Freelancer.com
reviews and complaints

The Freelancer creators have found an absolutely amazing way to scam people out of their money. Great job guys! This website is full of thieves and scam artists. And the Freelancer staff does not care at all.
I was scammed by one of their employees and still waiting for my money.
I've already told my friends and colleagues about this scam site and will continue to post negative reviews! Customer service never helped me, all they want is money! This place needs to be shut down!

Be careful and better stay away from this website. I think that %95 of the employees are thieves. I ended up working with a person who asked me to pay before the job was done. When I refused he had the nerve to ask for another payment otherwise he would remove some coding. He actually shut down my site until I paid him. When I contacted Freelancer customer service and asked for help, they said that there was nothing they could do and that I have to deal with the problem on my own! This website is full of scammers and customer support does not care about it. Stay away!

Hello Sir,

I am jayphprock freelancer user in freeelancer.com

I am using freelancer since 2012 and yesterday i faced the problem of reversal of done milestone. Client is already paid amount then why my already paid milestone reversed. This is not fair freelancer.com

I need my money back. Please help me on this.

I attached the screenshot of reversal milestone.

thanks

I joined Freelancer website and decided to try their free trial. One month later they charged my card for a membership and I had no idea I was signed up! I did not want to use this site anymore and I didn't agree to this auto-enrollment! I contacted them many times, but their customer service is absolutely ridiculous and now they have stopped responding to my messages. They even blame PayPal for my lack of refund. I contacted PayPal and explained what happened, and they refunded me. Freelancer.com is just another scam website and all they need is your money! Avoid it at all costs!

Just because the guy who gave me the project, did not complete the verification they took my money.

But the craziest thing was, they also ask me to pay back the money for the project that was completed long ago and successfully completed. I told Freelancer clearly, that the previous money you wiped out from my account was not at all refund to the client. So please send me the proof that this has been done and he really received the money.

And they did not even willing to answer my question and started repeating the message like, please deposit money, please deposit money. Then it strikes me, why they are not answering my questions and keep repeating, maybe I am talking to a chatter bot. All the while i thought I was talking to a real human being who has same emotions and feelings like me.

By repeating what it can achieve? Or by avoiding not answering my question if it thinks, it can achieve anything let it keep thinking that. No smart person will think, by repeating same question again and again he can achieve anything. This is really a dumb bot.
So either Freelancer is having chatter bot to resolve customer support issues, or maybe they put people from junior high school as their support staff. No mature person will avoid answering a question.

Apart from the above funny bot issue, my question is what happened to the money they wiped from my account ? It is not in my account, my client also did not receive it. So where it went? I am sure any body can make some educated guess on that.

Hello,

I was the victim of this scam too. Unfortunately I was too late to react in proper way. I also deposited 17$ to him, and confirmed on pay pal everything he asked me to confirm. I worked so bloody hard on typing those stupid pages. It seemed a great way to earn some money. And now, four days after my uploading soft files to him, I needed to check why I don't get respond, conformation of my work, payment. And there is no answer, and there is no money, and I am very disappointed. Soon, I will close my Freelancer account and all other accounts on sites for freelance jobs, because I don't think that there is a way to earn some money. From now on, I believe only in face to face jobs. There is no money without sweat. And I hope that "John Franklin's" hard drive burn, and all accounts got hacked.

This screens are proof that I got scammed, and you can upload them to your site if you want. Because people need to see this, because people deserve to know about online scams.

Thank you and good bye.

I gave a project to a freelancer, and he promised a to complete the job in two weeks. He also asked me to give him half of the milestone released to start the project which I did. After two weeks, the project was not done! I tried to contact the freelancer, but he completely ignored me. So I contacted Freelancer.com customer care and I was told that my freelancer is having some account issues. I asked them to give me his email address or skype, so that I could contact him outside of the website. They refused providing me that sort of information. In my opinion customer service has to support me by contacting their freelancer! My project is not done and I lost money! This website is just a scam! I will never use it again! Support is absolutely useless.

First I would like to know how much I have paid through Freelancer.com because Paypal seems to show that I have paid 289, 89€ and being robbed of some money or I'm misunderstanding this.

In the very least the customer service is TERRIBLE and I've posted the conversation I had with one of the customer service employees.
Enjoy...

Jerome:
Hi, my name is Jerome C. and I work for Freelancer.com in the payment assistance team. We can see that you are experiencing issues with your latest deposit attempts.

Me:
Yes thank you very much for replying so fast
So I have some payments on my paypal which i'm not familiar with authorizing
there are currently 4 which i'd love an explanation for
1: 2, 40€
2: 128, 23€
3: 113, 90€
4: 45, 36€ Number 1 and 2 I'm sure are fine
sorry for the bad formatting of that paragraph

Jerome:
Give me a moment to look into this.

Me:
No problem sir

Jerome:
Thank you for waiting.
Please refer to your Transaction History to view a copy of all your transactions on the site.
Transaction History: https://www.freelancer.com/payments/transactions.php
All the payments you are asking are detailed on this page.

Jerome:
Are there any other deposit or payment verification concerns that you would like me to look into?

