FreelancerReviews 20,199

The company FREELANCER IS A joke. I hired some very nice workers from the site than I tried to pay them through freelancer. The system does not do what its supposed to they have kept the money that is supposed to go to the workers. Support keeps giving me the run around will not refund the money back into my pay pal account even though their system is at fault. They do not listen or address the comments made in my support questions. Keep telling me the same thing. Their system doesn't work and they wont take responsibility for it. They refer me to a live support button that does not work. They really should fix their site the poor people who have done my work are missing out on their payment. They are frustrating to deal with have wasted hours of my time trying to communicate with them and are slow to respond. After reading some of the other reviews I am starting to think its a bit of a SCAM... BEWARE

We set up a very costly contest to have logos designed. We set the contest for 14 days. As soon as it went live, the contest shot down to 24 hours remaining and Freelancer wants hundreds of dollars to extend it to the original 14 days we selected to begin with.

Tried using the live chat, it just loaded with "2 people ahead of you" for 10 minutes. We did this three times. After about ten minutes it allows us to send an email - this function errors out and doesn't allow you to send anything. Tried opening a support ticket and constantly encountered server 500 errors. Absolute scam.

I was a little apprehensive to order from Dinkleboo at the start. I have read a few negative reviews. But there are also good ones and I really wanted to get my niece a nice personalized book for Christmas. I really liked the “All About Christmas” and “The Magic Shoes” books. I was having a hard time choosing so I ended up ordering both. When the delivery day came and went and the books did not arrive, I called customer service immediately. They assured me that I will get the books the following day as there was just a small glitch in the service. True enough, I got them the next day.

Guys be careful.

I had finished a job and client paid me $480 with 5 star rating and Freelancer taken $48 as their commission.

I don't mind paying them that. Suddenly next day my account shows negative balance and when i contacted them. They say that client account has been closed. OKAY but what happened to my money and scammers say that they will contact the client and rectify.

It has been one month and no response from these dumb asses... Today when i am trying to post some job, it shows that my account is temporarily suspended since i have to pay negative balance.

Why the hell should i pay when you people has taken my money. Where did that money gone in my account.

Freelance site people - Don't play cheating game - you may think that you are playing safe by taking money - People are watching...

My Ticket Number -VAV-522-*******

I used Freelancer three times so far. I have to say that you get a lot of bids for s single project however their payment policy is the worst! First time the project was split into two milestones. I thought that they will only take the first payment I released and the second will come out of my account when it's time to pay. Not so! They took the first payment out of my credit card account and then continued to bang the card until they got the second payment. I don't think that's even legal! Supposedly they put the money into my Freelancer account. Good luck taking your money back from that account! The third project cost me overdraft fees because they took ALL the money for the three separate milestones which was over $3k. I only released one! I spent my entire day going back and fourt with my freelancer and their customer service reps just to get a bunch of lousy answers. My freelancer was just as shocked as I was. Needles to say my money is still in their Freelancer account "because the transaction is pending". Everyone who has a merchant account will tell you that transaction always can be reversed while pending. The middle man simply doesn't want to lose the money! Would not recommend this company to anybody.

Why my account closed? How can you close even i was working good. My username was topseomaster11

They also emailed all my client and asked. My clients told they got email they checking ur acc and doing investigate and they told all real facts. All client i done good job. I even have all client emails

All my client even happy with work. Why closed account kept my 300$
No one can trust freelancer i am 18 years and they scam a people have 5 stars feedback

They also emailed all my client and asked. My clients told they got email they checking ur acc and doing investigate and they told all real facts. All client i done good job. I even have all client emails

All my client even happy with work. Why closed account kept my 300$
I am worried i was doing very good work for all client even each client work done awesome. There was not single which was not happy.

Why you doing like this to a poor guy. Check my passport. I am 18 years. Please i wana earn.
Sir
Please tell me if any single clients had issue. Any issue in my work.

Please open acc as last time.

Sir please give my concern to higher team

Sir please open account by give last chance please i even dont know my mistak

Hello
I am Nidhin is a member of freelancer since last four months. I haven't faced any incidents like this that once I finished my job client released the money and gave me full rating. Freelancer site has taken the commission from that. But the money is not in my account and saying that
1) Reversal of [Done milestone payment from ludihora for project Project for kakkanattu (Partial payment for project) (USD) from 01/22/2016 at 13:38 EST] (USD) -450$
2)Reversal of [Done milestone payment from maikatitu for project Project for kakkanattu (Partial payment for project) (USD) from 01/22/2016 at 12:46 EST] (USD) -150$

Simply I lost 600$. What is it and I don't understand. How can I work in this site any more. I really need your help. Now I found that the client freelancer Address has been deleted. I don't understand this.

