Site users outsource unwanted chores

One woman wanted help with her makeup and hair.

Another person needed ear wax removed.

There were also pleas for a yard landscaper, a baby sitter for a 5-month-old and someone to organize a stash of personal photos.

All these people went to the same place for help — DoMyStuff.com, a Web site that takes outsourcing to a new level.

Here is how it works: You have a job that needs doing — say, removing wallpaper. You post the job on the site, and others bid on it, providing their credentials. You choose someone for the job, then send the money via credit card to an escrow account at DoMyStuff. com, where it remains until the job is completed to your satisfaction. The Internet company gets 7 percent to 10 percent of the cost of the job.

It’s sort of a cross between craigslist and eBay, says Darren Berkovitz, a Beverly Hills, Calif., entrepreneur who, with three other 20-somethings, founded the Internet company Metro Enterprises, which came up with the idea.

Unlike craigslist, Berkovitz says, DoMyStuff.com has a couple of safeguards to prevent fraud. There’s a feedback system, such as one used by eBay, that rates users. And the online escrow account protects both the contractor and the person wanting the job done.

“These days everything is outsourced. We were joking about outsourcing for a girlfriend. And then it just clicked — why not outsource laundry and grocery shopping and fence painting,” Berkovitz says.

Since the site was launched in late March, it has attracted thousands of people needing jobs done.

One customer was Seth Meister, a busy single father of two teens, who asked for help in scanning 2,700 family photos — literally everything he had taken in 20 years. “I have wanted to digitize my photos for years now. I figure it was my best chance to keep memories alive for generations to come,” he said in an interview from his home in Kelowna, British Columbia.

So far he hasn’t made a choice from among about a dozen offers he’s received. The bids range from $150 to $2,500, with the average about $714.

“I’m stuck between finding someone who isn’t a total amateur and is reliable, and someone who charges pro prices. There is a large discrepancy between some of the prices,” Meister says.

Berkovitz agrees that the site’s users have to choose their contractors carefully.

“It’s about choice. Do I want someone who is just looking to make a few dollars, or someone more expensive?” Berkovitz says.

At least one person apparently made the right choice — a desperate Romeo who wanted professional help in fashioning an elegant evening out so he could ask his girlfriend to marry him. He paid about $1,000 for it, Berkovitz says. The woman accepted the proposal.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0371 or carol.mcgraw@gazette.com