Freelancer.com
reviews and complaints

İn freelancer i take a project and employer created a milestone, it was 888 dollars. i start to work because i trust freelancer. milestone was created. and i finish the job. i was waiting the employer release the mile stone but i saw my employer account and project was deleted. and the freelancer sended funds to employer bank account. and freelancer now say me contact to your employer outside of the website. but i have no contact. they said it is your problem. but this is a security problem. they have to pay me money. problem is between employer and freelancer. if employer create a milestone you cant send it to his bank again.

I am Shim Vijay and I am a reputed freelancer on Freelancer.com. I want to know if others have faced similar situations like what I am facing right now.

I had someone from Freelancer contact me (Linus C is the name) and asking me to pay a sum of $736 to an employer who had voluntarily chose not to counter against my dispute for $750. I have spoken to this employer after filing a dispute and we both agreed that the money be released to me. We both ended the call by agreeing that the payment has to be made to me by this employer. Thus, they chose not to counter my dispute (Remember an employer gets 7 days to counter a dispute whereas a freelancer gets only 4 days to counter). As agreed, the employer did not counter against my dispute and the money came to me.

Today, all of a sudden, I get an email from this person asking me to pay the employer $736. The person does not even ask me what my stand is on the issue.

I would like to know if others are facing something similar an issue. From 2011 till date, I have never had any issue with Freelancer.com. I also have some leading clients and I am a top ranked freelancer. But this issue made me come to this site and post this complaint.

Someone please advice me.

Thanks in advance !

Since, i saw many negative things around online, how scam freelancer.com? now i also started to hesitate, i did not know that much many negative commends about your company but i honestly stopped.i even thought to do every day a video agains you and a website...Because if you ask me why i am angry..! let me tell you my story...
.i have one dispute with one pakistan man...this man, i have choosen him, he told me to creat a hotel rating portal and sicussion website...he did bid ... dollar, i have choosen him, after he started to talk, after i choosen him, you budget is so low, this site can cost bla bla later i told him, if i supply my scripts, can you combine them...in normal condition, this site would created from scratch.But after his pushy way and strategy, i eccepted this condition, before work and during work, he had pushed me so many time, pay money, brother pay money...then i relase 1 2 3 milestones because of his every pushing, because i wanted to have a great site and i have trusted in this person...his user name: developer2581 and he used to have good feedbacks...indeed i am so tired to type this story again and again because when you talk, people can understand better but when you type, it has no influence...After relase nearly all payment, i even told him on our skype talk, please make a good working site...i can also open a new project on your name which is ... dollar, you can earn more...plus in very early time, before even work started, because he have pushed more money way, for me to give trust in him, i used to have 90 dollar in odesk account which i was not using, i also send this money to him...totaly till now he got from me ... dollar...nealy 3 month passed, his working style was, working on his server and later he used to upload all my server...i used to check and tell whats wrong and whats right...According to my description, most things not done, hotel gds sytem, lots of dead links, lots of function issue...To be honest this site works %50 but its not because of him, its because of my script funtionaliy...3-4 day ago we had a appoinment for last check up together...during our skype talk, he was talking to me, i was showing him what are wrongs in site...: he was writting down all...on our 4th or 5th minute...suddenly he told me, i can not waste time with this site, you work is complated. i got shock and stressed indeed...Because to pay all money before work and to get this reaction was injustice...even during our work, my server suggest me to find new webmaster because of some issue who he couldnt find...it was about rating script which is on my dispute messages board...After his last reaction, he also open dispute suddenly which was a strategy to show him self that he complated the work...His work is on my server, or on his server, i please any inspector to check it...check it with me...After he have open the dispute, i also reply to him and i also wanted justice and help from freelancer, with this stress i have type lost of messages, tickets and tickets...Because i knew, to relase money was mistake but when i was told, as freelancer we need to ask from them refund, i felt more stress because this person choosed tricky way, how many time he requested money...how many time he have pushed me...

