Handshake Avis 53

Truly one of the most unprofessional and terribly-organized companies I've ever had the displeasure of working with. No one seems to have a clue what's going on, Support will tell you different stories every week. Next-to-impossible to get in touch with anyone actually managing the projects. Normally takes weeks for issues to even be acknowledged, and even longer for them to be resolved. They're also known for not paying people they promised to, even after they did the work. Truly a chaotic, incompetent mess of a company. And the worst part is, this review won't even matter, because people are desperate, and they mislead them by offering them "jobs" with high pay, only to rugpull them. Their malpractice will probably only end once there is a massive class action lawsuit (which I heard is already happening), or if they're found to be in violation of US labor laws (which they most likely are).

My experience with Handshake AI was one of the most abrupt and professionally disturbing experiences I have had with any company.

Handshake AI permanently terminated my account over alleged LLM use and treated the decision as final. The problem was not only the accusation itself, but the lack of fair process. While I was actively working on tasks, my access to projects, Slack, company email, and the platform was suddenly removed without notice, warning, meaningful explanation, or any real opportunity to clarify, respond, or correct anything. I was also removed from multiple projects at once, including one I had not recently worked on, which made the decision feel arbitrary and disproportionate.

In my emails, I explained that I used textbooks, math references, forums, search engines, and software only to verify originality, avoid duplication, ensure accuracy, and gather inspiration before writing my own original prompts and solutions. I also explained that this workflow had been discussed in meetings and Slack and was, to the best of my understanding, considered acceptable. That explanation was never meaningfully addressed.

The deeper problem was the environment behind the decision. Over months, I experienced what I viewed as selective enforcement, double standards, favoritism, and unprofessional conduct from parts of the Math Lead structure. Some lead members were dismissive or unresponsive when clarification was needed. I described interrogatory and accusatory communication from one lead member who demanded explanations from me while refusing to answer my own legitimate questions. I also described the clear impression that some specialists were treated according to personal preference and personal relationships rather than consistent standards.

I documented what I believed was unequal enforcement. I described seeing the same type of conduct later alleged against me committed by a close friend of a lead member, yet that person continued working without termination. I also described seeing others openly violate the same rules without comparable consequences. In my view, that is not fair compliance review. That is selective enforcement.

Another serious issue was the quality and fairness of the task and review process. I described seeing repetitive low-quality prompts continue without consequence, weak one-line reviews that offered no meaningful learning value, and what appeared to be collusive behavior in task creation and claiming. Multiple tasks would appear at once and then be claimed within seconds by friends on the lead team, leaving others without a fair opportunity to review them. When tasks are created by one person and immediately claimed and approved by close associates one after another, it is very difficult to believe the process is fair or impartial.

The professional disrespect was compounded by the human impact. The sudden termination caused serious moral, emotional, professional, and financial harm to me and my family. Handshake AI had become my main source of income, and my access was cut while work was still active. Submitted work and partially completed tasks were left unresolved after access was removed.

What made the experience even worse was how I felt treated after termination. Once removed, I was effectively ignored. Requests for clarification were not meaningfully answered, and the company’s behavior left me with the impression that specialists are valued only while they are useful and can be discarded abruptly once leadership decides otherwise.

I also made clear that this did not feel like an isolated case. Friends of mine at Handshake AI reported similar concerns about discrimination, selective treatment, weak leadership culture, and unfair handling of specialists.

I brought extensive university teaching, tutoring, and academic content experience to Handshake AI and invested serious effort into both task creation and review. I wrote detailed feedback, researched carefully, and tried to maintain high standards. Instead of fair treatment, I was left with the impression that specialists can be permanently banned without meaningful due process, based on the judgment of leadership whose fairness, consistency, and integrity are, in my view, open to serious question.

In my view, the only meaningful way to begin addressing these concerns would be for Handshake AI to reverse the unfair permanent ban on my account and issue a written apology for the moral, emotional, professional, and financial harm caused to me and my family. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Handshake AI to specialists who expect transparency, consistency, due process, and professional respect.

Our employer account was "temporarily" suspended without explanation. We have tried multiple times over the past several weeks to reach their support team, but we have receive no response. We can tell on our end that our emails have been viewed several times, but we have not been given the courtesy of any reply whatsoever.

The company is good to work with, but most of the top-layer specialists are the worst. They are very rude and unprofessional. They never answer your questions. They look into your eyes, turn away and ignore.

I was recommend to Handshake AI by my school SNHU. I have been mainly using this site to sign up for events and apply for jobs. However, I applied for a the role Handshake AI trainer. The same day I applied my account was banned. I submitted an appeal along with documentation. I received an email saying that my account was still banned and will not be reinstated and they would not explain why. This is unacceptable, I will be deleting my Handshake account and filing a formal complaint against this company. There is something that is not ethical going on.

