FreelancerReviews 20,202

Absolute insanity! My account has been put under review because a client i had in the past (one month ago) is having his account under review. They dont give any details about when or how it will come to an end, BUT i cant withdrawal any money in this meanwhile... absurd, insane, stay as far away as you can! I knew something was wrong when they award you a project and you have to pay right away 10% on comission, even if you never get paid!

Worst ever experience. I completed a project 2 months ago. That client never logged to site after completion of the project. Now they have hold my account on verification and demanding that I should ask for confirmation of that client that there was no issue with project. What the hell? Where should I find that user and why? This question is directly to user giving 5 stars to this site. Please justify their approach to verify my identity. Apart from my proofs they want that 'dead' client's response.

Sam J.
New Reviewer
4/23/14

I just completed a $100 project. The project is finished. And I am trying to withdraw the money from the released milestone. The state withdrawl ready until I get the following message: withdraw cancelled: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.
I got messages from freelancer.com customer service "We suggest that you contact your employer and advise them to coordinate with us to settle this issue."

I think several people have stated this problem. What is the advantage of escrow in this case?
freelancer.com ID: belgasoft

Well... I guess only unhappy users post reviews here, happy users have other stuff to do.

I agree freelancer.com does have some issues with payment system. That is - when an employer pays he must complete some verifications before funds become available. But funds show up on receiver account immediately - which I think is incorrect. If I see funds on my balance I must be able to use or withdraw them - as simple as that! If you need verifications then force payers to verify their accounts before they pay, not after! This is just ridiculous.

Other then that it's nice and easy to use system, way better then rentacoder/vworker in the past (I am saying that despite I was in rentacoder's top 50 top coder rating). And I am still giving it 5 stars. Freelancer.com is in no way a scam - they refunded my fees many times. Once I lost some $500 as a fee just because I forgot to upgrade to Premium account. They refunded me that money although they didn't have to. Thanks freelancer!

Cant I give 0 stars?

Whenever I try to do some work on Freelancer, something nasty happens.
I had a person who wanted some work done.
I did the work for him, he paid me the money.

Now after around 30 days Freelancer realises that the money was from a account which was fake so they just reverse the money back to the employers account.

Why should the employer get back the money? I worked for him, he paid me now its me who should get the money, but no, the money goes back to him.

Freelancer's useless STAFF says that the account is closed and that I should contact the employer directly to receive money from him. Why will the employer pay me if he is getting the work done for FREE?

They say their STUPID POLICY states that if the account cannot be verified then the money goes back to the employers card. IS FREELANCER for us or for EMPLOYERS?
Why dont you create a website EMPLOYERS.com instead?

They say Freelancer money system is the best and most trusted, my foot i think its the worst system. Even paypal listens to disputes more clearly and gives a decision which is technically right.

What does FREELANCER do?
What will they Do? Do they have BRAINS? NOPE.
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UPDATE:

NOW AFTER SUBMITTING A BANK STATEMENT THEY SAY THAT IT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, AS IT DOESNT MEET THEIR STANDARDS.

I certainly think that BANKS should CALL Freelancer and see what their standards are and then start issuing Bank Statements to their consumers, so there wont be a problem.

Hello,

I am a freelancer and registered member in the freelancer.com last 3 years I have no issues with the payments but suddenly they created verification process - even I have submitted all my documents which is accepted International level provided by my country but the are still not releasing my funds... please be careful when you work with huge projects. A genuine website you should verify when the registration. You should not stop working suddenly even I am 3 years Gold member... SOMETHING IS WRONG and I am waiting for the solution if anyone from higher person from freelancer else I we have to face legally.

I just completed a +500 project. When the employer. Deposited the money. Freelancer called them to verify etc. So they checked out and freelancer accepted their money. So they could create a milestone. Now the project is finished. And im trying to withdraw the money from the released milestone... They state withdrawl ready for 24apr. Then the morning of 23april i get the fillowing message: withdraw cancelled: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.

I started emailing them earier today. But they are not replying.

I really dont want to get scammed. If they dont reply asap. I will have the client file a chargeback i guess...

EDIT: Marcus sent me an email saying he will look into it (that doesnt help me) and they are also trying to 'help'e trough twitter. Pointing me to a support ticket wich i cant seem to get to...? Cant login to support and not received ticket email?

Freelancer "support" is pathetic. Their help desk staff copy and paste replies without reading the actual problem. I had my account suspended (no reason given) and had to submit documents to verify myself. Its a ridiculous procedure (google for more info) but seeing that my hard earned money was as stake I complied. They have responded by asking me to resubmit all my documents. My utility bill is a color scan but they bold "color" as if I sent something else. I had to hold my id with a code they sent. Used a 10 megapixel camera and all details are clearly visible yet they want a better copy? Feel free to search for "account suspended verification freelancer" and you will find tons of similar stories. Have > 10 jobs and > 5 pending milestones which I cant access. Will be updating on here soon as few of my clients are thinking now of filing chargebacks to get back the money meant for me but is now unavailable and to pay me properly.

They limited my account and detained my money without clear reason!. They ask me to upload some docs to verify my self and asked me about an employee.

There are more than $600 in my account.

I uploaded all documents they required and I answered all questions and they accepted my docs after more than 5 five attempts.

