Thread: Freelancer.com withholds my money

Another one of many:

What is the reason for this flag? (limit 2000 chars)
Date Occurred: 03/11/2013 Reported Damages: $571.00 Location: USA Hello,

My freelancing id is : (Personal Information Removed)
I have been in this for 2 years, and have accepted 3 projects, which I completed it and the project team paid to me via freelancing.
But the team which gave project have some dispute with freelancing team and the freelancing team has banned their account.
Now they have with hold my payment which is already been paid by them and they are forcing me to resolve their issue.
Which is unfair

My work is to get the project and complete it, which I have done and I got the payment long back, but the freelancing team have hold my payment.
From freelancing Team:
" The three Milestone Payments from your employers "gamechanger0523" and "simantika2012" were reversed due to issues on the two members' accounts."
What you may want to do in this case is to contact the employers again and amicably resolve the issue with them with regards to the Milestone Payments.
20:00Victor C.: You can also advise them to resolve their account issues with us. Once their account issues are resolved, the Milestone Payments will be reinstated to your account.
"Note that the Milestone Payments are on hold due to their account issues with us and they have to resolve this."
Below is my transaction history.

HENCE ITS COMPLETELY UNFAIR ITS THE ISSUE WITH THE FREELANCING AND THE OTHER EMPLOYEE AND I AM SUFFERING.

Transaction History

All Transactions
Invoices
Milestones
Currency + Export Transactions
Show
FirstPrevious123NextLast
Date Transaction Invoice Amount Balance
11 Mar 2013 02:28 Reversal of [Done milestone payment from simantika2012 for project need iPhone application developer (Partial payment for project) (USD) from 06/25/2012 at 10:12 EDT] (USD) -83.00 100.00
11 Mar 2013 02:28 Reversal of [Done milestone payment from simantika2012 for project need iPhone application developer (Partial payment for project) (USD) from 06/25/2012 at 10:12 EDT] (USD) -165.00 183.00
11 Mar 2013 02:26 Reversal of [Done milestone payment from gamechanger0523 for project FLMD App Custom Project Sep 18 2012 08:14:38 for luvtodevelopapps (Partial payment for project) (USD) from 09/18/2012 at 11:36 EDT] (USD) -323.00 348.00


Please help me.

Thanks and Regards,
Sapna

http://www.scambook.com/report/view/220618/Freelancercom-Complaint-220618-for-$571.00

Hi ScratchyCat,
I hope you remember me... :)
I had account limitation issue at freelancer few month ago. Hopefully I solved it (with your help)
Seems like a new wave is coming! freelancer is taking action against all users from Iran. (I'm from Iran too)
All accounts limited and money ... you know the game! it's a reasonable number of users.
So there is a number of angry/upset people wanting their money back. I hope we can take a serious action against freelancer's irrelevant behavior with your help.

So here we go. what are your suggestions?

Sincerest,
Alireza

Originally Posted by alizap

Hi ScratchyCat,
I hope you remember me... :)
I had account limitation issue at freelancer few month ago. Hopefully I solved it (with your help)
Seems like a new wave is coming! freelancer is taking action against all users from Iran. (I'm from Iran too)
All accounts limited and money ... you know the game! it's a reasonable number of users.
So there is a number of angry/upset people wanting their money back. I hope we can take a serious action against freelancer's irrelevant behavior with your help.

So here we go. what are your suggestions?

Sincerest,
Alireza

Sure, I remember the comments you made and glad you got it solved. Freelancer seems to operate solely on their own rules and regulations. Why Australian government allows this, I have no idea and they seem to control situations in other countries as well. So now you are saying there are some issues with Iran? Not surprised. We don't seem to have made much advancement with our exposure, except it is getting bad reviews in Alexa. See image above. #112

Here is one website you might want to contact owner and leave comment:

Freelancer.com Scam – Part II : Scam Employers – Onlylogical1 and Desource2012 – Among other misgivings and apathy of Freelancer.com Staff | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

So... I guess we need more exposure! or just sadly sit back? :(

Originally Posted by alizap

So... I guess we need more exposure! or just sadly sit back? :(

Welcome Alizap, what I might suggest is to share the link to this thread any place you think Freelancers might come together. Perhaps even start within your own discipline as it would be a group where you can share your experience. There are any number of dishonest things going on on and off the web at any time, so the best you can hope is to educate people.

