Freelancer.com Reviews

This site Freelancer.com, requires you to pay to get the job, a clear scam.

I. e. it takes 10% from the total sum of job immediately after you bid and accept the job. And then if Employer simply would refuse to pay you and cancel the job then you will lost 10% of the posted job sum, it would go directly to Freelancer.com deep pockets. If you bid for $1000 job and you will be awarded this job, it is guaranteed $100 win for Freelancer.com. And there is no way you will get this $100 back.

When i have completed job according to a milestone(Completed translation of 7500 words. $ 250 USD), and sent him part of completed translation for verification, Employer demanded that i should deliver completed job to him for free (for 0(ZERO) payment). After i refused to deliver completed job FOR FREE, for 0(zero) payment, and sent him part of completed translation as a proof of its completion, then Employer elected job to a Dispute.

After Dispute was elected for Arbitration, Freelancer.com staff declared Employer as a winner, on the grounds that he was not satisfied since he did not received my job for free.

Quote from Freelancer.com Dispute Team:

"Milestone Payments are intended to be released upon the completion of all project requirements relevant to the Milestone. This includes the buyer's satisfaction with the seller's output."

It was a translation job that has taken 5 days to complete(10 000 words), and Employer was satisfied with translation of free sample he provided. After that Freelancer.com Dispute Team simply confirmed that i should have worked for free without any payment, and refused to release payment for me, solving dispute in favor of fraudulent Employer.

I have lost $25 for bidding on $250 worth job, and lost additional $12.50 for electing dispute to arbitrage. At all i have lost 5 full working days and $37.5 USD, thanks to Freelancer.com Dispute Team staff, who it seems support fraudulent Employers, since this simple fraud scheme got $25 (bid on project fee) directly in Freelancer.com deep pockets.

Avoid Freelancer.com like a plague.

I am not someone who like to post reviews around, but freelancer.com did something that really upset me.

I signed up with freelancer.com long ago, back when they were still getafreelancer.com. For years things had been great, I am an employer who used the website to connect with freelancers. I had a 5-star profile, that is, all freelancers who worked with me in the past gave high remarks. I never leave anyone unpaid, whether the projects turn out to be good or bad.

It all started few months ago when I uploaded some funds to my account (via credit card), freelancer.com payment system charged me several times for that one deposit. I contacted their support and they keep escalating the issues without giving me a proper response. It seems like they are just not interested to solve it. After a while I got fed up with them and went to my bank to reverse the transactions.

I thought it all worked out. It is common sense that if I made a deposit of $30, and you ridiculously charged me several times up to $150, I would had to reverse the $120 transaction. But freelancer.com doesn't think so. Once the bank made the chargebacks they limit my account and asked me for verification (i.e. sending personal documents).

I told them it wasn't my fault that they made several unauthorized charges on my card and the bank reversed the transactions for me. With an experience like that, can I still trust them with my personal info? Their accountants or finance staff should liaise with me when I first contacted them, but no, I didn't receive any helpful response.I suggest they run through their accounting statement, by which they would find they had charged me for the same thing multiple times. But no, they refused to hear what I have to say, and they soon suspended my account, that means taking all the remaining money in it.

It doesn't matter that you took my money, I will forget it in a while. But I will post reviews on here and other websites so everyone can read it for a long time. If your company's credibility is affected, it is karma for what you did. I had been a good customer and never cause any problems for you all these years but then you brought this on me. Today you lost me forever, keep doing such business practices and tomorrow you may lose everyone else.

To everyone reading this, I do not recommend you use freelancer.com, they used to be good but this is no longer the case. Nowadays there are so many issues of financial dishonesty towards their users. Yes they may be a public listed company, but that doesn't matter if on the ground they treat people like you and me badly, and that somehow our money in their system may 'disappear'. Stay away, there are many better alternatives to go for.

1. Support team of freelancer never work.

- create ticket from Created: 08 September 2015 12:31 AM and no one answer me until now 14 November 2015

ticket ID : View Ticket: #LMX-484-60806

2. Can't withdraw money and i got automatic email. And don't show how to resolve it. Create new ticket and i think will never get response . Here is email i got

Hi longthanh,

Unfortunately we were unable to process your withdrawal request:

Withdraw amount: $220.66 USD

Requested on: Nov 6, 2015 at 8:29 PM ICT

Request ID: 1205186

Payment Gateway: Paypal

Decline reason: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.

