But no assistant would claim these tasks because they didn’t want to get stuck with it. You cannot ask the client a question unless you “claim it” (then it goes through the whole ordeal of having your question approved by a mentor) and after a full day goes by and you now understand how to complete the task, but you are not qualified to do it – you have no choice but to unclaim it (and have your “score” affected).
Ultimately, I’m sure that some clients think it takes assistants forever to respond to tasks – but that is due to the screen process they have in place. Additionally, if you even forget so much as a comma in your response to the client, the mentor will send the task back to you (after you waited 4+ hours for approval) so you can add this comma, and then have to resubmit to wait another 4+ hours to be reviewed AGAIN before sending to the client.
I am sad I lost my position solely for the fact that now I have to spend time looking for something else. I think ultimately, as an assistant it was more stress than it was worth, with very little pay, and management/mentors who are unwilling to help or work with you, and instead expect you to just do it.
If you are thinking of becoming an assist with FancyHands just be prepared for all that is mentioned above. You really do need to be available 24/7 in case any task gets reopened by client or otherwise. Also, DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES EVER! They will not help you and all you will get in response to any questions is “Please refer to the field guide”, and you won’t get any second chances or redirection. They do not want to help you grow, or invest in you.
Fancy hands was alright in the beginning but the response times are basically just awful. If you’re doing anything that you kind of need soon, it’s pointless to use fancyhands.
The assistants range from useful to very useless and even then very slow.
I have not used Fancy Hands so far.
For information purpose only, while screening some VA, Fancy Hands has stated that they were unable to sign off a specific NDA.
I have been a customer of fancy hands for two years. I strongly recommend that you do not become one. What’s kept me with them for so long is that there are occasional flashes of Brilliance that keep you going. For example once they reduced my cable bill by $30 per month. However the vast majority of the time the other assistants are simply incompetent. What is worse still is at least twice assistants have contacted me privately outside of the system, begging me not to tell fancy hands or they would be fired. They then proceeded to complain about how they are paid and how bad and strict the management are to them. No matter how strict they are it does not help correct flaws in their business model. “If you pay peanuts you get monkeys” so someone said. Some of those will be more intelligent and provide those flashes of brilliance. The final straw after some 60 complaints over two years came when an assistant booked somebody to visit my home but that person didn’t show up. When I questioned the person they provided evidence that the assistant had given them two different addresses for me, the last of which was incorrect, and they had not returned phone calls. As a result the person visiting me told me that they thought my assistant was actually someone playing games with them. If the image that fancy hands gives to people is that it is in fact a hoax or prank, what does that say about their level of service. When you pay your monthly fee you get an email from their CEO encouraging you to talk to him about any issues. However he actually stopped responding to me even though I was providing constructive ideas for solving the problems. I believe he knows how bad it is and has simply run out of words and therefore chooses to ignore those who continue to point out the same issues. But those issues are very serious and the concerns are one-hundred-percent valid. I wouldn’t say fancy hands is a hoax or a prank but it is a bit of a joke. I am very sad to write this review but it is honest.
Whatever you do, avoid FancyHands like the plague! Lindsay Fisher – the customer service manager is awful! Takes forever to respond and they offer no phone support! Seriously? You make calls as a VA service and you can’t call your customers? The assistants almost never finish tasks on time and it is often times faster to just handle the tasks yourself which completely defeats the purpose. The service was excellent a few years ago and has gone downhill since then. Do not waste your time or your money on this awful company. Move on and find a different one.
I’ve worked for Fancy Hands for about a month or so. So far the only issue I’ve had is that the mentors are rude! They act like cranky supervisors who aim to ruin your day. The customers have been extremely nice. I wish the tasks were worth more than 2.75 (sometimes 3.65-11.00). We do so much for that little amout of money.
I’ve been a Fancy Hands client and canceled my account. Now that I’ve researched and written a post about their virtual assistant opportunity for my site, I definitely have a better appreciation for the VAs and what their challenges are. From a user perspective, I agree with another poster here that using Fancy Hands is an excellent tool for enhancing your delegation skills. With the VAs in mind, if I should ever reinstate my account, I will certainly ensure that my requests meet the short-task goal of 15-20 minutes. Though I had some frustrations with the service, the support representative’s response was professional, and most of my requests were completed timely and accurately.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said…… I currently work for Fancy Hands and wish I could continue. But the reality is, you can’t make a decent living with them.
Its great to be able to pick and chose what you want to work on and when, but the reality is you end up working ….or at least trying to work…. 24/7. Here’s why:
The current process works like this:
I claim a task and work on it for 20 minutes. If I finish it, great. But that almost never happens.
So the next step is to send a message to the client letting them know that I started and very gently ask them how they want to proceed. An Assistant is NOT allowed to say, I think your request will take 10 tasks. That is a huge NO-NO! So that message gets sent to the client and you have to wait until they respond.
Then you have to send a message to a manager (and right now there is only 1 for the whole company) and wait for them to go in and approve what they call a split. Then and only then are you supposed to move forward.
NOTE: You cannot send both messages at the same time because only the last message sent will be seen.
Sounds simple enough, but I have waited DAYS for a manager to respond.
So to even make a little money you have to claim a large number of tasks and pray they don’t call come due at the same time.
