There is a percentage listing fee but on a $30 it would have only been $3....If he never did the job you can have the job reopened for no charge. (And of course you never release escrow until you are 100% happy) You aren't required to leave feedback so that wouldn't get you banned. If you contacted him by email, you didn't follow the rules...Personally, I don't think the PM system is crappy. It allows you to attach files etc and it is there to protect you. If you follow some common sense guidelines, getafreelancer, scriptlance, etc can be excellent. But of course it doesn't mean there aren't scammers and time wasters. You just have to utilize the tools they provide to easily filter them out.
I love getafreelancer i'm a freelancer for me is the best site, rentacoder is to birocratic .. And yes there are many people wanting enourmous jobs done for 30$ or sums like this but i only bid on projects that are payed good ... They have very nice features compared to rentacoder wich realy sucks with there fees and modalitys of money withdraws Don't wory youv been burned as a buyer i was burned as a provider twice some people realy suck One down thing of getafreelancer is full of incompetent indians who bid very low sums and ruine a good marcket ....
Not to hijack the thread, but I had a deal with an indian firm on rac and they delivered a half assed, hack job. I've been waiting now for a month for the arbitration to conclude so I can get my escrowed funds back and hire someone else.
Yuo i like it to I used to like scriptlance very much but they always take those 5$ so you can't help anyone with small work for 3-4$ and few minutes of work
i totally agree with you amit.... things are not clear out there... wud help if thy can come up with something which helps for interaction between the client and the designer at every stage.. this way it would save lot of amount of time...
What features ? GAF lack of arbitration service. Escrow deposit is not required. In result GAF buyers can cheat coders, GAF coders can cheat buyers. GAF collect 10% fee from coder and 3% from buyer. Collect "just because". If you have problem - GAF stay away. Typical response from GAF: "According to our terms of service we do not arbitrate, but can give recommendations. If there's a dispute it should be solved between buyer and provider." RentACoder collect not more than 15% fee from coder, but for this money I can ask about arbitrage when I have problem with my coder/buyer. I pay to protect myself against cheaters. I have fresh example about some coder (August 1, 2006) http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareCoders/showBioInfo.asp?lngAuthorId=1122971 (Arbitration/mediation result): Sahara (the buyer) alleged that Nicom (the seller) had sold this same code to some other user on the site. Nicom alleged that this was not the case. On comparing the two source codes it was determined that the two sources codes were very similar and were not done from scratch. Hence this arbitration was ruled in favor of Sahara. Nicom refunded all the funds and they were given a rating of -3 and their account would be closed. RentACoder collect fee when project completed. GAF collect fee when buyer choose winning coder. As next step - winning coder can just disappear. GAF receive profit independently of project's result. About "modalitys of money withdraws" GAF: "Currently we process withdrawals and send out payment once per week" http://www.getafreelancer.com/faq/question.php?id=21 RentACoder: All credits accumulate in your account until the credit cutoff date of your choosing arrives (either the middle of the month, the end of the month or both). http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareCoders/FAQ.asp I don't see big difference between "once per week" and once per 15 days.
I have used RAC and GAF before as a freelancer. But i don't like their interfaces. But one of my friend told me about new service coderbay.com like RAC and GAF but it's not clone. I found many died clones. But this new with usable interface and affiliate program. I think that it will be successful service.
Well for me RAC reaps hard money At gaf you have gold member 12$ 30 days and others fees not taken Let's say you win 5 projects at 100$ = 50% just lost from stupid fees at RAC it's even more Plus the only obtion to withdraw at RAC is WU (other rippers with high fees) For me rac is lame and i hate it .... Gaf rullez
i have been using all sites, i found GAF best, 12$ monthly and no fees then and u bid anywhere . guru, elance sucks, u pay 250$ mebership still u can bid in 1 category plus u pay 10% also of project value u won i have earned some 30-40k$ from GAF and i think its best scriptlance is also good but there are lot of mosquitoes
No actually they really suck. You think you are getting a deal, and they produce stuff that is worthy of the recycle bin. Met a few good people there useful for editing stuff etc, but big projects, I want to look the person in the eye
Yep sums it up. I even offered to sponsor a indian school, but all the offer attracted was people who wanted to submit ny site to a million irrelevant pr zero banned useless directories. I offered a basic hourly rate of £5.00 which I suspect is good for india! 20 hours guaranteed for six months, school and village sponsorship, water, computers etc, and the cheeky devils came back with an hourly rate of £30 POUNDS per hour! Burn in hell freelancer. It is populated by rich thirld world owners ( ok sterotype and not 100 % true) who pay staff peanuts. Ok a few programmers for Eastern Block who are good.
Thanks for telling it like it is. Those sites are unrealistic. No one can survive as a freelancer on the wages made on them. And yes, I agree, the buyers are expecting good work for peanuts.