For any enquiries or help with making this withdrawal request, please contact us at [email protected]

3. After accept project lost 10% and never get it again.

- I lost 50$ when accept project and can't communicate with employer again.

translate to my country language:

Tránh xa freelancer.com vì bạn sẽ phát điên vì nó . Nó không hoàn toàn lừa đảo nhưng gây ức chế và sẽ giữ tiền của bạn mà không có cách nào liên hệ để phản đối

1. trung tâm hỗ trợ của nó không hoạt động. Muốn nhờ trợ giúp thì cũng bằng không. 3,4 tháng không có phản hồi gì

2. Nó giữ tiền của mình và không có hướng dẫn cụ thể khi có lỗi. Chờ nó support thì đến mùa quít

3. Nhận dự án là mất 10% kể cả có đặt cọc cũng vẫn là mất.

Làm dự án vài ngìn đô là mất cả thời gian và tiền rồi.

=> Làm dự án nhỏ thôi. Dự án to thì bảo khách trả tiền đặt cọc trực tiếp. làm tuần nào trả tuần đó cho chắc.

Mất thời gian vc.

This site ( freelancer.com ) tries to get the project money from both .

Client and the developer ,,,,,,,,, Although my last Job is fully completed and finished ,,,,,,,, freelancer.com does not allow me to with draw my money ,,,,,,, and tell me the only way to spend your money during paying again to freelancer.com .

It is number one scam site in the world .

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.

Hello everyone

Yesterday one guy called @abir390 made a false and bad review on me though he refused to pay me anything. Please allow me to share here the process. I felt extremely angry and mad on this people and also the low quality of frelancer.com, since I even cannot find any customer service phone number and no any way to protect our basic right and reputation as a freelancer. What if freelancer met a fraud and very evil guy, they just want to steal your works and services but refuse to pay and even worse, they give you bad and false review. And you have no no any way to change and to appeal. It badly affected my another offer.

At the beginning, @abir390, this guy said he needs to have 1000 US emails. He asked me to send 10 samples, then I did it. I asked him if the sample is ok for him. He said it's ok. Then he asked me to send 1000 US emails then he can pay me. After I sent 1000 emails as the samples format, but when he received it. He said that he doesn't satisfy it though it is exactly yhe same as the sample shows. He said goodbye later. So I felt he was cheating on me to give him free services. He kept bargaining with me though I have bid $30, but he kept begging to $20,$25. He just said goodbye after I send him 1000 emails. And even much worse, he gave me a really completely false and bad review.

He said that I am liar and never hire me and I wasted him 2 days

What the hell!!! I gave him 1000 emails and he agreed the samples first, he did not pay anything. It was him that he wasted me lots of time. It's about 1 hours, but he told the lie that I wasted him 2 days. Completely fraud.

I cannot understand why Frelancer encouraged the employer to give review freely, however there is no way that a Frelancer appeals them or question about the review.

One of my offer was declined because of this false review. I wish he needs to be judged by his evil deeds.

I wish this can be heard

Thank you

After I have done some couple of projects, one day I found my account blocked when I have finished a project. I was shocked when I was unable to withdrew my money.

The founder of this website Matt Barrie, is just an Australian thief !

For 2 years I have been making some few projects on freelancers.com with most of the money goes to this scammer website. Today I found my account suspended after I have received the money from my employer. I have received an email telling me that the money was successful released. But when I logged to my account I was checked how I was suspended for login to my account; telling me that I have broken its rules.

Wake up freelancer! wake up employers! don't waste you time!

One day you will be checked like me. I was already warned by many friends but I could not take that in consideration. But with the first time with a project with good budget, I got deceived by this scammer website.

They know everything about you, once they feel that they want take your money and get ride of you, they will do that without hesitation or a pre-warning!

Don"t use their desktop App, it records everything on your computer to help them spy on you if you have some trouble with them. I mean, this App is a spyware!!!!!!

Freelancer is losing its business. Its situation is going worst everyday. They make up new scamming rules everyday to control their users money. They will use any scamming, hacking or every legal power to take rid of you. Be aware!!!! The founder of Freelancer.com, Matt Barrie, is a thief

Is the Aussie Govt so greedy that it would allow a company like Freelancer operate despite their countless violations. Matt Barrie would have been behind bar had he been in EU or US. Obnoxious policies and manipulative procedures. They should be offline asap.

