Chelsea D.

Freelancer doesn't care about its customers/employees. At all. While the ability to easily access and bid on freelance work sounds extremely appealing (and IS, when executed properly), this company fell short in EVERY POSSIBLE way and experience.

Freelancer does nothing to verify the authenticity of employers who are looking for freelancers. They do not require you verify payment methods (like connecting a bank account or credit card) before posting jobs for freelancers. They do not require you verify your email or name either. I was completely scammed on a writing job and Freelancer said that it isn't their "job" to protect the freelancers, verify job authenticity, nor hold the employer accountable. Actually YES, that is exactly the point of the site. Otherwise, I'd go to craigslist.

Freelancer had NO problem charging me a fee for helping me to "find work," but when the employer scammed me out of hundreds of dollars, and just never paid, they made me fight tooth an nail for weeks to get a refund on the fee - which was more than reasonable to have since they DIDN'T actually assist in me working a legitimate project. I with NEVER work with anyone from Freelancer again, and I have already warned everyone I know about this terrible experience.

Protect your freelancers and employers. Require verified payment methods on BOTH sides before any party can post a project or accept work. When someone posts a project and accepts a freelancer's bid, hold the agreed upon cost until the job is submitted to the employer. This isn't rocket science. The point of your site is to make people feel safe, not scammed by the employer and then scammed again by you. So disappointing.

**Update** Yes. My issue with the fee reimbursement is NOW taken care of through chat. It should not take that many attempts. It shouldn't be charged until the freelancer is paid. It should not take a representative saying "it appears we've already refunded you" when he actually refunded me right then and there (as I was literally looking at the balance at the top of the screen) - it also has a date stamp next to the refund... I can see when it happened and that he did it while we were talking. Even then, he couldn't just say "I'm so sorry; let me take care of that for you. He had to just pretend it already happened. Either way, thank you for taking the time to respond, but good riddance.