I got message from freelancer saying this "Hello Nidhin,

Hope you're doing well.

Understand your concern with regard to the reversed payment from your account. Our records show that your employer had issues with their account which was subsequently closed. Note that payments originating from an account which has issues will be reversed immediately for security reasons. The reason why the payments you've received from your employer were reversed is because we are avoiding you to be involved into any potential issues since that payment is questionable. Such actions are outlined on section 19 of our Terms and Conditions which you agreed when you joined our site: https://www.freelancer.com/about/terms

As much as we would like to help you recover the funds, it was reversed and returned to its original funding source and is no longer on the site. It may be returned to you by directly contacting your employers "maikatitu" and "ludihora" and ask them to settle the payment offsite.

Again, we apologize for what happened to your projects and payments. These security protocols were created with the best of intentions. We're just sorry that you were inconvenienced by them.

Thanks for your understanding and take care.

---
Regards,
Bridget B.
Freelancer.com Support

How am supposed to contact the employer as he is no longer available in the site? Help me pls

I am a freelancer and so far, only five have contacted me through the Freelancer website. One gave me a link to a different website, the second asked me where I am from and I never heard from her again, the third wants me to pay her employees with my own money before paying me, the fourth said that he doesn't really have any job for me and just wants to be friends, and the last wants a virtual assistant that shows more cleavage through skype.

They stole my money. Scam website. Deposited money and when I wanted to transfer my left over balance back to my bank account they preformed over a dozen transactions and money disappeared. Not in my freelancer account and not in my bank account. When you open a ticket to solve the problem they send a message they will get back to you in a few days. UPDATE: I got a response from freelancer.com the same day and my problem was resolved. Instead of depositing my money to my paypal account like I asked they deposited it instead to my credit card. Still confusing why there are over 10 transactions for a simple single withdrawal of my own funds. At the end of the day I got my money back.

I took their basic numeracy skills test so I could add something else to my profile to show to prospective clients. Their tests - or at least the ones I looked at - cost $5.00 plus a processing fee of around $0.42. Here's an actual question exactly as it appeared on the test I took:
"John eat 2 pieces of apples a day. Now, is Thursday, but he remembered the his apples left after eating apples during Monday are 30 pieces after that, he gave the half of all his apples to her daughter. How many apples left, if today is Friday after eating the two pieces of apples?"

At least three other questions on the test had issues, such as multiple correct answers or no correct answer. Needless to say, this is completely unprofessional, especially considering these are paid tests. How can I showcase my skills to prospective clients with a test like this? After the test was completed, there was an option to add more questions to the test. It looks like they don't even verify new questions for accuracy.

I contacted customer support and 4 days later I was told they do not refund the exam fees. Instead, they offered to let me take another exam for free and they offered me one free month of the lowest paid membership option. First, there's no way I'm ever taking another exam for that site, free or not. Second, because of the exam that I did take I was already eligible for one free month of a higher-level paid membership, so offering me the lowest one is completely pointless.

Based on this experience and the countless other reviews I've read about this site, I just decided to cut my losses and run. I advise you all to avoid this shady site.

Freelancer Fraud Money Eater Scammers
I have participated in Wow Freelancer Profile *******$ Contest and All *******+ Freelancer have Lost their Money.
They Have cut All money who have participate in Contest. I have lost my 1000$. I have contacted so many time what they said you know fker sker mother...

"This was technical Glitch & Problem we can't refund your money"

Why Mfker you have not debit more money from problem or glitch. This fking truth about those mofkers. Don't participate or post project on freelancer quit freelancer then they will know their limit of fraud fker.

Thanks

I am a new user a freelancer and mostly have had a "OK" experience. Last month an employer decided not to pay for weeks, so they could keep asking for updates every time they wanted them. The project did not mention "unlimited support", so I thought going into arbitration would reveal the clear lies from the employer on Freelancer messenger. However, in spite of screen shots showing the delivered products, clear communication between employer and myself showing the the employer was being abusive, I lost the arbitration.

The employer is now allowed to continue with this behavior without penalty. On this one project they had already fired four freelancers without pay, so it is a loss for Freelancer.com for workers. It is a win for employer.

