Provider Deactivation and Appeals Process
The OnForce Client Service Team handles all Work Order related issues. Sometime, one of their unfortunate responsibilities is to deactivate a Service Provider from our system. They follow a strict set of guidelines when they receive a complaint from a Client, and they require documentation for all issues before they will start their investigation into the circumstances of a Client complaint.
We generally don’t like to deactivate Service Providers, and often times there are more agreeable ways to deal with Work Order related complaints. However, the Client Service Team is required to automatically deactivate a Service Provider under the following circumstances:
* If a Service Provider doesn’t show up for an appointment and doesn’t call the Client or OnForce.
* If a Service Provider cancels a Work Order because they accepted the Work Order without reading the scope of work.
* If a Service Provider sends another person to perform the work.
* If a Service Provider attempts to circumvent our network and do work for a Client outside of the OnForce platform.
* If a Service Provider has a number of Work Order ratings that are lower than 4 stars.
* If a Service Provider does not return parts to a Client when specified in the Work Order.
* If a Service Provider, after a reasonable amount of time, does not respond to communications from either a Client or OnForce.
* If a Service Provider acts unprofessionally, and such behavior is documented by a Client.
* If a Service Provider does not update a Work Order in over 3 weeks once it has been accepted.
* If a Service Provider does not complete a Work Order for payment within 3 days of receiving a final notice from us. OnForce will reinstate a Service Provider after a policy review.
* If a Service Provider has incorrect contact information in their On-Line Office. OnForce will reinstate a Service Provider once they provide us with updated contact information.
We realize that there may be instances where our view of events and a Service Provider’s view of events are at odds. In such cases, we are implementing an Appeals Process that will enable a Service Provider to appeal their case to a Provider Advisory Council. The Council is made up of experienced Service Providers from the OnForce network, and in this role acts as a peer review board. This is one of our “checks and balances” that empowers our community to self-police to ensure the quality and integrity of our Service Providers.
Service Providers can submit a 1 page written appeal to the Provider Advisory Council. OnForce will submit the reasoning for the decision to deactivate a Service Provider, along with all evidence that was used to come to that decision.
*To ensure that the Appeals Process is a real peer review and to maintain our neutrality in our marketplace, OnForce will not argue for or against the deactivation of the Service Provider.* If the Provider Advisory Council determines that the Service Provider should be reinstated, OnForce will reinstate that Provider.
*UPDATE:* We have received a few comments here that are actually appeals for getting reactivated. Please do not post your appeals here. They will be moderated and discarded. Instead, please email them to support@onforce.com and OnForce Customer Support will be able to help you.
January 28th, 2006 at 8:19 am
I think the provider should be given a copy of any documentation or allegation by the client that initiated the deactivation. It would be difficult to counter against that which you do not know or have all the allegations.
In other words, I think the provider should be give a copy of the evidence that will be given to the council leading up to the deactivation.
January 31st, 2006 at 11:13 am
The rules sound pretty fair… I tend to think the ones who accept the $55 tickets in less than a minute must be dispatchers and are sending out someone else…
Maybe I just need to get a Blackberry? *sigh*
February 2nd, 2006 at 11:50 am
>> If a Service Provider, after a reasonable amount of time, does not respond to communications from either a Client or OnForce.
This makes perfect sense to me, I just think the time limit is too long. After searching the site for what a reasonable time is (for the client too) I thought I would ask. I know it is at least >14 days for a client and would think the same time limit applies to techs, I would say 2 days is more than enough time to respond.