Honestly, I’ve never been able to make more that $200 in a two week period without having to commit hours of everyday to working. I would guess I’ve spend at least 40 hours a week working to make $200.
I’m leaving as soon as I can find full time work.
I really wanted to give a great rating but honestly depending who you get to do your task can make or break your experience. I have gotten some really good work done but when it is bad it is really bad. It should not be this way. It is evident there is a lack of training and the inconsistency really harms what FH can do. After several months with them, I closed my account. They are not as helpful as I hoped. Especially when I needed them the most.
Don’t hire Fancy Hands, I just bought a package, I was charged but the site still saying that I’m out of credits.
I’m trying to get in touch with them but they are ignoring me, it’s impossible to delete your account, they do not respond e-mails and they took my money.
As a FH ‘assistant’ I am sorry you wasted your time and money. The managers are idiots and the assistants are clueless. Not the assistants fault though, because when we ask management for help (SCOTT and Mandy) they refuse to provide helpful information aside from judgemental times. Also, I have seen WAAAAY too much personal information from various clients. As a virtual assistant I cringe when I think of other UNTRAINED (training is a manual that is out dated) VA’s who also see this information. Have you tried Zirtual or Red Butler? Much more professional and they hire qualified employees. FH throws up job ads and just emails you to say your hired, no real screening at all. FH never even saw my resume!
If you are on the fence about Fancy Hands, I can tell you that in the year I’ve used the service it has paid for itself each month in the amount of time it has saved me. When your time is worth $50 or $100 an hour why not pay someone to do the $10 an hour stuff for you?
Fancy Hands can save you countless hours. They can’t think for you though. So you have to become an expert at delegating but this forces you to systemetize repetitive tasks which will save you even more time. I’ve been using it for my insurance business for over a year and have racked up more than 165 completed tasks and saved over a day. Hmm…. what should I do with that entire day I saved?
Do not work with this company, I repeat DO NOT WORK WITH FANCY HANDS! This company is terrible and they refuse to help with fixing my account. I had 110+ tasks available then their system stopped working for me and I started seeing an error page every time I tried to login. I’ve emailed them 10+ times and they refuse to respond to my emails or even attempt to resolve the issue. Beware!
kthinckley@gmail.com
I have been working for Fancy Hands for a few days now, and while that is not a long time, I’ve formed a fairly accurate idea of how this would go long term.
If you want to be an assistant for Fancy Hands, you really have to have realistic expectations of what you hope to gain from the company. The pros: It is a ligitimate company and there are no start up fees. You will get paid for your work. You can work whenever you want.
The cons: They pay you the same as what an assistant outsourced from a developing country would make. Each task pays an average of between $2.75 – 3.75. Some pay more depending on how involved it is. They tell you that tasks are able to be completed in 15-20 minutes. However, in my experience this is very unrealistic. Many of my tasks end up taking 30, 45 minutes and you will only get paid 2.75 for it. You are asked to do more and more for the clients for what ends up being grossly under minimum wage.
Though this review is targeted toward those thinking of working for Fany Hands, I urge those using it for virtual assistant services to consider what I have said as well. Some people had expressed dissatisfaction at the work they have received, but please keep in mind that your assistant is asked to do a lot of work for only $2.75. I’ve claimed tasks from other assistants from clients who re-submitted it or some reason. I can see what work they’ve done on the task and in many cases it is a lot. In one case, the assistant made at least ten calls as well as conducting internet research for who knows how long. All for $3.
Overall, Fancy Hands seems a viable option for both clients and assistants, but both sides need to be realistic about their expectations.
Yes, I DO NOT like the fact that a virtual assistant (VA) can see all of that work that the previous VA just did on that same task. That is very unfair.
Just to serve as a warning for anyone considering using Fancy Hands for their work.
I wouldn’t trust it. Work is not to the quality that you need it to be. The assistants used are not taken through a background check, to see if they qualify. The system is very unprofessional.
Having worked as an assistant and tried to give back the best that I can do, other assistants do not. They do have a check system in place that a manager will look over the work before submitting the finished work to the client, however, the managers themselves are not professional.
Please be cautious in wanting to spend your money with them. It may seem tempting because they have a lower per credit spending limit, but as the saying goes, ‘you get what you paid for.’
We aren’t taken through a background check! I am reporting them because of things I am not comfortable with. Pertaining to customer information and certain task request (eg. Calling a clients service provider to negotiate bills, etc.). Way too much personal information was avail. I don’t work too much anymore but I am still active. I have since done what is necessary to file a complaint, and I am an assistant. I personally don’t want to be privy to certain information as a VA. Especially, if the job is not a valid or significant job. Good on you for choosing not to use their services. As a assistant I always wondered why you all waste you money. Task would sit in que waiting on a mentor approval, which could take hours. Not very helpful for clients who need task done fast and timely.
Tried FancyHands for a week with their 50 requests per month plan. Worked well for tasks that are very simple, and that were not urgent.
I finally trusted them to get an urgent print job done for me, that I needed for a client meeting the next day. Complete disaster – took hours to respond back, then didn’t order the print job because it was slighty over the limit (instead of just printing fewer copies), then never responded to my request to print fewer copies instead. I ended up spending most of my night finding another solution myself – would have been better off not trusting FancyHands in the first place.
