FreelancerReviews 20,202

Hi

So I did everything that MUST be done from MY side, a new NORMAL employer registers on freelancer.com, and posts a NORMAL project that he was having some problems with this website viewing on iOS devices... Now I(almost 5 years on freelancer.com) bidded on this project and SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED it, and both me and the employer left each other excellent feedback.

Now when it comes to withdrawing MY correctly WORKED money, I get a "withdrawal cancelled" email that the money I want to withdraw came from an account that is under review now... so freelancer.com WANTS for no reason to Verify the Newly registered NORMAL PERSON employer... and I for no LOGIC reason can't withdraw MY WORKED money out because they have THEIR "issues" with the employer... Freelancer.com really should think about Their FREELANCERS because it's because of us why your site is popular and why you have millions of $$! It really feels like a total SCAM and this is against ANY LAWS to keep my money for no reason from my side, it's MY worked TIME and POWERS!

I will continue writing about this ALL over internet so people know about your "affairs"!

I'm completely disappointed in freelancer.com

I had high hopes for the Freelancer website and actually traded some Freelancer shares in the ASX around a year ago.

I created an account 4 days ago and deposited $40AUD.

I took two exams and thought they were $5.50 USD each, but didn't realise there were all these transaction/ currency conversion fees associated with them (I thought this was an Australian company and I'm based in Australia - how does this work?).

I started bidding for some projects and was misled into believing that sponsor fee would only come out if a project is won and also that the sponsor fee would come out of the employer's fund, not mine.

I was awarded one project yesterday. The employer had not deposited any funds, but I was already charged the project fee.

Upon reflection, most of the project descriptions are very vague and are probably fake projects so that the site can siphon money from the hopeful work-seekers.

I sent in highly private information such as my identification docs and credit card details. I hope the company abides by the Australian law and terminate my account properly – i. E. permanently deleting my private information.

I only thought to look into others' review of the site after my bad experience, and there are so many awful reviews out there.

I have promptly terminated my account and will raise this matter with the ACCC and have them look into the operation of the Freelancer site.

I'm not sure how an Australian business can operate under this sort of ethics.

This is a dangerous site and it would seem that a lot of people out there have lost a lot of money. This is simply not right. Stay away!

Completed a work from a buyer that start acting fish (pushing to have source code before project completed)

I open a dispute, the buyer agreed to compromise to a bit more than half the price (after i had to pay an hefty $50 fee to freelancer) and I send him the sources... make my withdrawal and after days the withdrawas has been cancelled by freelancer beacuse "Funds originated from an account that is currently under review" - i can but suppose the buyer made somethings to have his account blocked and so my founds too!

BUYERS CAN EASY CHEAT YOU: THEY CAN JUST OPEN A PROJECT, EVEN PAY YOU AND THEN DISPUTE WITH FREELANCER AND YOU WILL HAVE WORK FOR NOTHING!

I signed up, had two jobs done ($30 and $35). I paid the money, and found out when my credit card company called because there were a LOT of charges being made. So, looking at the fees, I got charged for each project, I got charged for creating the job, I got charged for using a credit card, and I got charged for a deletion fee (on a job I had just paid for?). A chat with customer service said I was being charged some of those fees by my credit card company (Mastercard), which they said was absolutely not true.

Bottom line? With all the fees Freelancer.com adds, the total I paid was $79.26 for two jobs that I paid $65 to have completed. That's a 21% fee rate to use this site! There are so many other sites to use that by going elsewhere you cut the cost by 10%-16%

Bottom line? What should have been

Freelancer do not really protect buyers from fraudulent sellers. I had a designer who completed 75% of my website and I was releasing milestones bit by bit. Then the designer suddenly stopped and I never heard from them again. I asked Freelancer the step it as I had lost over £500 and had nothing to show for it. Freelancer refunded me £150. I asked for the designers details as I wanted to take them to court but Freelancer would not give them. I kept asking Freelancer customer serivce for help but they took me round in circles. Eventually I opened a paypal case against Freelancer to get my money back. When this happened. Freelancer took down a milestone I had with another designer and stole the money. This was in the beginning of October and it is not mid-November. My account is still limited and my money is still gone (£815) in Total. This is a pathetic company with 0 customer service. I hope no-one has the misfortune of dealing with them.