February 9th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Those rules are all fairly reasonable, however I think a major factor is not being taken into consideration. What if the corporate entity (ie. CompUSA) allows the individual manager who could have had a long and busy/stressful day dictate without regard to the facts/logic for action that the technician relays to that manager in defense of a particular action which could be considered an infraction of the above stated rules — BUT WASN’T, — to make the decision to deactivate that tech’s account. Then the tech who is the victim of a power flaunting person who simply is throwing their weight as the client, makes the technician jump thru firey hoops to defend himself based on the client’s foul personality in hopes to restore his credibility and worthiness with OnForce. Shouldn’t other factors be taken into consideration BEFORE jumping the gun and deactivating a tech who otherwise maintains a perfect rating and repore with his client base? Thats basically as bad as the former governing body in Iraq under the old dictator’s regime: Guilty and to be sentenced to death straight away (until you prove you should be spared). Perhaps prior to deactivation, a review by peers should be held… like our founding fathers had setup for our country. Seems to work pretty well so far… Iraq on the other hand didn’t seem to be working out for the population as a whole. (Take that correlation in context). - ND
February 13th, 2006 at 11:33 am
I believe Onforce deactivating service provider accounts without investigating or asking the service provider.
Unfortunately, this seems like client company even if clients are offend the service providers.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Nick -
Under no circumstance do we every just deactivate a Provider. If a Client makes a complaint, it is investigated. If an infraction is found on the Provider’s part, according to the rules above, then only then are they deactivated. We do not allow Clients to merely “request” that a Provider be deactivated without full written documentation.
Once a Provider has been deactivated, if they choose to appeal that decision, then the Client is completely uninvolved. All evidence is handed over to the Provider Advisory Council, and they alone make the determination.
- Dana
February 15th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
I agree with Dana, as I am deactivated for a single instance and complaint. I’m not happy about the deactivation but am glad to see there is an appeal process. I realize OnForce has been under great pressure to deal with unsuitable techs and those that just want to make a quick buck, but this isn’t the way to do it. In a civilized society we all supposedly are innocent until proven guilty. We have recourse to the law/courts. Losing a contract is not good for business, especially if an employee (or in this case a subcontractor/service provider) is the guilty party and not the company. The End User in my case was not unhappy with my work at all (as far as I know), only this one rep for the client contractor. In these instances, follow up investigations/interviews should be done. People do make mistakes and they also change their stories. If a rep from the client is having a bad day, what’s to prevent them from taking their frustrations out on a provider and getting OnForce in hot water? Little if nothing. It’s important to question the complaintee’s supervisor, talk to them and find out what the circmstances were, if that person is under stress or on probation, etc. Be friendly, don’t accuse…as I have been accused.
February 15th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
I am agree with john and sad thing is Onforce deactivate me without asking me any questions or letting me explain the situation.
OnForce should restructure its policies that make both client and service provider happy.
As John said, if a tech rep from client side had a bad day or having problems then we service provider have to face it .
February 15th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
I understand everyone’s position in their own arguments in reply to my post, however the point I would like to stress is that indeed, a service provider’s account can just be turned “off” by a client. In response to what Dana said above: “Under no circumstance do we every just deactivate a Provider. If a Client makes a complaint, it is investigated. If an infraction is found on the Provider’s part, according to the rules above, then only then are they deactivated. We do not allow Clients to merely “request” that a Provider be deactivated without full written documentation.” — I find this not to be the case in my particular situation. In my situation, a client merely quoted one of the rules that OnForce has for service providers, then they turned around and made the “claim” (no substantiating evidence to enforce the deactivation… just this…) that I did not adhere to the quoted rule, when in fact I did adhere to it, but was put in a position by the “support” team for this corporation to be otherwise unable to complete the service call until hearing back from them… which they waited conveniently until after the time on the service call to finally respond to me, thus creating the quandry.
In conlcusion, a situation can be created by the client which forces a catch 22 situation for the technician, ultimately leading to his/her deactivation. I would like to hear some “quote” from some Oprating Procedures manual that protects the techs… OnForce’s very backbone keeping them in business.
- Nick
February 15th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Nick,
I am unfamiliar with your case. Our support team will review the details.
February 15th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
Onforce now have lot of tech and any one can be with Onforce without any qualifications.
So, this thing put them in a great shape. They wouldn’t care about tech’s, all they care about clients.
They deactivate my profile as soon as I finish with end user and got email about deactivation with out any explainations from me.
Tech have no chance to say or having any opportunity to explain the situation.
