Experts Exchange: Does The Pay for An Answer Model Work?

In one word: No.

I've been an Experts Exchange user on and off over the last few years and always re-registered my Experts Exchange account, at times, out of pure desperation in the hope that a complex question of mine could be answered.

If I look back at all the questions I've asked throughout the year whilst being a fully paid member, the responses (or solutions as Experts Exchange call it) are by far not detailed enough for the price you pay. There have been many times when I've been very patiently waiting for some kind of response to my problem for days and even when highlighting to the moderator numerous times to get an expert to look into my issue, they seem to fail at the first hurdle...

If Experts Exchange was truly the forum where all these so called "experts" reside, they should have no problem in resolving or if not at least assisting me to a relevent solution. Majority of the time its hit or miss to whether an answer I could either find an answer from their "vast" knowledge-base.

The major problem I do have with Experts Exchange is that there is no refund policy and the customer support staff don't seem at all bothered by the fact that (in my case) four of my questions were not responded to. They are unable to see that you are paying them a service to do one thing: assist YOU!

Experts Exchange really need to rethink their pricing model considerably for the true service they provide. This has become ever so apparent since the dawn of a widely used and popular StackOverflow Q&A forum where I find the response rate higher.

Of course, I can only speak about my own experience and Experts Exchange is probably a great resource for others who are employed in a different sector of the IT industry. It all comes down to the expert answering your question. Some are really good, some not so good...

Unfortunately, it's unable to fulfil my needs. I've learnt my lesson and will not be renewing my subscription after my last cancellation.

Back in the day, there was a need for a paid service like Experts Exchange. But that's long since passed.