FreelancerReviews 20,202

Account closed, money gone, you don't need to know why, just shut up and keep walking.

Freelancer.com closed my account and reversed all payments I did. Their answer was this "We cannot go further into detail with regard to this as a Privacy Policy."

So, you took my money, closed my account and kind of telling me now to "keep walking" nothing so see here.

They are acting exactly like a school yard bully. Freelancer does what they pleases and don't even bother to offer an explanation.

The worst experience ever. Hired a guy from Greece you gave me all his qualification's so gave him a chance, didn't understand anything and cause days of delay's. Tried to get payment's abck from freelancer, what a scam, asking all the time for verification but still saying you can make more payment's. Opened a case with Pay pal then get bombraded with request's from freelance to cancel pay pal dispute, but still no money back in my a/c, will not give up and don't you either, they try and wear you down delibertly hoping you will give up, but we all work too hard for our money so hang in there and bombard pay pal with all your complaint's, eventually they will withdraw freelance from there site. They have all the info they need, simple, just put my money back into my a/c, the freelancer who i hired even emailed me 2 day's ago he has refunded my money in full, but still no word from freelancer.if i don't get my money back i will sue them and hopefully get a class action going which is an excellent idea.

I was working with freelancer since it was vworker < i didn't so much work but i used to like it
Lately several things happened:
1- i was awarded a project and a milestone was released to my account then because of an issue with the employer the reversed the operation and took the money back and also the project fees after, contacting them i received a reply that this is something done when there is a suspicious behavior with the employer account ( which unfair to freelancer, it is not my problem if you are not checking employers) then honestly after contacting them again they refunded the project fees

2- i accepted a private project with 150$ then immediately i was charged with 15$ project fees ( this is something written on their website how does the charging goes) but actually i needed to reject it and the reply that i can't and i should contact the employer or they will do if i want to cancel the project and i will not receive any refund so i accepted the project and they took the 15$ and if the employer cancelled it he will not be costed anything and it i will not get my money back

I don't understand how it works but it seems to be safer to used the website as employer or fraud rather than using it as a freelancer

I need to add something
The support team are very helpful and i always get a fast response, but my problem is with the website way handling money of freelancers

At first look, the bidding system seemed ridiculous as people bid such low amounts from India, Pakistan etc. that I don't know how anybody remotely good at their job gets a look in! Also - paying for the tests? You have to pay to answer 40 questions in 15 minutes that you haven't been prepped for.
I bid for a virtual assistant job, 'company' had good reviews and had used Freelancer for a few years so thought i'd give it a go.
Next day, get an email to contact the guy via Skype to discuss the role... upon getting on Skype it wasn't the role he had advertised but wanted me to write a 1000 word essay on South East Asian education for around $20. I politely declined and he then suggested another role, being in a YouTube video for his clothing brand. It seemed (semi) legit but I was not too keen, he persisted and asked to see some non-revealing clothes from my wardrobe so I could wear them in his video. Ok... I (stupidly) showed him, on the hanger, a buttoned up shirt.
This was not good enough, he then requested I took my clothes off (on camera) to show him, upon saying no he then asked me if I had any strapless top's or a mini skirt to wear. I felt extremely uncomfortable and said so - I kept trying to politely end the conversation so he would go away but he then proceeded to tell me to take my cardigan off and stand away from the camera so he could see all of me. At this point I cancelled the call and went straight to Freelancer to report him - whilst he continually harassed me on Skype.
I have not heard anything from Freelancer in regards to this, my partner also wrote an email to them and has not heard anything. I am not going to be the first female this has happened to but I feel they could respond to mine and my partners (several) messages.
I have only been on the website for a week and after my experience and reading the reviews below I am going to come off it.

I prefer Elance. I have all kinds of issues with nickle and dime charges with Freelancer. I can not get a hold of anyone at the company and they will not refund my money for the silly charges that their competitors do not charge for. I spend all of my money at Guru.com now.

Follow up - The response they posted below is false.