They charged me $10 for two tests, that were very poorly written, and in doing so debited one of my accounts. Later, they blocked me for security reasons to verify my identity, even though they had taken money from my account for worthless exams? 15 day hold on first withdrawal, and will not allow more than one withdrawal to be processed at same time. 10% take up front, whether client pays or not. Convoluted site. Just avoid them. It is no accident that there are scores of one star reviews here.

Did the job, Client did not pay, on top of client gave me 1 start review. Customer services is beyond useless.The fees charge by this company 10% should protect the freelancer against scams and unpaid job. Charging fees for nothing make this site a joke of itself.

I got in contact with *******@freelancer.com. I will report on further developments on this issue.

Update 1: one week went already and I still waiting for and answer from CS Lara from Freelancer. This only can lead to one conclusion. There is only a few people posing as a big company. Poor customer services shows that the business model is good but badly executed. Please stay away from this business. It will be very late when you realize you have hit a wall. Then again you have been warned!

I won a contest many months of 100$ and they cut 10$ for commission and today is November still struggling to get my payment before I tried their Express Wtthrawal payment not reach and by mistake when we trying to withdraw my husband deposited 80$ not get refund and so many times i message but nothing happen now from one month I want to change my mobile number they ask me to verified my info by giving them my identity proof so I have uploaded my passport scan copy but still they said its not proper than what is the proper id they need. I am really fed up. They asking me for my bank statement for 3 month I am house wife in Kuwait not earning. Why they giving me loan I asked for I am asking for the money what i had win from my contest and the money what by mistake we deposited..

I did the job, I spent 4-5 hours doing and redoing the job due to employer demands, and finally the client was satisfied, the job was accepted and payment released. I probably made the mistake to give a "only" 4 stars review to this employer for poor communication from the start, which he complained soon after. But a week later I was notified that the payment from this employer was "reversed". Apparently he made a chargeback. All the work for nothing, and not only this, freelancer.com just took my project fee happily and they say this is non refundable, after all, I agreed with terms and conditions. I entered in contact with support and they only say the fee is non refundable. I asked if there is any way to prevent this from happening in the future, they say "unfortunately no". I asked, if the project was *******$, then I would have paid 5000$ non refundable fee and there is nothing from keeping this from happening, right? He said "thats correct". I don't know if others sites like this have the same policies, but from now on I'm out of there.

I've been working on freelancer.com for many years with 5 star ratings, although I was never happy with their process of taking fees compared to other reputable sites (like Elance and Upwork). Instead of taking the fee from the freelancer once the project is complete and the client pays, FL takes the fee as soon as you accept the project. So if the client doesn't pay you, you're screwed and FL still made their money. Just yesterday, I completed a project and had $33 in my account, so I set up a withdrawal. I logged in last night and happen to see my account suddenly had only $5.18 and when I went to the financials page, it said I didn't have enough funds to withdraw. So after looking through the transaction history and deciphering all of the accounting lingo, I figured out that FL had reversed a payment I was paid 2 months ago on Sept 1st by a client! I emailed them asking what was going on but have not received a reply. I saw that the client profile was removed so I can only gather that somehow the client's payment method was bad. But why did it take 2 MONTHS for this to turn about? And what is the point of creating a milestone payment, which is supposed to protect a freelancer and ensure we are paid, if the payment method and funds are not 100% verified and available? FL should make sure of that before a client is even allowed to post a project. That seems like a total scam! So now I am out money, and the project I did for that mystery client was basically for free since FL took the money back and I cannot believe they can get away with it. How is this not illegal?

Many paid services, with no real help and support. Create virtual customers and projects. I, as a performer, undertake for the execution of the project, and the customer disappears without even presenting details about the project. As a result, I am unable to even start the project. Service debits from my account Brokerage and my claim says: "through our service, you communicate with the customer, which means we will have a service." And this is despite the fact that I make monthly payments for the use of the service. Contacting Support - completely meaningless!

