Pay with Dict8

[juju1507]

I have been working s/e with Dict8 for 3 years now and my payment by cheques are arriving later and later. My last cheque arrived 8 days after it was issued and I noticed they are now sending cheques second class. Does anyone else work for Dict8 on here and, if so, are you finding that your cheque is arriving much later than it used to? I have direct debits set up deliberately for the middle of the month in order that my cheque would have cleared in time but now I am worrying that even by 15th of each month the cheque will not have cleared. Sorry for the ramble but just curious if others have noticed this.

[Loulou57]

It is LAW that minimum wage is £7.50 per hour and that if dictation is difficult to transcribe, then the rate should be more. Perhaps if everyone sent a note to Dict8, they may, just may sit up and take note.

[Gally123]

Unfortunately the minimum wage law does not apply to self-employed people, therefore DICT8 do not have to abide by it. There have been moves recently to give contract workers more rights such as sick and holiday pay and also abolish zero hours contracts but they failed.

[Gally123]

Has anyone else recently been told off for using English spelling for words- for an English based NHS service - and told to use American spelling? Not sure if down to ignorance of their proof reader or due to the high number of foreign doctors compared to English educated ones. Another rule that is hard to swallow; when you have been educated to a certain standard in this country and now be told to ignore it is very difficult.

[wirethorn]

For Gally123 – American spelling
Could it be a proof reader who wants consistency of spelling in DICT8 transcription for words spelt two ways in English but generally spelt one way in American English, eg specialisation / specialization ? If, however, you’re being told, for example, to spell ‘centre’ as 'center’ that’s really odd.
See
en.oxforddictionaries.com/spelling/british-and-spelling

[Hopedickinson]

I am so glad to see these messages about the bizarre feedback from Dict8. I was sure my standard of work could not have suddenly deteriorated so far. I have had petty remarks about leaving a line space. I have worked on the other end of Dict8 ie in a hospital that sends work out. When the work comes back typed we had to cut and paste it into our hospital templates. Stray line spaces between headings were definitely not a problem. They seem to be going to daft extremes to point out perceived faults. Sometimes when I have queried something I could not understand the proofreader has told me what it should have been - but that is just their interpretation against mine. I even got told off for typing St Thomas's Hospital because, although it was NOT WRONG, the hospital prefers St Thomas'. For goodness sake! When I have asked for an explanation of weird feedback I have not received any explanation to my queries - just a curt reply of basically - "you did it wrong".

[Hopedickinson]

I too have had bizarre feedback lately. Please see my message further down.

[Gally123]

Wirethorn - no I was told to spell "sulphate" as "sulfate" and everyone I have spoken to have cried "No! What!"

And when I emailed people to ask it was automatically changed to "sulphate" and I had trouble getting my email sent as I wanted it to as no-one likes the spelling "sulfate" ! - Even this website keeps changing it and I have to re-type it!

[Indiepops]

Hi I've worked for DICT8 for too many years to mention and still getting the 8p per line which is really my only complaint. Other than having problems with Chrome. If it says there are 80 odd tasks but there are 5 which stay on the list constantly it is probably because they have been on the system for quite some time and keep being rejected due to poor quality. All you can do is type it as best you can and if you can't understand something leave an altN message. Sometimes if they are very bad you have not option, its the only way to get them off the system. Unfortunately one of us will have to type them at some point.

[Indiepops]

Sulfate is the spelling recommended by IUPAC, but sulphate is used in British English. I just googled it as I remember being told that basically where we use sulph we now have to put sulf - something to do with international guidelines - basically so we all spell drugs the same as far as I can make out.

[Indiepops]

I've given up querying feedback or even replying to it, there's no point! Just don't take it personally. I read it and move on. They say its only a guide.

[Indiepops]

user1493458352 - from my experience they seem to check on one transcriber for a while then move on to someone else. Then they'll go back to you in a few months unless they get some feedback about an error in which case they seem to check on you again for a while.

I'm so pleased I found this thread - I don't feel like I'm working alone any more. :)

[Thumbcat]

I've had some bizarre feedback this morning which is just plain wrong. No doubt if I do what they ask in future I'll get more feedback telling me I'm wrong. I think I'll just do what I know to be right and carry on ignoring the feedback. God knows who they employ to do it.

[Mayqueen27]

I've recently started typing for dict8 and ageee with all the previous comments regarding feedback .despite 15 years medical secretarial experience and priding myself on high standards my dict8 work (transcribing of a particularly dreadful quality of dictation so far) has been pulled to pieces by their proofreaders. Its almost as if they want to discourage you from working for them and the pittance that they pay ! I also type for accuro but not finding this lucrative either as they only send me a handful of tasks a day which trickle in intermittently and I have to keep messaging them to ask for more..anyone else have this problem ?

[wirethorn]

For Gally123 – sulfate/sulphate. Here’s the explanation. This was news to me!

