Frequently Asked Questions
Client
Yes, there is. SupportPoints offers two possibilities; a free subscription and a premium subscription. A premium subscription does not charge a start fee and a lower % of the total costs. You can make a subscription via your personal page.
The support is effort driven, a working process cannot be guaranteed. This is also applicable for a fixed price. The obligation to pay for the job remains even when there is not a solution.
An open job is visible for suitable experts. This will be visible in your personal page. When a client comes to an agreement with one or more experts the open job will disappears.
A closed job on the other hand is a way for a client to select his experts. In this case he chooses the suitable experts for his job. This will not be visible for others.
If your country is not listed, you are not allowed to do business through the SupportPoints platform. There are different country lists for experts and clients.
You can select multiple (a second or more) experts at the start of a job. Remember you have to pay them all.
In a job both suitable experts and the companies are shown. If you select an expert you can see if it is a company or a private person.
All experts are rated, this means that it is known and shown if they have passed the test (reviewed) and have performed jobs. This is visible when an expert is selected.
If an expert did not participate in the test or failed the test a client gets a warning for this when he wants support. Be careful, it is a warning!
The support is fully given in the chat function, for mediation purposes it is not allowed to take direct contact with the client.
Your personal page is your starting point for jobs requests and all the data you need. You will find your personal info, job requests, contracts and facturation in it.
Bronze, silver and gold are statuses for experts. A high rating and enough jobs will deliver increasingly higher statuses for experts. Starting from nothing bronze, silver to gold.
You can only see experts after a job request and only the suitable experts that match your selection criteria are visible for you.
No, this is restricted to official companies.
The payment is in advance, without payment a job is not allowed to start. The support is effort driven: a payment is mandatory even if there is no working process at the end.
The estimations are the minimal time estimation, if you disagree do not accept it. It is agreed than you have to pay. Remember the expert supplies a solution: only the result counts. If you can not effort this solution, do not use it.
Watch this video to get a general impression about our company. For a more in depth explanation about a total support request watch this video.
Expert
SupportPoints is not (yet) a replacement for an employment, it cannot guarantee a regular/steady income. It gives additional jobs for experts. Getting those jobs depends on the client, he chooses and selects his support. Please read this article about how to get PLC jobs on our platform.
If you like to become a expert at SupportPoints we strongly advice you to watch this instructional video for a more in depth explanation about how a support request works (between an client and a expert). It’s a 10-minute instructional video, so please take your time for it.
An open job is visible for suitable experts. This will be visible in your personal page. When a client comes to an agreement with one or more experts the open job will disappears.
A closed job on the other hand is a way for a client to select his experts. In this case he chooses the suitable experts for his job. This will not be visible for others.
Yes, there is a ‘cooling down’ period of 24 hours. Please note this is not in every case. Sometimes you will lose the bad review. Just explain why you want to refrain from payment and what causes the (poor?) quality of your support.
Bronze, silver and gold are statuses for experts. A high rating and enough jobs will deliver increasingly higher statuses for experts. Starting from nothing bronze, silver to gold.
The support is effort driven, a working process cannot be guaranteed. This is also applicable for a fixed price. The obligation to pay for the job remains even when there is not a solution.
No, you will get an e-mail with the details. In case of an urgent job you will get an SMS as well (if you have selected this option).
The support is fully given in the chat function. For mediation purposes it is not allowed to take direct contact with the client.
No, the opportunity to give a review is only possible after completing the job.
Clients only get reviews from experts who have done a job for them. They do not get ratings.
You can not always predict how long consuming the solution of malfunctioning can be. If you have a limited time available take only the jobs of which a good time estimation is possible. You promote yourself as an expert; this also requires a good judgement.
No, you cannot change from hour rate to fixed price during a job. This can only take place outside of a job.
The rating is up to you, remember support is all about trust. If you are too cheap a client might assume your support is not valuable as well. The costs of a process standstill are high, a client is only interested to restart his process a.s.a.p. He wants the best help, not the cheapest. As a minimum price I would suggest €45,- per hour.
Be careful with taking responsibility on cases where you are not hired for.
This depends on the field where you are working on. If you are specialized in obsolete systems you only have to keep up with your analytical skills. If you can solve more recent systems and problems related to bus systems (SCADA etc.) you need to have knowledge of the most recent developments.
This is all depending on the problem you have to solve. There are different expert levels, you need to have enough technical skills and analytical skills to help a client to solve his/her problem. Sometimes you act as a sparring partner, in some others cases you need to have the deep knowledge to be the perfect addition. In all cases you need to have analytical skills.
You do not get jobs who do not match with your profile. Before a job is posted it goes through a selection process. First brand/type/hardware/software are determined, before a selection of experts is possible.
Your personal page is your starting point for jobs and all the data you need. You will find your personal info, knowledge, jobs, hour rate, contracts, facturation, ratings and received reviews in it. Your personal page gives you the possibility to showcase yourself: use it!
You will get an email with the details, in case of an urgent job you will get an SMS as well (if you have selected this option).
SupportPoints is not (yet) a replacement for employment. It cannot guarantee a regular/steady income. It gives additional jobs for experts. Getting those jobs depends on the client, he chooses and selects his support. To get a better understanding please read this article: how to get jobs.
This way a client can check out your background and achievements and gets a better idea of you as a person. Giving support is all about trust.
The PLC test is not mandatory but it will improve your chances of being selected through the client to perform their PLC jobs. Remember it is all about trust.
You can ask for mediation if you get a bad review, a substantiated complaint must be send to info@supportpoints.com within 8 hours from closure of the job. SupportPoints has the right to reject the complaint for any reason.
You only see a very limited amount of jobs on SupportPoints, this is due to the way the SupportPoint process works. You will only see the jobs that meet your specifications (knowledge) and are open. For all other jobs you are approached immediately by the client.
Why is this?
This has to do with the different ways for a client to get support. The first is “post a job” (this is usually done when there is no urgency) these jobs are only visible for experts who meet the criteria, for example: if you are not an expert on Siemens S5 PLC’s you will not see the jobs for these types. The client looks for support and selects an expert of his choice. Other experts will not see those jobs.
General
At the moment not, but we are working on this.
We are open for cooperation, if you’re interested please send an email to: marketing@supportpoints.com
We will support more systems in the future, this all depends on the demand and the available know-how of the experts. Feel free to ask for this.
An open job is visible for suitable experts. This will be visible in your personal page. When a client comes to an agreement with one or more experts the open job will disappears.
A closed job on the other hand is a way for a client to select his experts. In this case he chooses the suitable experts for his job. This will not be visible for others.
A feature we hope you never use. When you remove your subscription we have implemented a quick multiple choice selector to help us understand why you have decided to part ways.
Go to your personal login page and use the ‘forgotten password’ button. We will provide you a new password right a way. Please check your spam box for the e-mail.
This platform is not a learning platform. SupportPoints mediates between PLC experts and PLC knowledge demand.
Payment
When you start working online, you need a mode to send and receive payment. Usually, you can use your credit card or debit card to make payment online, but to receive payment, you need to take help of services like PayPal. This article will give you an full explanation about how to set up an PayPal account and how to verify it.
At the moment we only support credit card, PayPal and iDEAL.
The payment is in advance, without payment a job is not allowed to start. The support is effort driven; a payment is mandatory even if there is no working process at the end.
Debit card payments outside Europe are costly, please use a credit card or PayPal payments.