One other suggestion I would make is to write about it in a native language like Farsi as the 4 sources I know of on Freelancer are all in English. I say this because all of the people I speak with in other countries know people that do not know English. For instance, I have spoke with some people in Portugal about something called Banners Broker. The folks they were concerned about did not speak English. And these people are very likely to fall for this or any scam if there is not enough information they can readily access and understand.

I use Google Translate from time to time http://translate.google.com/#auto/es...ntinua%20assim as I only speak English, but did this with Spanish for another scammer I wanted to warn some people about on Facebook with good results. I would think most people on this side of the fence would be comfortable if you translated and shared their work to avoid having to recreate the wheel. It is best to ask, but for most who do this I like to think the goal is to get the word out.

Originally Posted by alizap

So... I guess we need more exposure! or just sadly sit back? :(

I understand your feeling on this as I have a 'friend' who has about given up also. You have to keep trying, as I tell the others. These things do not happen overnight, it takes years and determination to bring awareness to some scams and freelancer.com has a lot of 'muscle' but as with this article "Barking dogs seldom bite".
Freelancer.com Scam – Highhandedness at its best | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

You are so right Ribshaw to suggest sharing this link with everyone who has the same problem or interest.

We have several threads on RS relating to freelancer.com and I wish they were combined but that is up to administration.


http://www.realscam.com/f10/freelanc...my-money-1281/

http://www.realscam.com/f10/freelanc...problems-1584/

http://www.realscam.com/f11/freelanc...g-ripoff-1736/

http://www.realscam.com/f8/freelancer-com-beware-2057/

Take a look at the real Matt Barrie.

https://www.facebook.com/mattbarrie/...8305120&type=3

fbpage.JPG

This was a comment by littleroundman from another thread and in case others did not read it, I want to post it here also as it is a good statement. http://www.realscam.com/f11/freelanc...g-ripoff-1736/ #16

"Cease and desist WHAT, Mr Barrie ??

Telling the truth ???

Offering an opinion ??

The problem with many of these celebrity business leaders is they start believing their own publicity and imagine themselves to be untouchable.

It may be fashionable to think of Australia as some backward, out of the way place, but I can assure readers that is not the case.

Cease and desist letters in Australia are just that, "letters"

Letters which anyone who can afford to pay can have sent out by his/her/their legal representatives.

They carry no legal weight at all.

In fact, should Mr Barrie and Freelancer decide to follow through with their threats, I am in no doubt the internet would have no compunction at all in responding with a complete exposure of the Freelancer practices described both here and on the countless blogs which are already on the Freelancer case.

I am also in no doubt Freelancers' policy of requiring identity verification by means of "someone/anyone" holding up a card will be the subject of endless ridicule when and if it becomes general knowledge.

Add in the hundreds of same/similar complaints currently circulating on the 'net regarding non payment for ridiculous reasons AND the fact 'netizens are notoriously reluctant to accept being bullied by anyone, and I can but imagine the outcome for both Mr Barrie and Freelancer.

Far be it for me to lecture anyone as "famous and well connected" as Mr Barrie or his Freelancer businesses, but, surely it would be far easier and more productive to fix the problem/s at the source instead of unleashing a shi*****m of unwanted publicity ??

Freelancers' "identity verification" procedures, customer service, complaint and payment procedure services are demonstrably inefficient on occasion.

No amount of bullying via "cease and desist" letters can change that and no amount of "cease and desist" letters can remove anyones' right to point out the fact thay are.

"Cease and Desist" THAT, Freelancer lawyers, who ever you are "

Hello scratchycat, after reading this thread I was down, I plan to join freelancer.com as a freelancer, I am now been looking for freelance websites that I can trust, I ever once cheated by peopleperhour.com. so I do not want to be fooled twice, do you have advice or suggestions? thank you

Well, all I can say is based on reviews by those who have been scammed by freelancer.com, I know for sure I would not have anything to do with them. Even if you do a great job on a project and the employer pays you, if you do not comply with their "rules" do not submit the required personal information, it is possible they will pull that money from your PayPal account and charge you even more plus send you threatening letters. So many people have been taken by them and lost a lot of money. You could contact the owner of Freelancer.com Scam – Failed Trap, Tomfoolery or plain Stupidity? | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

or read this one: Freelancers for Hire - Employment Scams - Scam Detector

Since I am not a freelancer, I cannot verify any of the sites but freelancer.com has bought up a lot of them in the last year or so, you need to be careful.

