FreelancerReviews 20,196

In the term of one month I completed 5 projects, putting in 140 hours and actually getting paid (in theory) for one of those jobs. Because of Freelancer's fee system, I actually lost several hundred dollars, charged to my credit card, in addition to 140 hours of free work.

Here is how it works:

1) A fraudulent employer, with no intention of ever paying posts a job.
2) That fraudulent employer hires one or more people to complete his project.
3) Freelancer charges you credit card based on the total price.
4) You complete the work, talk to the employer on a daily basis, and they give you lots of positive feedback that they love what you are doing.
5) You hit a Milestone, and the fraudulent employer tells you "why don't we just finish this and I'll release the total amount".
6) You complete the assignment.
7) The fraudulent employer disappears, no more conversations.
8) You file a dispute, which Freelancer ignores for as many as 10 days (that's my experience so far), I don't expect they will ever respond.
9) Freelancer claims no economic responsibility and still charges you based on the size of the fraudulent assignment.
10) Freelancer continues to ignore all of the fraud taking place, as long as they get their fees (which they pull from your credit card whether or not you ever get paid).

Bottom line is I feel entirely foolish for having logged onto this site. PLEASE DO NOT follow my mistake. It may seem appealing, work from home, work on your own schedule, do things that your good at, but it's all a giant fraud.

I am in the process of suing Freelancer, my attorney has requested their information, which is not available anywhere on the site (try to find an address, phone number or even their country, which is Australia). My lawyer has suggested that they are like to not give us this information, which means we will need to seek a summons through the Australian justice system.

If anyone out there want's to join a class action suit, I am prepared to fund it's start, and my attorney is prepared to process it.

So, this is not a "OK" for this site this is a "THIS SITE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN".

Anyone interested in joining a class action (it costs you nothing) should contact me at:

*******@gmail.com

I will forward your information to the attorney, he may contact you for a brief interview, but again, you have nothing to lose, and hopefully we can close these f%^&ers down.

Christopher Peznola
Vista, CA

After signing upto this site, I thought I'd be in a great position to make some more money by finding more jobs.

Having a great experience with upwork (oDesk) i needed to widen my project range, so i came across the 'number one platform for freelancers'.

After signing up i was told that im best having some qualification behind me by doing a exam.
After doing them on odesk for free, i was surprised to see they were charging for them, but that didn't bother me, i did a test and passed and got my badge. I tried another one but didn't pass, to resit the test they wanted another $8, so i forgot about it.

After applying to jobs with the ferocious competition, i finally got offered a job which i gladly took.
Getting ready to pay my rent for the week, i was shocked when my bank told me i didn't have enough funds in my account. I checked to find that freelancer had directly removed the fee for the job from my account, when i hadn't even started working on it.
I contacted support to find out that they take the fee from the freelancer directly instead of from the funds that they had already acquired from the employer. This is probably so they always get their cut If the payment is unauthorized (take from the little guy, trust). This was something i had never experienced from a freelancing website, but i was shocked when i read the support email where the member has said "This is not refundable if the project isn't successful" (yeah, typical).

I still kept using the site in order to get the money i could from this job (didn't have a choice now).
After completing, the employer released the funds which i went to withdraw.
The first thing i noticed is that they had their own exchange rates.
(Losing $13 from the current exchange rate)
And they are also making me wait half a month before they even consider releasing my funds because of "security reasons".
Talk about a disaster. (Considering they are so fast when it comes to taking money from me)

Freelancer.com is the most money-hungry, pathetic site i have ever used to find work. Peroid.

They don't give a crap about their users, only their fat paychecks.
They treat your hard-worked-for money like their own.
Another greedy scam.

I'm going back to upwork.

The worst website around. I have yet to find quality service...

Watch out, i just receive an email entitled "I HATE tight deadlines!" witch i foolishly opened and next thing i know, (couple hours later) is paypal is informing me there has been a preapproved payment, i didn't logged in on paypal on weeks and freelancer.com in YEARS! For what I'm reading here its a huge security bridge or elaborated scam covered i regret of the day i register on their site, if you are looking to work online you are lot better on 99designs by far

I and received a project on freelancer.com, which was fake as I realized later. The freelancer.com withdrew 1000$ from my paypal account as a commission for providing me this project. Now I don't know how to get back my 1000$. I tried to contact support team, but it takes too long for them to respond, they have standard answers like, please provide us more information etc. I can't find any phone number to contact the freelancer.com directly. I made reversal of payment by paypal and my account was limited. I get a message that freelancer.com aim to have this resolved within 48 hours. But it is not resolved more than one week, and I was asked to cancel a claim on paypal. Now what I should do, how long should I wait for response. I want to know if I have to pay commission fees to freelancer.com even if the project I accept turned to be fake?

