Stay away from freelancer.com
- Thread starter solidsnake
- Start date
blackhat777
Elite Member
- Jun 25, 2011
- 1,784
- 671
I wonder if you don't allow twitter account sales, then why do you let the projects go live at first place? There's no point in reversing the money from somebody's account if project is already over. If you implemented a check on project validity while money withdrawal was requested, you could have implemented the same check either when project is posted or project is allocated/awarded.
I personally too had a bad experience but I never lost the money because I never added my paypal account to my freelancer account.
I personally too had a bad experience but I never lost the money because I never added my paypal account to my freelancer account.
SkyrocketSEO
BANNED
- Nov 5, 2012
- 4,614
- 12,219
Freelancer.com-----SCAM, run away. BTW, is there a way to delete my profiel there, it looks it is not possible?! I don't want them to have my data.
Here is how they tried to scam me.
Some XY person contacted me (imagine, they contacted me out of all the people even though I never worked on Freelance, I don't have any reputation there and no work history) and said how she/he wanted to work with me (I forgot what was the main "reason" to choose me). So, this person explained what they needed and after a couple of mails I acepted the job. Once I accepted the job I was automticaly billed?!?!?!? $20 by Freelancer...SO, I didn't even started to work and God forbid that I got payed by a client. Here is the tricky part,once I accepted the job and got billed by Freelancer I never EVER heard from that "client" again. So, I said, whatever, who cares....BUT....I got a warning message from Freelancer saying how I have to pay $20 or Else..Imagine they do this with 100,000 people, and if they take $20 from each guy that's $2,000,000...nifty.
Here is how they tried to scam me.
Some XY person contacted me (imagine, they contacted me out of all the people even though I never worked on Freelance, I don't have any reputation there and no work history) and said how she/he wanted to work with me (I forgot what was the main "reason" to choose me). So, this person explained what they needed and after a couple of mails I acepted the job. Once I accepted the job I was automticaly billed?!?!?!? $20 by Freelancer...SO, I didn't even started to work and God forbid that I got payed by a client. Here is the tricky part,once I accepted the job and got billed by Freelancer I never EVER heard from that "client" again. So, I said, whatever, who cares....BUT....I got a warning message from Freelancer saying how I have to pay $20 or Else..Imagine they do this with 100,000 people, and if they take $20 from each guy that's $2,000,000...nifty.
I can't comment as the my original message that I wanted to post triggered some moderation filter here even though my post follows all rules of the forum and standard ethics and courtesy. And I can't message Matt with feedback since I'm a newbie here and don't have 15 points, whatever they are.
So many reversal act he did after we complete a project even the project was valid . I have experience designing a Facebook Timeline Cover for a client there and we had been deal with it . Then, i got a payment already. After like 2 months the systems was reverse the money automatically without any warning or any reason.
I'm so upset with them . I think best option is take your client from there and make profit out that site. It will be even better than do the transaction with their platform after all. Sorry to say that Matt but it's the reality !
I'm so upset with them . I think best option is take your client from there and make profit out that site. It will be even better than do the transaction with their platform after all. Sorry to say that Matt but it's the reality !
browsing_hosts
Regular Member
- Nov 12, 2010
- 399
- 368
Freenlancer is so stupid they lure you in thinking it is free to post a project and then out of no where you are charged for some random and stupid things and the price really adds up. Then you have them monthly charge you for some stupid membership which you never wanted I had to cancel some membership I do not even recall signing up for. Overall I have just given up with them too much random charging they need to make it simple and clearer and stop being so greedy damn we are just posting jobs with us and hard working freelancers you site would be worthless.
browsing_hosts
Regular Member
- Nov 12, 2010
- 399
- 368
Hey Matt give us your house address so we can meet you face to face and sort some of the issues and maybe get some of our money back. Which Mansion you live in now?
G-S-T
Elite Member
- Jan 20, 2011
- 1,762
- 9,092
I think you guys are being a little harsh on Matt, at least he has had the decency to show his face here and try to resolve your issues. I see a lot of posts saying its a scam, I think your confusing the site with the users of the site.