I was a new freelancer on the site when I got a message saying I was awarded a job by a company called Faithartistry for $600. I accepted the position, Freelancer exacted a $60 fee and then the offer and company completely disappeared. I was contacted again by Faithartistry in the exact same manner, exact same wording, they even sent a text message to my phone, I figured out Freelancer was using an algorithm to trick new clients into accepting non existent jobs so they can collect bogus fees.

I complained to customer service (figuring out how to do that is a job in itself) but I knew they wouldn't do anything as in this case it seemed pretty obvious Freelancer was committing this fraud. So, beware. Curious if anyone had any similar experiences.

I have had better luck with Upwork which is not perfect but at least honest.

Once again today my project payments (1090 usd) are locked by their support stating that buyer who had paid you is not verified. I had worked for more than a month and what I have earned is just waste of time, energy and zero penny.

Just few weeks ago freelancer.com reversed all the payments done in one more project stating that buyer has complained.

around 1 year ago these people reversed almost 2500 usd.

In all i have lost more than 5000 usd on this website and also lost lot of time and energy.

I AM LEFT WITH NO CHOICE OTHER THAN GOING TO CYBER LAW AND I AM FILING CASE AGAINST THEM FOR DOING FRAUD AGAINST ME. THEY HAD STOLEN MORE THAN 5000 USD FROM ME. COMPLETELY BIASED AND BIGGEST FRAUD.

IF YOU ARE A CURRENT USER PLEASE TRY TO SWITCH TO SOME OTHER WEBSITE.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND ENERGY THERE. THEY ARE CHEATERS.

Really tired and disappointed with this website, they had steal more than $5000 till now from me just by these cheap policies.

I am over Freelancer.com. I have been scammed so many times. So I started a petition to NASA. They use the site for contests etc so I thought it would a good idea to ask them to STOP supporting this scam website.

Hopefully if enough people sign it, they will and that will shake up freelancer.com (I doubt it though!!!! They seem to be beyond repair!!)

Anyway, please sign it, share it, support it. You know the drill. Thanks.

https://www.change.org/p/nasa-tell-nasa-to-boycott-freelancer-com

Ps sorry if you see this cut and pasted on other posts, I want to get this message out super duper quick and as far as possible. Cut and paste saves me time!!

Pss Please help spread the word!!

This page has a terrible disorganization as customers who hire a freelancer and contests when paying. Especially in contests with the method of delivery is literally a SCAM ...

THE CLIENT DISAPPEARS when one goes up the files after winning the contest. Then the freelancer ends WORKING FOR FREE.

And not only that is the problem with the page, for more they charge a membership that I have not asked.. for one month trying to put it down and I always continued with the same then as could I call that? THIEVES the only word that comes to my mind.

If you want to offer a better service, have better control of employers! because THIS PAGE DOENS'T PROYECT THE FREELANCER.

Be responsible and pay the freelancer for those customers who do not pay and disappear in the contests.

WE (FREELANCERS) SPEND TIME AND OUR HABILITIES WORKING FOR THIS PAGE FREE!!!, CAUSE THE MOST OF CLIENT NEVER PAY. I suggest you DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME on this page because they're fu#$%# SCAMMERS.

I hope my review has been made to understand.

Thank you!

Everything about how Freelancer operates has always made me skeptical and weary of it being fraudulent: the way they handle charging freelancers and employers a fee per project, the fact that freelancers have to pay commission up-front, the countless stories of people's earnings being frozen in their accounts, the long lists of upgrades (which are mostly useless) available to both employers and freelancers, all for a price. Despite this, I had still had a decent experience on Freelancer, just using it off and on for a few months on small projects here and there.

But today the curtain was pulled back. I entered a "guaranteed" contest to design a website for $1000 prize. Then after the entry period ended, the contest was deleted by the holder. That's not acceptable. The promise of a "guaranteed" contest, in Freelancer's own words, is exactly this: "Guarantee freelancers that a winner will be chosen and awarded the prize. This will attract better entries from more freelancers." They should not be allowed to cancel. That's the opposite of a guarantee.

I only enter guaranteed contests for this reason, and I worked hard on my entries. So did everyone else. The help section of their website also says, "If in any case the Guaranteed contest is still not awarded after 30 days of closing date, the prize money will then be automatically distributed among the qualified participants."

When I contacted their support team, a lady named Wanda F. simply stated the obvious: "I can see the contest was deleted as requested by the user, and no prize will distributed." While I was typing a reply to point out why that conflicts with the purpose of a guarantee and ask that the prize be distributed as promised, she waited literally about 3 seconds to say, "It seems you are away from your computer and I will be ending this chat session."

