Odesk You can't find a legitimate job, then you can't get paid. California Internet

Who I am

I am a freelance writer who works through Odesk on a pretty regular basis for more then a year. By regular I mean I have done more then 1000 articles for clients who have found me on Odesk.
I have also hired 5 freelance writers and 1 team of freelance writers through Odesk to help me when I have gotten too backed up in my own work. 

My Experience to date

The first month that I worked though Odesk I will admit was very slow going. It took me 2 weeks of constantly scrolling the want ads on the site and putting in applications  before I found a client to take a chance on an unknown writer. Once I received a high level of feedback from that first client however finding jobs became easy. Today I no longer apply for jobs. Clients who see my feedback scores regularly email me requesting that I work for them. I am honestly so busy that I often need to turn down the work. 

So far in over a year of working through Odesk I have never had a problem getting paid for my work. I do not take hourly jobs so I am not covered under Odesk policy if someone refuses to pay but it has not been an issue.

Complaints

I do not like the policy Odesk has of making me wait a week for payment. When a client pays a provider on Odesk the payment sits in the providers account as pending for 7 days. This is to protect both client and provider but it is annoying. I want to be paid immediately upon completion of a job.

The one and only time that I ever had a problem was when I hired a Philippine national to do a few articles for me. The writing was terrible and the writer disappeared before the job was complete.
I did not pay him and told him why in an email.
 
Suggestions for others

When working through any remote employment site such as Odesk only respond to those clients with excellent feedback scores.

When hiring through a remote agency such as Odesk  either hire only those with excellent feedback scores or give out a cheap testing job to find "new" people who will fit your job.

Pay a fair price for the job and you will also have a better class of employees to choose from.

Keep in constant daily contact with clients and/or providers. I am available to my clients during certain hours and respond promptly to any and all contact from from them within minutes. One reason for that is if a client or provider disappears I need to know immediately so I can either stop work until they show back up or give work to someone who actually wants to do it.

 






 

Since the original poster linked to the forum thread above, I suggest anyone reading it read the ENTIRE thread - you'll notice that her own conduct in the thread is less than stellar, and often resorts to "I know you are, but what am I" childlike tones:

http://www.odesk.com/community/node/6123#comment-18325
Here, she resorts to name calling based on someone's profile picture

http://www.odesk.com/community/node/6123#comment-18334
Here, she makes another comment about a profile picture

In the exact same thread where she uses in her argument above, she herself turns around and resorts to name calling. Laughable, if you ask me. This poster shouldn't be taken seriously at all because it's obvious she's inexperienced to the point of being ignorant.

http://www.odesk.com/community/node/6123

A few of the responders were very mean.

Scams exist on the internet. We must all beware. The young lady making the original squawk applied for some questionable job offers. But that's her fault, not the fault of oDesk.

I'm relatively new to oDesk. I joined November 13, 2008. During my time there I've seen several questionable job posts. I reported them through the oDesk system. In each case oDesk staff responded quickly and the job posts were removed.

The person making the complaint is the victim of her own poor judgment and lack of understanding.

I have just completed my first assignment and look forward to many more.

ODesk is an open marketplace and subject to all the dangers that exist out in the real world. But it isn't a ripoff.

It's just life.

It sounds as though Missy had a couple of unfortunate experiences with people who were specifically breaking the rules at oDesk, and I hope she reported them. The oDesk rules are there to protect providers and buyers both.

I've been working at oDesk for four months. I had a job within three days of my initial signup, and I am still working for the buyer in question. I earn $40 an hour, which I consider evidence of "a legitimate job", and have had no difficulties in receiving payments.

oDesk has been consistently professional, courteous, and prompt in dealing with any questions or problems I've had. They are also quite transparent about their business. Anyone can visit and see the hundreds of buyers and providers using the service without difficulties.

I'm sorry that Missy didn't enjoy her experiences with oDesk, but I saw the oDesk responses to her complaints, and they were courteous in spite of the abusive tone she took with them

As a provider on oDesk with a successful history of 1) obtaining work, and 2) not falling for scams, I can say that the *entire first half* of this report has nothing to do with oDesk as a company, but rather with the individual "buyers" and this user's naivet and inability to avoid the 3rd party scams.

oDesk is an internet job board. Buyers post job openings. Providers apply to these openings. oDesk takes a 10% fee of each successful placement. It's like a cross between a job placement service (temp agency) and the classified sections of your local newspaper.

There are many "work-from-home" type listings in the local newspaper that turn out to nothing more than MLM scams to "stuff envelopes". Do people hold the newspapers responsible for these types of scams? No, they don't.

When an inappropriate job listing is posted, oDesk relies on its users to report any listing that violates its terms found here:

http://www.odesk.com/help/help/policies
https://www.odesk.com/legal/oDeskUserAgreement.pdf

As someone who has reported numerous inappropriate listings, I can say that oDesk is always responsive and job listings that are a clear violation of their terms are removed immediately. However, oDesk as a company cannot be held responsible for an gullibility.

I cannot comment on her issue about her W-9 as I am not a member of the staff and do not have access to non-public information. But regarding how the site works and how scams happen, I've been active and *aware* enough to know that the first half of this ripoff report is a misconception.

-------------

I've been active on oDesk long enough to know how the ins and outs and little nuances of the site works.

My provider profile can be found here: http://www.odesk.com/users/~~8cc00a4f1d6d67b4

The user who filed the original ripoff report has 2 posts in oDesk's community forums: http://www.odesk.com/community/tracker/155172

I have over 300x her amount of posts...most of which are helpful to new providers (which shows that I know what I'm talking about when I talk oDesk): http://www.odesk.com/community/tracker/75325

They are improving their w9 submission process.

