Stay away from freelancer.com

They got me for $3 and wont refund it. They didn't even pay the freelancer I hired, but instead charged him some fees. I hired a freelancer and it turned out he did not have the skills to complete the job. We amicably decided to just cancel the contract so I could hire someone else. Only to find out I would not be getting my money back and the freelancer would not be getting the money back for the fees they charged him for the project. Granted this is only $3, it would have been more had I not cancelled the automatic paypal payments, but still. It's the principle behind what they are doing. I didn't receive any services, the freelancer didn't do any work, soooo, that means Freelancer dot com gets to keep the money? Per their emails about the situation, they get to keep all payments regardless if you go through with a project or cancel it. I could see if some of the work was done, then the project was cancelled, but if no work was done whatsoever and you still keep the money, that is a blatant scam.

If you need any of these types of freelance services, use oDesk. I've been using them as an employer for the last few months without any problems. Their system is legit and they tell you how payments work and when you will be charged. I always use the "fixed" payment feature, then pay my freelancers each day with a "bonus" and everyone is happy. The only downside is the freelancer has to wait 5 days to receive payment. I guess oDesk wants to verify that the employer's payment clears first.

Oh, and I also signed this Freelancer dot com petition:

http ://www.change. org/en-IN/petitions/australian-government-stop-the-attrocities-of-freelancer-com#supporters

Hopefully it's not a problem adding that link here. But they should not be allowed to continue scamming people. I've read some stories about freelancers getting thousands of dollars taken from their accounts by Freelancer dot com for work they have completed. That's just wrong.
 
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Matt Barrie,

If you have to pay someone to use your site, what does that tell you?

You said:

"It's important that when you hire a freelancer that you only pay using milestone payments. This is like escrow. If something goes wrong that means you can always get your money back."


Continuing to push your scam. That is a flat out lie. Those are the very payments that are NON-REFUNDABLE. I made a milestone payment for a project I created, a milestone payment in which your website stated "would be better because it will let the freelancer know you are serious" and the site suggested the milestone payment be for $30. I made that milestone payment, cancelled the project that same day it was created when the freelancer told me didn't have the skills to do the job, and when I asked for a refund here are the canned messages I received straight from 4 of the 7 million people you employ:



"Moreover, project fees are non-refundable whether a project is complete, incomplete, cancelled or revoked."

"Once a project has been awarded and accepted by a freelancer, whether the project would be completed or not, you will be immediately charged for the project commission fee. Project commissions are non-refundable or cannot be canceled. This serves as the introduction fee for the employer and the freelancer."

"once a project has been awarded and accepted by a freelancer, whether the project would be completed or not, both the employer and freelancer's accounts will be immediately charged for the project fee. Project fees are strictly non-refundable whether a project is complete, incomplete, aborted, cancelled or revoked."

"The project fee is non-refundable regardless if it is completed, canceled, aborted or deleted, because it serves as an introduction fee to freelancers and employers for using our site's services."



Notice how the "milestone" payment has now changed into a "project commission fee".

No work was done by the freelancer, the project was cancelled, I hired someone else, but you get to keep the money? You could have at least gave the money to the freelancer for attempting to do the job. You didn't even give the money to the freelancer. You kept it!

Nice try, scammer.
 
SocialMediaManager said:
I had an Account with 300$ Freezed and after 38 days Freelancer told me my account is temporarily banned due to Security Reasons But they never unbanned me thus stealing my 300$
Click to expand...

Sounds like they think they are "PAYPAL"! WTF!
 
Not to chime in with my irrelevant anecdote..

A few weeks ago I created a new account at Freelancer. I needed the work done immediately, so I opted to make my post Urgent. Which costs $9, BUT you can only make deposits into your account in $10 increments. OK, only a dollar-not a big deal.

Now, since we had a new account, the only PayPal method they allowed was an E-Check. That takes 7 days to process. WTF!??! So much for "urgent."

If that wasn't bad enough, after I choose the freelancer (a.k.a. Awarded the Project), I had to do make another deposit into their escrow (a.k.a Milestone). ANOTHER E-Check. So there goes SEVEN MORE DAYS!