I am raising withdrawal request since dec 2015 but could not receive my money in my account and today when I asked them the reason my withdrawal request is showing pending even after the release date they said your employer is not verified, how come, they allowed him to pay because they were to get there shares from both side once they get there share they refused to transfer my payment to my account and said your employer is not verified ask him to verify then they will release my amount. Am I working for them, they asked me to call employers and verify. And now I am helpless how could I call those who were form other countries.

I have been writing for the past 2 months. Have sent over 18 emails wanting to get a refund for a contest where no winner was selected. The customer service guy, Chester Lee, is totally inept when it comes to customer service. I have sent emails to *******@freelancer.com, I have continually asked for a refund. I have given links of the contest that I needed a refund for showing that a winner was never chosen. They've had my money for 4 years in my account and still will not refund my money. I've also continually asked to have the contact information for Chester Lee's boss and he refuses to answer me. I've been on this site on and off for many years - over 10, and Scriptlance.com beforehand, who they bought. Never have I had such horrible treatment and a company refusing to refund my money. They keep referring to a different contest I made and NOT the one I'm referring to. I am thoroughly disgusted and frustrated with this company. There's no phone number to contact anyone, either so you're stuck with the lack of support from email.

I was also continually harassed by a contestant who didn't win. Using all kinds of profanity, going to other contests and harassing and posting negative comments and continually reported her - many, many times. Nothing was ever done and my other contests suffered because of it.

All in all, the company doesn't refund your money when they clearly indicate they would on their website. They also do nothing about reports of other freelancers who jeopardize other contests that an employer submits.

I have never experienced such a horrible company who continually was asked for a refund and then provides proof of all of those emails asking for a refund to the customer service rep, Chester Lee, and then still not be refunded.

I am clearly convinced that this company has the intention of never refunding my money and keeping it which is totally against the law. Being a company in a different country, they know us Americans can't complain to the Better Business Bureau, Attorney General, etc. to seek further assistance.

The whole thing is just awful.

Im experienced freelancer with hundreds of projects finished successfully.
I was a paid member of freelancer.com for more than 5 years but they dont respect that. They just resolved the arbitration in buyer favor without even opening my attached images and reading my explanation and profs that the project was 100% finished according to initial buyer requirements.
The buyer just said Im not satisfied. And it doesnt matter if the work is done 100% and of the perfect shape. They refund to the buyer.
The only possible way to interact with them is to bid minimal amount and use another website/service that provides a better arbitration process

Now I have become quite frustrated due to non serious attitude of the support team of freelancer.com no matter why they are taking a lot time. Here is the matter which is in open status which I am sharing here.

Complaint no. View Ticket: #IRG-762-*******
Change Of Feedback Request on Project ID: *******

I make a complaint which is Created: 15 March 2016 12:20 AM. That I had given 2 reviews to the employer. 1st review which I gave during the project process and 2nd review at the time of completion of the project.

My complaint/request to the freelancer is that I mistakenly submit 1st review low review to the employer which I asked the team to make both review to 5/5 simple.

On the very next day support team reply on Posted on: 16 March 2016 04:54 PM that
We already processed the changes on our end. Their ratings were updated to 5 stars on all categories.

Please allow our system 24-48 hours to update the changes.

By
Regards,
Henry L.
Freelancer.com Support

Today is 22nd March 2016, 9:32 AM.
No change has been made I have shared the picture also. Now what should I do is there any expert can help me with this... :(

I deposit $US 300 from my debit card (money) to this website for milestone,
Next hour,
This websites ate up my balance in the website for no reason.
Because I didn't use credit card, so I can't call bank to stop paying.
Don't believe most people in freelancer.com trying to chat with you.

"How freelancer.com make you pay way more money to
Their website."
When you create a project to let those freelancers(most are fake) to bid.
They will allow some people to use fake name to sign up to leave some rude comment ( such as only moron will offer such low budge below US 200 or What a $#*!ed person!), if you believe in those rude word they said, then you will pay way more budget and money to let those gang get more.

In those years, freelancer staffs don't even try to to make computer filter those rude word.

I file a dispute against my employer after he made number of excuse for not releasing the milestones after he repeatedly tell me the work is great and willing to pay. I talk to the employer and agreed to pay me the disputed amount and finally the dispute is in my favor. But still the freelancer.com team refuse to release the milestone to my account. What is this? I have supplied all the evidence the ask and even the employer agreed to pay.

