Freelancer.com GetAFreelancer Withholding Funds, Inappropriate Investigation, Payment Withheld Internet, Internet

Freelancer.com supports the business relationships between freelancers and prospective employers.

I used freelancer.com's services at the request of an employer for whom I was working under contract, to accept an additional contract.

The employer provided payment, and Freelancer.com proceeded to enact a policy of withholding my funds for 14-15 days.

The total funds disbursed to me from the employer were $380; Freelancer.com collected $38 in fees. Freelancer.com collected their fees without any problem, hitch or hangup; my balance receivable immediately reflected this $38 deduction.

Because the final days of the initial waiting period fell on a weekend, the 17th-18th day (today or tomorrow) were the days when I expected the funds to be released to my paypal account. I checked the payment status last night and it was "ready" which their website indicates is the final stage before Monday's or Tuesday's transaction dates.

This morning I checked back to find my account had been suspended. I was not notified that the suspension had taken place.

After countless hours of reaching out to their customer service - they lack any phone contact capability - I was finally able to go the necessary channels and get a response to the query as to why my account was suspended and why I wasn't notified.

A rep from freelancer.com proceeded to reply to my email with a series of questions regarding my account; he stated that my account had been flagged and suspended during a "recent" screening.

This seemed off-putting seeing as how I had just checked the status of my payment transaction in the final 7-29 hours prior to the transaction taking place. Again I reiterate, I was not notified of the suspension, and had I not spent hours to understand the process of disputing such a suspension my funds would have been on hold indefinitely without my being notified.

This seems like a blatantly obvious attempt at prolonging the length of time with which Freelancer.com can remain in possession of my funds long enough to gain a little more interest on them.