Tito B.

This is outrageous. It's my first and last time ordering from Woot. The Viewsonic monitor was on sale for an irresistible price, even for a refurbished model, so I ordered one and almost ordered two. I wasn't happy that I was going to have to wait two weeks for delivery, but for the price, I was willing to wait even though I needed ti sooner.

I ordered it on April 21 and Woot charged my credit card on April 22. However on April 24, Woot CANCELLED the order and refunded my credit card, but NEVER TOLD me. I've searched my email. There were lots of advertisements, but nothing about canceling the order.

It was scheduled to arrive today, May 7. When I checked my Woot order page, it showed it being delivered today and that it was "Preparing for Shipment". There's nothing to indicate it was canceled nearly two weeks ago. It wasn't until I went to the Order Details page and scrolled to the bottom that I saw that the purchase price had been refunded. There was nothing about the order being canceled. I had to phone Woot to learn that. The customer service guy acted like it was routine. I wonder how many people this happens to?

To add to the insult, Wood took money out of my charge account and held it for two days. It wasn't a big problem for me, but for someone who doesn't pay off their credit card balance every month, it would result in additional interest charges. This is outrageous. I'm wondering now whether this is one way Woot makes money, by selling more items than they have, holding purchasers' money for a few days, and then canceling orders on the excess orders?

I've attached a screenshot of the Woot order page today, nearly two weeks after the order was canceled. This is a terrible way to run a business.

I've been shopping online since the 1990s. I've never had an experience like this. I won't be ordering from Woot again. I've been an Amazon customer since 2000 and expected more from a company Amazon owns.

J M's review ("Be careful with these guys") further down says it all. I don't want to totally put down UpWork. There's still legitimate work there, but it's harder to find, and UpWork simply doesn't care about freelancers.

I worked as a freelancer for oDesk for about three years. I had constant work, I was making decent money, and I felt well treated by oDesk. When I had a question or problem, I was treated with respect. It was a good service.

That all changed when it became UpWork. The other reviewers who say UpWork doesn't care about freelancers are 100% correct. When it was oDesk, I was a top rated freelancers with a 4.99 rating and I had constant work. After it became UpWork, the rating system changed. At some point I lost my Top Rated status but was never notified about it, then after a while I became Top Rated again, but with absolutely no changes in my status. I wasn't working at all during that period. With oDesk, I always knew how my status was calculated. Under UpWork, it's a mystery.

When there were technical problems with oDesk, they responded immediately; UpWork just makes excuses and tries to shift the blame. Their site frequently goes down, but when I've reported it, they've claimed it was a problem with my computer (it's not - I've been a a computer professional for decades and know when the problem is my computer and when it's the site).

For nearly three years, oDesk was the only place I looked, but that's ended. I had constant work with oDesk, but since it became UpWork I've had only one very small job even though I've been looking constantly. I'm still looking for work on UpWork, but I'm now also looking for other sources of work.

Losing oDesk was a major loss for the freelancing community.