If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, if you gave him a fishing rod he'd probably go on freelancer.com and tell you he was an award winning fishing mogul with a fleet of 40 ships ready to do the best work he can for you for a dollar.

The client see the bottom line and goes for the best price. Get's landed with somebody who can only just paint a smiley face using his own feces, get's burnt having being oversold and under delivered. Never to return to the site and hires a 'real' person anyway.

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is subject to opinion but the site does nothing to stop false accounts being set up with other people portfolio's, Nigerian scammers looking for you to sell things on ebay and the 'exams' they have are ridiculous, oh let's see, can I Google the answer? Yes, yes I can, wow I passed, yay, that must mean I'm a professional now. They've probably hired a 'professional social media expert' for a dollar to try and stem the tide of crap reviews on sites like this...(waiting for reply)

If you want someone with 'l33t' skills by all means go to freelancer.com however if you want a professional, try anywhere else, I hear there are some descent designers who live under rocks...

Useless completely useless scam of a site, and there's no way to stop the automatic monthly deductions until you find the very cleverly hidden secret cancel my account button - buried behind several pages (in the frequently asked questions page). I tried changing my credit car information, both: the expiration date, AND the number, to get free of this travesty but it kept reverting back and secretly billing me, Do NOT sign up for a paid account - it is of absolutely NO benefit to anyone (except perhaps a few husewives who want to pay $40 for 32 pages of illustrations. There is nothing professional or worthwhile going on here!

According to this site system, after posting project feedback, the other party gets 14 days to post their feedback.
But I see after whole 2 months and after my feedback published, they let client to post feedback and to publish after that cheater saw what I wrote for him.
After whole 1 month they let him publish his feedback.
The site is totally unfair. If you are looking to waste your time and to work like a slave according to this site crappy support, then only sign up there. Otherwise, just go to odesk.com.
They are the best.

I found 2 main problems with this site: 1) if you're a profesional going to offer your services, you will never be able to compete with those "low prices" advertised by competitors. Yeah, lots are not even living in "rich countries", 2) If you're going to hire, and get tempted, by those very low prices for everything, you may have some problems when it comes to overall quality.

I make a account on freelancer.com, my user name was petershoplok and you guys know what was strange thing, i created milestone of 150nzd to freeancer, and after 1 week i found they closed my account and money was stolen by freelancer.com, neither they paid to freelancer nor they refund to me and when i asked them whats the reason to close my account, what they told me have a look to this -

Hello,

Thank you for writing back.

AS previously stated, your account "petershoplok" has been closed by Freelancer.com administration. We offer no recourse for rebuttal for this penalty.

According to the Terms & Conditions (Section 23. Right To Refuse Service):

"We may close, suspend or limit your access to your Account without reason. Without limiting the foregoing, we may close, suspend or limit your access to your Account: if we determine that you have breached, or are acting in breach of, this User Agreement; if we determine that you have engaged, or are engaging, in fraudulent, or illegal activities"

To view our Terms and Conditions, please visit www.freelancer.com/page.php?p=info/terms

We look forward to your cooperation and understanding.

---
Regards,
Eugene P.
Freelancer.com Support

I am not going to use freelancer.com in future and will also suggest all my friends to never use this, yes i will loadge case against them and will share this thing to all of my places and what they told to freelancer.com is that funds refunded to me, liers

Freelancer.com is such a huge scamming website i have ever encountered. Recently i completed a project with employers full satisfaction and got paid. After about a month, the amount employer paid was reversed back without even letting me know.

When i emailed freelancer support, they easily replied "The funds that were used by your employer to pay for your services were disputed through their payment source. This is the reason why the funds that were already transferred to your account were reversed.

We recommend that you contact employer to remind them of their account issue so that your earned funds can be reinstated in your account."

When i contact employer he wont respond. I am shocked how can freelancer reverse amount paid after a month for the service i provided already? Now who is going to pay for my service? I am never going to use this site again ever!

