I write it here because I don't know where to write this.
I joined Guru as a costumer because I needed some promotion for a ebook I have written.
The book is on Wattpad.
Anyway I wrote a job announcement and many freelancers replied to it.
I hired this freelancer, an indian woman. Her reviews were amazing.

Anyway, her book promotion was supposed to last for twelve weeks. (30$ for week)
I paid this freelancer after the first week of work and I gave her 30$.
And now it starts becoming strange.

At first, this woman, last tuesday, had told me that her paypal was not active because of some limitations of her account. She told me that her new paypal would have been active last friday.
"Okay I will pay you this friday". This is what I replied.
Then (and it's pretty strange) last tuesday, she sent me another email where she asked me to release the payment on her other paypal.
I did it, but it looked pretty strange to me.

In the meantime, the book was gaining a lot of views (I had 900 views before and now I have 1700), but I could not detect the location of the views.
It seemed strange but maybe, who knows, they are people who are not on Wattpad.

Besides, I have to say that I had already found a scammer from Nigeria (on Fiverr) few weeks ago.
To be honest, I keep receiving views and comments from nigerian fake accounts on Wattpad, but I didn't pay this Fiverr guy, because on Fiverr they replied me soon and canceled the order.

Anyway... This woman of Guru assured me that all the views of my book on Wattpad came from Seo and social medias. She also sent me a weekly report which I couldn't understand.

However, the views on Wattpad were increasing, but I still couldn't detect the location of the views.
It was so strange that I decided to take a look at the profile of this freelancer.
I noticed that her profile picture was a little blurry and some feedback were written by the same people.
(i.e. An account yesterday wrote her "She always do great job". The same account on the 7th february wrote her "She always does a great job". Another message of the same account appears on the 6th of january and it says "She always do a great job".
The same thing happens with a lot of accounts that give her reviews.

I don't know if I could trust her, so I wrote an email to this freelancer to call it quits. I used an excuse, because I didn't want to accuse her of scamming me, without any actual proof.

Yesterday I also decided to write a message to the assistance of Guru. No reply.

In the meantime, the freelancer replied my email and she told me "No problem, but I request you to please release pending $30 payment".
Since I am not certain about this person's identity, I don't want to pay her.
I wrote to the assistance of Guru again. No reply, again.

I don't know what to do. But I wanted to write this review, hoping that it could be helpful to other people.

I have never written a website review before but gurus service shocked me.

Here its my first and the only experience with this website. I was hired for a project. I completed it within two days, and the employer payed right away. Then I tried to transfer the money from the guru platform to my credit card, but the transaction failed. I got an email from some Sara saying there was a procedure of checking some information, she was going to get back to me in a couple of days. Then in a couple of days Ive got an email saying they took the money I earned from me, and sent it back to my employer. When I started to ask questions trying to figure out why did it happen, those Sara told there was nothing she could help me with. I completed the project, the employer transferred the money, but guru.com decided not to transfer it to me, and just scammed me. In addition to that they blocked the employers account despite he provided all the necessary data.

Thats not it. My employer tried to recover his account in order to pay me via their platform, and continue hiring freelancers on guru. He was edchanging emails with guru, but looks like they couldnt fix it. After all of that long story he offered to pay me via direct money transfer.

Thats not it yet. In a day or so I got an email from the same Sara saying my employer stated he payed outside the platform, and that was a violation of their terms of use. I clearly understand that, BUT there was no intense to violate their terms. That all happened on guru. Coms fault. The employer provided the required data, he tried to transfer the money, but guru didnt accept his data, blocked his account, took money from me, and refused to assist: Sorry, there is nothing we can help you with - were their words. So Sara told if I violate the terms once again they were going to block my account. I was really shocked by that undeserved threat, and told her the whole story was gurus fault - both of the parties (me and employer) were willing to make the payment via gurus platform. You know what happened next? They blocked my account without even noticing me.

Resume: you should be very careful if you want to work with guru. Com. According to the earlier feedbacks Im not the first one who was scammed by them.

