Stephen A.

Oh boy where do I start,

OK opened an online account with this bank last year. They use the term bank but they aren't they are a credit broker.

Went through KYC checks and provided all documents they required to verify the account and my information.

All worked well until April then the wheels really came off.

Account was restricted, asked for invoices which I was provided then asked to provide tax documents which I declined. Why would a credit broker need to see tax documents. It's none of their business how much tax I pay to HMRC.

They are worse than Paypal and that says a lot

I have posted on You Tube, Facebook, Google reviews and Trustpilot about how poor this business is and unfortunately have been contacted by approximately 100 other disgruntled customers experiencing the same kind of issues and more.

Infrastructure doesn't work, ATM card doesn't work, direct debits don't go through, customer suffer financial hardship and can't afford food because Uaccount have restricted their funds. One guy I am aware of needed serious hospital treatment and tried to pay using his Uaccount card and the transfer was declined as they had restricted his account. Another young lady was left in tears when she broke down 70 miles from home and tried to use her card late at night and the ATM didn't accept it.

The staff are a complete joke from top to bottom and openly lie and deceive their customers. I had the live chat removed from my account and several conversations were immediately terminated. I found their phone number in their Sheffield office and phoned them about 8 times and no-one could help. I now have a few phone numbers thanks to another disgruntled customer and a list of staff names.

Do not believe the comments on another leading review site as a lot of these are concocted and they have used cash incentives to get positive reviews

Alex Letts is the CEO I emailed him twice and got no response finally tracked him down on Twitter and gave him what for. The rest of his staff are equally as useless, unprofessional and discourteous.

I've done as much as I can now informed Watchdog, Rip off Britain, Trading Standards, Action Fraud and Financial Ombudsman. Next step is I'm going to have to sue them through the small claims court but at least I'll get my money back as no-one can with hold funds for 7 months.

They want shutting down they hide behind Wirecard who are their regulator and blame everyone else for the issue. Unfortunately for Uaccount I spoke to Wirecard directly and they explained that they just process the payments the decision to restrict accounts lies totally in U Accounts remit.

The sooner this abysmal, abhorrent excuse for a business is shut down the better.

Avoid, avoid, avoid

Update 2nd February - I have returned the forms to court today after a month of waiting for Wirecard to return the funds to source which despite claiming they have they haven't so I'm still minus my funds. In addition I am seeking compensation from Uaccount for the time and effort I have put in to trying to rectify the issue and sent them a letter three weeks ago on the request of Wirecard which hasn't even been acknowledged. I've now had my account restricted for just short of 10 months.

The day is fast approaching I think when I'll be paying UAccount a visit as I have nothing to lose other than maybe my freedom

Update 27th May - I finally have recovered £595 of the £770 I had restricted and I think that is all I'm going to recover. They have lost one of the payments made into the account for £160 where they have lost it I don't know maybe on a 8/1 in the 5.15 at Kempton or a BTTS eight fold? They have also kept the £15 for service fees they still took from my account despite me not being able to use the account during this time for other than paying in (Yeah right).

I have initiated further court proceedings to recover my costs in time, effort, phone calls, stress but I somehow think I have little chance of seeing anything from this so I may have to give it up.

What I won't be giving up is my campaign to see this business collapse which is fast approaching it's first anniversary and the pace is gathering momentum micely now. I'll update more at a later date but if I were the CEO of UAccount I'd be slightly worried about what is coming his way.

This site is full of scammers, Russians, Ukraine, Nigeria, Ghana, USA.

It appears every bad egg is resident in this basket. I've been on a month and I'm off to find somewhere safer.

Not one sniff of anything half decent who isn't trying to rip me off. Reported one profile as fraud could have easily reported nearly everyone really.

Site could be very good but it needs policing properly. Also appears to have server issues as takes forever to load and sometimes times out.

Won't be missed my advice is avoid

To cut a long story short I've been scammed many times on Freelancer at least five times in eighteen months. They don't care well I suppose if you had over 17 million subscribers why should they?

If you pay for a service you expect some support. They never respond to emails and when they do it's always read the terms and conditions in Section 19 they take no responsibility. They are just a bunch of mindless drones with little personality, poor direction and minimal common sense.