This company is shady. I requested to delete my account and they have been ignoring my emails for two weeks, and refusing to lift a finger to do something so simple. They want to hold onto my data for as long as possible.

Pricing and setup is confusing and misleading. Out a lot of money with nothing to show.

I used Handshake AI to participate in training tasks and unexpectedly had my account permanently banned. I submitted an appeal explaining that my home network uses a router-level VPN for privacy, which may have triggered their automated security system. I offered to disable the VPN and comply with their requirements going forward.

Despite this, the company responded with a generic message stating the ban would remain and that they could not provide any additional details.

The most frustrating part of the experience was the lack of transparency and the inability to resolve what may have been an unintentional technical issue. Anyone using VPNs or common privacy tools should be aware that this may trigger irreversible account bans.

Never touched a project and was banned. After requesting an appeal I was asked to submit my degree which I did. They upheld the ban and would not even tell me what reason caused the ban.

they are scammers dont waste your time or money

I applied for a job recently, trusting this platform to do its due diligence. However, of course, I get a convincingly fraudulent scam as a job. No way to report it or find it since it looks like they(the scammers) deleted it.

I tried using Handshake Plus and had to find out via a Help Center blog post how to "downgrade" the service (and it was not at all intuitive). After contacting customer support, they are refusing to provide a refund. The "support specialists" I have been in contact with appear to be bots and there is no actual helpline phone number.

DO NOT SIGN UP. No good jobs, a bunch of fake jobs, and THEY DO NOT LET YOU DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT. Like, literally they will not delete your account no matter how many times you request it. AND YOU HAVE TO REQUEST IT. There is no way to simply delete your account. And even to get there, it's super scammy. You have to go to a help page that takes you on a loop ("request a deletion in our support chat" > opens chat > "please delete my account" > support: "I dont know what that means" > rinse, repeat). Finally found a place to open a ticket, and they acknowledged the ticket but nobody replies to it! Section 1798.105 Right to deletion in the CCPA states that they HAVE TO DELETE your information upon your request, as long as it is not needed for the business. I guess I'll have to talk to my attorney. Absolute hell.

If I could give this no stars I would. I signed up completed tasks sent verification of my id and whatever else they asked for only to be terminated in 7 days with no explanation. I am always cautious about sites like this I have never heard of. But I got the link for it from someone I trust. I am not sure what their angle is, even if they reinstated my account I would not continue to use it this was experience was weird and wrong.

No way to stop charges. I have no active jobs and never upgraded a job yet I'm being billed $57 a week and I can't stop it. You can't get in touch with a person and you can't remove your credit card. This is fraud.

There was no information that I was being charged even though the jib posting was inactive and I have been charged $168 weekly.The website does not let you cancel without downgrading and there is no contact supoort except for digital asst. very upset

They give fine print to the employer that even if you have no jobs posted, you have to "downgrade" your membership in order to not get charged regularly. I have not had a job posted in 2 months, and just noticed they were still charging our company card. They refuse to give any sort of credit since they claim that this is clearly stated but could not point to a place where I could find it to be readily communicated.

This company is like a leech! I closed a job that I posted with the Handshake Plus. The company continued to charge me for a daily subscription because closing the job doesn't close the subscription in their fine print. That's just another way for dishonest companies to leech hundreds of dollars off of you while not completing any service !

My experience with Handshake AI was deeply frustrating and, frankly, alarming.

After completing tasks as instructed, my account was abruptly terminated. I was given a list of serious allegations:
• discrepancies in my credentials
• task completion times supposedly 3–4× slower than benchmarks
• accessing the platform from a non-US location

I was also told the decision was final and that my completed work was not eligible for payment.

None of those claims were true.

After pushing back repeatedly and formally raising the possibility of legal action, Handshake AI conducted a follow-up investigation. In writing, they admitted that I was terminated erroneously, apologized, and processed payment for the work they had initially refused to pay.

This raises serious concerns:

The original termination cited multiple policy violations that were later acknowledged to be incorrect.

Pay was withheld until I escalated and demanded accountability.

Had I not fought back, I likely would never have been paid.

The process felt less like a quality review and more like a pressure tactic — terminate first, see who gives up, and only correct course when challenged.

To be clear: I eventually received what I was owed. But no one should have to threaten legal action to be paid for completed work.

My advice to anyone considering Handshake AI:
• Document everything
• Save emails and timestamps
• Do not assume a “final decision” is actually final
• Be prepared to escalate if your pay is withheld

Proceed with caution.

I subscribed to Handshake plus or pro that charged us $476 per week. After we canceled, it continued to charge us $476 per week. They don't provide a confirming email of cancellation and when I tried to log in to get cancellation history, they deactivated my account so I could not access. The chat function completely misses the queries and there is no live customer service. They respond to emails only and it takes 24 hours to respond. This is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with.