First I want to clarify something: your selection process offers limited amounts of options for stating relationship to the complaint - I am not an oDesk employee however I am a freelancer who gets all of my work from oDesk and I would like the opportunity to show another 'picture' of oDesk.

First: I signed up with oDesk in September of 2007. I have been successfully working on oDesk shortly after that time. In March of 2008 I switched myself from a 'freelance provider' to an 'affiliate company'. Since March of 2008, I have logged more than 1,000 hours with 25 hourly rate assignments and have successfully completed 11 fixed rate jobs. I have been paid for each and every hour that I have ever logged and I have been paid for each of the 11 jobs. This information can be verified by visiting my oDesk profile which can be found here http://www.odesk.com/users/~~282dfb229d8b4d0a.

My experience with oDesk staff: I have found oDesk staff members to be courteous, professional and helpful at all times.

Experience with buyers: like the report indicated there are from time to time unscrupulous buyers who post jobs on oDesk. oDesk has a ready system that is available to flag jobs as inappropriate and they respond to these ripoffs very quickly and take every flag very seriously. In fact, over a weekend only recently you can see they responded to a problem that was ongoing - proof of this can be quickly reviewed at this location: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5886 and here: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5890

You can see that oDesk addresses concerns of freelancers quickly and effectively. I hope that the person who filed this report has far more information to back up the claims that were made in their report because from my experience with oDesk they are inaccurate.

First I want to clarify something: your selection process offers limited amounts of options for stating relationship to the complaint - I am not an oDesk employee however I am a freelancer who gets all of my work from oDesk and I would like the opportunity to show another 'picture' of oDesk.

First: I signed up with oDesk in September of 2007. I have been successfully working on oDesk shortly after that time. In March of 2008 I switched myself from a 'freelance provider' to an 'affiliate company'. Since March of 2008, I have logged more than 1,000 hours with 25 hourly rate assignments and have successfully completed 11 fixed rate jobs. I have been paid for each and every hour that I have ever logged and I have been paid for each of the 11 jobs. This information can be verified by visiting my oDesk profile which can be found here http://www.odesk.com/users/~~282dfb229d8b4d0a.

My experience with oDesk staff: I have found oDesk staff members to be courteous, professional and helpful at all times.

Experience with buyers: like the report indicated there are from time to time unscrupulous buyers who post jobs on oDesk. oDesk has a ready system that is available to flag jobs as inappropriate and they respond to these ripoffs very quickly and take every flag very seriously. In fact, over a weekend only recently you can see they responded to a problem that was ongoing - proof of this can be quickly reviewed at this location: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5886 and here: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5890

You can see that oDesk addresses concerns of freelancers quickly and effectively. I hope that the person who filed this report has far more information to back up the claims that were made in their report because from my experience with oDesk they are inaccurate.

First I want to clarify something: your selection process offers limited amounts of options for stating relationship to the complaint - I am not an oDesk employee however I am a freelancer who gets all of my work from oDesk and I would like the opportunity to show another 'picture' of oDesk.

First: I signed up with oDesk in September of 2007. I have been successfully working on oDesk shortly after that time. In March of 2008 I switched myself from a 'freelance provider' to an 'affiliate company'. Since March of 2008, I have logged more than 1,000 hours with 25 hourly rate assignments and have successfully completed 11 fixed rate jobs. I have been paid for each and every hour that I have ever logged and I have been paid for each of the 11 jobs. This information can be verified by visiting my oDesk profile which can be found here http://www.odesk.com/users/~~282dfb229d8b4d0a.

My experience with oDesk staff: I have found oDesk staff members to be courteous, professional and helpful at all times.

Experience with buyers: like the report indicated there are from time to time unscrupulous buyers who post jobs on oDesk. oDesk has a ready system that is available to flag jobs as inappropriate and they respond to these ripoffs very quickly and take every flag very seriously. In fact, over a weekend only recently you can see they responded to a problem that was ongoing - proof of this can be quickly reviewed at this location: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5886 and here: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5890

You can see that oDesk addresses concerns of freelancers quickly and effectively. I hope that the person who filed this report has far more information to back up the claims that were made in their report because from my experience with oDesk they are inaccurate.

First I want to clarify something: your selection process offers limited amounts of options for stating relationship to the complaint - I am not an oDesk employee however I am a freelancer who gets all of my work from oDesk and I would like the opportunity to show another 'picture' of oDesk.

First: I signed up with oDesk in September of 2007. I have been successfully working on oDesk shortly after that time. In March of 2008 I switched myself from a 'freelance provider' to an 'affiliate company'. Since March of 2008, I have logged more than 1,000 hours with 25 hourly rate assignments and have successfully completed 11 fixed rate jobs. I have been paid for each and every hour that I have ever logged and I have been paid for each of the 11 jobs. This information can be verified by visiting my oDesk profile which can be found here http://www.odesk.com/users/~~282dfb229d8b4d0a.

My experience with oDesk staff: I have found oDesk staff members to be courteous, professional and helpful at all times.

Experience with buyers: like the report indicated there are from time to time unscrupulous buyers who post jobs on oDesk. oDesk has a ready system that is available to flag jobs as inappropriate and they respond to these ripoffs very quickly and take every flag very seriously. In fact, over a weekend only recently you can see they responded to a problem that was ongoing - proof of this can be quickly reviewed at this location: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5886 and here: http://www.odesk.com/community/node/5890

You can see that oDesk addresses concerns of freelancers quickly and effectively. I hope that the person who filed this report has far more information to back up the claims that were made in their report because from my experience with oDesk they are inaccurate.

I was told by the staff to send it in an Adobe file, but the W9 contains important and confidential information. I do not know if it is a good idea to send this to a place that still insists that the fax number was correct. Also, It is almost impossible to track oDesk anyway. I do not know where their headquarters is or anything, and I looked.