I was going to give them my credit card information just to get the bit of data I wanted, and then if the membership fee was high later I would simply cancel. Your explanation of how guru.com works was illuminating. I looked at many reviews, some of them very enthusiastic and some very negative... when I read your particular comments I felt that I understood why this is happening. The negative reviews and the positive reviews confused me at first, and your analysis helped me to decide not to involve myself or give them money. Their materials said that I would have a "trial membership" which would cost $1.00. It was very helpful to know that the "membership" puts you in for more charges through "Automatic continuation". The lines of communication are not clear. I don't know the original intent of the founder of this site, the intent may have been benign or not... but I do know that I don't want to get involved in the struggles others have gone through. Obviously the company wanted to get my credit card information at the very beginning. So when you give them your information thinking that they are going to charge "only $1.00" and then you can "easily cancel", it appears from these comments that once they have your information they could even keep it forever if they so choose. That results in having your information out there and possibly having it hacked. I've heard of so many companies having to write apology letters to customers informing them that the site was hacked and there is no way to prevent your information being used in what-all. They often don't find out who the hackers were. I am so glad that I have been reading reviews and have not given this company my digits. I did give them my email address but no financial information. It appears that to use this site "safely" one must really know what they are dealing with and be prepared for an unnecessary struggle over money... well, that just doesn't fit with me. So I won't "join" this enterprise. There are quite a few positive reviews here of this freelance company and also quite a few negative reviews; but knowing what happened to those who participated (and how the site works) helped me make my decision not to give them my information. Well-written review and very helpful. I am grateful for the reviews, this one actually explained why this site is having problems, along with giving them a low rating. That brought me out of the "it's only $1.00" funk that had been causing me to consider putting in my credit card number. That "only $1.00" tactic is used by many companies. I didn't know that they were also a "job-finding site" and knowing that changes my feelings about the site and the people behind it. I'm not the sort of person who would want to get involved in this, haggling to get your money back, I would have gotten very upset if that happened to me. So I was assessing the risk by coming here and based on what I saw I decided not to take the risk of giving them my financial information. The Internet is a wild, wild place and it helps to see what others have experienced before participating is such a business relationship. They are not just selling information that a person desires and then you get the specific information you wanted, pay $1.00 and then you leave and there is no problem... because the site is set up to get that financial information first. It's a bad business model, with contracted employees who may or may not complete the task honestly and fairly. Some employees may not really know what they are trying to do and may react unprofessionally I hate that. I hate trying to get results if the people involved are not proven to be honest, reliable, and informed. This would have been a terrible choice for someone like me. Your very clear review helped me pull myself out of the attitude that "it's only $1.00" (I was in a trance) and make an informed decision. Thank you so very much!

All these posts seem to be from the viewpoint of the "employer." The guru.com clearing house process is no picnic for the freelancer, not if my experience is any indication.

I purchased the "Professional" membership, about $22 a month, that gives me extra features to land a job through their database. A professional developmental editor, I could not find any jobs to apply for that paid more than $250 (for the entire project), and scores of other people from all over the world were applying for them just the same. I eventually took a chance and "bid" for a gig I thought I would enjoy. (I tried to convince myself of other benefits that made working so cheap okay.) After jumping through two weeks' worth of email hoops, I was offered the job. I should have done my number crunching and due diligence first.

I'm bummed. I just withdrew my job acceptance after reading a most unreasonable NDA I was asked to sign before work could begin. That's when some friends/colleagues helped me see the light. I was expected to give away my talents for what amounted to less than 1/2 cent per word.

To be fair, I did get prompt reply to emails I wrote to the guru.com help desk, and I even got Joe on the phone first time I called. He was very helpful and gave good advice. However, I was on automatic billing for my membership, which was billing me a week before payment was due. So I stopped that quick and switched to manual. But now that I've read other posts, this has me scared. I think I need to call my bank to make sure I don't get dinged again.

Why is it that so many "employers" think we freelancers aren't worth the years of hard work we have spent building our skills. Not all of us are inept crooks that these other posts claim us to be. Some of us come into the game thinking we're among peers and the competition will be fierce. But you know what they say, if you're the smartest person in the room, maybe you're in the wrong room!

I'm withdrawing my paid membership, now that I realize I would lose about 10% in fees through Guru (7%) and PayPal (3%). I was just looking for something to do over the summer while my current author/client is on hiatus. But I'm not going to give away the store and lose my street cred in the bargain.

I'll stick with my website traffic and work directly with prospective clients. No more "middlemen" for me.

Guraid is a scam that puts viruses into your computer

It has alot of policies and charges. It should lower its charges a bit.