Kemarie B.

I went on to Freelancer.com in order to have an artist design our company logo. I decided to run a contest in order to draw the best talent. I chose a budget, but by the time I finished with all of the "extras" I had more than doubled my budget. Being new to the site I thought it would be worth the extra expense.
By pressing the guarantee button, more of what they consider artist would pay attention to my post due to the fact that I promised to pay. I sent a few examples of what we were looking for. 80% of the entries were copyrighted items straight off the internet. One of the entries took one of the images that I presented as an example and submitted that same image right back as an entry!
Don't get me wrong 20% of the artist did come up with creative ideas and I did chose a winner that I was very pleased with. However, even having all of the artist (which I paid extra for) sign a NDA, one posted their horrific entry on the internet for all to see. Seriously, they took the Heinz Ketchup logo and replaced the wording with my company name. I am not happy.
I contacted Freelancer.com to make them aware that one of their artist was not in keeping with the NDA agreement. After 24 hours of "research" I received a reply from Freelancer.com that stated that it was my problem and that if I wanted to do something about it I was on my own. They advised me to contact an attorney. I was shocked that they wouldn't even agree to contact the artist to discipline them, warn them or prohibit them from further participation on the site.
Most of the artist on Freelancer.com are doodlers without a creative bone in their body. They just search the internet for existing art and pass it off as their own. Which is against the rules of course but since no one is policing the site to protect the business owners, you know, the ones who are actually paying to keep the site alive by spending their hard earned money, then I do not see this getting any better. With the guarantee the artists know no matter what they present they will get paid.
I will not use this site again for new projects. However, I will be contacting the artist that won my contest directly, as he is a true artist.
BE LEARY OF THE 80%, AND KNOW THAT FREELANCER.COM WILL IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE AND DOES NOT HONER AND UPHOLD THEIR OWN RULES.