Sure, they might charge you for project extras and such, but thats the name of the game for everyone, squeezing customers for a little extra as the purchase progresses. Look at any domain registrar for example... They are always pushing addons part way through the shopping cart.
The real issue is the people abusing the site for their own gain. By making loads of accounts and submitting multiple bids, or people renegging on projects for lame excuses and so forth.
Come on folks, give the guy a break. He is trying to be as helpful as he can and in return he receives a barrage of abuse and liable claims.
#2cents
Sure, they might charge you for project extras and such, but thats the name of the game for everyone, squeezing customers for a little extra as the purchase progresses. Look at any domain registrar for example... They are always pushing addons part way through the shopping cart.
The real issue is the people abusing the site for their own gain. By making loads of accounts and submitting multiple bids, or people renegging on projects for lame excuses and so forth.
Come on folks, give the guy a break. He is trying to be as helpful as he can and in return he receives a barrage of abuse and liable claims.
#2cents
portalweb
Supreme Member
- Jan 7, 2010
- 1,435
- 579
Matt:
To save your FreeLancer business, you need to add the smart filtering system in place that will detect the potential violations of TOS based on keywords, and then auto-prompt the warning messages for the buyer/seller to read it quickly. This way, your system will weed out the scammers.
Example: Twitter account sales - pop-up ajax warning message: WARNING - POTENTIAL VIOLATION OF TOS, etc. etc.
To save your FreeLancer business, you need to add the smart filtering system in place that will detect the potential violations of TOS based on keywords, and then auto-prompt the warning messages for the buyer/seller to read it quickly. This way, your system will weed out the scammers.
Example: Twitter account sales - pop-up ajax warning message: WARNING - POTENTIAL VIOLATION OF TOS, etc. etc.
portalweb
Supreme Member
- Jan 7, 2010
- 1,435
- 579
Don't give up. It's really a good thing that you're here.
Once after you ironed out everything to appease the money-raking BHW community, the "SCAM" word attached to FreeLancer name will probably disappear.
Only you can make it happen.
SkyrocketSEO
BANNED
- Nov 5, 2012
- 4,614
- 12,219
Stop protecting that site. How come nobody talks crap about Elance.com ? Yes, there are some fake scam alerts over the net but I guess that's the work of Freelancer.com work force.
He didn't show his face, he just came to say how they are not a huge Scam operation, even tho that's what they are. Period.
It's really interesting that all you guys with shit load crap of Stars and Mod rights defend this site even tho all of us, regular BHW members, think that this site is....well, I am not going to say the word Scam again, but yeah, prety much sums it.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
Not correct - it is free to post and have bids come in so you can look at them and communicate with the freelancers, look through their portfolio and so on. We charge on the award/match.
You don't have to have a membership at all and no memberships are created unless you specifically upgrade to one.
You don't have to have a membership at all and no memberships are created unless you specifically upgrade to one.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
Thanks Portal. We're committed to make the marketplace better day by day. We inherited the codebase and processes by acquisition and have made lots of changes and continue to have changes to make. I think however that like Paypal, we will always face the balance between upsetting customers and dealing with fraud because of the nature of the businesses; the simple fact that money is withdrawn from the site. However we will do our best to improve as much as we can. I doubt that any of my competitor's CEOs would ever post on BHW.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
We already some some machine learning classifiers in place for this - of course it's a process of continual improvement.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
Browsing, I'm happy to try to resolve your issue right now if you provide your username and explain what the problem is.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
The only way a reversal can occur is if your employer initiated a chargeback. There's no other way. In that case you can simply ask the employer why he did this as you will still be able to contact them.
mattbarrie
Newbie
- Jan 14, 2013
- 16
- 19
Skyrocket, there are just as many "elance scam", "odesk scam", "ebay scam" and "paypal scam" posts all across the Internet.