But I think that the idea is simple. The people that pay win. This employer had 5+ active projects and many others finished. It does not matter how bad their reviews are because they are spending money. If you are working on a project take every precaution to protect yourself! Freelancer.com will only protect there revenues by protecting the party that spends the most on their site. Good Economics!

I receive this messages via Freelancer.com messaging system. Quote:

"get the $#*! outta here" and "let me tell you how it works you > suck > my $#*!".

When I report this messages to Freelancer.com - nothing happened. Support explain me: my report will be checked for Terms of Service conditions.
Since author of this messages still active at Freelancer.com I can imply: his mother language is not contrary to Freelancer.com TOS.
I am not native and I don't know Australian business rules. May be these messages are common way to communicate via Freelancer.com Author describe his self as "CERTIFIED GOOGLE PARTNER".
My overall rating is correct: I really want to share my story to the entire world.
Also you know: when site working smoothly - no one bother to write review. As soon as I receive "get the $#*! outta here" and "let me tell you how it works you > suck > my $#*!", without any relevant reaction from Freelancer.com staff, I decide to write this review.

Though many reviews posted here already paint a clear picture of the poor management of this site, I wanted to provide my own recent experience with them.

Having a very specific focus and skill set within a small, well connected industry, I came to learn that someone I knew through my professional network had had begun a project and was in search of contractors. I searched through numerous other websites until I discovered that they had posted about the project here.

I was ultimately selected as the contractor for the project as I have extensive experience and insight into the industry. Though we had no contact with each other during the course of the bidding process, I was required to perform extensive "identity verification" which was anything but. Despite their own TOS and UA forms stating otherwise, I was told that anyone with a pre-existing connection cannot perform business on their platform--though I have not had any contact with the buyer in years (having met more than a decade ago). I have since contacted the buyer directly, and we will no longer be using Freelancer for the entirety of the project.

Why would someone want to use a site where the only potential contractor is someone who is not of the same industry and does not have the necessary knowledge?

Be careful! Fraud! Don't use the services of Freelancer.com!

Hi! I want to share my experience about Freelancer.com. First thing I can say – I was very dissapointed. First thing you have to do when you come to this platform – you need to register and to provide information about your credit card for "verification of your identity". Ok... Then you start to bid, then you find that most of the projects there are fake and there's no guarantee that you will be payed for your job – as for me – I've made a work for one project, and then employee just stopped answering me, so I remained not payed for my job, and my appeals to the support team of Freelancer.com didn't help. At the same time for this project Freelancer.com charged me (from my credit card) with 5 euro. So the fees they are taking for projects don't mean that they gonna protect you in any way. Then appeared one strange project created specially for me with name "project for rafaellaburtman" - this project was prorosed to me and awarded to me and inspite that I didn't accept this project Freelancer.com took from me the fee in amount 15.38 euro from my credit card without my agreement. Much time passed and I still didn't get my money back.

Conclusion: when you try to work on Freelancer.com you lose money, but not gain. I've lost 20 euro while just trying to find a job there – so my advice to all Freelancers is to find another source and not to be a victim of frauders.

I started on this site in 2014 December. Since than i made decent money on this site. This site is not scam but have poor management and services. If you will work carefully on this site you can make some good money.

1. don't upgrade to higher membership instantly. Take step by step from lower to higher as you make money and come to know more about site.

2. Don't buy any test to take ( They are useless) Clients barely see them. But don't miss the opportunity of taking tests when freelancer offer them as free of cost. Happened to me many times.

3. Dont Bid on all projects you see on freelancer. Just bid on verified clients. I do expect that you might miss some new clients but there is less possibility of getting scammed if you choose to work with verified client with 1-2 jobs completed.

4. DONT WORK WITHOUT MILESTONES FUNDED. Set up yours milestone and always ask client to release the freelancer fee ( On fixed price projects) before even you start working. Which can be 3% to 15% of project cost depends upon your membership. Also on hourly jobs don't work without milestones hours funded. This is very important 99% of the time you save yourself getting scammed from scammer clients.

5. Verify your profile before you start working on this site so save some hassle with site like Withdrawal or dispute process.

6. I do agree that Chat support or ticket support of this site is too poor which need to be improved.

7. For clients kindly hire people with good success rate and on decent price. I guarantee you wont be disappointed with work.Not all freelancer are scammer. There are some serious people.

8. Last but not least try to learn more ways to work on this site if you set yourself up well on this site there are lot of projects and money you can make from this.

I wish everybody great success and Wish this site to improve their support.