Me
I'm very sorry but this is confusing me
There are so many transactions, one with aimdesin, I tried to hire him but then I changed my mind since he did not reply but i can see i'm being charged the extra fee that freelancer.com get, am i right?
then afterwards there is a deposit into my account for 44€ right?

Jerome:
When you say, "the extra fee that freelancer.com get, " you are referrig to project fees.
09 February 2016 · 9:07 pm
You can check our Fees and Charges page: https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/

Me:
Thank you :)

Jerome:
Are there any other deposit or payment verification concerns that you would like me to look into?

Me:
yes, i'm very sorry to trouble you so much with this but could you tell me how much I have spent through freelancer.com?
You can add up all your payments from PayPal and deposit fees to know this.

Jerome:
Please refer to your Transaction History.

Me:
Yes I understand that I (should) be able to, unfortunately I am too stupid to understand the system
On my paypal account I think I see a total amount of 289, 89, is that correct?

Me:
I don't mean to push you but is that the correct amount that I have paid through freelancer.com?

Jerome:
Do you have other concerns?
Just what the amount the amount is that I have paid through freelancer.com please :)

Me:
sorry, Just what the amount is that I have paid so far*
can you tell me the amount i have paid through freelancer.com please

Me:
Jerome, would it be smarter for me to email freelancer.com through my paypal account perhaps?

Me:
Can you redirect me to someone else?

Me:
Is this conversation archived, I try very hard to remain polite but this i find very rude, to ignore everything I say like this

I accepted a job on freelancer.com priced in USD when they bill the project fee in advance they automatically converted the bill into GBP at a ludicrous exchange rate 10% above wholesale without giving prior notice, gaining consent or publishing exchange rates anywhere on the site.

This amounts to an illegal dynamic currency conversion unlawful in Austalia (freelancers country of registration), in the EU and possibly the US and elsewhere.

It's also in breach of freelancer.com Terms and Conditions (but it doesn't matter even if it wasn't) see SECTION 30 (only applies to withdrawals, clearly outlines providing exchange rate and confirming consent)

SECTION 18 (only applies to existing balances, or funds coming into the balance from another job)

I think this issue will affect many millions of freelancer.com providers.

/*************************************************************************/

Can anyone who has been affected by this issue reply to this post or PM me your details and I can include details in a joint complaint.

So if your a freelancer who has accepted a job in a currency different from your own and been billed the project fee in your own currency at the freelancer.com magic exchange rate get in touch.

Could you also share this to get as many freelancer onboard as possible?

/*************************************************************************/

The Australian Minister for Small Business department can help us formulate a complaint and direct it to the relevant regulator.

We can do this privately, we don't need to go through an expensive and time consuming court process we just have to make the relevant regulator aware of the problem and that many people are affected.

Freelancer is a big Fraud with us. their services and worst. Support is non supporting and worst. Yesterday i got a milestone payment for my project i did, today morning i got up and found my freelancer balance is -$70.00 i was shocked. i checked my details and i was shocked to see my transaction history. Freelancer has reversed the payment for some reason, i talk with support guys they just keep on saying as per company policy, as per company policy.
Freelancer did not informed me prior to reversal. As i have earned that money and they are doing fraud with us. They charged me for services but when it comes to ask me before touching my money, they just take it back not even a single mail.
i asked about employer detail even then they denied.
I am very unhappy with freelancer this time.

We need to find a way how to bring freelancer.com to justice with class action.

I need to tell that this company made to collect all kind of fees without legal support. They had stolen more than 50% in the form of fees and not only fees. $200 disappeared without reason.
I didn't do much of business with freelancer due to lacking of good professionals there, but i deposited over $1200 and fees came up one after another draining my account quickly.

Cheating customer service.
By mistake i transferred funds for the milestone that was already funded. I asked to refund full amount back because job was already fully loaded for both milestones. They charged fees for mistakenly transferred money even i asked for refund within few minutes after transfer. After starting paypal investigation they withdrawn funds from a completely different ongoing project leaving no funds in my account and falling apart that project that already lasted for couple of weeks and was almost over. All attempts to solve this issue with customer service fell through.

I lost another $340.96 in addition to failed almost completed work with freelancer.

I am looking the way how to bring this company to justice for stealing money from our pockets and cheating while doing business in us.

If you have some valuable information to share with others how to sue or claim funds from freelancer please help us out. I believe there are a lot of customers now and later who will value your support.

Thank you for being part of this!

I have been with freelancer from past two months, Firstly, I verified my account to have a new start, near around 4000 rupees were added, ( not because I wanted but their system made me do two times transaction without acknowledging that first has been done for 2000 rupees)

freelancer unique Id: Saurav0991

When I tried to use my account on mobile, account is open, but above there exists red Tag " YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO PERFORM THIS REQUEST"

Why?

Money lost via this account= 4000 approx
Freepack promo =150 to 250 charges, might be verfication charges
numerical test=300
english =300
Bidding Pack=490
next month=250
And money left was 1643 and credit 1692

That too went some where due to account closing.

i request Freelancer Authority to solve my issue as soon as possible, and Let me know method to change the username ID.