As Nick D said,
In response to what Dana said above: “Under no circumstance do we every just deactivate a Provider. If a Client makes a complaint, it is investigated. If an infraction is found on the Provider’s part, according to the rules above, then only then are they deactivated. We do not allow Clients to merely “request” that a Provider be deactivated without full written documentation.”—
I believe this is not true. My profile got deactivated in seconds and never understand about the investigation.
February 15th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I hope Onforce management do encourage their service providers and give them chances to gets better. We always learn while on the road and experience different situations That should be consider kindly.
I had perfect record with Onforce and only one incident got me down cause of end user’s client start behaving offensive.
February 17th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Well…. it seems your alliance with EQUANT is causing greater harm than I anticipated.
Your staff had asked for certification verification on my DELL certs. It took me some time to get to these and now that I have sent proof, I am no longer affiliated with OnForce.
Despite having nearly all positive feedback on my service you kind folks deactivated my account.
Without any notification or a follow-up call to notify me of such a decision is highly irresponsible.
You sleep in the bed you make, my momma always said, and you folks made your decision despite any “investigation” into the “alleged wrongdoings”
Your staff needs to ponder what “INVESTIGATION” means. PINKERTON has performed thousands of investigations and this is ridiculous.
“They follow a strict set of guidelines when they receive a complaint from a Client, and they require documentation for all issues before they will start their investigation into the circumstances of a Client complaint.”
Did you have your “qualified staff” perform an investigation into this?
If your staff did an investigation then they would have found out that PINKERTON performs corporate level installs in the entire PACIFIC RIM and travels extensively. Are my extensive travels grounds for being BLACK LISTED?
I would like you to know I WILL NOT be filling an appeal for my account to be reinstated.
I DO NOT WANT the Provider Advisory Council to reinstate my profile as I will not file an “appeal”.
It is my hope that other engineers and technicians do not get put through the headaches that EQUANT and ONFORCE have put me through.
Incidently, PINKERTON is a parts depot for NORTEL NETWORKS here in teh PACIFIC RIM.
Good luck in the future.
Krstafer Pinkerton
PINKERTON
Computer & Network Analyst
Cell : 808 634 0159
February 21st, 2006 at 7:58 pm
In my instance there was no documentation that I know of, I was simply deactivated for “unprofessional conduct”, a claim unsubstantiated on the word of a single individual. I’m still waiting to hear what is being done about this, if the Advisory Council is even looking into this. My rating is very high, 5.6-5.8 for all categories. I’ve been doing IT work for 21 years and have never been treated like this. I wasn’t even aware I was deactivated until I got home that night, logged onto the Online Office. Even then I had no idea why until I checked my email. No one called me, inquired into the complaint, I was simply deactivated. I’m not happy.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Hi John, you are not the only one in here facing this situation. let me tell you about this, I made $2000.00 last yr(2005) and got deactivated in Feb 10th 2006.
I have networking skill and education so went tp gotprint.com for my business flyers. Its only $99.00/5000. I send em out dor to door and got so many calls and orders for networking/upgrade and pos systems.
Guess what, I made more than $2000.00 in two weeks than whole yr with Onforce.
Isn’t that great when you have ur own and all money goes to your pocket???
I urge you to follow my directions and u be better off. I am so happy being deactivated cause I start putting my own car/gas/insurance for this company and Used up all my resources for them istead of them to give me all those benfits.
This company is using poor Tech’s for their own benifits not urs.
If You like to email me , I be glad to tell u more about being ur own Boss.
sundal@verizon.net.
Thanks for listening.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:16 am
I do NOT agree with the “deactivation” process. I believe OnForce should FULLY and COMPLETELY investigate any complaints against a provider BEFORE deactivating a provider account. I have a PERFECT rating and had one complaint from a customer (who by the way was not happy from the moment I walked through the door) and OnForce deactivates my account.
I may end up having to contact my attorney to basically force OnForce to re-activate my account or face going to court. I believe there are ALWAYS two sides to a complaint and OnForce should ALWAYS take the side of the provider (their worker) until at which point it is found that the provider in fact violated one of their policies.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
uh oh, I better post here that I am not John any more since I don’t threaten legal action while in a due process situation.
