Elance Elance is NOT Honest or Professional and have uneducated people running it... , Internet

I have been an Elance provider for almost 3 years and also have been a buyer at times.  After 3 years of being disappointed by Elance and the ones who run it, I am done...  Slowly by the next few months I will be leaving this unethical outsourcing site and taking my clients with me.  This is my first time ever writing a report on any company but I honestly think it was needed to save other people.  I first off want to say I have made a ton of money using Elance over the years but I have also LOST some too.  I used to think that all the money I was making would make up for the money I lost and it did for a while. 

Until a couple of things happened in the last few months. 

• A security breach - A client was allowed to send me a virus through the Elance workroom TWICE. I reported the first one to Elance and was given the run around for 5 days.  Finally someone got back to me and only gave excuses to me.  I have all the security features on my PC and opening attachments is something I have to do daily to conduct business.  They do not have a system in place to protect and scan documents prior to them being sent through their email workroom system.  This was told to me from them in several messages.  Cost to me was $1450 on a brand new computer.  The problem was so bad it gave me a black screen of death the tech said.  Nothing was done to the client who sent it.  His account was not shut down or even closed and reopened in case there was a breach of some sort.  Only for the same account to send me another one but this time I did not open it.  Then the client sent pornographic images to my account!  I told Elance and again NO RESPONSE after 17 emails over 3 weeks to them about this.  Yes, his account is still open!  If that is not a breach of policy than what is?  Even the attachment name was of a sexual nature with obscene language.



• I sent 11 emails to customer service concerning an issue I had with submitting an arbitration request.  The system would not accept my request and when I called they said I had to email them and they could not help via the phone.  End result was them sending me a response in the workroom that I did not file the arbitration in a timely manner and so I lost and escrow was refunded to client and I was out about $300.  



• I was invited to a job and sent a proposal.  This job ended up having 2 phases.  Well one was completed and I was paid right away.  So when the client asked me to do the second part I did not hesitate.  Even spending 3 weeks on the assignment day and night to ensure it was the best possible final product.  Well when it came time to pay they refused.  I thought it was covered because he had paid the first one quickly. Well this one was an hourly job and not a flat escrow rate (BIG MISTAKE).  I even used Elance's system to verify my work with screen-shots.  No worries right?  WRONG  Elance refused to cover it and the client had their CC declined over and over.  He was broke.  He could only pay the first half and defrauded me for thousands!  Did Elance help me, not at all...  When I asked to take it to arbitration they said they do not do that for hourly jobs only escrow.  So now I am stuck with taking it to court myself.  Very disappointed at this one...

So with all that said and more little issues here and there I still kept working on Elance.  I did this because my clients are of value to me and it's not their fault.  Also this is my business and how I pay my bills.  I work 7 days a week at least 12 hours a day!  It is because of people like myself that Elance is still around and has been getting a good name.  I have brought hundreds of clients to them.  Meaning I did not meet them on Elance, I meet them on my website, told them about Elance and helped them make an account.  Then we make jobs up on Elance and use their payment system instead of making contracts and me having to pay more for a CC service.  Resulting in Elance making thousands off of them with me and then with other providers they have hired after me.  50% of my clients on Elance are repeat clients and my profile has a 5 star ranking and is the best in multiple categories.  When I say the best I mean at the very top for the entire WORLD! 

With that being said you would think they appreciate my business and want to do anything to keep me around right?  WRONG  I was sent an email the other day telling me my account had been suspended! WHAT?!?!?! ME!??!?!? I am the type of business owner and worker that answers emails right away and never takes more than 1 day, but normally I return the email within 1 hour.  I am always online or on my iPad.  My work is my life because I am the owner!  So how in the world can I have been suspended for PERFORMANCE ISSUES?  LOL I had to laugh, I thought i was a mistake.  NOPE NO MISTAKE!  I called and asked what was wrong with the account.  I was told an email was sent to me and they never sent me one, so that was a lie.  The rep on the phone had to request another be sent and refused to tell me via the phone what the issue was.  She said all info had to be sent by email.  Okay so now they are not available by phone either?  I mean they never answer the emails so now by phone they are limited to what can be said?  It gets worse... 

Finally I get an email sent to me telling me basically an audit was done of my account (randomly).  This person said a job I did 6 months ago looked a little concerning.  He felt I did not respond to the client fast enough in the workroom email.  Now I am really confused.  Telling me a job I completed 6 months ago where the client released the money, left good feedback, and was marked complete is concerning to you?  So you shut down my account, what?  No phone call to ask me if there was an issue, no email, nothing!  Little did they know we had spoken by phone many times and personal email.  Elance has the worst meeting feature in their workroom and I do not like using it.  Skype and other sites are much better for that purpose.  His response was that this was VERY concerning.  Again WHAT and WHY?  I told him to look at my account and how much money I make them and myself and how happy my clients are.  It was not like this is a client who filed a dispute because they didn't.  Now maybe he was new to Elance or trying to make a name for himself, IDK.  But after going back and forth all day he finally sets my account up again.  Telling me that if it happens again they will not reinstate my account.  I requested to speak by phone and he said they are not allowed to.  WHAT?  I did nothing wrong.  They obviously made an error here and were trying to cover it up.  Instead of just saying hey were sorry.  This is how they do business.  Everything in this post is 100% true.  Again I do not do this to businesses because I would not like it done to me.  But this is horrible customer service and not professional at all!  Especially after the two situations I told you about above.  I still did business with them and this is the thanks I get.  If they continue this way people will leave and go to other sites.  Elance is not the only one out there.  I work on several others and their service is a lot better.  I have never had any issues at all with any other site.  Because of this person at Elance they will now lose a very valuable provider and a lot clients they have now and more they would have had in the future.  I will be finishing up my current jobs there and then moving on...  It is a shame because I had recommended them to a lot of people and always spoke highly of them, but now I have nothing but negative things to say. 

Bottom line is stay clear of them.  Your money is not safe being a provider or buyer.  I have been through both.  I did not even get into issues I had when I hired 4 different providers to do small admin tasks for me.  None of them were good and all took my money and ran basically.  Their profiles were beefed up to be professionals and they all were far from it.  Elance has no policy of checking out people to see if they lie on their profiles.  You can put anything you want.  For example if you wanted to claim to have a PHD you do not have to show proof!  They have a validation system but it is not mandatory so believe nothing you read on there.  On any of these sites never hire someone right away and talk to them by phone or skype prior to hiring them.  Ask for samples of their work and make sure they can handle the job.  A lot of people and businesses out there are phony and dishonest.  Then when people like myself are honest and hard working we get treated badly.  This is what I do not understand.  I don't have time to figure it out either, so the end result is me putting up this bad rip off report and cutting all ties with them...