{ Sincere request, I respect your Service Please find a solution to it, It might be error, since no email regarding closing of account was there on my account}

People will think twice before using freelancer, especially as a wallet

Regards
Saurav
[protected]@gmail.com

I am a freelancer and decide to try Freelancer.com. I joined this website two months ago and so far, only five people have contacted me through the website. One person gave me a link to a different website, the second was quite friendly and asked me where I am from and I never heard from him again. The third person told that she has a job for me, but I need to pay her some money to get it. The fourth said that he doesn't really have any job for me and just wants to be friends. And the last person actually had and interesting job for me, but for no reason he changed his mind and disappeared. Well, I just wasted my time and received no job offers. I am very disappointed.

freelancer.com I worked on other online platforms and saw this one so decided to give it a try. The client never paid or funded for the project so I never started the work, but because I accepted the job offer they now charged me $78 and asked me to pay it. I said I'm not paying for services I never did or was paid for. They emailed me and said because I accepted the job, no matter if you are paid for the job, they don't care. They only care about fattening their pockets. If you are a freelancer, stay away. guru and upwork i've never had a problem with and will continue to work there. I'm so glad I never gave them my credit card info or bank account info or they would have taken the amount off. They won't allow me to close this account until I pay. So I guess it will be open forever. Goodbye freelancer.com! Internet

I was awarded a prize on January 7, 2016 for a $1000 with a $100 deduction for a winner fee. I withdrew the amount of $900 earned and when my withdrawal period came around I received nothing so I took to asking them and they claimed it was a put on hold because they wanted to verify the user account. However, the account was verified in almost all aspects except some profile info. I continued contacting them and only just today as of January 18, 2016, they took $1000 from my account leaving me with a negative -$100 deduction. Freelancer stole my money plain and simple. Avoid them at all costs if you are a freelancer. Avoid being robbed.

i am a member of freelancer. someone chatted and asked my mail id to give a retyping job. i gave my email id. than they said to deposit 17$ to start the job. i paid through paypal to the above email id (1st one) than they sent 25 images to type in to notepad finish it within 4 days. they said they will pay 3$ per page. i did and sent to them. after that no response. they cheated me. i sent many mails to those email id's they didnt even response. the email id which they use John franklin, [protected]@yahoo.com, [protected]@gmail.com

I bid on a project on freelancer and was accepted! Hooray. The job was for a total of £160. As soon as I clicked Accept I was charged by Freelancer £16 (10%). But then the next day the employer cancelled the job and I was left with the bill still to foot! I complained but they said it was non-refundable. So I accepted a job, the employer cancelled it and I am left paying for his mistake!

I took their basic numeracy skills test so I could add something else to my profile to show to prospective clients. Their tests - or at least the ones I looked at - cost $5.00 plus a processing fee of around $0.42. Here's an actual question exactly as it appeared on the test I took: "John eat 2 pieces of apples a day. Now, is Thursday, but he remembered the his apples left after eating apples during Monday are 30 pieces after that, he gave the half of all his apples to her daughter. How many apples left, if today is Friday after eating the two pieces of apples?" At least three other questions on the test had issues, such as multiple correct answers or no correct answer. Needless to say, this is completely unprofessional, especially considering these are paid tests. How can I showcase my skills to prospective clients with a test like this? After the test was completed, there was an option to add more questions to the test. It looks like they don't even verify new questions for accuracy. I contacted customer support and 4 days later I was told they do not refund the exam fees. Instead, they offered to let me take another exam for free and they offered me one free month of the lowest paid membership option. First, there's no way I'm ever taking another exam for that site, free or not. Second, because of the exam that I did take I was already eligible for one free month of a higher-level paid membership, so offering me the lowest one is completely pointless. Based on this experience and the countless other reviews I've read about this site, I just decided to cut my losses and run. I advise you all to avoid this shady site.

I have a account with freelancer. One client requested me to deposit $90 to his skrill account and he paid $145 in advance to my freelancer account. Everything was fine until the next day I found that the money was reversed by freelancer without giving any reason. When I complained they told m the client used someone else's card. I was told that nothing can be done as the project and the client account has been suspended. On asking who will pay my money back they told me that there is no way to solve this. When I asked why don't you people check clients before they post job they just said they cant. I lost my money from freelancer and skill both. None of these two are willing to give my money back. Please don't use these fraud companies.

Hello Freelancer Support, My ID Codinglogics has been in suspension mode since 3 days and I tried reaching your support team via email and the response has been less than encouraging so far. A customer that had hired me on freelancer.com had raised a complaint against me stating that I had hacked his hosting account which is far from true and I've complete faith in your system and investigation, however, I am not pleased to learn that my account has been suspended without a thorough investigation and proof of any wrong doing on my part. I completed 395 projects and have built an excellent relationship with several customers that are willing to stand for my integrity and professionalism. Can someone from your end look into this issue and resolve it ASAP? There are customers that I am working with on your website that are unable to communicate with me and this is creating problem for everyone. Regards, Codinglogics