Freelancer.com |TOP|
Valerie Sietsema
Worst that could happen to a freelance writer is scam of payment after work has been delivered. I am sure most of you here would have had one experience or other of the sorts. Well, I am also no exception. I was scammed on freelancer.com.
I mostly write for passion and rarely on assignments. Few years back I was advised by a friend to create a profile on online platforms such as freelancer.com, upwork.com, etc. After an initial apprehension, I created a profile on upwork.com. Things went of well and dollars started coming in. Americans pay more or Indians expect less, I don't know but I was glad :). Few months later, I created a profile on freelancer.com. Well, that was a mistake.
Freelancer.com is a totally scam site and they have no control over who is who on their platform. Some sites and users have even alleged that freelancer.com itself resorts to scamming it's users on frivolous pretexts. Within a day of creating my profile on freelancer.com, I was contacted by an employer who offered to pay my per hour asking rate to deliver few keyword optimized articles. I was apprehensive as this employer didn't negotiate but then he was shown as verified on freelancer.com. Moreover, he asserted me to install freelancer.com's work tracking app to keep a real time track of writing activity. I accepted the offer.
It was 3 days beyond the payment deadline and no dollars appeared in my account. I couldn't wait no more. I contacted freelancer.com customer care on chat and I was very casually informed by them that my employer is not responding and that I would not get paid. I was devastated. Not because of the loss but because of the fact that I had been taken for a ride. I used to get up as early as 4 AM in the morning to make extra time in my schedule for timely completion of these assignments.
I immediately asked freelancer.com about details of the verification procedure they had carried out on my employer. They blatantly denied citing it to be their internal procedure. Subsequently, I asked them about the details of their India office for the purpose of initiating legal proceedings. They once again denied on record on email that they do not have any office in India whereas the truth is that freelancer.com is registered in India since 12th September, 2011 with Corporate Identification Number (CIN) U93000HR2011FTC043854 and Registration Number as 43854. Their India office is situated at 40-P, Sector 40, Gurgaon - 122002.
I immediately googled "freelancer.com scams" and what opened was no less than Pandora's box. I was not the only victim. Freelancer.com had destroyed the careers, motivation and lives of hundreds of my fraternal buddies. I just couldn't let this pass.
I approached freelancer.com support again and they didn't refrain from bullying me on every instance. Eventually, I realized I was knocking the wrong door. I eventually lodged several complaints with the concerned government departments in India and Australia since freelancer.com is based in Australia. Nothing happened. Government officials kept on passing the buck and nothing happened. My agony and helplessness were on an all time high.
After much contemplation and introspection, I took a bold step of writing an email to the Prime Ministers of India & Australia. It was not easy to take this call but finally I did. This caused some ripples in the office of freelancer.com.
Eventually, I got an email from freelancer.com that they are willing to pay my fee along with some compensation for my loss of time. I had a sigh of relief but this was actually the beginning of another nightmare.
I was approached by freelancer.com's legal team that started harassing me on an altogether different level. I was asked to present complex documents and was bullied on several occasions by advocates and law officers.
Upwork is the most popular freelance platform in the world, over time it has become more synonymous with freelancing than freelancer.com. Really! It has the largest market share at 10% of online freelancing, with millions of freelancers and clients across 180 countries. The talent available on the platform is also far and wide, with freelancers in all niches including design, web development, management, law and so much more. If it's possible to do it remotely, you will find someone on Upwork providing the service you need.
But when you accept a project and accomplish it, you'll have to pay the fee. Your freelancer introduction fee for the fixed-price job is 10% of the agreement's value or $5, whichever is higher. And for hourly jobs, freelancer.com imposes a 10% fee for every payment you receive.
What you see here is a common tactic freelancer.com will do in public. They pretend to resolve the issue in private, hoping to shut you up in public, only to continue the run around in private, offering absolutely no solution.
My warning is: being on contest's site of freelancer.com dont believe the numbers of entries/bids if it is 0. I was cheated twice. I saw a zero so I created an entry - couple of time of work, when I was uploading the number was much larger so I was disappointed. Do they upload in the mean time? no - I checked it - other contests with 0 had the same trap! fck!
So I set up a petition to NASA to get them to cut ties with freelancer.com. 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!!)
I believe he means which general ledger expense account should be used when paying a vendor like Fiver or Upwork or freelancer.com. These are third party services where you get projects done and they pay the contractor directly and issue 1099s to them. I think this more more be a general expense based on what you are getting done. For example if you are hiring a freelancer to do work vs creating a tool that will be used internally for your company, vs perhaps having someone write copy for your blog or website. It's important to emphasize that the third party is issuing the 1099 from their company to the contractor so it's not employment or a contractor payment.
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