I am going to follow-up to hold them accountable, but the best thing to happen would be for anyone reading these reviews to not sign up for the platform. I also encourage those who are doing relatively well on the site to find another platform. This company is fraudulent and should not be supported.

Just to give you guys an idea of Freelancer.com commission: freelancers looking for work through www.freelancer.com If an employer hires the freelancer to complete a project, and is willing to pay $100 for it, then freelancer.com will take $10 (10% commission) from it for the service of online platform, and the freelancer will receive $90.

As a new freelancer, new to freelancer.com, myself, I have been offered a project. Since it is relating to my career field, I accepted his offer, and contacted the employer how to proceed the project. However, the employer never speaks eventhough he is online.

It soon becomes apparent that this is a fake project. But due to this, Freelancer.com has taken the 10% commission straight away from my bank account.

I have informed freelancer.com about the fake project on that day, reported the fake project and asked them to refund me back the money. They have claimed, 1. Commission is non-refundable according to their policy; 2. They may review my case under the following condition: after 28 days, i.e the number of days to complete the project plus another 7 days in my case, a ‘cancel button’ will appear, then, I can click that button, and then, the employer will have another 28 days to respond whether or not to accept the cancellation of that project. If he does not reply, which will be the case, as both him and the project is fake, this project will be automatically cancelled from the site. And then, freelancer.com MAY consider whether or not refund me back the money.

This means, I MIGHT have the possibility to have my money back after 56 days (28 + 28 = 56), and still, this is not certain.

There are 2 key factors I need to mention:

1. Freelancers like me, are informed they will be charged 10% for the project awarded, but it does not state WHEN, and under what CONDITION they will be charged. On their site, there is no indication whatsoever to inform freelancers, after clicking the 'Accept' button, commission will be automatically deducted from your account prior to starting the project, and I was very surprised receiving the payment notification from Paypal. This is very misleading, and I am not the only victim, as various similar cases have already happened when I made some research about it afterwards. I had no prior knowledge that this commission will be charged straight away once I hit the ‘Accept’ button. The 'Accept' button is not a 'Pay' button on an online store, which clearly inform the payer what is about to happen, but it is of the same function, and many have been falling under this trap.

2. Their policy of non-refundable commission is not feasible. On their site, it's full of scammed projects. I believe it is freelancer.com’s responsibility to verify whether or not these employers really have projects to offer and not bogus ones, and not simply taking commissions over no responsibility. At least, put effort to keep them at a minimum. If this project is offered to somebody else, not me, the victim will be him/her just the same.

To be frank, I am so disgusted by its service, and never went back to their site again. I left my information there still, because I am waiting for these 56 days to pass and get my money back.

Yesterday, they charged me another $10.48 USD for the membership, as I still hold an account with them. But, I am only holding it there for my refund. So, to summarize, I have incurred ｃｏｍｍｉｓｓｉｏｎ plus ｍｅｍｂｅｒｓｈｉｐ due to that scammed project.

I told them I want to close my account, and refuse to having them continue ripping me off from that case, but I CANT, because I need to pay the $10.48 USD membership, and my account has been limited. They can see I am not using their services as my monthly bid is zero !!

They have wasted so much time of mine !! Case still not solved !!!

Beware, Paypal cannnot help you much as you agreed with their　ｔｅｒｍｓ　ａｎｄ　ｃｏｎｄｉｔｉｏｎ．

Ｐｌｅａｓｅ，　ｗｈｏｅｖｅｒ　ｈａｖｅ　ｓｕｆｆｅｒｅｄ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｓｉｔｅ　ｎｅｅｄｓ　ｔｏ　ｓｐｅａｋ　ｕｐ！　Ｉｔ＇ｓ　ｏｕｒ　ｃｏｌｌｅｃｔｉｖｅ　ｓｏｃｉａｌ　ｒｅｓｐｏｎｓｉｂｉｌｉｔｙ　ｔｏ　ｍａｋｅ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ａｗａｒｅ，　ａｎｄ　ａｖｏｉｄ　ｈａｖｉｎｇ　ｆｕｒｔｈｅｒ　ｖｉｃｔｉｍｓ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｕｓ　！！！

Firstly, google the term "freelancer.com scam" http://bit.ly/2hweSTq

and "freelancer.com fake" http://bit.ly/2hwckF2

or just simply "freelancer.com reviews" http://bit.ly/2hwfxEx

and checkout how many one & two stars there are.

then

Very poorly designed service that has limited functionality. In addition deceptive billing arrangement, unhelpful and rude support who openly admit their signup design is to charge people fees they don't agree to or realise. #scam #freelancer.com

Started a logo contest. There were many submissions. Using their private chat facility, I first chat with one designer, then another, and I was horrified to see the history of the first chat appeared in the chat history of the second chat! So the second designer could actually see what I said to the first designer, privately!