OK, project complete (16 days later). Now time to release the money from escrow. Not so fast... My profile doesn't have enough "XP Points" to release the escrow. What that means is that my profile is incomplete. So I had to add an address, telephone number and FB account. BTW the FB account connection was required. After all that was done, the payment was released.

None of this was required two years ago. It was a pleasure to use them back then. I usually connect with said freelancer and do business with them outside of that crappy site.
 
Wondering whether they have sent a complaint to admin/owner of BHW already. Tried this tactics in case of World Access Forum, Read2Learn or mine (a few other websites have disappeared mysteriously as well; example was Freelancer scam on Facebook... Google still sees it), for example. When the topic got hot, this bunch of liars cried they feel defamed. When I described their privacy issues and showed evidence they are operating using stolen elements of intellectual property, got an immediate C&D note claiming that I have insulted them... 3 months earlier. This company could have really become an ultimate standard setter for the whole world of outsourcing. Turned into a very bad joke though.

chunnyc wrote:
So I had to add an address, telephone number and FB account. BTW the FB account connection was required. After all that was done, the payment was released.
Click to expand...

Don't give them ANY personal data. I am one of the people who did and saw them... spilling it. Look for an article: Freelancer, Privacy Policy... and Gerontophilia.

Your private data is not safe, the company hasn't ever disclosed its procedures in detail, processes at least some of records in Philippines and uses them against you if they fancy it (this includes tracking you down and stalking you. Please remember: this company is NOT like a bank guarding your privacy. This is just a bunch of people who are incompetent as far as managing a serious company is concerned. Coz' I just cannot imagine a bank, hotel or an airline representatives outing the name of its customer.
 
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Here's an update:

I sent Freelancer quite a few emails this past Friday letting them know there was no reason for them to keep money since no services were provided to me or the freelancer. I told them if they didn't send me my money by the end of the day, I would write my story in an article and post it on my blog, along with all their emails and all the names in the emails; that I would post it on every social media network; and that I would tell all 604k "fans" on their facebook page how they scammed me out of $3.38. Suddenly their verification process started working and they started quickly responding saying I had to close the Paypal dispute I opened against them before they would issue a refund. The Paypal dispute closed in their favor weeks ago, so I don't know what they are talking about. But they didn't send me my money by the end of day so I went on their facebook and inboxed my story above to about 20 people so far. Then I got an email from Paypal right now saying Freelancer issued me a refund.

When companies act shady, people need to start spreading the word about them on social media. And be sure you tell the company you are going to spread it around with all the names and contact information. Companies are terrified of social media because they know once it's up there, good luck trying to erase it.
 
ashash7 said:
Here's an update:

I sent Freelancer quite a few emails this past Friday letting them know there was no reason for them to keep money since no services were provided to me or the freelancer. I told them if they didn't send me my money by the end of the day, I would write my story in an article and post it on my blog, along with all their emails and all the names in the emails; that I would post it on every social media network; and that I would tell all 604k "fans" on their facebook page how they scammed me out of $3.38. Suddenly their verification process started working and they started quickly responding saying I had to close the Paypal dispute I opened against them before they would issue a refund. The Paypal dispute closed in their favor weeks ago, so I don't know what they are talking about. But they didn't send me my money by the end of day so I went on their facebook and inboxed my story above to about 20 people so far. Then I got an email from Paypal right now saying Freelancer issued me a refund.

When companies act shady, people need to start spreading the word about them on social media. And be sure you tell the company you are going to spread it around with all the names and contact information. Companies are terrified of social media because they know once it's up there, good luck trying to erase it.
Click to expand...



For you and all the people who think Freelancer played ugly and it needs to be exposed:

1. Search: Can Freelancer Mice Roar - How to Get Your Revenge Most Effectively
2. Search: Fight Fire with Fire - Ask The Media about Freelancer

Those numbers provided by them smell really bad. Check the Alexa data and social media charts for Freelancer or find my article:
Something is Rotten in the State of Freelancer
 
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I have been using Freelancer for 3 years now and never had any bad experience with them.
 