It is not a freelancer's concern if Employers' fund is under dispute or account not verified, freelancer.com should keep that in mind before releasing payment. They cannot simply reverse payment just like that.

I have been using this site for a long time now, but these days they have made the site so inconvenient imposing unnecessary rules and fees. I regret to say freelancer.com has become a huge scamming platform now, if you are new users- please dont use it. There are other freelancing sites that are more safe and secure.

At least they dont "Reverse payment" once you complete project successfully.

A complete joke. I was using them since 2007 and have published over 100 projects. They used to be great. I was always able to get incredible tallent at incredible prices. But now they became Godaddy of freelance websites. Clutered, confusing, with coins and bonuses flying all arround. Complete waste of time. It shows in the quality of workers too, they are VERY, VERY LOW quality. I think all the tallented people migrated to other websites.

Freelancer.com really is the toughest place to make it. Compared to oDesk, Elance, Freelancer has the highest fees you will pay even if you get enough work.

You can register and submit 8 bids per month for free.

As with all big freelancing sites, their biggest trouble is with support and high fees. Freelancer has the lowest ratings of all marketplaces, at SiteJabber review site they have got 374 1-star ratings and 26 5-star ratings.

We did massive research about top 8 biggest freelance marketplaces out there, comparing their fees, pros, cons and how to make it out there.

Different marketplaces are for different people. You can read the research here - http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/best-freelance-websites/

Freelancer.com is scammers they thief my money from paypal under cover reason check my finance source for start first project

He reverse payment three times after 2 yr of completion project.

And gives reason that employer close his account.
Worth site, never use it. Its buggy sites and at last of year you paid more then your earning to freelancer.

In short you waste your time with freelancer.

NEVER NEVER USE IT.

I run a top website about luxury villas rental where I rent top luxury villas 10k +.
I have made assignment to someone who have bad skills and he did not made as agreed and even worse, he DESTROYED my website www.luxuryhomegate.com and in dispute I need to wait a week even both and seller and i, full field before we go on arbitration where they ask 10 dollars for. Plus?!

This is the worst website I have ever experience in my life and would not tell to my enemy to use it again.

Hi,

This was my first experience with using freelancer.com and it was worst. I posted a logo contest there and I selected winner but winner design was unable to deliver my logo as per my expectations. I deposit total 7250+ INR but freelancer.com refund only 5375 INR.

My contest id was: *******

If there is any freelancer officials here look into my case refund my complete money in my debit card from where I deposited funds.

Thanks

ku.Si.

I was assigned a project, and while chating with the employer my internet got disconnected. Employer thought I m not responding and withing 20 minutes of awarding the project declared it incomplete. $153 had been deducted from my account as freelance fee. Very pathetic system, Would never recommend it. At least you should charge when the employer has mad any payment to freelancers.

I worked for an employer last week. He provided the milestone payment (300$). I accepted the project and 30$ commission were deducted from my account.
I finished the project and money was released to me.
Everything seemed ok, but When trying to withdraw money I got this message:

Unfortunately we were unable to process your withdrawal request:
Decline reason: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.

I could not believe it since money was deposited in "my" freelancer account and I thought that was a done deal.
I contacted customer support and:
Hello Boris,

Thank you for contacting us back.

We understand your concern about the payment released to you by your previous employer. However, this is part of the verification process and will help avoid issues once you have withdrawn the funds. Note that the employer always has the option to create and release the Milestone Payment. However, there are some instances where we need to make verification to make sure that the payment can be processed well.

As a recommendation for this, we still recommend waiting for them to complete the verification. Note that this is important so they can complete the requirements and for you to process the withdrawal.

If you have more questions, feel free to contact us back.

I mean this is horrible... And how can anyone work under these conditions.
Why don't they signal on employers profile that he is not verified?
I saw some employees from freelancer offering help in review comments, can anyone from freelancer help me resolve this issue?
I would like to continue to use freelancer.com, but if this does not resolve I will never use them again.