After i saw a strange project on my account, which was a hacked... I also open one more ticket then they block me totaly :)
After all, i saw my account blocked yesterday, i have type and send ticket till nights because i wanted to let my voice hear...Because i did not steal anybodies money or occupied anyones right...after all to see my account blocked..
first, they asked verification information, which i have supplied them
second, phone verification link which it never work its a dead link always
and last today: id verification which i already send all requested data, id, bank bills, passport, my other recidence card...
is it fbi or freelancer ? I send my money them, i dont earn money ?
and after all, i also see that, THEY requesting more and more info...All are fine for security but what about my security ? A HACKED SITE OR ACCOUNT ? ? who will give me guarantee ? because of this webmaster, i lost many months, much money and now i am dealling with this things... By the way this kind of id information is needed...But as long as you dont push over, all fıne but what is this ? You are doing this all, because you dont want to protect ? You dont want to refund my lost money, i have never requested my money, i meant, , open same project on my name again since this person was trick and caused me lots of trouble...
NO one ask any, when come PAYING TO YOU money, your team even call me and added me to skype but when come to problem, why nobody near or why nobody realy call or talk to me ? why nobody listen my voice ? since i have send you all of my data and my account is still limited, plus yesterday hacked...i dont want to send more data to you because this is realy unfair...
i belive that i did not do any wrong to anybody but many to me because its on my history record...there can be lots of trick going on, there can be lots of bad people around...i will always fight against them or with this kind of portal, or with youtube videos, or with creating new website...i say again: because of this person, i had no willing left to give work to people since i am realy abused with all way on FREELANCER
if any one could call me trought skype or normal phone, things would be so easy...i was also on ebay, paypal...all of this companies have a phone number..why you dont have one ? how we will only contact you by typing ?
as a conclution, i believe that my account limited for no reason, my money taken illegaly by this freelancer and other and thats why i wanted help, support and all...i know that my account stuation is depend on people who ever read my messages on freelancer ..if they are in their good day, , they can activate my acoount, if they not they can limit more and more...
so i dont know what to say more..., i mean my being honest did not make any sense to freelancer...
But hope everybody out there hear my voice...
shorty i am sad ...
Thank you who ever you are...

Have you been victim of freelancer.com?

Me too :( I have the case opened ... with not respond from freelancer.com

Do you know that: “Freelancer founder earns $235 million – while customers of the site are ripped off “

Freelancer, an Australian registered Internet company makes millions while abusing Australian consumer laws. Caution – use this site at your own risk as Freelancer takes no responsibility.

If you want to try to contact the management team: http://www.freelancer.com/info/management.php

Here is their direct email address and phone numbers:

Nikki Parker, Regional Director, North America, Australia & New Zealand, Tel +[protected], Email [protected]@freelancer.com, or Evan Tan, Regional Director, South East Asia, Tel +[protected], Email [protected]@freelancer.com, or Jorge Azurin, Regional Director, Continental Asia, Tel +[protected], Email jorge.[protected]@freelancer.com, or Bill Little, Regional Director, Europe, Tel +[protected], Email [protected]@freelancer.com, or Sebastian Siseles, Director Regional para Latinoamerica, Tel +[protected], Email [protected]@freelancer.com

If there is not result them please follow this direction below:

1. File a government internet crime complaint with: ic3.gov/default.aspx

2. Report fraud, visit: stopfraud.gov/report.html

3. File an online complaint with State Attorney General: oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

4. File a government consumer complaint with econsumer.gov/english/report/overview.shtm

5. Report to Australian Competition Consumer Commission: accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems

6. Report to Law Enforcement: aclei.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

7. Report to Scam watch: scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900 ; ALSO asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/Complaining+about+sales+offers+and+promotions+of+consumer+goods+and+services+ASIC+site+version?openDocument#State or territory consumer affairs
8. Report computer, internet-related, or intellectual property crime: justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.html#C4

9. File a complaint with Office of Fair Trading: fairtrading.qld.gov.au/make-a-complaint.htm also: acma.gov.au/Citizen/Take-action/Complaints

10. Contact investigative reporters from TV Channels and Newspapers / magazines and all you guys will provide evidences to them. Please save all your email received from freelancer.com

11. Register complaints with as many review sites as you can "Google Reviews, Yelp, Business reporters and other private organizations ... etc"

12. Post Blogs. Minimum 1 SEO article per day till you will see the result on google, yahoo and bing.com. Spread the word by posting on your blogs, create new blogs, Blog Comments, Guess Posts and invite others to share their similar stories they faced with freelancer.com etc. Please keep posting on all social media...

You can loose money instead of earning.