I’ve cancelled the account – despite their success with simple tasks with no time limit, the fact that they are unreliable makes the service of limited use to me. Good concept, poor execution. I’d rather pay 3x as much for a service that works.
I have been using a dedicate VA for the past few months and absolutely love it. I have been able to get so many tasks done while in my sleep but I just have a hard time paying the monthly service fee for the other service.
Fancy Hands can get most of what I need done without the “luxury” of having a dedicated VA.
While I will most likely go back to a Dedicated VA in the future, FH was able to do most of the scheduling tasks and make calls on my behalf when I used them previously. Would recommend.
Has anyone used FH in the business environment, interested to hear the experiences with using a different assistant each time vs. more of a dedicated model. Does that work well in the business environment?
I’m just wrapping up using fancy hands and I’m looking for an alternative solution. They’re inexpensive however I find the quality (especially lately) has left much to be desired.
It seems like their taskers just try to find the quickest and easiest way to finish a task. They’re lazy, often times uneducated or lack common sense b/c they don’t even read through the task completely. Such a shame b/c I loved the interface.
I have worked for FH since May and I really like it. I am able to make decent money while staying at home with my kid. Some tasks aren’t worth your time, but many are pretty easy. I disagree with the above statement of the phone tasks. Those are often very easy, in my opinion.
I don’t have a personal issue with Scott, but I did review a task once that had been unclaimed by the VA – she had been trying to unclaim it because a family member died suddenly and Scott wouldn’t let her, telling her to follow through, re-assigning it to her and bugging her about it. That made my stomach turn.
Anyway, I like it overall and have fun doing it. I do wish people could ask for you specifically though, there are a few people I love doing tasks for…
The ability to ask for a specific VA would be a cool feature — I’d even use it to submit freebie bonus/tip tasks for a job well done.
They’ve been great. So great that I’ve kept them on board as I moved some other work to MyTasker (Their pro plan does SEO/web work). I just haven’t found anyone else who integrates as slickly as Fancy Hands. They’ve made like 60 calls on my behalf in just the first couple months.
One assistant even spent 2 weeks trying to track down some fair trade local fruit suppliers for me (waiting on call-backs, etc.). I was impressed with her follow-through.
The downside is it’s one of the more expensive task-based VA companies. The price to pay, I suppose.
I have trying to integrate personal use VA into my for sometime now, and have stumbled many times when either not enjoying the VA experience or not having enough bite sized tasks to delegate. Then came my wedding, which game me mountains of simple tasks, easy to delegate.
I opted for Fancy Hands because Nick gave me a free task (thanks Nick!), they are American, and after experimenting with Indian VA’s I found that things were getting lost in translation.
I signed up to the basic plan with Fancy Hands and on the whole have been satisfied with the outcome. The service you get can be very hit or miss depending on the assistant, sometimes they completely missunderstand the task, complete what they think it is without checking, and then close it down. Other times they totally get it (or check) and do exactly what is needed quickly and efficiently.
The big plus is the app, it makes the whole experience a lot easier.
It is perfect for light use personal tasks, a good entry level VA to cautious first timers like me.
I would love them to be UK based, or have a pool of UK assistants. I have to quite often write in the task that I want a UK company as the solution, if they were UK based then their experience would be more UK (rather than US) focused, any suggestions for a similar UK VA?
Thanks Rob — I think the most similar company in the UK currently is DailyPA: https://www.virtualassistantassistant.com/dailypa (significantly more expensive though)
Fancy hands as a company is ok. Some tasks you get paid fairly others will end up taking you hours (when they are suppose to take twenty minutes) and you only get paid $2.00. My main issue however is with Scott a manager who treats the employees poorly and is rude. His demands(yes he demands things in a ride condescending way) are often short and make no sense. It’s his way or the highway and if you speak up he fires you and deactivates your profile. I wouldn’t recommend this business to anyone.
I’ve been doing FH as a VA since June 2014, and I must say it was VERY easy to get on with them. I quickly learned the do’s and don’ts. I also quickly realized what an A$$ Scott is. Took me one task. I then started looking him up to see if I was the only one who thought this. Even in the FH Forums people talk about him badly, how rude he is. I try not to take it personal, but Geez. Hes on LinkedIn and has only been a “Supervisor” for 2 years. Before FH, it appears he had no experience in doing what he does now.
I only took the FH VA job as an interim until something better came along. True, the pay of tasks is minimum, but for me its something to do. I am picky and I only choose the research tasks. I love to research things, and am very versed at it. Takes me no time.
this is good to know as I just applied not too long ago. thanks for the heads up.
Generally not bad. I’m sticking with them, despite some concerns.
The main problems seem to be:
Scott rejects tasks seemingly arbitrarily, and wrongly then when you object, he ignores you.
They refuse to do most tasks that help with crowdfunding, despite what blogs stated they used them for, e.g. they won’t collect lists of email addresses, post to forums, comment on relevant blogs with valuable feedback, etc.
One concern I have is with data security. Does anyone know if FH does any background checks on the assistants? It makes me nervous to share personal information with semi-anonymous strangers I may never hear from again.
Overall they’re hit and miss, but I like the website layout, and sometimes they do an amazing job. E.g. one assistant wrote a logline (summary) of a book I wrote, that is better than the one I had!
