I've had similar experiences. My first experience on Elance was phenomenal. I found someone in Baltimore who worked wonders with a PPC advertising campaign, t

I've had similar experiences. My first experience on Elance was phenomenal. I found someone in Baltimore who worked wonders with a PPC advertising campaign, turning a money-waster into a profitable venture. I thought it would always be that easy. The next 2 were not so pretty. The first was a simple content writing task (provider from Texas). The first results were on time and of great quality. Then the delays started, then the excuses (sick pet, sick child, storms and power outages, death in the family). Finally I got no response at all for weeks, and when all the milestone dates had passed I got a refund. The last one was so-so. The next was a simple design job (provider in Pakistan)...5 HTML templates for 5-page brochure sites. The provider's portfolio looked great, and the bid price was right. The designs were amazing, but the coding was terrible...I had to have it re-done by someone else. And the designs came quickly but the coding took forever. I'm guessing the guy was a designer who usually works with a partner for the HTML/CSS coding, and he tried to cut his partner out of the deal by doing it himself. EDIT: Forgot to include this: the final solution to my problem was finding my own team in the Philippines. I lucked out when I found an amazing project manager who put a team of 10 developers, designers, content writers, and data entry guys together and he manages everything so I don't have to. Now we do transparent outsourcing for other web design companies.