FreelancerReviews 20,198

When i have completed job according to a milestone(Completed translation of 7500 words. $ 250 USD), and sent him part of completed translation for verification, Employer demanded that i should deliver completed job to him for free (for 0(ZERO) payment). After i refused to deliver completed job FOR FREE, for 0(zero) payment, and sent him part of completed translation as a proof of its completion, then Employer elected job to a Dispute.
After Dispute was elected for Arbitration, Freelancer.com staff declared Employer as a winner, on the grounds that he was not satisfied since he did not received my job for free.
Quote from Freelancer.com Dispute Team:
"Milestone Payments are intended to be released upon the completion of all project requirements relevant to the Milestone. This includes the buyer's satisfaction with the seller's output."
It was a translation job that has taken 5 days to complete(10 000 words), and Employer was satisfied with translation of free sample he provided. After that Freelancer.com Dispute Team simply confirmed that i should have worked for free without any payment, and refused to release payment for me, solving dispute in favor of fraudulent Employer.
I have lost $25 for bidding on $250 worth job, and lost additional $12.50 for electing disptute to arbitrage. At all i have lost 5 full working days and $37.5 USD, thanks to Freelancer.com Dispute Team staff, who it seems support fraudulent Employers, since this simple fraud scheme got $25 (10% from bid on project fee) directly in Freelancer.com deep pockets.
Avoid Freelancer.com like a plague.

I am a freelance web developer I bid on a project posted by an indian employer to integrate paypal payment in his website. After finishing the work he didn't have accounts to test the payment, and said he was going to pay as he saw the site working in the sand box, but he didn't release the milestone.
I fired a dispute and attached all evidence that the work is done and he promised to pay, but freelancer ended up saying that I didn't finish on time and refunded milestone to the indian one.
If you want to be scammed go to freelancer.com

My account is about to be suspended, and my US$450 will soon disappear. Not much for some, but I am living in a third world country and the 450 dollars will help me to live for one full month and two weeks. They asked for account verification, which included the kind of photo you see in criminals profile. Then they asked for documents I did not have. The time limit to submit these is 45 days.

I asked for options. The delay for answer a simple email was up to ONE MONTH. So, I had 15 days or less to submit something. Since I am unemployed and living with my parents, one peson in support told me "you can submit a utility bill even if it is not under your name provided that you submit a proof of relation to the recipient of that utility bill".
Then, the told me in the website these kind of documents were invalid.

I had suffered sexual harrasment due a false project I was invited. When discussing the details, I was told I should have a sex-camchat with the employer. I said no and I informed helpdesk. The told me they will take care of it. Result? The poject was still here, open, and my static of always in tima was ruined. It was not the noly one of this kind of project i was invited, alwas with the same result: "Oh, yes, we will do something" and then, nothing.

Telling this is sadistic is a little too soft for what I am feeling now.

If you want to be robbed and sexually harrassed, this is your website.

The problem with Freelancer.com is that it does not protect the freelancers. Anyone can post a fake project, act like they're going to pay you and boom, you get to work for free. By the time you get a real project, you will have worked months of your time, for free. Clients such as www.jdcolfashion.com have a knack for hiring employees through this site and end up not paying, over and over again, year round. Freelancer.com must do more to protect freelancers. I would say that 90% of jobs are fake.

A typical chat with Freelancer.com support:
Me: When will me account be verified? The winner of my contest is waiting for his money.
Freelancer.com support: You have to upload documents to the verification form.
Me: I tried 5 times already, in 3 different browsers, but there's a bug in your form, it won't accept uploads.
Freelancer.com support: I will forward your concern to department X.
Me: Your colleague has already done that last week, and 2 other colleagues the weeks before. But I did not get any response whatsoever.
Freelancer.com support: Please wait for department X to contact you.
Me: I have already waited for over 3 weeks now and reported this issue 5 times before, but nothing seems to happen.
Freelancer.com support: Please wait for department X to contact you.
Me: Can you tell me when they will contact you?
Freelancer.com support: I cannot tell but I will forward your concern to department X again.
Me: I have already waited for over 3 weeks now and reported this issue 5 times before, but nothing seems to happen.
Freelancer.com support: Please wait for department X to contact you.
Etc.

So I did a project and completed it 100% and the employer sent me a payment. 2 days later Freelancer.com reversed the payment, yet they still charged me their cut. So now freelancer.com is charging me to do work. They said the employer violated their terms of services, so what does that have to do with MY MONEY? Nothing. They are scam artists. They don't care about freelancers at all. All they care about is getting their cut... which they charge you even if you don't get paid, and on top of that I pay freelancer a monthly fee. Total Scam. I am reporting them to BBB. Don't use freelancer.com lets put them out of business!

