Why the hell did i agree to this? Any data entry people here?

[kami]

OK, so I have a couple days off every week and I agreed to type out this huge marketing manual for my mom's company to make a bit of extra cash (god knows i need it). A lot of it is rough notes, and some of it is stolen from other companies (it's a retirement home company). Now before you say just scan it and have the scanner convert it to a word file, THEY SCRIBBLED ALL OVER IT!!!

I need to have about 90-100 pages typed out by tomorrow at around noon and I have only 24 pages typed so far (about 7000+ words) and I've been working on it since I woke up 5 hours ago. I can type fast, but this is tedious stuff, especially the layout, etc. Plus trying to decipher this doctor-like handwriting.

My question is: How the hell do data entry people do their job?? I wouldn't survive for more than a week! This is driving me mad and I think have carpal tunnel already

This almost isn't worth the $300. In fact I am gonna ask for more. I would sooner flip burgers than do data entry.

It looks/sounds easy until you realize how much typing ~30,000 words is... :Q :|

 

[StageLeft]

Yeah it sounds fun at start doesn't it? I can type like a banshee whore but after about 30 min of mindless typing I lose it.

 

[amdskip]

tell them you want $500 and a week extension

 

[RossMAN]

I would charge them more and get an extension, their deadline is very unreasonable unless you can sub some of the work out to 1 or 2 other fast/accurate typists.

Most data entry is entering in credit applications whether it be cc's or home mortgages or surveys.

 

[FoBoT]

get a friend to do 1/3 of it and only pay them 1/5 of the money

 

[DaiShan]

I did data entry last summer, and it was suck. Before I started I thought it was a great job, because I can type quickly, but after a few days I really started hating it. I mean you sit at a desk all day long and all you do is convert hand writing to computer type. I averaged 8,500 Change of Adresses a week. Try doing it for minimum wage for an entire summer. Hey money is money though. The only problem is workmans comp doesn't cover carpal tunnell....

 

[BigPotato]

sheeit

make your friends do it for fun.

 

[kami]

Realistically I can have it done by noon tomorrow, so I'm not too worried about the deadline (hell i just typed 1 page since i made the topic)...but I am definitely thinking about more money. The good thing is it's just cash though, it's not through the company. The group that put together this deadline is just too lazy to type it all out themselves so they are giving me cash to type it.

Daishan that job sounds like hell

 

[luvya]

I did account receivable before. It's not supposed to be data-entry type of job...but it ended up to be pretty much the same. I hated it! I quit the job after 3 months even refusing the new offer (which was quite tempting)

 

[RSI]

I've done data entry before and it was fine. It depends on what the job is. Not all data entry is constant mindless typing.

 

[StageLeft]

Guys don't forget he's being paid in monopoly money! It's not good for anything but paradigm speakers.

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Guys don't forget he's being paid in monopoly money! It's not good for anything but paradigm speakers.

hehe

you didn't think i would use this money responsibly did you?

 

[NTB]

That job does sound like it sucks - hope you're getting somewhere on it. I do agree with the other people here about asking for more money, though. And about getting some friends together and pulling a Tom Sawyer type maneuver.

Nate

 

[kami]

Yeah this works out to about 1 cent per word. I want 2 cents damnit!!

I don't think i will ever type the word "consultative" so many times ever again....christ

 

[hoihtah]

you definately are getting underpaid for such tidious work.

as for me... i got suckered into doing lots of hardware work... building computers... upgrading... stuff like that for my dad's church for free...

actually, i had to pay money to drive down there... so i ended up losing.

but hey... as long as you learn the lesson... and remember to not repeat the mistake...

 

[Spooner]

stop wasting your precious keystrokes posting on AT !!!

 

[Corn]

300,000/40WPM = 12.5 hours of work.

$300/12.5 hours = $24.00/hr.



Mickey D's ain't gonna pay that kind of scratch..........

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: Corn
300,000/40WPM = 12.5 hours of work.

$300/12.5 hours = $24.00/hr.



Mickey D's ain't gonna pay that kind of scratch..........

That's all fine and dandy if it was just typing. Half the job is formatting the whole thing (scads of tables and other crap) and trying to read their handwriting and scribbles everywhere. I can type a hell of a lot more faster than 40WPM...if i didn't have to do the other stuff I'd probably be done now!

 

[dakata24]

Originally posted by: RSI
I've done data entry before and it was fine. It depends on what the job is. Not all data entry is constant mindless typing.

same here. never had to do what you're doing kami... good luck