I haven’t
written on my blog in a while but I’m getting back into the habit and today’s
post is about Freelancer.com. I’ve been on this bidding site for two years now
and it did help me find some clients – two of which I am still working with
today. However, I recently had some issues with someone on there unwilling to
pay for the work that I rightly did – work that is currently being used on
Squidoo without my permission or proper payment. So, I thought I’d warn all my
readers about the scam on Freelancer.com and give my own review.
Low Pay Just Not Worth It
The majority
of the projects I have found on there are low in pay. Many promise higher rates
of pay after some time working together. But get this – it will never happen.
Those who promise pay increases will likely drop you the minute you start
asking. Am I telling you this from experience? Yes! I have been fooled into
believing these empty promises.
Most writing
projects on the site are for $1 or $2 per 500 words. Seriously? Can you really
live on that? I can’t! I want projects that are going to pay me $10+, depending
on the topic. I know some topics take me a few minutes to write about and five
articles at $5 each will usually give me a $20-$25 per hour return rate but
there are others that take hours and the pay just isn’t worth it.
Although,
this tip is for those specifically in First World countries; those where the
standard of living is lower may find the benefit.
Freelancer.com Support Doesn’t Support
When I had a
problem with someone unwilling to pay, I decided to opt for the Dispute service
on the site. Want to know a secret – the dispute system doesn’t work. The “Employer”
has to set up a milestone for a “Freelancer” to dispute it but, I’ve heard,
that that still doesn’t activate the option. Is there really any point in
having a system that doesn’t actually work?
I contacted
the Customer Support, which is non-existent. I asked simply questions and got
long-winded answers that didn’t even answer them! They kept stating how their
job was to set up the Employer and Freelancer but once a job had been accepted,
it was out of their control. Sites like Guru, Elance and PeoplePerHour are
completely different in that aspect and listen to both sides of the story and
start a dispute.
They kept
telling me to contact the Employer but I had exhausted that method. I know that
legal recourse is my only option but it is very difficult with just a screen
name to go on. I know data protection laws mean that they cannot give me the
details but I wanted to know the legal paperwork they would need to send it –
it took four attempts of answering that question for them to finally give me
the legal address; for those who want the answer it is legal@freelancer.com.
I am now in
the process of talking to the legal team, who seem to be a little more ‘switched
on’ than the support and have actually answered my questions. We’ll see what
happens.
The Review System Is Seriously Flawed
There is a
review system but it only works when a project is completed. You cannot leave a
review if the project is still in progress or if you abort it out of failure to
pay. This leads to issues of many projects racking up and users getting away
with not paying people with no recourse. I’ve seen many Freelancers bid on
future projects just to warn others about the failure to pay but I don’t think
it really scares people off, unfortunately.
My advice
after this Freelancer.com review is to stay away – well away! There are plenty
of others sites to bid on that offer better projects, payment terms and a good
support system. I’m trying Guru and PeoplePerHour at the moment and will tell
you more as I know more. I’ve heard good things about both so we’ll see.
By the way,
those who do use Freelancer.com, stay away from the user Sigmaanddelta. This
person states on his profile that he writes all his own content and doesn’t
give all the details when hiring others. He outsources all his work and then
claims that he doesn’t use the work so won’t pay the people he outsources to –
of course he won’t use the work! The person who hires him thinking that he will
write the work uses it!