They’ve also negotiated me refunds/compensation totaling over $300.
Whilst they keep creating gems like that, I’ll stick with it and signed up for a year, but I hope the management team can address some of these issues.
HORRIBLE. I just spent 2 days of my life for less than minimum wage being abused by Scott and the other mentors even though I had a very high ranking and a high score (over 1000points). I really hustled hard for $100 – for 2 days and I worked more than 16 hours on my first day.
Then I got my account disabled because I unclaimed a task that the client requested another assistant. I told Scott. He reassigned the task to me even though the client wanted someone else to work on it. I told him I had an emergency. I had eaten some bad sushi and had stomach issues.
So what? My account was disabled.
This job is not worth it.
I bet the people at the top are making a lot of money off the slave labor of their assistants.
I agree with you. It is slave labor. I have worked there and quit tonight. After receiving a nasty letter from Scott the Manger. I have work for them since Aug 3 2015 and only made $50.00 Dollars . I was a love hate relationship. I found a better work from home job where I will be treated with respect that I never got from there. Some Clients want us to do work for pennies like a third world country. I am not slave labor and I told them and posted their dirty deeds to the forum for employees. So I got booted too, I worked on several task today and they all took over 15 minutes to complete. I got high ranking from clients. I also got snooty clients that want something for nothing. I try to avoid those task.
Unlike some people, I have never had issues being paid by FH (yet, at least). When the tasks take 15 minutes to complete, the pay isn’t that bad. Unfortunately, as others have stated, the tasks rarely take 15 minutes.
Any phone task is probably going to take 30 minutes, MINIMUM. Not only is there the calling, but there is some researching and then I have to type the whole thing up! Honestly, it’s rare when a phone task takes less than 45 minutes from start to finish. That doesn’t even count when the place in question is closed, doesn’t answer, etc. Also, the phone system that we absolutely must use doesn’t always work. Assistants have a private forum where we discuss general issues we’re having with tasks. There are so many posts about the “Fancy Hands Robot” (that’s what the phone system is called) hanging up on people as the person on the other hand picks up the phone.
It’s true that we get no training. We have this very, very long “tutiral” document to read and refer to. It does help. A little.
As for the people who say that when they’ve done the same tasks that you send to FH, it takes you 15 minutes but it takes us much longer? Of course it does. You know what you’re doing/looking for. We often have to guess a bit.
One moment, I may be searching for a particular helium balloon, then another task will have me researching weed killers that are safe for pets, and another one will have me calling a hotel to change a reservation.
You are an expert in your life and what you do and expect, we don’t get a chance to be experts. It’s going to take us longer. If you took your car to a mechanic, he should be able to change the air filter in 15 minutes. If you take your car to a dentist, it’ll probably take him a while longer to figure out how to change the filter.
That being said, FH isn’t completely terrible to work for. Sadly, even at $2.75/hr, FH pays better than a lot of unskilled, no-qualifications-needed online jobs.
Workers: If this is all you can find, okay. You can at least pay some bills. It’s better than mTurk.
Clients: Please don’t expect miracles. We’re not being paid well. There are people that use FH as their sole source of income and when somebody’s hairdresser won’t pick up the phone, it’s taking money out of our pockets. So some people tend to get a bit grumpy and sloppy in their work. Sorry.
I worked for FH for two weeks. Wouldn’t work any longer until I got paid. That was over two months ago and I NEVER received pay. If you don’t have problems hiring a company that doesn’t pay their employees, stick with this one.
Fancy Hands is an absolute waste of time to work at. The managers in particular are very short-tempered, ill-mannered people, and speak to their assistants like they are grade schoolers. They are disrespectful and do not appreciate any of their employees. Avoid (both potential assistants and users) to save yourself time and sanity! I actually asked how to quit and had one of the managers disable my account – probably the only joy I got out of the experience. In general a horrible experience – I would give it negative stars if I could.
We have been using Fancy Hands. We’re a small business so I have several employees signed up under Teamwork. The service is generally ok, but I think we would benefit from having one person as our go to. Sometimes FH seems more focused on turnaround time, more than quality, and the teamwork set-up and maintenance is always having problems. In general, I’m looking for something that all of us can share so in that sense, Teamwork was great. I just have the feeling that we could do better, and your star ratings on your site suggest the same!
Overall, VERY happy with Fancy Hands – though, sometimes, occasionally, a quick task just sits, and sits, and sits. Mine are pretty quick – phone calls to schedule, one page docs, quick research, etc – and, I love the help and convenience. I am sorry to hear that some FH assistants are being mistreated – this helps me understand the scope of my requests – to keep them at 15 minutes, and to open a new task if I have significant changes that need to be made. I want to make sure everyone is happy with FH, including the assistants, who, for the most part, have done an EXCELLENT job!
Tasks are often very time consuming and low paying. Management, or I should say Scott, has no idea what he is doing. The rules are one thing one day, and something else the next. There are tasks that we can do, and tasks that we cannot, and he has no idea what those are (this also changes in his mind from one day to the next). He tells clients that we cannot do things that we should actually be able to do in 20 minutes, and then allows tasks that obviously fall way outside of what can be done in 20 minutes go through.
