FreelancerReviews 20,203

Freelancer.com is full of scam policies, hired freelancer, he didn't completed my project but I have to pay full amount as I can not cancel the milestone payments, only freelancer can. If they want to trick you it's easy for them and you are helpless.

The Freelancer.com support will ask you to file a dispute which need 5 days to complete. If freelancer respond with just one word sorry, freelancer.com will ask you to pay a arbitration frees of $5 because he responded, and you have to waste 7 days again. My question is:

1. Why a employer need to pay extra arbitration fees when they paid all project fees in advance.

2. Why they dont bother to see the reply of freelancer before they escalate it to 3rd stage?

3. Why cant an employer cancel a milestone payment if freelancer is not responding?

4. Who will compensate employer for time loss when project delayed by using tricks.

To me it's a complete scam site, please avoide using it.

They charge money for anything and everything! I can't believe they charged me $40 for deleting some old entries that I had on the website. I was just trying to clean up my dashboard area so that it can look cleaner. Now who charges money to delete any old entries? This is never heard of ever in my life!

Because they do such fraudulent activities, they don't have a customer service phone number and you can only chat with them. Chatting takes forever to convey and come to a resolution! A 5 mins call takes 1.5 hours. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

This page has a terrible disorganization as customers who hire a freelancer and contests when paying. Especially in contests with the method of delivery is literally a scam... the client disappears when one goes up the files after winning the contest. Then the freelancer ends working for free. And not only that is the problem with the page, for more ther charge a membership that I have not asked. For one month trying to put it down and I always continued with the same then as could I call that? Thieves is the only word that comes to my mind. If you want to offer a better service, have better control of employers! Be responsible and pay the freelancer for those customers who do not pay and disappear in the contests. It's the least you can do as you charge a membership that is not asked. Thank you!

First my account was disabled,
I can't login because freelancer thinks I did not use a valid ID(I send my valid drivers licensed), I only ask to changed my username from XXX to YYY for the reason the name I used when still my wife was is living, so I would like to change username(fancy reason for good name), but freelancer banned me, its better I did not ask to changed my username. But someone from freelancer as a good member of Board of Directors(I think) I meet, he helped me restore my account after explaining to him in Facebook.

2nd > my account was hold, I can no longer bid projects because my previous client who pays me uses a fake credit card that worth $288(I think), and was charged to my account, freelancer says I have to pay it to restore back my account that has 15 good reviews(I think), and because I have nothing to turn around for work so I have to make another account, now I'm back to zero(0to2) reviews, it's hard to meet some clients if you have no good feedback.

And also:
They deduct amount percentage of work even the client or employer did not released milestone for payment, so instead your looking for money from their help, they're the one who grab you down.

Exchange rate is very heavy, I paid(was deducted) $48 from INR to USD.

Freelancer is disappointing! I can call it a scammer also.
Freelancer is a helper but a thief also, corruptionist online job.

I joined freelancer in 2015 after quitting my good paying company job and I curse that day.

I started getting jobs and meeting long-term clients one this "site". A few days ago while working one a project, I was notified that I need to verify my identity and it's a standard procedure. I complied with them and submitted 4 scanned copies of government issue documents, a day later they closed my account. I had a lot of money in my account and was working with a client. Those $#*!ting c**** even don't respond to my emails.
I was so naive about this site. Luckily my Upwork account is still active.

They should be convicted of these crimes. Join freelancer at YOUR OWN RISK

I would really like to thank Kelvin from Freelancer Support because when I got in touch with them they assisted me perfectly and addressed all my issues! They were very polite and helpful. Thank you so much Kelvin!

I was doing my job at 300 USD/month, Than i joined freelancer and i got changed my whole life. I am full time freelancer now and got great experience in, How to deal my clients and progress my qualities and skills in order to help them. I am growing day by day with help of freelancer team which is great support indeed. A complete professional career platform which can surely change your life with positive attitude and hard working, and you will surely get paid for it all! I am very happy that i have chooses freelancer as a full time career opportunity and i will suggest all of others too, If they really want to make great difference in their lives they should join freelancer and try to get great opportunities on daily basis!
I will keep serving here As Long As i can! Thanks

Freelancer.com doesn't protect freelancers.

This is my conclusion.

I have the great experience working with Freelancer.com during the last 7 years.
During that period I had seen many situations and had taken a part starting from unfounded complaints to unfounded refunds.

This is normal practice for Freelancer.com to hold or block money and get them back.
This is normal when you had taken a project and after 2-3 days of your work (spent time) you got a letter from Support that the Employer's account had been blocked and they had to refund.
This is normal that after 2-3 month any employer can claim or create a dispute on the Milestone's which had been released and get money back.
This is normal when the Dispute Team acts like a judge ignoring agreement and listing between Users.

I think many other freelancers can add own situations to the list.

The absurdity lies in the fact that if I have in the account the money I have earned for months, they can block them all and return back anytime.

Time from time I loose my money from Freelancer.com because of their stupid policy.

At the moment I use alternative methods to find employers.

And I hope I will not be dependent on the site Freelancer.com in the close future.

Many employers publish the same job many times and Freelancer.com says they have many users/employers and many jobs, but not all these jobs offers are real. I attached screenshots of 3 same jobs from the same person.
I tried also to register new username and verification email was not sent even i tried several days and I changed email provider and again the same.

Freelancer.com is a huge scam. I'm sure there are legitimate work opportunities on Freelancer, but that was NOT my experience. I was new to the site and still in the process of getting my portfolio set up. Out of the blue, an employer wanted to hire me for a $600.00 job for which I hadn't even placed a bid. I guess I got ahead of myself and accepted the job without thoroughly checking out the employer.

Within SECONDS of clicking the "Accept" button, Paypal notified me of a $60.00 charge from Freelancer--a fee for which I'd not even been given the chance to approve or decline. A few hours later, the employer, ableGODartistry, canceled the job and completely deleted their account. When I contacted Freelancer for a refund, they told me that the money would NOT be refunded even though I never actually did any work or earned any money. They said that the $60 charge I paid was their fee for "introducing" me to the employer. I read on another site where this is something that Freelancer does on a regular basis--they, themselves, create a dummy employer, get some newbie to accept the fake job, and then cancel the job and the account while keeping the fees that the worker had to pay up front. Even the employer's name was extremely similar to the employer who "hired" me. That can't be a coincidence.

I finally got them to give me Freelancer "credit", but I'm still waiting to see if they will actually refund my PayPal account.

NEVER. AGAIN.

I am sure some of you would receive emails from freelancer.com that you are offered a project by a client. DO NOT ever click any link or button stated "View and accept offer" in the email. If you do so like me, you will lose 10% of your money based on the offer price. Those clients who file the project and offer you directly are mostly unverified. They are out to scam you. Once the button is clicked, freelancer.com straightaway deduct your money and assume that you have accepted the offer. You do not even have the chance to check on the client project or read the project description. I have talked to their customer support, but none of them is willing to refund the money to you. The CS will ask you to contact the client yourself to get back the money and nothing can be done. In short, it is a trap for freelancers who are unaware how the links or button in the freelancer.com email works. If you are unsure whether to accept the offer or not, PLEASE key in the website URL directly and check from your dashboard. DO NOT EVER click any link/buttons provided in the email. You are bound to LOSE your money. You will never ever get to see the money again.