Update 01 Feb 2016

No one responded back except canned responses. My amount is still pending. They held it ( after 6 months of the job completed) because they had dispute with client and client close the account.

What is my fault?

Update date: 17/*******:
Good to see, freelancer responded to my review but action is still awaited.

FL Team - Here is a ticket number #IAU-645-*******, my hard earned US$600 is with you from the last 5 months, you got from client but you but you dont intend to release them to me.

Client assigned the project, client's phone number was verified, email verified, payments verified. We completed the project, client released funds, everywhere business was usual.

After 2/3 weeks, when I raised the request to withdraw the money, I was surprised, funds were not released to my bank.

No intimation was given to us why the funds were not released.

When I enquired, I was told, FL tried to reach client & client was not reachable hence funds are witheld with FL.

There was nether second attempt to call client nor intimation to us which lead to believe, FL wants to just keep the money with them.

We have done work of $30K+ on FL with 5/5 star rating always but such practices are not good and healthy sign of any market place.

I finished my first job and I've got 120 USD, money that I couldn't withdraw because some Australian law. They said I should wait for 15 days to get the money.
In the meanwhile I was award with another project, a weird Brazilian girl that was willing to pay 1500 usd for a project that use to be rated less than the half of it. (I suspect that it's a fake created by freelancer) I was confuse because she seems to didn't know what she wanted, She was asking me what to send me, instead of tell me what she want me to do.
When I accepted the project, the girl disappeared and never show up again. Freelancer took the fee, the money that I earn from my first project and 48 more from my bank account. And now they said that they will not give me my money back.

Update: Finally (one month later), they gave me my money back.

Mechanism of stole my money:
1. I am accepted project
2. Requested millestone
3. Finished project
4. Then client gone and not reply
5. I have won dispute and got money on my balnce
At this stage I am relaxed and started to withdraw process, but came on hold for 15 days.
6. Now logged in into account and see that MONEY GONE FROM MY ACCOUNT! And deleted client account.

My purpose: LET US COME TOGETHER AND FILL CLAIM against them with Australian layers, as I think its common problem.

They charge money for exams where questions have ambiguous options and spelling mistakes like a grade 1 student would write. Intentionally done, so that every freelancer have to take more attempts and they can enjoy the money. It seems the person was driving under influence who set question papers. I am MCSD certified developer with 10+ years of experience with a successful track record with fortune 500 customers with a wish to develop my small business and these cheaters are robbing off all my money.

**UPDATE -after this review, in revenge, they immediately limited my account so that I cannot do any more business**

**UPDATE - I decided not to answer them and close my business. Now they will NOT REFUND my deposited money**

**UPDATE-12/14/2015 - Trying my best to get the deposit back. Still no luck. Please wish me luck and completely abandon these cheater using your social networks. Lets stop these guys from making money leveraging the bad situation in job market and bottom feeding. They will destroy the career of graphic designers and web designers.

My only fault was I protested against their exams full of typos and ambiguous answers which compels multiple attempts and they are unethically making a lot of money.

I wish I found this website before I lost 3 days of my wages on 2 projects which were never received and freelancer.com DO NOT protect you! One freelancer took my project, then never delivered ANYTHING and I STILL had to pay the project fee! What the hell for? I didn't get anything out of it, expect a loss of time and money! Do yourself a favour, do not use this website!

*Update: I have contacted live chat customer support of 5 occasions and each time told someone would contact me "WITHIN THE DAY". No one has contacted me to this day - now 6 days after my dispute opened and they are holding almost $200 of my money!

Hi, yesterday I got scammed against a money exchange project. It was posted I bid on it. Later the employer contacted me and I sent him money on skrill account, he paid me on freelancer by releasing milestones first. Now I also paid freelancer fees for these projects also. Later I got a warning letter and money from my account was deducted. Now tell me where did that money go? To freelancer or the employer? If it went to the employer then I should get the freelancer fee refunded I believe. Why did you not sieze the payment from the employer? Why should I settle the money issue off freelancer when freelancer reversed my payments?