There is no consistency, and I can only assume this really pisses clients off. If you are a client that Scott has not yet pissed off, give it some time, he just hasn’t gotten to you yet. Frankly, he is painfully immature, moody, inept, and unqualified for his job. He has no business dealing with clients or “employees.”
Some assistants are excellent, while others are awful, and I mean AWFUL. As in, 7 days after claiming a task, they still had not successfully scheduled a simple appointment. At some point, these assistants just wait the 8 hours without responding to the client, and the system “auto-unclaims” it for another assistant to fix. In some cases, the assistant who botched the task still gets paid for it, while the assistant who resolved it, gets NO pay.
Advice to Senior Management
Immediate remediation for Scott. Perhaps he should spend a week or two actually doing the virtual assistant job, so he could better understand it. No person should be a manager, who has not themselves done the job. Alternatively, hire a manger that will take the time to carefully read what is going on, and make decisions based on common sense and competence. This would alleviate a lot of assistant and client frustration.
Everything that KC P has said is right on the money! Although many clients may feel as though the quality of service and response time is great, FH really is a terrible company to “work” for. As a previous FH assistant, 90% I was never able to finish the 15 minute tasks within 15 minutes. It’d usually take 30 minutes or longer. For example, one of my first tasks ever was to call around and see if there was a store in Hawaii that sold a certain type of ice (not regular ice you see everywhere) and that was located near the client. The pay for the task- $2.75. After spending over an hour calling every store possible, I told the client that there were no store nearby with the certain type of ice he was looking for (and since all the stores that I called said that the type of ice is on a different island of Hawaii). The pay for my hard work- $0.00. Silly me though, I thought that I must have done something wrong to have received NO PAY for my hard work. Hello, 2 months later and I still received no pay for some of my hard work and all because some clients would tack on additional questions (quesitons=work) to the task or they were unsatisfied simply because they wanted the quality of work that would take 2 hours to do and not the 15 minutes that are in the terms. Another example, a client was too busy to think of what to buy her friend’s daughter. After researching popular items for little girls, I came her plenty of options, only to have her rat to FH that she was dissatisfied with the job that I did. The 15 minute idea is a complete fake notion. I was told to do the amount of work that I can in 15 minutes, then only to be told that I have to put more effort and time into some tasks that I had completed during that 15 minutes. Also, as others have said, Scott is a complete idiot and a$$hole. You can never do anything right to satisfy this dummy! He’ll work you over the 15 minutes and in the end you get paid $0.00 for your effort (and I’m talking effort as in the kind of effort that I put in to do quality work, not lazily doing something just to finish it). To think of it, FH doesn’t hire people who decide to click on their website looking for a job. They post assistant jobs in odd places like Craigslist and such. There are little training involved whatsoever (here you go, Anne, read this long essay on how to be an assistant), but then they expect you to go above and beyond your call of duty- as if I was getting paid by the thousands and not $2.75 for the 15 minute tasks that actually turns to hours. I am glad that I’m not longer a FH assistant and the greatest thing is- no 2 weeks notice, but a “cancel my account because I hate working for FH.” So there you go, an insiders look to FH.
I’ve only been using this service for a little while, and already can’t live without it. So I was bragging about you to my wife, and showed her the dashboard. Especially pointing out where it said you’d saved me 3 hours.
She shook her head. (She’s also an admin assistant). “No honey. They saved an organized person 3 hours. They saved YOU about two days.”
She’s got a point. I’m using FH to help with my Attention Deficit. Already you’ve helped me be more productive in the first two weeks of 2014 than I have in the last 3 months.
My two cents is that the contractor/employee above makes a good point, sometimes they do have to do more that just one task and provide follow up, etc. My main experience was great, but toward the end, if a task was too complicated or they couldn’t do it (according to their standards). Rather than telling me, they would wait for the entire day or next day to tell me. If I had known I would have just taken care of it.
For the most part they are exceptional at making calls, scheduling and brief research. However, waiting over a day to say “sorry, can’t do it”.. is a problem.
Looking at the reviews, it looks like this company has gone down hill from their beginning which is my experience.
I had an ulimited membership last year and generally had a good experience and so I renewed. That’s not the case this year (and won’t be renewing my membership again).
It’s become increasingly difficult to get done what you need to do and often, it’s more time than it’s worth.
For example they often claim that a task would take more than their alloted 15 minutes—yet when I do it myself it takes just about that much time (I work hard to break down my tasks so they’ll fit in to their consumable chunks).
I’ve also had an assistant claim several times that they didn’t understand directions to a task—one which I had assigned previously frequently with the same detailed instructions without trouble or misunderstanding. Reading some of the employee comments above, I am now guessing that the one assistant (Spencer C.) didn’t want to do the task right away, but “grabbed” it, feigned ignorance and kept the task until he could get to it.
I’ve also received a lot of viruses from their deliverables. Fortunately, my virus software has caught them.
I used FancyHands.com for a few months (their $65/month plan) and recently canceled due to a variety of issues.
Some of the good:
I like some of their assistants (maybe having voting on each assistant would help improve the service).
It’s easy to add tasks, reply, and search through them.
I like the technical/software side of the business.
The bad:
The 15 minute time limit is a great burden (specifically when you have 25 requests a month). There should be options to manage time length on tasks. It’s a great inconvenience to have to copy and paste tasks when they exceed 15 minutes-ideally, you could use two tasks (30 minutes) in one request.
