SK A.

I joined this website in July 2014. In From March 2015-May 2015, I did a writing project. I was paid 300$ for this project. The freelancer.com deduced their 30$ from my fees. Now in October 2015, I saw a negative status in my account. It asks me to deposit 269$. Otherwise, my account will be closed. I contacted customer support to see why this happened. This is the reply:

" Records show that your employer, julhasalam31, violated Freelancer. Coms Terms and Conditions.
Because of this, their account has to be closed and the payments that they have made reversed.
This was done as a security measure because we do not want you to be held liable on funds that came from a questionable source."

They just closed the client's account and now, they are asking me to pay those dues. They do not have any power to get the copyrighted work. They do not have access to the client. They do not ask him to pay the money.

It is the freelancers who will do the work and then also pay money for that work.

Since I cannot pay this money to the company, they will be closing my account. They will send an email to the client to settle for an off-site payment. But, this is all they can do for you

UPDATE: Dear Lara,
First of all, I am sick of your automated replies. You guys know that you are wrong. You know that you should deduct the fee in the beginning, but you don't take any responsibility. What's the point of working on your website if you cannot provide Escrow protection? You have stolen my work plus my earnings. I am not going to blame the client. It is the freelancer.com that must be blamed for this irresponsible behaviour.

Everyone, please please stay away from this website.It is a good platform to learn about possible scams happening online. It is also a good site to get your feet wet in the online freelancing world, but there are better options.

When this problem happened, I wasn't actively seeking work on this website. Otherwise, I would have easily lost $300 here. And, I have submitted 50,000 words for these $300.

Bottom Line: Poor customer support and irresponsible behaviour will kill this website. I got my first client through this site and I had sweet memories, but unfortunately I cannot recommend this platform.

I read all the replies from Lara (Freelancer. Com representative). Believe me, Lara; no one is going to be impressed by these words. It is not solving the problem.

Thanks for your understanding.