Don't use Freelancer.com if you don't want to lose money

Freelancer is horrible. I was having money problems and had a $0 balance in my bank account.

Freelancer withdrew 2 transactions that were under $1 6 months after I used their services! The explanation they gave was crap. They ended up refunding me the chump change to my PayPal, but their mistake ended up costing me $90 in NSF fees at my bank which they would not refund.

Avoid them at all cost!

 

I have not used my Freelancer.com for over a year and today they suddenly charged USD 5.36 from my PayPal account. You cannot just push a membeship fee on me without my accept! Shame on you Freelancer! I encourage everybody to make a complait to PayPal.

 

Thanks Peter...but i am using odesk.com.

 

That's just uncool, unfair and insane. However, it's not the first time I've heard such things about Freelancer. Especially since they implemented the monthly fees. These types of things is the main reason I use SEOClerks. It's free (besides the 20% commission), easy and fun with oustanding support. Thanks for the heads up!

Cheers,
hitmeasap

 

The main problem I have with Freelancer.com is that for 1 job posted there is 200 Bids. And after 35 bids I won no project or got queries for job from Employers.

 

I have been using freelancer.com to find people to do work for me, so I don't really complain about any charges for now since I don't bet on projects. I give them. Like everywhere else, you will find good people to work with and you will find bad people to work with. I don't really understand your last sentence since freelancer is running a .com domain which falls under US jurisdiction and laws. So there are legal ways to deal with your issue if you have any. If I had an issue like you described, I would have had federal law enforcement all over their ass for wire fraud and other crimes. Just remember one thing. If you sell your products or services through some site, whether its freelancer, ebay, amazon, you name it, be prepare to spend 15% of your income on fees. Otherwise you are more than welcome to make your own site and promote yourself. I have worked with some people who aren't happy with freelancer and some people who are happy with that site. I guess it all depends on one simple rule. You spend more to promote yourself, you get more in return. Or no reward without any risk, if you want to put it that way.

 

I haven't used this website but they looks to provide great number of projects to bid on. The problem you talking about this when someone signup to there paid services.

 

I came across this page looking for how to reach an employer on Freelancer via the supposed @Name value... but after reading the comments, I have to agree. Freelancer.com is all about inhibiting the relationship of the freelancer and the employer, and instead charging ridiculous fees to get any work done. I was shocked when I got deducted $20 from contest winnings for previously unmentioned 'award fees', along with the provision that monies have a waiting period of 2wks before being able to withdraw - what???? I was also unaware of the fact they not only charge the freelancers, but also the employers! Here is the link to all of the fees they charge, from their own site:

https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/

If you scroll down, you will see a small section on their 'right' to charge past users a 'maintenance fee':

Maintenance Fee

User Accounts that have not logged in for six months will incur a maintenance fee of up to $10.00 USD per month until either the account is terminated or reactivated for storage, bandwidth, support and management costs of providing hosting of the user's profile, portfolio storage, listing in directories, provision of the HireMe service, file storage and message storage. These fees will be refunded upon request by users on subsequent reactivation.

Needless to say, as soon as I can get my full contest winnings, I will be shutting down my account and looking elsewhere for freelance work.

 

Today I logged in my freelancer account and I bid for several projects.
I was shocked when I got email notification from freelancer that I was charged for $1.32 for highlight bid for every bid I made WTF!
When I checked the bid button there was a checkbox to highlight the bid but I did not thick the checkbox.
I am really dissapointed and plan to close my account.

 

i was paying 1$ for the intro membership and not once did i get a project so i canceled it
the one time i actually got a project i got paid around 10$ then i find out there was a minumum -_-
spend it on the tests that i failed somehow ._\
my real issue with freelancer.com is they want their money no matter what
got a project for once got paid around 60$ cant remember but the employer charged back after i finished and left me with nothing and afterwards freelancer still wanted its cut so it was basically 15$ out of pocket
made me completely hate that place

 

From My credit card today freelancer taken without informing me and also the level automatically increased. They have taken for higher level(Plus membership) instead of Basic level. I have doubted before this website. Now 100% sure they are picking money in accounts wrongly. May be the users or visually they are created or real? I don't Know.

 

I remember when I signed up for Freelancer, they automatically enroll you in their "premium" membership or whatever it is. It's "free" for 30 days, but if you don't cancel it, then they will start charging you the fee per month. It's a really tricky way of getting money off people, but I've made money with Freelancer before, so I've never had a problem. Although I've heard a lot of horror stories from people too.

 

Same here! I received an email from Paypal saying that I sent a payment to FREELANCER.COM! I was charged $10.48! I NEVER AUTHORIZED THAT! Freelancer is a scam!

 

DO NOT USE FREELANCER.COM!!! I have project for an app from a person that THEY recommended to me and even charged a finders fee, an extra one. I paid they guy $1700 for half the project and in the middle of it they kicked the developer off and said he broke one of their rules. However, they never paid me the money back and said they paid him the money!!! Are you kidding me? It's been two months and they're not answering my calls or emails. TRUST ME, SAVE YOURSELF THE HEADACHE AND DO NOT USE FREELANCER.COM

 

I'm happy to answer any questions about this by the way. I am now dedicated to seeing Freelancer.com lose 100x the money they stole from me in return. Again, they stole $1700 from me...see my reply above for explanation. SHADY COMPANY!!!

 

Guys, simply because FREELANCER.COM is a SCAM!!!
Freelancer.com is a big company indeed but also the worst in scamming people's money for both Clients/Buyer and service provider.

I was hired by a client/buyer in freelancer before with a budget of $250 I think, no milestone place yet. Guess what, freelancer.com already deducted me $25 in my account, I was surprise that I have a negative (-$25) in my account balance even if the client didn't pay for the milestone yet. Worst case is that after 2 days, the client decided to cancel the project for some reasons, what I really don't understand is that why did the negative balance in my account is still their so I contact their support and ask for help to remove the negative balance since the project was cancelled by the client.
Know what the support said?
Freelancer.com support said I had to pay for that project fee even if the project was cancelled and it was in their TOS.
F*ck that TOS! LOL... That's how they SCAM people!!!

Secondly, I still use freelancer after that in hope to get more projects.
I participated in a contest specifically a web design contest. Client set the contest budget to $300, there were 10 of us freelancers who participated on that contest at that time, each of us submit a design entry but unfortunately none of us is selected and no winner at that contest though the client at first was rating our design entries and after a few days the client is unresponsive and we don't hear from the client again.
Until the contest was expired and closed automatically, Freelancer.com terms is to share the contest budget equally to all freelancers who participated on that contest, so if the budget is $300 divided to 10 freelancers, each will get $30.
Guess what, none of us get our share, 2 of the participants is my friends they said they didn't get any share as well. By the time we contact freelancer.com support regarding to it, they said they have sent the shares already to all of the participants "What a Big F*cking Liar Shit hole"!!!

I'm telling you this guys because I don't want you to be a victim also.
KEEP AWAY FROM FREELANCER.COM

 

the situation is really aweful. those guys will lose all the customers if they do not change their business model. I use currently upwork but they also take much money.

 

I worked with freelancer.com and I have a positive experience with this service.

 

I had good experience with freelancer, outsourcing work there.. just make sure your checking who your going to assign the project to.
Plenty of bots

 

As much as I want to work out my Freelancer account I chose not to. One reason is that it has a lot of charges and I couldn't understand that. For just simple tests they still ask for a fee which is very unfair to begin with. I don't think I will consider Freelancer anymore.