I was horrified. So I asked to cancel the project and get refund. And it was then I realized that using their own USD and AUD conversion rate that is much higher than the bank's, I lost US$150! That was on top of the US$50 non-refundable "feature upgrades".

So my experience with Freelancer was a horrible nightmare. I wasted a lot of time, delayed my project for three weeks, and they charged me US$200 for having those horrible security bugs.

I've been working on freelancer for around 18 months now. Every now and they they dip into my account. Just steal a little bit of money and refuse to refund it. I make a reasonable amount through their site so usually don't kick up much of a fuss.

However this time they have stolen £111 GBP. I live in a developing world country and this is too much to lose. This is 2 weeks wages. Not only that but they charge a fee for every project you take on so they have actually charged me a fee to have this money stolen, by them. Not to mention time wasted by doing work they stole the money for.

To go into more detail the money was paid by the employer to freelancer and after the work was done the employer released the funds. Freelancer gave me the funds. Then 2 weeks later took the funds back. They won't tell me why. Just saying an external dispute that has nothing to do with me. The thing is even after contacting their customer support they are very open about the money being stolen. Here is them openly admitting to the theft:

23:08 (my name removed): Yes. So as a summery. Freelancer have stolen money from me and charged me a fee for stealing this money from me. All i can do is wait. I'm not allowed any information on when or if they will return the money they have stolen. And i just have to take their word for it that they are telling the truth about the illegal reason they gave for stealing this money from me. Is that right?

23:09 Stephanie M.: Yes, that is correct.

*I have the entire conversation and admission of guilt in an email sent directly from their website. Again. This is by far not the first time they have done this to me. Just usually for much smaller amounts.

In the last year they have stolen money like this from just myself to the sum of £340 give or take a few pounds. Then there are fees on top of that so i guess it's more like £450 (rough estimate). If they do this to 10,000+ users (they claim to have over 10 million users) a year that's a shockingly large amount of money they are illegally obtaining every year.

From a quick google search i get the impression that Freelancer are well known for doing this to their users. I'm looking for fellow victims to come together in creating a class action law suit against them. Please get in contact if you've had any money/earnings stolen from this site.

Without my approval they charged me Php14,025.00. This is after I've been a free member for a number of years. They said that I had a trial membership of 1 month and was charged after it expired. The thing is that I have been a free member already so why the sudden charge of trial expiry all of a sudden. Are they losing money or did they just thought that I WOULD NOT NOTICE it in my credit card statement. I didn't even authenticate my credit card yet so why would they even charge me a professional FEE! I'd say they are scamming people unknowingly and should be reported to the proper AUTHORITIES. They are stealing money and fraud is a federal offense.

A reviewer wrote: "Do not leave your Credit Card with Freelancer". That is the truth summary. No matter how genuine Freelancer.com site may claim, you should ask yourself; how genuine is a site that I can't leave my credit card details with?

In my case, they keep circulating a fictitious project. Freelancer floated this “mis” project which was awarded to me about 1-2 minutes after I bid (almost automatically which is unusual). Now, they knew the employer of the project wasn’t going to respond to me after the project is awarded and this will obviously make me not to accept the project, they move quickly to claim their project fee. Since they have a so-called policy that project fees are non-refundable and are charged after a project is “accepted, Freelancer.com immediately charged me a project fee. When they noticed hours later that I didn’t accept the project they quickly accepted it ‘on my behalf’ (they changed my status to “accept” on their site). I thank God that in their scam, they goofed by sending me two email notifications one advising me to accept the project and the other advising me of the project fee charge which contradicts your policy. It was this email evidence that I used in contesting the dispute with Paypal and won my money back.

Since this project is not going to be undertaken by me, I know freelancer obviously plan to re-float the same project on your system for another unfortunate freelancer bidder. Little wonder I was basically the only one (amongst probably thousands of freelancers on your database) bidding for the ‘simple project’. So in a nutshell, you freelancer.com keep collecting non-refundable project fees from different unfortunate freelancers for the same project that will never be undertaken. Well, it’s a matter of time before the regulators catch up with them,