4 ms·

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 https:/

by mudil 13y ago

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to nothing. Freelancer is not to be trusted.

mudil 13y ago
BTW, Odesk is great!
loceng 13y ago
I've had problems with oDesk, and what they say they do to protect employers as part of their marketing isn't actually how they act in practice when issues arise. For example, blackmail by a contractor to them isn't considered a high risk activity, and therefore they won't remove the contractor for it..
mattbarrie 13y ago
Hello there. I replied to your issues with Freelancer on the previous thread.
- mudil 13y ago
  Matt, All I wanted is to file a feedback. And after paying >$1000, not getting anything back, my project (the one that I started and paid for) was closed by a developer, and I can't even leave a feedback! So, what kind of protections do your customers get?
  - mattbarrie 13y ago
    We ban freelancers who do not provide the service. You can also leave feedback in the form of an "incomplete" report which is a very damaging form of feedback. Normal feedback cannot be left unless the project is paid in full.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
pekk 13y ago
People also tend to scam developers out of work without paying on these sites...
xerophtye 13y ago
Well i took a look into the matter and as you mention "we are not developers. we are med people", isn't there a possibility you misunderstood the devs? They did explain in their replies that the reason the site crashed for two weeks because of conflicts with the previous site which took a long time to resolve. And from what i understand, you "stopped trusting them" after this incident. I assume you figured it only worked on their servers by some scam and isn't gonna work on your servers. So i hope you see that this suspicion was very baseless. As for your paying of 75% of the payment, i assume that was AFTER you approved of the site on their servers. So they must have said "see? it's complete. now all we have to do is deploy to your servers" so it made sense to pay them. And so i am not going to blame you for paying them. What i do blame you for is not trusting them. But yes, generally it is best advised not to pay in advance (but i assume you only paid after seeing a working site). Either way, blaming this on freelancer.com doens't make any sense what so ever.
- mudil 13y ago
  xerophtye: Our blog is one of the oldest and most linked to and trafficked medical blogs. We have ~15K posts, since 2004. We have custom WP plugins and widgets, etc etc. We had many developers over time. So we are not idiots when it comes to understanding what we need from developers. I started the project and paid for it (partially with some remaining in escrow). Wouldn't you expect that only I can close the project? Or at least be able to leave a feedback? For full back and forth, see link that I left above.
mudil 13y ago
If anyone interested, you can review the full documentation of back and forth between us and Freelancer.com: http://medgadgetenglish.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/02/View-Ticket_-SED-989-67810-.pdf http://medgadgetenglish.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/...
cpuri 13y ago
I had the same problem also a few times

by mudil 13y ago

mudil 13y ago

BTW, Odesk is great!

loceng 13y ago

I've had problems with oDesk, and what they say they do to protect employers as part of their marketing isn't actually how they act in practice when issues arise. For example, blackmail by a contractor to them isn't considered a high risk activity, and therefore they won't remove the contractor for it..

mattbarrie 13y ago

Hello there. I replied to your issues with Freelancer on the previous thread.

mudil 13y ago
Matt, All I wanted is to file a feedback. And after paying >$1000, not getting anything back, my project (the one that I started and paid for) was closed by a developer, and I can't even leave a feedback! So, what kind of protections do your customers get?
- mattbarrie 13y ago
  We ban freelancers who do not provide the service. You can also leave feedback in the form of an "incomplete" report which is a very damaging form of feedback. Normal feedback cannot be left unless the project is paid in full.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

pekk 13y ago

People also tend to scam developers out of work without paying on these sites...

xerophtye 13y ago

Well i took a look into the matter and as you mention "we are not developers. we are med people", isn't there a possibility you misunderstood the devs? They did explain in their replies that the reason the site crashed for two weeks because of conflicts with the previous site which took a long time to resolve. And from what i understand, you "stopped trusting them" after this incident. I assume you figured it only worked on their servers by some scam and isn't gonna work on your servers. So i hope you see that this suspicion was very baseless. As for your paying of 75% of the payment, i assume that was AFTER you approved of the site on their servers. So they must have said "see? it's complete. now all we have to do is deploy to your servers" so it made sense to pay them. And so i am not going to blame you for paying them. What i do blame you for is not trusting them. But yes, generally it is best advised not to pay in advance (but i assume you only paid after seeing a working site). Either way, blaming this on freelancer.com doens't make any sense what so ever.

mudil 13y ago
xerophtye: Our blog is one of the oldest and most linked to and trafficked medical blogs. We have ~15K posts, since 2004. We have custom WP plugins and widgets, etc etc. We had many developers over time. So we are not idiots when it comes to understanding what we need from developers. I started the project and paid for it (partially with some remaining in escrow). Wouldn't you expect that only I can close the project? Or at least be able to leave a feedback? For full back and forth, see link that I left above.

mudil 13y ago

If anyone interested, you can review the full documentation of back and forth between us and Freelancer.com: http://medgadgetenglish.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads//2013/02/View-Ticket_-SED-989-67810-.pdf http://medgadgetenglish.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/...

cpuri 13y ago

I had the same problem also a few times