I did not sign up to be scammed nor did I sign up to work for nothing. The problem lies with their methods and the policies they hide behind. Those at director level must lead a very comfortable lifestyle. Why not take the fees and tell the Freelancer that they won't be paid as the money used comes from a "questionable" source. Then refund the PM the money they paid for offering the project keeps everyone happy apart from the Freelancers who have paid a fee to deliver a project then find they finish out of pocket. This equates to theft and taking money under false pretences. All you get when you complain is refer to section 19 which basically deflects any responsibility from Freelancer. They basically encourage fraudulent practices

How is the Freelancer suppose to check each project and ensure that the funds aren't coming from an untrustworthy source? We aren't mind readers nor is the project likely to be from a business down the road which you may already have knowledge of so you might know? You have to accept the project is genuine and you will be paid. There is always the risk that you won't unlike Freelancer who are guaranteed to be paid for every job!

They also cancelled a transaction for £220 for work I did for a PM one day. I provided the service they advised the payment was suspect and reversed it. Consequently I did work for nothing. They advised they tried to contact the PM but of course he was long gone as he got something for nothing. I also had to pay fees for work I delivered by accepting the project Freelancer apparently encourage and openly condone the posting of scam projects. When I have reported scam projects the adverts have been removed then resubmitted several days later I have evidence of this.

I've filed court proceedings against Freelancer to recover the £220 but I won't hold my breath they must have loads of them to work through mine will be at the bottom of the pile!

In the meantime they say I owe them $117 for fees accrued from work I never undertook. More chance of them seeing that than me walking around the supermarket and bumping into Elvis Presley by the pizza counter.

You stand your ground and fight your corner and they take exception. I then opened a new account to circumnavigate the issue. Made a business contact who was happy to employ me and they decided to close the account as a duplicate. More revenue lost there and a guy who must think I'm an ungrateful cretin. Thanks a bunch Freelancer

You have been warned steer clear it will cost you money and your reputation.

Added - 20/01/16

As you can see from the Freelancer response more swerving the subject and trying to placate and diffuse the situation by trying to convey the impression they actually care Freelancer have screwed me over twice in their efforts to protect the community not to mention the money I have lost due to being scammed by scammers on the Freelancer site.

All empty words as usual I'm afraid and empty words tend to fall on deaf ears.

Don't use Freelancer It's a pity I can't close my account as I supposedly owe them money for fees for work I never got otherwise I'd do it tomorrow!

Update 16/07/2016

Well we are over seven months since I took legal action to recover my monies and as I write I've still not heard anything. The crooks haven't even had the decency to acknowledge my claim so this shows what a corrupt operation they run. So if you can't beat them then they expect you to join them?

I guess until they wake up and smell the coffee all I can do is keep posting on here and reminding other Freelancers what a shower of sh1t Freelancer are and would advise sensible people to keep well away.

Over 1,000 reviews on here and 850 negatives lol

The only way to deal with this people is to vote with your feet and cancel your membership and don't pay any fees or take any of their pointless tests. If people as one unite disappear then their money will soon dry up. We are all to blame by keeping this sinking vessel afloat

If they were in the US or UK they would have been shut down years ago but because they flout the system by having a virtual/correspondence address in Australia and rent an office in the Philippines they don't come under any scrutiny.

Anyway that's me done for today's moan life is too short to think about these vvankers got to make money elsewhere

Update 14/08/2016

After a long legal and email battle Freelancer have finally reinstated my account and waived all fees. I've lost my £220 as they won't budge on the apparent fraudulent payment as it implicates them but its a start.

I kept asking to speak to their CEO who for some reason was never available? In the end determination and wanting to clear my name got me there and the fact they couldn't be bothered to argue with me anymore. Don't know if I'll be bothered to actually bid again on anything as I can't be going through this rigmarole every time I accept a project.

16 months to resolve something which should have been resolved in a matter of days.

As a footnote I notice that the more recent reviews are all of a sudden favourable after 870 out of 1050 negative reviews? Now I would never insinuate foul play or of course question genuine feedback but it does seem odd that Freelancer(s) have all of a sudden started heaping praise on a business that clearly fails on business ethics and chooses to operate in an apparent scattergun manner with little sympathy to the freelancers who pay to use their services

So either Freelancer have significantly changed their business model for the better (yeah right!) which lets face it wouldn't be difficult or maybe just maybe have recruited people to write favourable reviews to boost their ratings?

I'll leave it with you to decide?