You can read more at this Blog:

Get a Hindu: FREELANCER.COM - FRAUD DIVISION MANAGER NEEDED (BONUS: FREELANCER.COM PHONE NUMBER)

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Well, all I can say is based on reviews by those who have been scammed by freelancer.com, I know for sure I would not have anything to do with them. Even if you do a great job on a project and the employer pays you, if you do not comply with their "rules" do not submit the required personal information, it is possible they will pull that money from your PayPal account and charge you even more plus send you threatening letters. So many people have been taken by them and lost a lot of money. You could contact the owner of Freelancer.com Scam – Failed Trap, Tomfoolery or plain Stupidity? | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

or read this one: Freelancers for Hire - Employment Scams - Scam Detector

Since I am not a freelancer, I cannot verify any of the sites but freelancer.com has bought up a lot of them in the last year or so, you need to be careful.

I have read the references you provided, my head feels sicker, it looks like I will not be plunged again into the world of freelance. Thank you scratchycat

Originally Posted by donalexander

I have read the references you provided, my head feels sicker, it looks like I will not be plunged again into the world of freelance. Thank you scratchycat

According to Freelancer.com Site Info their traffic and reach has dropped in the past few months. I did notice they have had some of their robots giving rave reviews and I would guess that is what those 'likes' are. The same ones who jump in and defend them in RS and blogs.

I am sorry that this has discouraged you and there might be a few good ones. Maybe someone in RS knows who actually uses them. I cannot attest to it as I don't use them. What is important we might have saved you many headaches and lots of money.

Hi everyone,

I'm Jenna from Freelancer.com. I'd like to personally assist you on your individual concerns. Please send me an email to support@freelancer.com containing your username and the ID of the relevant project. Be reminded to direct the email to me by putting my name on the title so I would easily get it.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Jenna

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hi everyone,

I'm Jenna from Freelancer.com. I'd like to personally assist you on your individual concerns. Please send me an email to support@freelancer.com containing your username and the ID of the relevant project. Be reminded to direct the email to me by putting my name on the title so I would easily get it.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Jenna

Hello Jenna,

I am happy that you are here and hope that you will be able to deal with the issues and concerns of the parties involved. I am sure we look forward to the end result.

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hi everyone,

I'm Jenna from Freelancer.com. I'd like to personally assist you on your individual concerns. Please send me an email to support@freelancer.com containing your username and the ID of the relevant project. Be reminded to direct the email to me by putting my name on the title so I would easily get it.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Jenna

Hello Jenna (robot) from freelancer.com, so good to have you drop by with the robotic statement given to most concerns. Why direct it to you? Have you replaced Emir?

My name is Emir and I work for Freelancer.com. I came across your post here. We are sorry that you had a bad experience. We would like to help and we have looked into your case for you.

We understand that you went through the account verification procedures. We’d like to assure that this Freelancer.com procedure is in place to verify the user's identity and to create a safe environment for freelancers and employers. Freelancer.com will not disclose sensitive information unless to comply to legal obligations or with your express consent.

As you discussed the employer has raised a chargeback for the funds that were associated with this project, these funds are now frozen on Freelancer.com, and there is an investigation being conducted into the reason for these chargebacks.

We will contact you via email to ensure you are kept up to date with the progress of this investigation.

Thank you very much.

or Alaister..

Hi sratchycat,

Let me address some of the issues you have brought up.

We currently have an active marketplace and userbase of over 4 million users from all over the world. As you can understand we need to implement security measures to ensure our system is as safe as possible for all our users.

We never suspend accounts for no reason. Account Suspension occurs when users have broken our Terms of Service of if we see their previous activity placing the safety of our marketplace at risk. We also at times limit users' accounts in order for them to undergo our verification system to ensure everyone is who they say they are on the site.

I do understand the frustration and inconvenience that occurs at times when accounts get suspended or placed into verification, however it is a necessary step. The fastest way to get access to your account is to follow the prompts and steps in our verification center.

Be aware all funds in your Freelancer.com balance remains in your account and will still be there once you go through the verification process.

We are not in the business of scamming or ripping people off. What we are working to achieve is a safe and secure marketplace for both employers and freelancers across the globe.


Regards,

Alaister Low
Director of Customer Experience
Freelancer.com

At any rate, we look forward to all your offers of help and returning the money you have stolen from these people you have ripped off, according to the many complaints all over the internet and in here.

Originally Posted by baylee

Hello Jenna,

I am happy that you are here and hope that you will be able to deal with the issues and concerns of the parties involved. I am sure we look forward to the end result.

Waiting anxiously and I will try to inform all those parties concerned that Jenna is here to help them get their money!!!

Strange but this comes as more comments were made on various blogs today.

Freelancer Rip-OffExpress_It!

