oDeskReviews 140

The worst thing with oDesk is that they don't care about quality of work done by freelancers, and even if a freelance did something you never asked him to do, you'll be made to pay. If you refuse to pay they will pass your debt to a Debt Collection Service. It is disgusting! I administer a website - svetoch.org, which is a simple site. It was time to update it and I went to oDesk. I found a guy from Pakistan who seemed to know the things required for updating. He did something and I paid the first invoice - about 42USD but when I saw the results I was really shocked because the guy from Pakistan did the things I never asked him to do, and for which I had to pay. I emailed him and canceled the contract. But it was too late the guy did some work for another 75USD. I thought that oDesk staff will review my correspondence and will protect me. But they took the side of a freelancer. Now I got an email from a Debt Collection Service called TrueAccord. I will never ever approach oDesk on any request and I really regret the day I hired a freelancer on their site, and I’m going to share my opinion with other people who may fall victims of their dishonest service not caring about customers.

They accepted a job, I interviewed the guy over Skype. After 10 days, 4 days before deadline, nobody responds :)) ) They hold onto my money for two weeks and simply refunded. I contacted the customer service the guy said do not trust freelancers, it is not oDesk responsibility! Bunch of losers, I wish I could take them to the court.

Be warned, they will hold on to your earnings with no explanation and do not reply to your requests to have your funds released. They have essentially stole over $150 from me... and there are plenty of other freelancers that have reported this behaviour as well!

ODESK is terrible! Absolutely terrible! My complaint..."I applied for 8 jobs yesterday I wrote cover letters to all of them. You have decided to suspended my account. So the jobs i applied for are not being seen. Is this fair to you? I have resolved the problem you said i was suspended for yesterday, yet my account is still suspended! I want to make an official complaint about your site! As it is wasting my time and money! I find this absolutely disgusting behavior!"

Good difference between oDesk and Elance is that oDesk doesnt have a paid membership option. But oDesk fees are 10% compared to Elance 8.75% fee. When you register you can submit 2 job applications at a time.

I found it tough to compare Elance vs oDesk, because they are owned by the same company and in overall oDesk or Elance – there is no big difference. The biggest oDesk competitor basically is Freelancer with PeoplePerHour being new disruptor in market.

Pros:

- Free registration, no paid membership ensuring you don't have to use limited version of website.
- Anybody can find work on Elance because of big user base.
- Secure place to get paid as Odesk takes part in money exchange, by asking client to put money on Escrow before project is started.

Cons:

- oDesk charges is 10% for every completed project. Fee on 4k/per month = $400 + 1.5% fee for withdrawal.
- Unreliable corporate support – reviews indicate people had very bad experience with support. People were suggesting not to waste time with support and that you will be better off by trying to solve issue on your own.
- Tough place for creative professionals, web developers and WordPress experts – usually lower bidders get the project and quality is not being appreciated. (Ok, quality is always appreciated, but price doesnt indicate that).

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/

I have been working in Odesk 7 months permanently. I consider Odesk an excellent virtual place for working. I have never had problems with the website or with the payment methods. Odesk Support team have given to me answer to all my question in less than 1 business day.

Regarding finding a job, It is like find a job in any other place. If you send your profile and You can proof It is non-fake and if you fit properly with the job, there are high possibilities to get the job.

I recommend to do the Odesk Test, because it helps a lot to your profile.

Any help or information, It is my email.

*******@gmail.com

I have NOT had good luck with these goobers. I think they're stealing my idea to make their own app. I contacted two of their programmers. After I had them sign an NDA, to told them what the app was that I wanted them to make. After that I've heard nothing from them. I contacted their management and all they could do was offer me paid assistance to find another freelancer. Also be aware the Elance and Odesk have merged so, they're one in the same. Baaad juju.