Freelancer is a Fraudulent rip off. They will try and steal you money. Its hard to believe that this company is still aloud to operate with so many contractors and Employers being ripped off. I wish i did product review search before I used them. Im $921 out of pocket for nothing in return. Their support is the worst in the world. No telephone support like other companies and terrible email support and response times.

Here is my story. I hired a contractor to do some website work after paying one of freelancers staff a fee of $32 fee to recommend the best freelancer for the job. I interviewed the contractor they recommended, I awarded the job to him and we agreed on a timeframe to complete the work. I then paid $800 for the job plus other admin fees $27 & $18 to Freelancer. Once I had paid freelancer the funds, the contractor then said he was going on holidays and would not be free much to do the work. We clearly discussed the time frame and he assured me he was available to complete the job. But then as soon as the job was awarded and moneys transfer to Freelancer the contractor told me he is now not available much to do the work.
I needed to get the job done and decided to get somebody else to do the work from a different agency. The contractor demanded he gets paid $100. Basically for just the job interview. No work had started or documents were provided to the contractor. I told him its ridiculous you wanted to get paid for briefly discussing the job over skype, but he demanded to get paid $100 for the job interview. I contacted Freelancer support and they told me there was an arbitration process that had to be followed. So I did that and paid another $42. The contractor backed down and I was won the dispute. They still will not release my money back to me even though i clearly won and no work has even started.

Freelancer has now frozen my funds and mentioned in the notes that this matter will be resolved in 64 days. 64 days my friends, can you believe it 64 days.(Note I can still deposit more money though) They has asked me to supply my passport, rates notices and other proof of id. I thought this was ridiculous but as this was not need in the beginning but did as they requested. Absolutely made no difference. Their poor support has disappeared.

This drama has been going on for 3months now. Im $921 out of pocket. I can not get a refund or use the money to get any work done.
Its not worth it to ever use this company. There are other better reputable alternatives with support.
64 days time frame to solve a support ticket is ridiculous can your business afford that?

Follow up from earlier review I did " refuse to refund'. Freelancer made contact through this site, but when I contacted them I got no response.
Later I got an email telling me how to close my account but it appears my login was disabled and I was unable to do so. I suggest reporting this site to the Australian federal police as an Internet scam if they extract money under false pretences and continue to deduct money from credit cards when explicitly denied permission to do so

Update: After I complained to the freelancer team, the CSR told me: "Use this link to close your account" (see attached image). So, that's the amazing support they give when they are tired of you.

Its easy to be ripped off by a client. They can easily cancel a paypal transaction after payment and they get the refund back. What does freelancer do about it? They don't lose, oh no, they don't. They take the money from their account, including fees, even when you already paid for them...

The chat support is managed by malasyan punks, they dont really care about CS and barely solve your issues.

I sooo much regret not searching before I decided to signup and use the service. If you want to see it for yourself, start with a small project like a $10 dollar project so you don't lose more money trying to get it back. Make sure you use a credit card so you can call your bank to get your full money back because it will be almost impossible to get your money back from them. Make sure you read the fees and charges policy because you will be charge for just about anything you do in the website, for real... https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/ For a $650 project I posted, I had to pay almost $70 in fees for posting a job... Now try getting those fees back fron them, almost impossible. I use fiverr.com instead, zero complains so far. I have done over 15 projects there with zero complains and super cheap.

I started using Freelancer 3 weeks ago and have posted (as employer) 3 well paid jobs on there. I made 3 payments to my freelancers and then Freelancer froze my account following a cancelled Milestone Payment agreed between me and one of the freelancers (as it would have been an over-payment).

I have written endless messages to Freelancer submitted many tickets asking them to resolve my account. It has not been resolved. The site says I have to verify my account - I have the photo with my passport, utility bill etc - but I cannot submit them as my account is limited - what a nightmare!

This is one week ago and since then I have had 2 freelancers complete work who I have not been able to pay via Freelancer due to my account being limited. This makes me look very unprofessional and so I have been forced to pay them directly via Paypal (I had no choice or I would lose them for my next work (now on Upwork btw).

Absolutely appalling customer service, no phone number to call, no assistance - just left hanging in a mess with my freelancers.

DO NOT USE THIS SITE!

This is just an awful company. I don't know where to start...

I have been ripped off, had work not completed, had useless customer service, been charged for things unnecessarily, just everything you expect from a poorly run company.

I am in the process of closing my account and they have said it will take four weeks to refund me my remaining balance and close the account. That says it all. I could walk to Australia in that time.