... All was looking good, so I hit the “sign up” button on elance.com.
Initially, signing up seemed easy. The site is modern and slick and pleasant to use. They didn’t want to know my life story in order to set up my profile. However, when I got to the end of the sign up process I then discovered ... Read review
Advantages: The Theory Behind It Disadvantages: How it Works in Practice
Elance.com is a website for freelance workers to find online projects and make a bit of cash from the comfort of their own homes. “Buyers” (businesses) post jobs on elance, and stipulate their maximum budget for doing the work and “Providers” (freelance workers) can then submit a proposal for the work and bid a price for doing it. In theory, it’s simple. In practice, it’s pants. The kind of work on offer ranges from website coding to graphics, to ... ...done on a computer. A look at the website today shows that there about 25,000 jobs open for bidding. My experience is as a provider. My entrance into the wonderful world of elance was slightly different to most people’s (I guess), in that I was invited to do an editing project for a company in Australia, who then asked me to sign up with elance to manage the project. Most members don’t get invited in – anybody can join up and basic membership is ...
Tricksty 19.04.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of elance.com
Advantages: None Disadvantages: Many. Bottom line: true professionals need not apply.
The Elance/Guru/iFreelance model is terribly flawed... bottom-line, blind bidding is a mistake in so many ways.
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Reason 1: you may be one of 50 or more quote: professionals bidding on the same job - while you can see how many other bids there are, you can not see the dollar amounts of those bids. .
Reason 2: the absolute WORST time to be anywhere near these sites is during a recession, where employers KNOW creatives are desperate and easy prey ... ...creatives looking for work.. any work... is especially high - where the odds are virtually 100% in favor of the employer.
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Reason 3: to top if off, there are fees: for example, Elance deducts a service charge between 6.75% and 8.75% - Guru freelancers pay "a 5% or 10% project fee"... Guru freelancers can also purchase a Guru membership/subscription fee "to receive privileged access to projects and employers." iFreelance charges a membership fee ...
zipoid 15.04.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of elance.com
Advantages: website is pretty Disadvantages: no customer service, no good providers, bunch of frauds and cheats out there
Elance is a joke if you are looking to provide quality work (and get anything close to a fair wage).
For buyers it's even worse. The whole site is chalk full of low-quality providers with glowing resumes and feedback. The thing is the providers make multiple accounts and "trade" projects within the accounts for that very feedback.
Elance turns a blind eye so they can collect their service fees. Their escrow isn't a real escrow system, the website ... ...looking for any type of customer service or support you get a phone answering machine and an email support service that never returns emails.
Elance is by far the worst freelancing site I have ever had the misfortune of working with.
If you ever think of checking it out be sure and READ their 800 page terms of service statement. They are not responsible for ANYTHING. They can come back and take money you made months ago if they want (and they have ...
dpn2000 15.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of elance.com
Advantages: I found no advantages Disadvantages: waste of money, no customer service, Elance lies, poor website
ELANCE ARE LIARS AND THIEFS!
I signed up for Elance in early December. I followed their advice and took some performance tests (at $5 a pop) because they claim that when buyers do a search if you score high you will be high in the rankings for whatever skill. NOT TRUE.
My test results were top 5% in several and top 10% in others. But when I went and did a search for those skills there are people will lower and non-existent test scores way above ... ...($15 a pop) to use their service which is supposed to verify your "credentials". They say verifying them shows you have reliable references to buyers.
More than 2 months later I am still waiting. 1 it said they couldn't verify, 3 they haven't even tried. They are all former employers and the one they said they couldn't verify told me they never got a letter, call, or email from anyone trying to verify past employment. Elance just took my money and ...
rippedoffbyelance 05.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of elance.com
Advantages: none Disadvantages: no customer service, lots of fraud, expensive
Elance is about the worst freelance site out there whether you are a buyer or a provider.
If you're a buyer you have to watch out for constant fraud. Their escrow service is nothing but a scam. You don't find this out until you actually have a problem. This is why they have a 7 million page terms of service with links to even more nonsense. Their escrow isn't real escrow and doesn't protect you at all.
Providers and buyers alike get treated to ... ...service means they NEVER answer their phone (don't even have an 800 number), rarely return messages, and their email support is non-existent.
The site is flooded with overseas providers who do junk work but win a lot of bids with their $1 an hour rates.
I've tried it out as both a provider and buyer.
Save yourself a lot of hassle. Avoid Elance. ...
RForrester 03.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of elance.com