As the one stars indicate. It cant get any worse. I have finally received an answer to the big question that many freelancers have been asking about the so called "review" that no freelancer is told what is being reviewed. A review usually at any workplace has a purpose to improve the performance of the employee. Hence the employee is told what the review is about, including weaknesses and challenges to work on and advantages and strengths.
In Odesk, a review has nothing to do with the freelancer performance. However, this is illegal and so odesk will never tell you that directly but they will tell you that in their immoral actions.
We all assumed that a performance review has a reason and a purpose of performance improvement. However, this is not the case when it comes to Odesk. Several freelancers expressed their suspicion that it is merely a vindictive action that Odesk would use to paralyze freelancers should they not like a comment you published somewhere or said about their reliability and accountability. Oddly enough instead of standing tall and showing how credibility is important to them, they turn into gangsters who possess a very low level of professionalism and would follow actions to not allow the freelancer to apply for new jobs in order "to teach him a lesson" and to show some muscles. I was shocked to realize that. To be more specific the trash who call themselves management are the ones behind this very low class behavior. Customer service do only copy paste of the manual and that is why you will never receive an answer to your questions. It is not by accident that we all never get our questions answered when it comes to the so called review regardless of how nice and respectful you treat them. The so called "review team", is not a team but it is actually people who really dont know anything more than what is included inthe "copy paste" responses that they keep sending out regardless of your question.
As a business that runs behind the screen, there is a person if that what he is really, is the one who follow vindictive behaviors in odesk and he is not customer service. This is really the reason for the so called "review" that every single freelancer I know on odesk encountered without knowing what it is about and hence makes some freelancers who can be excellent and hard working people start doubting themselves and I have seen this, sadly enough, happening on several forums online.
What I want to suggest is that we should really consider a law suit against odesk for unethical conduct of business and we should consult with an attorney about that. I know they are located in California so a lawsuit should be filed there against them and to bring them to justice and question the motives and the content of what they say is called a review. If you work for odesk you are running a serious risk of dealing with low class and gangsters. Be careful.

I am still trying to look for project on oDesk but I would say it's sad when you see the demoralizing offers coming from oDesk employers. Being new to oDesk doesn't mean a freelancer is new to "working for someone or for an entity" at all. Why would you offer people from the Philippines 10 cents per hour? Some even entice us to give up 5 stars after getting the job done if we accept such rate. ODesk should block abusive employers who post job vacancies with rates offered way below decency.

I'm a freelance illustrator and I find most of my clients completely clueless when it comes to labor and time. I have poured so much time to apply for jobs, I've applied for dozens during a day. I've put out my best work, links to all of my websites and my images. I understand that this is a free-range market, but I find it maddening that a lot of contractors don't want to pay for a decent wage. I see a lot of people complaining on here how they hired contractors and then got terrible work?

Well, there you go. This website is a prime example that you get what you paid for. I ask for a decent wage of 9-11 an hour, and I am overlooked. I've applied and applied, but most contractors are too cheap and go for cheaper individuals, most often, people well outside of my country and language. It's ridiculous. I've earned more through commissioned fanart than I have through oDesk. I would like every contractor that complains about hiring freelancers to consider actually forking over money for people who ask for a decent wage, because you just may end up with a decent result! Honestly, serves you right if you don't want to pay a good wage.

I am surprised no one has mentioned multiple accounts. If you put into the job search Ebook writer you'll dozens of new accounts all saying the same thing. It would seem if the client got a bad review, he'll close the account and uses another. It is very easy to open multiple accounts as one can have up to eight email addresses in a single PayPal account, and these can be changed at will.

Odesk must be aware of multiple accounts and turn a blind eye. I am thinking of developing a native speaking English agency for professional with a minimum wage for all writers and developers. This will give clients confidence as well as for those seeking work.

I sincerely advise any professional not to sign up for this service. Once you did, you should keep your expectations near to zero when it comes to customer service. The staff is group of young people who have no formal education beyond high school and who understandably work only to get a pay check. Instead of talking business, you will face a group of high school graduate who are trying to become your therapist. The one thing that you will hear is discussing your feelings, your projections and transferences and showing you understanding to how you feel like any therapist does. If you want free therapist, then odesk team is the place for that. If you are looking for a writing career and true customer service that knows the business, then they have no idea what you are talking about. You can try, but expect troubles with their lack of knowledge but plenty of free therapeutic emails that had nothing to do with your work.