John T. (an earlier John but no longer just John)
February 24th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
No, it was John W. Not John T. That threatened legal action. And it is no longer a threat. I filed a “Notice of Legal Action” against OnForce today. My attorney is seeking to make it a class action suit.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:52 pm
I need to send a BIG THANK YOU to Jose Bernal at OnForce for helping me with the deactivation on my account last week. Jose called me on Friday evening and we talked for more than 45 minutes and he got my side of the story that lead to my deactivation.
Jose asked me to put my side on the WO in question and that he would do whatever he needed to do to ensure a quick and fair resolution. As a result of OnForce’s investigation, I was re-activated today by OnForce Management.
I would HIGHLY sugguest ALL OnForce Technicians review the policies set forth by OnForce. It will prevent you from going through what I did the last 5 days.
Being a part of the Preferred Provider Network and having a perfect 6/6 rating on all my jobs is proof enough about my charcter and experience and OnForce was able to see this. My thanks again to Jose for ensuring I was treated fairly and that my side of the story was heard.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:28 pm
As a member of the advisory council all I can say is let the process work. It is not up to a single member of the council, but all of us colectively. We review the evidence then vote on wether we think the provider should be reactivated or not. We are not always on the side of the provider or the client. I have voted both ways depending on the situation. OF has shown that they are willing to let providers take an interest in how some of this is done. Every member of the council is a provider and sees what is going on in the field every day. Many of us are active in the forums and discuss issues concerning almost every topic you can think of. Let the process work and lets see if we can make this fair.
Now if we can do something about the clients that try to treat providers poorly……This should go both ways.
March 21st, 2006 at 2:16 am
Looks like they need to add another reason for deactivation. It appears now that if you submit to and fail either a drug test or a background check you will be kicked off the system. No appeal process.
March 21st, 2006 at 8:01 am
Donny,
That isn’t entirely accurate. If your background check comes back as ineligible, then for legal reasons we must suspend your account. Before taking the optional background check, you are informed of all of the criteria that go into the check. You can appeal the ineligible status with the background check company, and we will reinstate your account if they deliver to us an updated status for you.
If your drug test comes back as ineligible, you have the opportunity to take a second drug test in order to be reactivated.
March 27th, 2006 at 4:28 am
It doesn’t seem fair to the tech that they have to appeal after being deactivated without their side of the story even being considered. I think a simple yet formal process could be developed that could allow for both sides to be heard before a decision is made.
March 29th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
The way they are doing it now is fair. The provider is deactivated after OF does some research on their own to make sure the alligations can be verified. The deactivate provider is given the opertunity to make an appeals to other providers. We then look at the evidence set forth by both sides and vote if the provider should remain deactivated or reinstated. The biggest issue I see is that there are providers that are writing an appeal such as:
I have run 100+ calls for Onforce and have a 6/6 rating. I have shown that I am a good tech so please consider reactivation of my account.
That is not going to get it. Take time to document EVERYTHING that concerns the situation. Make use of your notes in the online office for everything that you do and most of all communicate with the client and the end user. Most of what we see would have never become an issue if the providers would have called someone.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Jay,
I’m just saying it would be more fair if the review process was done prior to deactivating the tech. Collect the data from both sides and then make a decision. The way it is now the tech is at in the unfair position of proving his point after the fact.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
How long does the appeals process take? Is the Providor Advisory Council contacted by support@onforce.com for their review or is the a diferent email address one needs to appeal to?
March 30th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
The appeals process itself takes about 2 weeks. Appeals can be submitted to OnForce support, and we will make sure they get processed and handed off to the Provider Advisory Council with all documentation.
April 5th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
If the appeals process takes 2 weeks, why does deactivation occur instantaneously and pretty much permanently in 7 days with the potential for unpaid work orders to be left unpaid when large clients pay very slowly?
April 10th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Everything about this penalizes the Service provider. No where does it penalize a client group for misrepresenting the job, or bad payment schedule, or using the rating system as a way to attack a provider.
Where does the provider get to rate and actually see the client ratings. I’ve looked and can’t find it.