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Report: #1344640

Complaint Review: Freelancer Technology Pty Limited - Internet

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  • Reported By: Hannah — BURBANK California USA
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  • Freelancer Technology Pty Limited Internet USA

Freelancer Technology Pty Limited Freelancer.com Milk money from freelancers without any warning that fees are charged upon approval of a project. Australia Internet

*Author of original report: 3 Victims - $150 easy money for Freelancer.com

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I had my first successful gig for $15 and was encouraged to bid for more work. Then I bid for a $555 project and it awarded me the bid, I was so excited and was willing to really work hard. Then my credit card company contacted to inform me of a suspicious charge in my card. Then I realized that Freelancer charged me $50 just from accepting the bid. This means that if the employer decides not to pay me, Freelancer still gets the $50. Non-refundable.

This is horrible and unfair and clearly just one of their tactics to milk money out of freelancers. They will mention that it is in their terms and conditions. Sure, I failed to read that part and I'm so sad that they can get away with this just because of that. 

They take advantage of us saying "it's a safe environment, you can bid for free," in all their marketing and promotional materials and then fail to put that fine print. 

What happens is I bid for a project, then the employer would award the winner. The freelancer has 36 hours to accept the bid. Because I was so excited, I accepted it thinking I have nothing to lose (but actually, I got charged for that $50 fee already).

They sent an email saying, in verbatim, "Congratulations on your winning bid! Accept the project so that we can start work on amazing things together -- Accept the Project. This offer to work expires in 36 hours." 

They didn't even include a warning there somewhere to remind us that, something like "Please note, once you accept the project, you will be charged of the service fee." Just to remind people that this is how they do things. But no. The copywriting of this email actually would make the freelancer think "The offer expires soon, I better get this so I can work now."

Here is why Freelancer.com is a scam:

1. They only care about money. Sure, all businesses do, but good business practice means you are always transparent, not just fine printing, and  you want to make money but also care about other people.

2. They don't care if freelancers, especially the newbies, who are struggling to get work via their website gets scammed.

3. They protect the employers, but not the freelancers. Employers have all layers of protection and security. Of course freelancer.com wants to protect employers, they are the ones who provide a lot of revenue. If they offer such a huge project, this means freelancer.com gets a lot of money too!

4. Freelancers have to pay for bids, to get certified. Apart from chopping of 10% off our hard earned money, sometimes we freelancers have to pay for pay so we can bid on more projects. Freelancers also need to pay for their own "certification" and I attempted one quiz that has bugs. It submitted 0/40. When I answered everything and I was pretty confident of my answers. They emailed and said it was my fault... How can that be why do I want to fail! As far as I can remember, they did not refund me for this and instead they suggested that I "retake" of course for another $5 fee.

5. They offer no refund or no protection for freelancers. In fact, I have a theory that they would employ someone to pretend to be an employer and then scam all newbies and milk them an easy money. For the project I bid for, the amount was $555. 3 freelancers were awarded. That's an easy $150 (50x3) in freelancer.com's bank.

6. Lots of Trolls and fake employees. They don't actively police against these and they don't care if you got scammed and will put the blame on you that you did not read the terms and conditions.

This is an evil company and the top management are able to sleep in their luxurious homes while freelancers get scammed. It took me about 8 hours for a $15 pay. It took them 30 seconds to scam me and take away $50 from me. While they are protected with this "terms and conditions" thing, I say, this is the exact reason why Freelancer.com is a scam. They take advantage that people do not read T&C, and lurk and milk the money

Why can't they just refund?

This is literally money they don't genuinely earn. This money encourages trolls and scammers to be prevalent on their website. They do not care because they still earn money while people are being scammed. They don't care becasue money flows to their bank accounts. They won't refund you because they are a scam!

Their business needs to stop! I suggested that they be more forward and upfront with the fee before someone hits "approve bid", but they don't listen. They are good with their "business strategy" one that is easy money, stealing money from hardworking freelancers.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/21/2016 11:00 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/freelancer-technology-pty-limited/internet/freelancer-technology-pty-limited-freelancercom-milk-money-from-freelancers-without-any-1344640. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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#1 Author of original report

3 Victims - $150 easy money for Freelancer.com

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 21, 2016

I have all the screenshots of the credit card charge as well as the conversation between the fake employer. But I think this one is the more important thing to note.

3 people were victimized by this scam, (including me). The employer did not reply and played dumb. But we approved the project so Freelancer charged us 10% (around $50 dollars each) for the "Acceptance Fee."

If the employer won't pay us, Freelancer still gets a cut and charges us separately. This is injustice! For this transaction, Freelancer earned $150 in seconds. Who knows, they could even hire someone to be a fake employer and constantly do this to victimize new freelancers. No good companies will do this.

This is how they earn money. They gain money from victim's losses. This is exactly a definition of a scam.

 

 

 

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