In many instances, one assistant couldn’t pick up where another left off, and you are unable to use the same assistant for finishing a task that takes 2 requests. In order to finish a longer task, you need to create a new one, but you’re unable to reference the other task as a link for the assistant to review! So you have to re-create the entire task, summarizing all the comments.
Some assistants are great, but many are mediocre. In some tasks it looks like they grabbed the first few links from Google without even reviewing the content and then called the task done.
Customer service can be improved – solutions should be provided, not a link to the terms and conditions when something can’t be done. The service is used by productive people who are trying to save time! We don’t want have to think of a way to get the task done that fits within the terms and conditions.
When I get an email from “Scott” I cringe (he’s probably just following the terms, but not a pleasant experience). Seems if he asked questions on what was trying to be accomplished, he could provide a better solution.
Would be great to set due dates, and choose specific assistants to work with. Also, would be nice to schedule times for the assistant to make calls to others (for a meeting).
Finally, I received a boiler-plate email from “Ted Roden” (the CEO of Fancy Hands), which included a link to a smaller plan ($14/month), and a request to send him an email if there is anything he can do. I sent him the items above, and never received a reply. I also submitted the feedback when I canceled and never received a reply.
Hopefully someone here will benefit from my time writing this!
Granted, $65 a month is not a lot of money, but the quality was hit or miss; I wasn’t seeing the value.
Personally it would be more beneficial to place an ad elsewhere for a virtual assistant. This company requires no background checks whatsoever & since they have the assistants sign off that they are acting as an individual they make sure they are no way legally responsible should said assistant do something wrong or crazy! After working for them for 2 weeks I realized this was a waste of my time. Though they may want tasks done in 15 minutes, sometimes the client has you researching something that takes hours. Is it really worth it to take hours out of my day to research or phone call places for someone else for a measly $2.75-$3.65 per task. That is what most of them pay & you are only allowed to work on one at a time. SO realistically if you had an assistant would that be fair pay?!
More work than it’s worth. They don’t accomplish tasks without being bugged and frequently don’t respond at all.
HORRIBLE COMPANY. This company is absolutely horrible. Scott is an abusive and rude manager who has constant comments in the “worker chat box” about his issues venting his anger at people who have completed tasks. A single $3 task can end up taking hours to complete due to FancyHands allowing any and all customer adding of work, questions, and so on. A worker cannot do a new task until an old task is completed to a manager’s satisfaction. If you write a manager that the work has been completed, you get an answer from Scott, who rants and rips into people and demands that all work be done “ASAP.” Even though it is new work, and not the work claimed by the worker and completed. Failure to jump through any hoop, thus reducing your hourly wage to $1 or less, results in Scott docking your performance score 20 points or disabling your account so you can no longer work (and who knows what will actually get paid of the work completed in good faith). Do NOT use this company unless you enjoy rewarding people for worse than third world bad working conditions. They should be ashamed. There are other virtual assistant companies out there, like Zirtual and other entities.
I’ve been using Fancy Hands for a couple of months now, and they are terrific. Turn around time is usually two hours or less. Quality is generally pretty good, but keep in mind that they are built around performing smaller “one-off” tasks.
I’ve had them schedule appointments, make dinner reservations, find a weird replacement part for my refrigerator, and input data from photos. All those were terrific.
I’ve also had them design a form for my office. I realized it was a slightly larger task, so I broke it into three segments. Production quality on one was great, one was okay, and one was mediocre. I think asking for MS Office production is going to vary a lot depending on who picks up your task.
I still plan to hire a regular VA for on-going tasks and reporting, but I’ll probably keep using Fancy Hands. They’re just so fast! And (as others have said), the ability to phone in tasks as voice mail is invaluable.
I love you Fancy Hands! Been a happy member for a long time. Don’t forget to give your assistants a thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!
Horribel. Dont care about the clients. DOnt answer my emails.
Ban my account and dont give me a reson.
Useless.
I had an unlimited plan. I tried to like it. At first, maybe they were actually effective. In any case, in the end, when they started kicking off heavy users who had the temerity to say that the tasks were not done well, I am left very disappointed and maybe even feel worse about their ethics. (they are not transparent in what ‘unlimited’ means or how long a task really takes. Why are their execs looking at my LinkedIn profile?)
Here is an example: I need a piece of glass to replace one that I broke in a danish-designed teapot. Perfect, right? Someone to hunt down a replacement part. Here is what I get: first a hyperlink to the website of the manufacturer. Really? that isn’t complete work. I can do that myself. I want the part. (I say this). 2nd attempt I get a response from the company, in French (!) saying that I need to find a local dealer. (why French? b/c the FH person had a french name?) Did anyone actually read the response b/f sending this to me??
How many of these FAILed interactions does it take to realize that they are wasting more of your time than they claim to be saving?
I want to put this out there as someone who currently works for Fancy Hands. My reason for this is that I feel many of our clients don’t know how it works on our end, but to me it’s important to get the word out.
To start with, the assistants are deemed “independent” and not actual employees. That being said, FH does not supply us with 1099s, which I find wrong and am currently having the NYS Department of Labor investigate this. They claim that if we are paid via paypal, paypal then will issue a 1099 if we make over $20,000 a year. However, I freelance for many online sites and they pay via paypal and they send me 1099.
