Freelancer.com review: Payment of the ProofReader I hired through Freelancer

I paid $767.55 and $204.90 to Freelancer.com to hire their proofreader Anne Marie O to proofread my book on prostate cancer, revise my article citations to standard MLA form, and generate a glossary. As instructed, when she completed the assignment this January 2026 I instructed Escrow.com to release the funds to AMO got paid. Instead, Freelancer took the money, charged me an extra 972.15, and never paid AMO. Freelancer does not not have a working customer support telephone line. I have repeatedly emailed them and messaged their support team to no avail. They have NEVER responded or taken any action to correct this fiasco. Their manager Arnie C. is always away from his desk on vacation. AMO filed a dispute with Freelancer against Freelancer, but instead of taking corrective action they wrote me that the dispute is between me and AMO and they will do nothing, even though everything is their fault. I have asked them 4-5 times to call me, and given them my cell phone in hopes of straightening this out, but they never called me. In sum they took $972.15 from my account after I had fully funded the payment of their employee for $950, and they never paid their contractor-employee. Whether they deliberately swindled me or they are incompetents who keep making mistakes, it's clear they will not voluntarily rectify this.