“Sulfur is the preferred spelling by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and since 1992 by the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Sulphur is used by British and Irish scientists. However, sulfur has been actively taught in Chemistry in British schools since December 2000.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences

[Gally123]

yesterday I spent over 2 hours with my laptop doing "updates" - since then I have had trouble with my foot pedal. I checked to see if it was working as there was a brief message flashed up on screen that something had been "removed" as no longer needed (says who?) and as I had awful trouble getting the foot pedal to work on Windows 10 in the first place I wanted to check that it was okay - unfortunately, it was not. This is in Internet Explorer as it does not work in Chrome, whatever DICT8 say, it just does not. Has anyone else had this problem with updates and noticed their foot pedal no longer works? Thanks.

[Ambaxoxox]

Hi everyone, what kind of experience do DICT8 require?

I have two years experience in Orthopaedics and a Level 4 Admin. I am about to do a touch typing course and medical audio transcription course.

[Jan2009]

Hi Gally 123

I had the same problem with the fall creators edition update and everything stopped working (if this is the update you are referring to). I uninstalled the update and it seemed to help.

[ElleBee56]

Hi Gally123. I had this problem when Windows 10 did an automatic update on Monday. Ever since I've had a problem with the audio on Dict8. I started typing but every letter stopped at the exact same spot on the audio. When I emailed to ask if this was a Dict8 issue or a problem with my computer I was advised to install Chrome and uninstall and reinstall my foot pedal. I did this but the problem continues. I've found that if I go into 'My Details' then Account and disconnect my foot pedal and reinstall it I can continue with the task. Very strange! Also, has anyone received their pay cheque yet for last month? It showed that I had been paid on Wednesday morning but so far no cheque in the post! I hope we're not going back to the way things were with delays in being paid and second class postage.

[Gally123]

Hi ElleBee 56 - my typing stops in letters at 1min 8 secs. The only way I have found to get round this is to cancel the task and then pick it again - assuming it is still there! I also check every letter first by forwarding and listening to see if it will go past this point (as once in a blue moon it will) before I type anything so as not to waste my time and energy. For some reason it seems to work on the second select! I did not report this to DICT8 as I guessed they would only reply that it was my fault and to use Chrome - my foot pedal does not work in Chrome only in Internet Explorer (although that has a few "moments." This has been since happening since the update I did on 19 November - not had any updates since. Glad it is not just me as I hate this new Windows 10 laptop but my old tired and trusted Windows 7 bit the dust, unfortunately. So now typing is a struggle with letters over the 1 min 8 sec limit.

My pay cheque came in the post this afternoon.

[ElleBee56]

Hi Gally123, thanks for your reply. Mine is exactly the same as yours. Stops in exactly the same spot but rather than dropping the selected task I go into My Details and Account and click on None to disconnect the foot pedal then immediately click on my particular foot pedal to reinstall and it works. Very strange! I had to buy a new PC earlier this year after years using Windows 7 with no problems until my old PC died. Absolutely hate Windows 10. Whoever thought it was an improvement need shooting! My cheque arrived this afternoon (Saturday) so I'll have to pay it into the Post Office to go into my bank (my local branch closed down) and wait for it to clear. Why Dict8 can't pay by BACS is a mystery to me! I also work for another company which does pay by BACS but the drawback with that is that you can't slow down the dictation, you type on word so no spell check as with Dict8 and unless I buy another foot pedal that's compatible with their system I'm having to use stroke keys which is a real pain (literally!) Thanks again for your reply and good luck with this system.

[Gally123]

Just realised that I have not received a monthly newsletter for February and did not seem to get one for January either. I have not opted out of receiving these as it was always interesting to read about all the new contracts they had taken up - whilst omitting the ones they had lost. Has anyone else noticed this lack of newsletter?

[ElleBee56]

Hi Gally123, I realised yesterday and checked my emails in case it had gone into another folder and I'd missed it but definitely no newsletter for January or February!

[Debzscrum]

I have also noticed that there has been no newsletter for January or February! I have worked for Dict8 for quite a few years now (coming up to 5) and have never had any issues but over recent months I have noticed the work is getting less and what work there is the dictation is appalling. I am spending the same amount of time at my computer but earning about half of what I did a year or so ago. I am also getting some very petty feedback - perhaps they have some new proof readers who are bit too eager to find fault! Altogether not very happy with Dict8 so now looking elsewhere as the 8p per line is not worth the aggravation.

[skatergirl222]

I have also not received a newsletter for the past two months. Agreed about the work. I cant believe how much it has decreased over the last six months. There was always enough work for me in my specialty but now it is just a couple of letters a day. Also agree about the footpedals not working in microsoft windows 10.

[wirethorn]

In my specialty there’s far less work and the dictation of what's available is even worse than it was a year ago.

Do any of DICT8’s clients get instruction on how far away the microphone should be held from the mouth? DICT8 could help here but, of course, there'd be no financial gain for them in making the work easier for us. The percentage of tasks dictated by doctors whose mother tongue is not English seems to have grown, so that’s part of the problem. Much of the dictation was always dreadful, but there used to be some that was reasonably clear. Now, I find that most of what's on offer is just not worth typing for what DICT8 pay.

It might be that more work is being typed by NHS secretaries and only the stuff that would take them too long to type (i.e. an amount of time disproportionate to what the NHS has to pay them per hour) is being sent to agencies like DICT8.