WARNING: Freelancer.com MILESTONES are NOT SAFE!

Freelancer website makes you believe milestones are safe, and the money is keep by them, but that's NOT totally true. I was kinda happy because my issues were solved with freelancer thanks to this thread, but last week I just lost a milestone.

Support says this was due "security issues" (of course I didn't received any notification what so ever), employer created the milestone and I finished the work, but employer stopped answering... no biggie, I can dispute the milestone RIGHT?: no. They just removed the milestone and money. But of course they charged the fees and I lost hours working in the project.

So, how to know when freelancer will decide employer money isn't "secure" for you?: NO WAY. This really sucks I hope that elance or **ANY SITE** provides a way to import freelancer work history because I can't use this system without feeling unsafe. I hope karma really works and Ian Ippolito dies from a sudden massive heart attack right now (hahaha not really, he seems a cool guy, but he really sold our soul selling our vworker account to freelancer :( )

I always try to enforce the milestones, employers always want to deal outside freelancer, even paying directly via paypal. It seems that's the way to go. Just use freelancer as a directory and AVOID at all costs using their system. I just lost $18 USD in fees, the $177 USD milestone and my hours working. It isn't a lot but imagine the project was $1000 USD, you just give away easy $100 to freelancer + your hours, even DOING EVERYTHING CORRECTLY: Asking for the milestone, dealing with the employer all inside the site. Your milestone can vanish and done.
Code: 
Hi there,
 
Thank you for your reply.
 
Our site has different security measures to make it safe for our all our users, including you. One of these is the verification process that users undergo when they register on the site, such as the email verification etc. Despite this and because user identification on the Internet is difficult, we cannot and do not confirm each user's purported identity.
 
We do not have any other reason in cancelling the created Milestone Payments, but to verify the employer's account and transactions. The said amount was returned to their account. This is a necessary procedure to ensure your security. This is also our way of providing our members a safe environment to do their online business. Since we have just sent the ticket (ID: QQZ-699-XXXXX) to your employer dated 07 June 2014, please provide them at least 72 hours to respond on the said ticket.
 
In general, project fees are non-refundable whether a project is completed, unfinished, or cancelled. These fees are for the introduction of the employer and the freelancer to meet and complete projects together.
 
For your future projects, please consider these tips when bidding on projects and before accepting an awarded project:
 
- Check the employer's profile, feedback and rating so you will have an idea what kind of employer the user is.
- Use our Project Clarification Board and Private Message Board in discussing the details of the project and the mode of payment. With this, you will be able to assess if you can properly complete the project on time and without any issues.
- Tips for Freelancers
www .freelancer.com/news/articles-providers-96.html
- Narrowing your Focus for Freelancing Success www .freelancer.com/news/articles-providers-93.html
 
Should you have other queries or concerns, feel free to contact us again.
 
 
---
Sincerely,
Mark G.
Freelancer.com Support

 
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No No No to freelancer.com. I am sad they they are now own WF forum as well.... what a scam business....
 
Update:

Code: 
Hello,
 
Thank you for getting back to us.
 
It shows that your employer still have not resolved their account issue yet. For this reason, the canceled Milestone Payment cannot be reinstated. On this note, we have sent a follow-up to your employer about this matter. Rest assured that once their account issue is settled, the canceled Milestone Payment will be created.
 
Should you have any other concerns, feel free to contact us again.

Lost milestone still does not "appear"... more than 1 month since I asked. Are they just waiting that I get tired of asking and forget?

Please if Elance or Odesk is listening, allow us to import the Freelancer.com job history!
Pleaaassse
L1fBg13001.jpg
 
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Hello there,
I confess, I didn't read 3 years of complaints, just some of them.

Okay, impossible to write anything here

(wtf? I'm not swearing, not selling, no contact information and as far as I read in the rules, it's okay to post links that are oscured?)
 
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I have never had any problems with freelancer and I've spent over 50k with them so far.
 
Update: Freelancer refunded me the lost fees. I mean, I lost the hours worked, and that milestone, but at least the fees are back... So, all kinda good! Support seemed to be much more human this time compared to old times.
 
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