Our developer held our site and code hostage. Repeatedly swore at us via email. Promised for months to finish the project. Do not hire **! Blackmailing us and taking our code hostage. Took days to respond to emails. We set up video chat which he never responded to. He made continuous excuses and blamed us. Do not hire this man he will waste your time and money.
**[personal info redacted]

Terrible site to work with. We have tried a lot of contracts with Odesk and it always goes poorly. You either get incompetent people who overstate their qualifications or people who don't finish things on time.
Also, Odesk seems determined to make as much money as they can by continually increasing the minimum wage to increase their revenue. They are not responsive and we have disliked working with them immensely.

I'm an honest person and a hard worker with a profile full of excellent feedback, but Odesk pulled the random "your account is on review" trick on me as well. After emailing them for a few weeks, I was finally told that the review was complete and that my account had been reinstated. When i went back to check it out, I still couldn't apply for jobs after an entire month. I can't run my business like that, which is why I've never been back to Odesk to see if the problem was fixed. I'll keep my 10%, thank you very much... DO NOT USE ODESK!
UPDATE 1-18-15: Once my account was finally restored, it took two weeks of emailing them back and forth to get the geniuses at Odesk to CLOSE my account. Good. Lord. Do not use.

ODesk's support system SUCKS. A year ago, I had my legal name changed after my marriage and they created hell for me. They did not update my legal name and simply approved my profile. Six months later, all of a sudden, they decide to block my bank account, stating it did not comply with my legal name. I've spoken to 5 different agents and all lead me to a buggy link that does NOTHING. I am considering to SUE them, big time! I have been using the platform since 2011 and this is a very pathetic experience for me. Very disappointed! Their platform is extremely buggy and their agents are nothing less than robots. You cannot get a problem solved from them.

ODesk assisted a non-performing programmer to defraud at least $1000 from me after doing no work and lying about delivery. They recovered a small portion but let him keep the rest while they kept me dangling with review process and no means of notice. Caveat emptor! I will be very careful if I ever use odesk again and probably avoid it. -Professor John Amaral

I signed up at odesk.com 2 weeks ago I applied for a couple of jobs with no response for interviews. Then last week I received an email for an interview by client, was interviewed thru AOL IM go the job was told I would receive a check, which I did it was a Cashier's Check in the amount of $3,275, took check to my bank found it was a fraud no funds available. Thank goodness my instincts were correct. Reported to odesk.com however the job posting is still live. This week received another job interview was told I would receive a cashier's check, don't know amount, the woman wanted to "test" my skills and how well I took direction(s). After being scammed once I sent a response thanking her for considering me but I do not accept cashier checks due to previous incident. My issue is odesk.com does not seem to care enough to take action against these scammers. So I closed my account with them. No good reviews from me. I understand that not all scams will be found by odesk.com however if a client is reported it should be investigated and if needed action taken!

Odesk is a Worst Freelancing Platfrom... You dont have a Secure Future on odesk. As a Freelancer I am saying this with responsiblity.
I have Started working on odesk in 2011 and I have worked 4000+ Hours. 30+ Successful Contracts
All feedbacks are excellent even one is not worst. Here are step by Step Details How odesk Ruined my life's 3 Years
1)At the Start if 2014 my Job Apllication start going in Hidden tab(The Worst Feature of Odesk Client Profile). If your Application start apprearing in this tab that mean you are not Going to be hired anymore.
2)I contacted Support Team, And They Said(We have some private Issues and We can not tell you about them.)
3)Second time I contacted them (They Said You are involved in a Dispute) I checked my Dispute section and there is not even single Threat.
4)Third time I contacted them They said Keep Applying you will get Hired. I was not hired Even after Six months.
5)And now my application are not Showing any where on odesk.

I prefer every one not to join Odesk, may be in start you will get Job and you think you can make a Successful Carrier on odesk. But after that there will be nothing for you.
Dont waste your time with odesk. It worst... truly worst.

Thanks
Unknown..