My account was suspended from last 10-15 days and today when
verification was successful, i am very surprised to see my account
balance -10 $.
I checked my transaction history and 30 $ has been reversed to revoaviat
for joomla question creator jobs with out any message to me.May i know
what is this
This was the payment which i got after filing a dispute against the
employer when he was not showing interested in releasing payment and now
you are again saying to ask to emplyer to ask for payment...?
Before filing dispute I already send them several message regarding
payment .They dont reply.And when I got my payment after winning the
dispute payment has been again deducted and again i have to depend on
employer mercy?Where is the freelancer rights?

I believe with freelancer.com you must proceed with caution. What we've had happen to us is the freelancers will place a bid amount and once you award them the project often times they immediately will quote a different price and tell you that you have to repost the project. I hired a freelancer on the site to design a site for $5000 dollars, (he originally had placed a bid for $3000 dollars then right after said it will actually be $5000) after the freelancer took more than 50% of our money and we only had less than 10 percent of the site competed thus far, the freelancer asked for more money and upon further research we found that he had complaints under his real name for basically building a defective site that wont work . We also found reports from other sites that allegedly freelancer.com freelancers will hire each other for fake projects so they can leave each other fake feedback.

I've been charged for 271$ just for winning a project where a client never shown, there were no any warnings or me being agree with this condition, sure they do have agreement according to which they actions are legit, but it just unfair! Also they said that they could help to resolve any issue but in fact they stay aside saying that they just introduce you to employer and they don't care what happened next, it's their's official policy:

I raised issue to support team and they replied back
Project fees are non-refundable whether a project is complete, incomplete, cancelled or revoked. This serves as the introduction fee for the employer and the freelancer. It is likewise for the purpose that contact details would be allowed to be given by both parties immediately. Our role as an online venue is already fulfilled when the the employer and freelancer meet, agree on and work on a project.

Note that Freelancer.com is an online venue for employers and freelancers to meet and work on a project. What will happen upon acceptance of the project is beyond our scope of support neither do we get involved in the transactions and interactions between employers and freelancers. It's our part to introduce the two parties but the project's success still lies only between the employer and freelancer.

This is absolutely disgusting. Instead of earning from this site after taking suggested tests and getting a fake project. I lost my hard earned money for freelancer and they are saying they can not refund it.

to whom it may concern,
I have 2000$ in my freelancer account. I asked freelancer to withdraw my money to a paypal account, freelancer limited my account and asked me to send them my id card, and where do i live and a verification code with my picture.
after a long time they answered me:
Please be aware of Australian and UN country sanctions. We regret to inform you that we are unable to send funds to sanctioned countries.
and a URL which is here: http://www.dfat.gov.au/un/unsc_sanctions/
they said your blocked because we can not have money transaction with your country, but as law said
From 1 March 2012, transactions of $20, 000 or more between Australia and Iran are prohibited

only more than 20, 000$ is prohibited ! and they can send the money to me ! and another point was that the account I have asked them to transfer was not in Iran.
I ticket them more than 10 times and they always said wait ! i have waited from 8 Aug 2013 and still no reply.
They site is real scam and robs my money.

Slavery +fraud complicity

Everything now it's more clear.
They don't do anything, about the verification, because they are scamming people.

They charge the client fee+ project amount (That they keep)
They charge employee fee+ slavery (2/6 users can't withdraw the money for a work they done)

I personally waiting to withdraw my money for a work i've done 3, 5 weeks ago.
The client hasn't verified his phone number: - why don't u call him?
The client is suspected for fraud: - why is his account active? Why you allow him to post more projects? How he paid my invoice with freelancer invoice system, if he's suspected for fraud?

How do you try to ask them to verify?, all you do is to sent them an email.
- do you call them?
- do you sent them an letter?

According to their "term & policy" - they can hold the money for 365 days

Attentions Internet Freelancer workers.