Also, the definition of an independent contract, as defined by the IRS, is that we have control over when we work, and we don’t answer to management. This is not the case with FH. While we can pick and choose what hours we work, there are limitations to that. Now, if we’re working on a task and put in for an answer from a third party, and that third party responds, we have 16 hours to get moving or we lose the task. I don’t mind that so much, because we should be checking our email if we have tasks still sitting waiting to be done.
But, if for example we close a task out and a client responds to say thanks! If we don’t answer that w/in 16 hours, we lose the task. Another assistant can then grab the task, say you’re welcome, and get paid for all the work we did. Not fair if we’ve left for vacation and aren’t near email — being responsible enough to leave w/o any tasks to take care of, and being on vacation from a job that technically by law isn’t defined as a job, kind of makes us always have to be on our email no matter what.
Second, we answer to management. All of our tasks get mentored and kicked back if there’s something wrong. Sometimes a mentor will be super picky about things, other (and most) times it’s usually just a spelling error or something like that.
And forget about our manager, Scott. 9 times out of 10 he’ll bite your head off when you ask him a question.
How this works: We log in and see tasks on a board. Those tasks are assigned a price, most of them $2.75. Now, if you read their Terms of Service, you’ll see that tasks aren’t supposed to take more than 15 minutes. At $2.75 a pop, if you do 4 14 min tasks, you can earn $11 an hour.
And there are tasks priced higher, $3.50 or $4.00, but those tasks are always more difficult and many times are reserved for the hourly paid. And I’ve never, ever been able to knock off 4 tasks in an hour. That’s because so many of them take longer than 15 minutes.
Even if you want me to call your cable company to get a better rate, hold times can be 15-20 min long. And clients will kick back responses a lot, saying that they want us to do more, or whatever. If we try to get a manager to say they have to submit as a new task, we get our head bitten off, have to keep plugging along, and guess what. We earned $2.75 for an hours worth of work.
So, I guess the reason I’m putting this out there is I think that clients need to be aware of how it works on our end, and maybe why your tasks sit unanswered for awhile. If you want me to do work for you that you know realistically will take me an hour, and Fancy Hands deems the cost of that task work $3, you can bet that task is going to sit there on the board for a long time.
As an independent contractor, technically we should be working with our clients directly to negotiate that cost, and bottom line is you’d get more bang for your buck. Or if FH treated us like employees, and we were ALL paid hourly, again, more bang for your buck. So the next time you submit a task, think about what you’re asking and what most likely that assistant is going to be paid for it.
I love using this company, they’ve always done a great job for me.
That was very informative. Thanks for posting.
Hi KCP, As a heavy FH user, I wish I had known about the way the email response works. I regularly send a “thanks” sometimes several days later. I had no idea that could ding you. That’s not cool. Thank you for sharing, I’ll stop that right away!
I’ve loved FH because it has forced me to think more clearly about the tasks I need and how to parse them into smaller chunks. It’s good training for delegation. I’m sad tohear you aren’t as happy on the provider side, but if it’s any consolation, you guys have made this user (50 tasks/mo – secret plan) super happy.
“And forget about our manager, Scott. 9 times out of 10 he’ll bite your head off when you ask him a question.”
Agreed. He was one of the worst managers I’ve ever had, and he was the reason why I quit (and I was good at the job). He’s rude, argumentative, and doesn’t handle his own mistakes very well. It was pretty disappointing, because I really liked the job, but it wasn’t worth it to deal with Scott.
I’ve been a long-time subscriber to Fancy Hands and I love their service because it helps me spend more time working on the things I want to do, and less time on the small tasks that pop up throughout the day.
Fancy Hands has been the magic in my pocket for 18+ months. I use them more than any other online service because they — constantly — help me waive goodbye to stress and spend more time on the things I love.
When I had a quick question, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘Hey, when is the production of Wicked in Honolulu until? How much are tickets?’)
When I needed to book an appointment, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘Can you call my chiropractor (541.555.5555) and book an appointment for Thursday, Friday, or Saturday? I dropped a jar of Apple Sauce and pulled my back. I know, I’m a goofball.’)
When I was researching an upcoming trip, I emailed Fancy Hands. (‘What hostels are on the North Shore of Oahu?’)
When I ripped my favorite pair of pants, I emailed Fancy Hands, and they tracked down a similar replacement style and called the local gap to confirm they were in stock!
I recently finished an in-depth guide on Getting Started With Fancy Hands, including
* Detailed examples of projects you can use to get started with Fancy Hands
* Word-for-word scripts so you can get the most out of Fancy Hands
* Step-by-step instructions to help you get started with Fancy Hands.
The guide is 100% free — I created it to help people I love (like you!) get started with Fancy Hands. If you’d like to download a copy of the guide for free, visit: http://kaisdavis.com/fh/
Enjoy!
I asked them to find several stores close to where I live to ask if they had a particular product(an e-cigarette). They bungled this up incredibly. None of the stores I was given by Fancy Hands carried the product. In addition half of the phone numbers I was given were to wrong numbers. I used this service thinking that it would save me some time but the wild goose chase I went on cost me an hour of time.
