Freelancer.com Hold my Payment without my fault.. Please help

Hi,

I am working as a Freeelance writer. Currently, I got a big project of writing articles in bulk. So I hired some writers to get it done. I used to submit the articles everyday and I got payment from employer for everyday's work as milestone. It was going smoothly. After a few days, I made a withdrawal request at Freelancer to withdraw the money paid by the employer. Then, I got a mail from the Freelancer after 3-4 days that the withdrawal is cancelled. Decline reason: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.

I contacted Freelance customer support and they said that I cannot withdraw the money paid by that employer until the employer verifies his identity. A big amount of money is on hold at Freelancer. The employer has paid the money and I have earned it by working hard and now Freelancer is enjoying the money.

What should I do if employer is not verifying his identity? How could I know that and what is my fault here. Why my money is on hold? And why Freelancer has accepted the payment if it's not verified?

Freelancer should have asked for verification before accepting the money from the employer. Now he has taken the money of both of us and showing his rules. There is no rule in Freelancer while accepting money from the employer but they shows you the rules while it comes to pay. It means Freelancer can keep the money from an unauthorised source but can't pay it or return it back. Is this fair?
Freelancer is a total SCAM for sure. They make their own rules and there is no one to stop them.
Everytime I contect their customer support they can't give any proper answer, only give me a link to their terms. It's between the employer and Freelancer then why should I suffer? I don't have any account issue, I have done my work, I earned the money...

I am in a huge loss now as I have to pay my writers and I din't got any money for the work yet. Is anyone here who faced the same problem or know how to deal with it? Then please help me out...!!!! Also if you know about any legal steps then please guide me...

Thanks

 

It's very unfair and unprofessional for Freelancer.com. It looks like there is real vacuum in this business with the demise of Elance I looked at every single freelancing site out there and they all suck - see this thread for details

 

Amyrta,

Unfortunately this is a fairly common occurrence with Freelancer (a quick search can pull up several dozen similar stories).

I wouldn't panic yet - it takes time for them to verify an identity, so it's possible that your client has submitted his or her info and is currently waiting to be verified.

The most important thing you can do right now is keep in touch with the CLIENT. Freelancer support is, in all honesty, pretty bad. Work with the client so that you can both "attack" them and see to it that your funds get processed.

Let Freelancer know that you're not afraid to contact the BBB and sites like ripoffreport.

I agree with Jeff for the most part - there's a huge vacuum for someone to come in and make a truly decent freelancing site.

I don't believe that Freelancer is a scam per se, but like with most freelancing sites, you have to go in knowing that you're playing by their rules. In my opinion it's better to look at these kinds of sites as stepping stones to private relationships with clients - which is where the majority of your income should be coming from. Yes, yes, it's against the TOS to conduct business outside of the site, blah blah blah. The reality is that most successful working relationships eventually "find their way" off of these kinds of sites.

So, Amyrta, a couple of tips for the future:

• Next time, make sure that your employer on Freelancer has verified their identity. You can see this on their profile and the job ad. If they haven't, just move on.
• In fact, you may want to avoid potential clients who don't have any history on the site. If they don't have a verified payment method, there's a big chance they aren't serious about hiring someone quickly. They might just be "feeling out" their options. For best results, don't waste your bids on these job offers.
• Establish as many one-on-one, private working relationships as you can. Consider seeking out clients outside of Freelancer - there's plenty of IM forums like Digital Point. This gives you total control over invoicing. You'll also receive payments much more quickly.
• Consider implementing a strict a payment upfront policy for your clients, or at least request payments in installments BEFORE doing any work. Will you lose some people by doing this? Yes - but you'll likely avoid lots of headaches.
• Here's a good rule of thumb: until you have a payment in YOUR bank account, pretend that the money doesn't exist. As you've learned, just because Freelancer claims you have X amount of money in your account, it doesn't mean that it's actually in your possession.

Good luck with your situation. Let us know what happens please!

 

Although my friend Eli explained very well Amyrta but i have a doubt(might be i am wrong) that client is playing the game/trick as clever clients loves to do that. I really wish this shouldn't be the case, so keep trying and request for help from client. If he will co-operate then you will be able to overcome it though not very quickly but you will.

All the best Amyrta - i can understand your situation.

 

For now, all you can do is to pray. And next time ask the employer to pay by Bitcoin, it's the safest way of receiving your money online.

 

Sorry to know about such situation Amryta. You can politely follow up with freelancer.com for few days and if they still do not respond positively, just inform them that you'd post about this incident on major complaint boards, review sites and social networks which would put freelancer.com in bad light. If they really care about their reputation, they would promptly release your payment. Make sure you have all the screenshots to support your case. I have used this technique with 100% success with many affiliate networks who refused to pay the commission that was due to me.

 

I heard Freelancer can be a little weird at times. I would say just be nice a polite with them and ask them what's going on.

 

Try trulance.com and stay safe. You deserves your payment. No hustles in getting paid for the work done and approved.

 

Freelancer call the buyer when big payment happen. If a buyer did not pick up the phone and not verify. They hold the payment.

 

If they are doing this, then they are totally scam. I have a past experience working with an Finical Company which provide small store merchant an machine for taking payment from customers.

Honestly we able to verify each & every information from the customers payment. coz they use there credit & debit card. So no further verification needed.

 

I am currently undergoing the same case. Did you get your money eventually?

 

If this is the case, Freelancer just makes reasons to hold your money. It's sad and frustrating that all your hard-earned money can turn to nothing due to a fault you didn't even commit. I hope she got her money though.