Please do not deal or work on www.Freelancer.com. Freelancer.com is Scam company on internet. they first take your clients funds which you get paid from clients for doing work.after work done they saying your first withdrawal will takes more then 15 days Due to Freelancer.com security reasons after 1month freelancer.com limits your accounts when your payment withdrawal date comes near. then they ask you versification process.they demand your photo id. such as passport & driving LIC. then real photo holding photo id. then they need new an other photo id. then they verified your accounts & but the thing is this they not give you your money which you earn from clients they ask you to ask your clients to go through with verification. how funny is this.No one ask any questions on Freelancer.com when some deposits funds. for depositing funds freelancer.com act like innocents. but when they take your money then they ask stupid questions & waste your time too. the same thing happened to me. I give them all. they verified my accounts i have $250 in my freelancer.com which i earn after hard working jobs done for clients. Freelancer.com still holding my funds & they asking me now to ask your clients to verfied your accounts. Freelancer.com. you done this jobs its not worker issue. ;i got many bad news on freelancer.com. Currently i found A great News about Freelancer.com .Let me explain you all internet users & all world cyber Police. self freelancer.com Terrorist Funding company.they hold your funds. they sending money as money landring .all freelancer.com. Yes its true freelancer.com is Terrorist funding company. as no one taking actions against freelancer.com company.if any agency in the world take actions on freelancer.com for Money landring and Terrorist funding act.. All our world will be safe.. Please do not deposit funds on freelancer or do not hire any one on freelancer.com .it true fake company & have no SSL certificate any any Phone support too. they act like Terrorist suspicious way... Be ware all internet worker from www.freelancer.com company is fake company..

We posted a project on Freelancer.com for a website, there was several bids for the project ranging in price from £200 to £500 we chose someone who it appeared had a impeccable reputation on this site. He said that he had done this exact same project before and had the script for it and would release the script upon a milestone payment of £150 and a total price once we were happy with it of £300

Obviously to cover himself, he stated that 10 days delivery for the project. We quoted 15 days to our client for the project to be completed so allowing 50% extra on his time scales,
Once the money was paid we were provided a WordPress Plugin which is not what we asked for and in any event didn’t work at all anyway. In relation to the plugin what it is capable of if it actually worked is already available for free in Wordpress via tools/import which we have used on many occasions.

We went back to this person and told him we were not happy with what was provided and in no way matches what we asked for, he then tried to get more money out of us in which we said no. 25 days had passed with still no product supplied. So we contacted him, we then got the ### promise it will be done in 7 days, thus pushing it to 32 days. On day 31 our client contacts us and tells us either do the job or lose it. Our first ever complaint, we completed the project ourselves taking a total time of 3 hour to complete. (Not bad hey) = to £100 per hour.

We then contacted the person saying that we no longer needed his services as it was clear that we were not going to get the product from him and now after doing the job ourselves no longer needed it, we decided to open a dispute on www.freelancer.com this is where the fun starts.

Firstly the dispute system does not work, and although freelancer.com had taken the money from your PayPal account they want nothing to do with helping you get a refund based on failure to supply, however they still wanted there monthly charges relating to having an account. They suggested we contact the person through there system which we did and no response was forthcoming. After 35 days had elapsed and anyone will know this who has done a PayPal dispute that you have a limited time to dispute a transaction. I believe its 40 days or maybe 45 however,

We entered a dispute relating to the transaction and then we started receiving a mass of emails from freelancer.com (14 emails in 24 hours) we replied by informing them to close the account as we have no intentions of ever using their useless website again. they limited our account saying that its for security reasons and we need to verify ourselves. On going into the account it asks why you have done a Chargeback. (I would of thought that it was obvious why) we replied to this stating our reasons (No product supplied) or as described. We then go back to the account and this is what is stated as an answer.

“Reason: To lift the limitation on your account, please contact PayPal to cancel the dispute you have filed. Be informed that the funds are set on hold by PayPal and your account has been automatically limited by the system due to chargeback claim you have filed. As an extension of service, an email has been sent to your freelancer asking them to contact you. Please note that Employers are under no obligation to provide advance payments to freelancers. Since the funds has been properly allocated as payment to your freelancer, it should be reinstated on your account. The proper way to get the funds back is if your freelancer willingly returns them back to you as they were already released. Kindly contact the freelancer and discuss the issue in a professional manner. It is sincerely hoped that both parties will come up with an agreement that will be mutually agreeable to each other. Once done, please update the verification center accordingly for confirmation”.

As you can see they want us to cancel our Chargeback, which we have no intention of doing; however this company refuses to close the account and remove our PayPal from the system, as they want to keep taking our Money. We have told them clearly that any money being taken from our PayPal Account will be treated as fraud and should we not get a refund via PayPal we will close our PayPal Account and go to our bank to get a refund, as the payment was made by credit card the bank is obligated to refund the amount.
Receiving 14 emails demanding us to do something we consider is harassment and totally unacceptable.

I would suggest very strongly that you avoid any and all interaction with www.freelancer.com unless you want to lose your money and get harassed by Freelancer.com.

