Www.elance.com Elance WORST COMPANY I HAVE DEALT WITH - Low quality providers and Elance lets its providers cheat buyers. Escrow is a fraud. Elance is full of fraud! Mountain View California

Elance is the worst experience I have ever endured.

I've seen their ads everywhere so I tried putting out a few jobs because they advertise that it is a safe place to do business (with their escrow) and that they maintain high standards.

UNTRUE.

I have posted 4 jobs (1 reposted). I carefully reviewed and selected providers who had high Elance ratings and skill levels (according to their tests).

3 of the providers were complete flakes! Nothing but a lot of wasted time and wasted money. At least those were small jobs and I just paid them and moved on.

The real problem was with one job which was for $1500. I even talked to the provider on the phone before putting money into an escrow account with Elance.

After 3 weeks the provider still hadn't produced anything at all and two of what they call milestones had passed. I asked for some work product within 7 days or my money back.

After 10 days I started calling and emailing Elance. I had to fill out this form and send it in. The provider sent one back saying they were working on it.

Elance is IMPOSSIBLE to get ahold of. It takes a week and a half to get an email back and you can never get them on the phone. They never return messages you leave on their answering machine. They don't even have an 800 number.

This was back in like late September of last year. So Elance has been keeping my Escrow for about 5 months. The provider doesn't even answer my messages anymore. Elance even had the gall to tell me "at least the provider doesn't have your funds". WHAT?!?!

So it's better that Elance has basically stolen my money?

The Better Business Bureau rejected my complaint. I guess they protect their PAYING members.

I sent a letter to their states attorney generals office. Maybe they can get my money back from the thieves at Elance.

If you are a buyer looking to hire people DO NOT USE ELANCE!!!!!!

You WILL regret it!!

Thompson
Toledo, Ohio
U.S.A.