My only issue with those sites is the wages, the bids. Well, I guess I shouldn't blame the buyers, but I don't think they are getting professional quality work from freelancers willing to work for so little. I'm an artist and I have looked over a few of those sites, and I thought I'd been returned to the stone age - the bids were unbelievably low. How are they living off of them? Given that, one must still obey the agreed upon rules. That one violation was probably what got the poster banned.
I'm going to take this a step further: project bidding sites suck. They're a loser's game if you have to live on more than $3000 per year. As a potential customer of freelancers, the only way to get the best bang for your buck is to hire LOCALLY. Keep your money in your community. Get a chance to meet your freelance consultant face-to-face. Stop being a faceless client to a faceless consultant. The time you'll waste on project bidding sites is going to annoy you; the quality of work will infuriate you (if you ever get your work at all). As a freelancer looking for work, one-shot projects are a waste of time and effort. You're competing against low-bidders who won't get the job done and will end up annoying the client, so they won't come back and try again. Your bidding efforts are lost. Better to focus on finding clients in your community and create a long-term relationship with them. Ok, rant off. This is why I started FreelanceLocalTech.com... Stories like the one in this thread.....
Hi guys I am managing director and founder of Netafreelancer Ltd, I have read all the posts here and I do believe that there are quite afew dodgy webmasters and freelancers out there. I also do believe site like GAF Scriptlance and us try to filter out the bad as best as we can. But freelance sites are very good to get your work done at reasonable prices and all measures are in place to stop fraud ONLY if you use the sites features such as PM escrow etc. Some people I see post messages in there PM like contact me on netafree attt netafree dot com. People like this you should avoid as they are just asking for trouble. Although we are quite a new site we have build up a solid reputation, we have very good customer support and we believe we have taken all aspects from every freelance site and put them into one Once again I am very sorry to hear peoples bad experinces, What I am going to do for everyone on DP at this moment in time just to get your trust and help you is if you join up with us. PM me your username and I will give each person special membership for 6 months. So basically as a trial period you can try us out never pay any fees if after 6 months you dont think our customer support is top notch then we will basically lose out. I will only activate your special status if you PM me your username. And if you ever have any problems which are not resolved in the helpdesk always PM as customer satisfaction s our number one priority www.netafreelancer.com
Try freelancewar.com It's a new site, which can help you get your work done. It's free to signup, to bid, and to post. No Commissions or Monthly Service Fees. It's slowly growing.
I like GAF too compare to GAC they have much less spam bid and more reasonable price. I got my project done in GAF but never got any proper bidders from GAC...
Agreed that getafreelaner.com is good in features and the UI sucks big time, though there is one more thing to consider for freelancers: It is a massive site and for new freelancers, a less saturated market is better to start with. They can then enter the larger marketplaces, armed with a robust portfolio and wiser by the experience at the smaller sites. FreelancersAtLarge.com is one such site I recommend. It is neither too big, nor too small and has an exceptionally helpful customre-support team.
BEWARE of DUMITRU VRABII from Chisinau, MOLDOVA (Warning, attention, arrogant, rude web developer) Extreme verbal abuse by web developer Dumitru Vrabii with an Getafreelancer.com ID "danvaley". Website at www.DumitruVrabii.com.md . Uses foul language and threatens buyers. Mr. Dumitru Vrabii http://www.dumitruvrabii.com.md Email: Telephone: +373 22 76 96 34 GSM: +373 797 05 239 ICQ: 408-316-820 Skype: dvrabii Address: Chisinau, Moldova dumitru vrabii says: "hey fuck you with your time!!!!!!!" Below is his post (he should have just quit instead of verbally abusing us): Message on Project Posted! danvaley has just posted a message for you on project named International immovable property website Message: HEY FUCK YOU WITH YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!! You view and answer this message on this page. If you have any questions, concerns or need support, please make sure to contact us here: http://www.getafreelancer.com/report/contact.php To unsubscribe from these notifications, please edit your profile. Best Regards, GetAFreelancer.com Support Team Innovate it Box 784 53117 Lidköping Sweden ID: 650384 =============================================== Mr. Dumitru Vrabii posted a bid on our project without any portfolio nor information about himself. After we asked him to save our time and post his info he asked "what do you want to see?". We posted a full description of our project on the board. Then he posted the abusive "greeting" soon after. We have reported him to the management, but he remains a member. Similar situation with elance.com. Got extremely abusive language and death threats from web developer Khaqan Mahmood (Pakistan), here's his language: "HAHAHAHA.... And i'll make sure you never get this project done... If you could stop us from getting business, you would be Condoleeza Rice !! but that involves picking up extra skills beyond a medical treatment...LOL... " All we did was pointed to him that he bid on our project without first reading it. Elance did nothing to remove him even after he posted several nonsense bids and abusive language to us. So we have chosen Guru.com. It seems to be a much nicer site and service.