Freelancer.com is dangerous. I recently won a project, completed the project, was paid, left review, all was good. Then all of a sudden, freelancer suspends my account, tells me there was something suspicious with the transaction, refunds the money to the employer. After that was "sorted" - ie the employer still kept his money and we are never to do business together on the site again - I decided enough was enough with freelancer and that I would withdraw funds that I had deposited to move on. I tried once - freelancer enforces a wait period before withdrawing to paypal - and when I checked the status a day or so later, the transaction was no longer in pending status and looked as if it had never been there. So I tried again, same thing. Apparently freelancer only lets you withdraw funds that you earned on the site - what?! I am hoping paypal will let me open a dispute against this as I see it as the only way I might get my funds back.

Stay clear - this is a bad company. Try odesk if you are looking for online freelancers/virtual works - much safer, never have had a problem. Freelancer is a nightmare for everyone involved other than freelancer.com.

Dealing with freelancer.com has been an enormous hassle. From absurd limitations to unwarranted fees, freelancer.com is the absolute worst website for both employers and freelancers. use odesk.

Absolutely ghastly. Just don't have anything to do with them. You have been warned! Whatever you do, don't sign up with them or give them your email, they won't leave you alone and you can't unsubscribe (they ignore it when you try). Then they will keep sending you emails asking for feedback, even when you've given them feedback. Infuriating, frustrating to be treated like a number.

I've been charged for 100$ just for winning a project where a client never shown, there were no any warnings or me being agree with this condition, sure they do have agreement according to which they actions are legit, but it just unfair! Also they said that they could help to resolve any issue but in fact they stay aside saying that they just introduce you to employer and they don't care what happened next, it's their's official policy:

Project fees are non-refundable whether a project is complete, incomplete, cancelled or re voked. This serves as the introduction fee for the employer and the freelancer. It is likewise for the purpose that contact details would be allowed to be given by both parties immediately. Our role as an online venue is already fulfilled when the the employer and freelancer meet, agree on and work on a project.

Note that Freelancer.com is an online venue for employers and freelancers to meet and work on a project. What will happen upon acceptance of the project is beyond our scope of support neither do we get involved in the transactions and interactions between employers and freelancers. It's our part to introduce the two parties but the project's success still lies only between the employer and freelancer.

The experiences here are of 'workers' ... people who have done some work, and expect to be paid. They lose their money for fraudelent reasons. Yes, their hard-earned money.

But what do you say to users who want to have some work to be done? What, when they deposit some fund, then suddenly their project get cancelled or something, , , again for some fraudulent reason. They dont even bother to tell you!

If you want your money back ... damn!

Mine is a story of such a case. My freelancer.com user id is jmathew256. I happen to be a 'Standard' user - this means, I am charged 24.95 US dollar per month to have my projects executed.

After I deposit my money, and even 'complete' a project. The money is still there in my account.

Result? The freelancer I was working, who has knowledge of the confidential information of the project (as with any project) is now threatening me to publish them if I do not release the funds.

I find, all of a sudden my account is 'limited' - and unable to transfer or withdraw my funds.

You guys can test it yourself:
1. Open a freelancer.com account
2. Deposit some money
3. Try withdrawing back.
Just try, and you'll come across tons of reasons why you cannot have your money back.

Now I know the kind of scam they are working on.

Useless site... Starts automatically upgrading your membership to 50$ a month without your consent... And don't give back the money.
Cheap frauds..!

They do not care about the ultimate end user: the freelancer. They charge both sides (project creators and project bidders) and will do whatever it takes to keep the money they squeeze out of both ends.

Example #1: If you put in a bid and are accepted, then do work and are not paid (partially your fault for not creating milestones and handing in the 100% completed work before being paid, sure..), they do not give a hoot whether you get paid. Even when you complain to them about an employer not paying you, they gladly place the blame back on you and don't lift a finger to punish the thief either in the form of a negative review (you aren't allowed to leave one if the project is never marked as "complete") or any other punitive measure.

Example #2: If you accept a project that is set to earn you, say, $500 dollars, 10% is instantly taken from you. $50. Say the employer never gets back to you, follows up, or anything even results (no work is even done, etc), you CANNOT get back your $50. You can plead them, but your pleas will surely fall on deaf ears and automatons towing the company line about the necessity of following their high and mighty "policies" .. USE THESE GUYS AS A LAST RESORT, or if you do use them, TREAD CAREFULLY!