Learn why after the jump.
I do not care for Freelancer.com because of two negative experiences I had on there. While I am pretty embarrassed about how the way things went down and pissed about the money I was never paid, I guess I did learn a couple really valuable lessons. Rather than just crying about it, I am choosing to tell the story to you so that you can prevent yourself from falling into the traps I fell into. Here is where I went wrong the first time:
(1) Writing For a Client Called 'DanWebs' On Freelancer.com
On Freelancer.com you place bids on projects and then pray for responses. I was just getting started working from home when I found Freelancer.com. I should never have applied for a job for this guy, his rates were very low but I had to start somewhere I guess. He accepted my bid and sent me a message with his mail ID (his Gmail email address) which is in direct violation of the rules at Freelancer. That right there should have been a red flag. He communicated with me via email. I completed the first job and he didn't pay but asked me to do more work. He promised payment was coming. I never uploaded the files to Freelancer, I should have. Then when I refused to complete a hefty html and text editing job for $1 per page, things really went south.
Lovely Mr. DanWebs filed a dispute against me on Freelancer saying I never wrote the articles that I completed for him. Then I had a chance to respond and although I uploaded the files then it was too late. I never got paid for the work I did and Dan Webs since he is just like the creature in the photo to the left of this paragraph probably just used the files anyway. I learned a valuable lesson: when employers on Freelancer pressure you to communicate outside of Freelancer, beware! Even if they are the one who initiates the violation it will likely be you who gets ripped off in the end.So if someone with the email address dannyweb at gmail dot com asks you to work for them as a freelance writer, prepare to be taken for a ride and quite possibly to get ripped off like I did.
(2) Writing For a Client Called Snehasish05 (Snehasish Mukherjee) on Freelancer.com
Now this guy is a special case. I bid on a project for him when I first started out on Freelancer and he requested that I contact him via email, which I did. The start of my dealings with him was right around when the whole DannyWebs fiasco occurred so I was making bad decisions across the board then as you can see. The first project was fine, I got paid and went on my way. Months passed before we communicated again. Then in late June, Snehasish Mukherjee emailed me and asked me to work for him again. As I had been ripped off by DannyWebs I decided to only work with Snehasish Mukherjee on Freelancer. Well that didn't solve anything.
For our first project I was paid, but only after I pestered him for weeks and threatened to file a dispute. He then apologized, gave me great feedback and I decided I'd never work with him again. But then he begged me to do another project. I accepted, which I never should have. This project was for 20 stupid articles at a rate of $90. Are you catching this? I offered an insane rate that was much more beneficial to him and here's what happened.
(1) My bid was for $90 and to complete the project in 4 days.
(2) Snehasish began pressuring me to complete the job quicker and threatened to cancel it.
(3) I started the job, not realizing that Snehasish Mukherjee had never uploaded the initial milestone payment (therefore SCAMMING me)
(4) After I finished (back on July 6th or so) he thanked me for my efforts and said he'd pay me this evening. (I have still never been paid).
(5) At this point I realized he was most likely a snake and a scammer who was never going to pay me (I was right).
The first time I asked about payment, he told me that his grandfather had died.
The second time I asked for payment, he told me his mother was in a mental hospital or something because of his grandfather's death.
The third time I asked for payment, he told me his sister was murdered by his brother in law.
If all those things actually happened, well that is a shame. If not, how could you possibly make up lies like that about your FAMILY? The bottom line is that I did the work. Why didn't he pay me?
As I said before, this is not an issue with the entire Freelancer.com site, but with scammers who operate within the system. The system is set up to the benefit of the employers and the team at Freelancer will do virtually nothing to get you paid if there is no milestone payment in place. So fool me once, shame on you and fool me twice and I guess I'm the fool. Lesson learned 2x over. I will not be working on Freelancer.com ever again.
But if YOU decide to work from home writing or coding on Freelancer.com I wish you the best of luck. Let me know how it turns out for you.
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