I used their services to hire a "developer" based in Bangladesh and they charged me for the same milestone twice because they said that they couldn't charge the original CC I gave them. It has been 3 months and my CC hasn't been able to resolve this issue even though I have proof of the double charge and also I was able to make a screen grab from a page on their site where it clearly shows that they were applying a credit on my acct. Needless to say that they didn't and on top of that, they closed my acct. It looks like you can't file a legitimate claim against them or they will close your acct. As punishment.

On top of everything else, the so called "developer" did on my website was garbage. The site was down for a few hours and it became slower than molasses. There is a reason the developers on that site (mostly form third world countries) are able to be willing to work for less, THEY ARE NOT GOOD!

Again one more stupid reply from freelancer. Freelancer holds my bank payment transfer as they are saying my employer told them to hold money. My employer is asking me to complete and go on working without any deposit for milestone 2. So i raise complaint on freelancer regarding the same. See below the stupid reply. I don't know what they are managing for us, when they are not able to solve problem between freelancer and employer.

This is the freelancer reply:-
Thank you for getting back us.

We do not take any side with regard to the project issue. That is the reason why we contacted you for us to know your explanation on this. We understand that you disagree with some policies on the site, do note that every site has its differences when it comes to particular matter. The site charges project fees for both parties upon acceptance of a project and this has been implemented since the site has started. This is also stated in our Fees and Charges page to let the users aware of this. Indeed, your employer has the obligation to pay you, but as previously mentioned, the project that has been awarded to you is fixed-price; thus, we highly recommend the employers to release the payment after the project completion. If you want to be paid for every completed task, the type of the project should be Hourly and not fixed-price.

Let me know what should i do in this case.

I recommend anyone to STAY AWAY from Freelancer.com.
Just take a look at their web site and ask your self: How do I contact them? Is there a number to call?

NO. There isn't!

We are a US based company and had to request our old account to be closed after they associated us with the German flag, while being in the business trip to Germany... Now they keep making our life hard, blocking our account 2 weeks after we have verified it, sent all IDs and spoke over the phone. Now they block payments released to freelancers who are working for us, causing us damage. We have been their customers from the day VWorked was acquired by Freelancer.com. I know Matt, their CEO and he knows me, but their support system and 1st tier support are handled very bad..

I used this website for almost 3 years and I have to admit my first year was good but after that things get worse even trying their standard membership for 1 year but didn't get really much project here, most of them are just fake and the sad news is every time you get hired freelancer will automatically deduct 5% on your account even if the project is fake! You may ask for a refund but it is a case to case basis and not all can be refunded. (see attached image)

I tried to focus only on joining contest since I can't get any decent jobs. I always pick the guaranteed ones knowing that It is safer but it is not! I got scam by an employer and freelancer cannot do anything about it.

The freelancer system got loopholes and it is not safe here anymore!

I made some calculations from day 1 of the contest up to the contest handover where I spend some time to finish the project and after that the money wasn't actually there, freelancer cancelled my withdrawal due to investigation or review on the employer's payment authenticity. I even got a negative balance, what the hell? They just manipulated my account and fix the problem but I never got the price. For almost 2 months they failed to verify the payment.

I asked freelancer support about the verification process but they don't want to share this; to avoid users on abusing the system… it's like they just admitted that their system sucks!

I suspect that they only verify the employer's payment authenticity after the contest handover is done. Imagine doing all the employers request during the contest and contest handover and after that you'll just gonna find out that you got scammed? Do you think this is fair?
They even deleted the contest page where I won. Why?

They offered me a free standard membership for 4 months and told me that they can help? How can that be? As I've said earlier I already tried this standard membership for 1 year and even switch to lower memberships, didn't any good ones. You also have to make sure that you money on your freelancer account before you start bidding.

I attached some screenshots, try to pay attention also on the dates so you can see how long they respond.

I have read several reviews about a scam and such, but I had never experienced any billing/payment issues until yesterday. However, after a quick chat with a support team representative, I was refunded immediately. Additionally, my experience on the site has been quick job-finding and quick payments and it is definitely one of the best freelance sites out there.

I work for 4 month and make 40 icons unlimited Revision take to months. At last he open dispute and win i didn't get any $0, my proof was solid but still he win i don't understand, and all icons are still using on his website. He claim not in time not quality then why he update all icons after i ask for new milestone he again open dispute, i think this employee have some Friends in dispute team. You take 5$ very fast on new project. But at least i should get some payment he given me $0 for 4 months unlimited revisions.
And icons still using on web app, after 4 month he don't like the quality this is Movies Scene. I hate Freelncer now!

All Guys need to see these images and decide who must win the dispute. See all icons are still using by employee. His text was real proof for Freelancer my all images are fake crazy

Avoid at all cost. They closed my account without given any real reason and refuse to realse my funds back to me and claim I gave them no money.