In the end, they stipulated that my employer has to upload his documents to verify their account then they will resolve the limitation for my account!

I told them, this not my problem you can ask my employee to do what you want but this isn't my problem but insisted that.

FREELANCER.COM = awful
Don't waste your time, defiantly Elance is more responsible. It seems, FREELANCER.COM wants to keep my money in its pocket. I've done 3 project there but when I tried to transfer my money, my account was get limited. Funny. I've sent all required as they want but they did not answer, I've sent more than 24 message to different parts, even Marcus, but NO ANSWER. I've tried to define a project in FREELANCER.COM and spent my blocked money in their site but it was impossible to spent my money. It seems they cheated me. Elance undoubtedly is VERY BETTER.

Oooo censorship about freelancer site:)
Freelance Ltd is supplying people with slaves, so, they they exploit them for one USD per hour. Check this:
Fraud - fake reviews to make influence on beliefs of people/customers in product:
https://www.freelancer.com/projects/Internet-Marketing-Marketing/iTunes-App-Store-Reviews-Ratings.html

20 hours per week for a monthly salary 250 USD, it is 4 hours per day from monday to friday, 80 hours per month, 3 USD per hour.
https://www.freelancer.com/projects/Internet-Marketing-SEO/Create-backlinks-youtube-videos.*******.html

There are many more, very often one USD per hour.

This website is a complete SCAM. This is the full story of my experience with this site:
http://freelancer-site-reviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Basically, be aware of section 3.1 of the terms and conditions of this site. It says:

"Freelancer.com reserves the right to terminate the participation of any User without reason..."

And that is exactly what happened to me. One day they decided to close my account, without providing any reason for this closure. I've contacted them many times, but everytime I got the same copy paste response:

Hello,
Thank you for mailing us back.
Unfortunately, the decision regarding the closure of your account was reviewed and final. Note that this has been carefully decided. Also, please note of the site's Terms and Conditions, section 3.1. Please visit http://www.freelancer.com/page.php?p=info/terms

---
Sincerely,
Chase
Freelancer.com Support

WORST SITE EVER

Hi, I recently made the mistake to use freelancer.com for the first time to hire someone to complete a project for us. The freelancer was a scammer and a very good one. He made me pay a deposit before doing any work and once I had made the payment he disappeared. Freelancer.com was very unhelpful and refused to do anything about it. I then posted feedback about the freelancer to at least warn others and this was not posted. He was also wearing a freelancer.com Tshirt in his profile picture, which made me think he was a trustworthy member. Even though I have made a complaint along with several other employers about this specific freelancer he is still verified on freelancer.com I would definitely never use this site again and have asked them to close my account and refund the milestone credit I have.

UPDATE: I was finally able to get reply from a client for this project. They say they did not receive their money back, so where is it then? Also one of support workers at freelancer.com told me that they had to give a chargeback because it was an hourly project. What a joke.

When I started on freelancer.com, some 3 years ago, it was a good website to find projects and earn decent money. Now, my latest project was the complete nightmare. Client decided to throw insults as soon as I have completed the work we agreed upon. Then said they won't pay and how I ruined their website.

After trying to calm things down for over a week, which was longer than what project lasted, I decided to go for arbitration and paid $12 in fees just for that. Some 4 days later I got an email saying that client has released the funds (funds were in milestone) and that I have won the dispute. Even got XP for that, which I find extremely useless. Went to withdraw funds, only to receive another email that withdrawal was cancelled. I checked my funds on freelancer.com and it was all there. I have sent an e-mail to their support asking what's going on.

This same day, several hours later, money was gone from my account, with no explanation whatsoever. What's worse I suddenly have a negative balance, so where did that come from? I tried sending another e-mail to freelancer.com support and got no reply. So once this negative balance has been resolved I will most likely close my account there and focus on other sites that give support to both freelancers and employers.

I have contacted live support here is the summary: I won the dispute but due to the payment being made as milestone the client was entitled to get a chargeback. They released money to my account, charged me 10% fee then took money and gave it back to the client. I am done with freelancer.com, cancelled my membership and opened a dispute for arbitration fee. This is beyond belief.

Hello,
I am using Freelancer for almost a year. I have positive experience as a freelancer. I work as illustrator and graphic designer. I just wanted to see what are experiences of other freelance illustrators and designers on Freelancer, so I just googled the "experiences from Freelancer". I must say I was surprised to see problems people have. Although, I do see what are they talking about. When I started working on Freelancer I've noticed there are "suspicious" projects posted- employers with short/odd briefs, or if they start communication-communications doesn't work. So from this two things- I make some conclusion about employer. Also, I demand from Employer to create the Milestone before I accept the bid-as it only becomes active when I accept the project. From the other side, I see there are freelancer who bid on the project in seconds after the project is posted (i am not sure how).

Regarding employers, I have positive experience. Just a few were "difficult to deal with", but no one was fraudster. So I kept 5 star ratings and I am pretty happy. I've continued to work with about 30% clients outside Freelancer.

I also work on Elance. The difference is there are less those "scam" projects. But I tend to ignore them. Also, as someone mentioned in his review, freelancers on Elance do read their brief- so there are no this "quick" bids.

I am really sorry for bad experiences for both side.