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hi everyone,

I'm Jenna from Freelancer.com. I'd like to personally assist you on your individual concerns. Please send me an email to support@freelancer.com containing your username and the ID of the relevant project. Be reminded to direct the email to me by putting my name on the title so I would easily get it.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards,
Jenna

Sorry, but give me an f'n break. If you want stuff sent directly to you why not set up an email account that goes directly to you? Seriously, are you trying to be condescending and annoying right out of the gate? Surely you as a "insider" already know who the people are who have had money withheld, how about show up with some results.

People may as well open their windows and scream your name for as seriously as I take this.

Hi Ribshaw,

Thank you for the message.

I completely understand how you are feeling about me giving the Support's email address. But if you would give me a chance, I would like to help you with issue you had on our site. To do that, please let me know your username, the relevant project you had an issue with, and a short summary of what happened. I would personally look into this and send you a message afterwards.

I shall wait for your message.

Originally Posted by ribshaw

Sorry, but give me an f'n break. If you want stuff sent directly to you why not set up an email account that goes directly to you? Seriously, are you trying to be condescending and annoying right out of the gate? Surely you as a "insider" already know who the people are who have had money withheld, how about show up with some results.

People may as well open their windows and scream your name for as seriously as I take this.

Hi Scratchycat,

Thank you for the acknowledgement.

I'd be very glad to help the people here. Just shoot me a message at support@freelancer.com. I may not be able to promise that everything will turn out positively, rest assured that I would personally look into each and every query that I would receive and do the best I can to help you guys.

Hope to hear from people here. :)

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Hello Jenna (robot) from freelancer.com, so good to have you drop by with the robotic statement given to most concerns. Why direct it to you? Have you replaced Emir?



or Alaister..



At any rate, we look forward to all your offers of help and returning the money you have stolen from these people you have ripped off, according to the many complaints all over the internet and in here.

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

...
Jenna

Yeaaahhh... how nice to see another 'helpful' Freelancer.com's representative (after: Emir, Alaister, Max...)

So will ask a few questions. And will be asking them until I get proper answers:
1. Why has Freelancer.com's personnel been outing my surname on purpose? This is intentional privacy abuse just unthinkable for any business dealing with it.
2. Why have the complaining people been smeared by your company publicly? Why have I and Kent Mauresmo been accused of most preposterous behaviors without any proofs of those? What about Eccentric Blogger? Where are proofs this is a scammer? What kind of legit corporation defends itself by trashing the pissed customer on its official blog?
3. Why had Freelancer.com sent me C&D e-mail within HOURS after I have reminded its CEO about existing copyright infringement even though my blog was up for like 4 months? Why have Freelancer.com lawyers misled me about "getting back to me in the beginning of 2013"? Why have I been harassed via phone and e-mail even though my private data was to be kept confidential?


And, finally, as one smart person asked on BH forum:
What kind of customer service are you offering chasing the complaining people on forums where they complain? What if the person had been hurt by Freelancer.com but didn't have venue/will to complain publicly?

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hi Ribshaw,

Thank you for the message.

I completely understand how you are feeling about me giving the Support's email address. But if you would give me a chance, I would like to help you with issue you had on our site. To do that, please let me know your username, the relevant project you had an issue with, and a short summary of what happened. I would personally look into this and send you a message afterwards.

I shall wait for your message.

Jenna I have not had a problem personally with Freelancer, have just witnessed enough from people that have in any one of the many many scam sites including those specifically set up for Freelancer. Up to and including people who were threatened with legal action for their complaints. You are either a decoy like the others that showed, considering you are like number four with the same story, or are painfully naive about who you are involved with. If you had any intention of making things right for folks, then as I said there are enough complaints out there on the web FIX THEM. You should have access to the people who's payments were withheld. PAY THEM!!! THIS IS HOW THINGS ARE FIXED!!!

Showing up at an internet site asking people to send emails to some generic email address and put your name in the heading is CHILDISH to say the least. How about a direct phone number if you are so concerned? That you would come here so seemingly uninformed and unprepared is insulting to everyone.

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hi Ribshaw,

Thank you for the message.

I completely understand how you are feeling about me giving the Support's email address. But if you would give me a chance, I would like to help you with issue you had on our site. To do that, please let me know your username, the relevant project you had an issue with, and a short summary of what happened. I would personally look into this and send you a message afterwards.

I shall wait for your message.

Username, project, PayPal account number, bank account number, any personal documents with a legal photo along with a driver's license and you will "maybe not personally" but freelancer.com will be happy to withdraw money from your account.