I really like Fancy Hands since they make multiple phone calls for you in one request and are super diligent. The only downside so far is the restriction on using credit card numbers. Other than that, Fancy Hands has been an amazing experience – the free scheduling makes a huge difference. Now I just forward my emails to Fancy Hands to let them add things to my calendar, it’s super convenient.
I’ve been experimenting with the $45 15-task plan, and I gotta say, it’s surprisingly addicting.
My primary experience has been working with project-based VAs and long-term virtual employees so this type of service was new to me.
The thing is, it’s totally a luxury service, right? Everything I sent was stuff I could have done on my own or I could have figured out, but either didn’t want to or didn’t want to make time for.
I submitted about 1/3rd business tasks and 2/3rds personal tasks. Here are a few:
Is there WiFi on this flight? (forwarded confirmation details)
Stitch these .mov files together
Is this stuff worth anything on ebay?
Can you transcribe this 2 min. video?
Guest Blogging Opportunities in Outsourcing Niche?
Top sites to see in Bath, UK
Car insurance quotes.
Cheap folding chairs in stock nearby?
Contact the county and clarify property tax question.
What are the best traveling backpacks?
In general I was really happy with the results. The average response time was about 2 and a half hours, but some came back as quickly as 21 minutes. There were a couple that were deemed “beyond scope”, but that was fine, it was all part of the learning curve. In those cases, Fancy Hands didn’t count the task against my total for the month.
But I think more important than the results I got back was the shift in mindset for certain small tasks. I really found myself thinking with each new mini-project that came up – is this something I could delegate to Fancy Hands?
It’s hard to say whether this is going to usher in a new era of productivity or just a new era of laziness, but I will say, it’s a really cool feeling to have this resource in your back pocket you can tap into when you need it.
An on-demand personal assistant? I didn’t think it was going to be for me but I’m really liking it so far.
You can find similar services in India and Pakistan at lower price points, but if you’re on the fence about trying out a virtual assistant service like this, I would encourage you to go for it.
Like I said, I was surprised how much use and how much value I got out of it. Worst case, you try it for a month and don’t like it, you can turn it off.
If you do sign up, be sure and come back by here in a month or two and let everyone know how it’s going!
FancyHands is really great for the outsourcing novice or expert but less for the in between user. It’s great that you can call in requests so you can do it while on the run, driving, or when you have your hands full.
I’m well into my first month of using Fancy Hands and I’m very impressed so far. The only thing I do not like about the service is that you have to use all of your requests in the month or you lose them, they do NOT roll over. This is a bit annoying because say X month I only need 1 service request but the next I need 8, it would be nice to have them roll over since I technically paid for them. Other than that, I’m happy with the service. Response time has been within 24 hours of each request, and they always seem to be willing to do more research, if you don’t get back the exact data you were looking for.
Their quality is relatively good. Used them a couple of months.
Note, though: Signed up for the unlimited plan – which of course I wasn’t naive to believe was literally unlimited.
I’ll admit I can be a heavy user. But then, they wanted to deny service even though they’re unwilling to specify how many tasks is actually in the unlimited plan, which I think feels a bit shady.
So in terms of value for money, not so clear.
It’s a little early for me to give a review I suppose- I just activated my account a week ago. I snagged a FAB coupon to try out the unlimited plan for the month- so far I’ve been extremely satisfied.
I’m a mother of 4 children, run my own business and work for another- I have always joked that I needed an extra set of hands. At the moment I don’t have a big enough budget to hire someone full time- or heck even part time. Fancy hands definitely fits my budget- like Josh, I’m not sure I will continue to have tons of tasks every month- but so far so good.
So far I’ve gotten a list of 3 local vendors who sell mulch & topsoil, with compiled info on costs, delivery time and contact info. An estimate for several different sized foam replacement cushions, a list of lawyers/comparison of do-it-yourself-legal options (wasn’t as impressed with that task, I was hoping for more research- I might bounce that one back to them- they used a dubious source for those answers) Rescheduled a few appointments, made a few others- had a youtube video transcribed. My list is fairly random- but then again so is my life.
I think my only complaint is the learning curve as to what is an acceptable request. I think I might have more things I could hand off if I knew more clearly the “line”. The terms of service list that tasks should take about 15 minutes to complete which is helpful but vague. Would love to see a little more documentation on that piece.
The response time I’ve gotten has been appropriate as far as I’m concerned. For me- I remember those silly to-do items late in the evening, when the business I need to connect with is closed. I’ll get a response letting me know that they will call back when they’re open/if they’ve gotten a busy signal or left a message.
I’m very happy so far- I do wish they could do a few more things (fill in forms for me, even if they call to get the answers) but if this keeps up, I plan to keep them. For the price, and knowing they’re using US-based employees and all the nonsense they’re helping me with- it’s a no-brainer.
One of the worst service ever. They didn’t even care to respond to most of my requests that lay open for few days. Now, its not about chunk size. I had given similar tasks to services that does that in 15 min. At least a courtesy to reply? I had to keep following up. I wasted more time here than I really gained.
I’ve had a very similar experience in the first 24 hours. I sure hope it gets better…
I used Fancy Hands for 2 months and really loved their service. They were fast, the quality was higher than I expected, and were really worth the money I spent. The problem was that I was struggling to find 15 requests every month so I found myself just sending things I wouldn’t normally need. Regardless, I’m a big fan and always re-considering signing back up with them.