Upwork

Since 2008 I have been an active member (as both a client and a freelancer) of Elance and then Upwork (when my account was moved over)

As a client, I have continued to hire freelancers over that period, the most recent being in August this year. I have received 5 star reviews on all of the projects I have been involved with

As a freelancer, I have chosen not to work for since my account was moved to upwork, but on Elance I performed many projects. Of those employers who left reviews all were very positive and almost all were 5 stars - but the work history has now mysteriously disappeared from upwork despite being there yesterday

A few days ago I decided I would try working as a freelancer again. I applied for several projects in a day. Hours later my account was suspended without explanation.

After banging my head against the wall with support I was eventually told that I was not qualified to be applying for these jobs because the number of jobs that I was applying for was too great given my work history - exactly how this is related to my qualifications for the job I have no idea!

When I appealed I was then asked to provide evidence of my qualifications. I sent them evidence of my three applicable degrees which were received from top ranked universities in Australia. Shortly after I was simply sent an email stating that the review had been completed and my account was permenantly closed!

I have an established work history with freelancers - my CLIENT account is also suspended - and now I am unable to engage them again? The ENTIRE purpose of upwork is to provide a fair and safe marketplace. After a business starts hiring people on upwork they are counting on them to maiintain that fairness. Our company has invested in developing relationships and a shared body of knowledge with our freelancers. Suddenly, and only because I decided to start applying for jobs on a single day, I find myself permenantly banned? How?

After repeatedly asking them to refer me to the section of their terms and conditions which I have supposedly violated, I have received no response. Upwork seems to have a grossly warped sense of what it means to have commercial integrity. VERY disappointed.

I recently accepted my first job on Elance and I was completely ripped off. I was hired by someone calling himself "Joe" to write copy 8 hours a day, six days a week at $15/hr. I completed two days work for "Joe" and received a warning from Elance that I may not get paid because "Joe's" payment info wasn't set up. Now, being new to the site, I had no idea that people can post jobs and accept work without having any way to pay for the work they commission. I immediately stopped work and confronted "Joe" about the payment issue and he claimed that it was a glitch on Elance's systems. This seemed reasonable to me as Elance's Work View program, an app that Elance uses to track a worker's progress on a project repeatedly stopped working and I was told by an Elance rep that this was a temporary problem. Regardless, I told "Joe" I wouldn't resume work until his payment info was resolved.

A few days later, "Joe" broke off all contact and his account appeared to have been shut down, by Elance or "Joe" himself I still don't know. I made a complaint through Elance's Dispute system and waited for a reply. Meanwhile, I googled sections of the copy I wrote and found it posted on a few different sites. I contacted a few of the site owners and heard back for one site admin that he purchased my content through a competing freelancing site called iWriter. "Joe" had stolen my content on Elance and resold it a different site. I added this new information to my Elance dispute.

Today, I finally heard back from Elance. They dismissed all my complaints and rejected my claims. Now, I realize that I was partially at fault for not finding out that Elance hosts projects with no security for writers, but the fact that Elace essentially cultivates a situation where freelancers can be abused in this manner is shocking. I would highly recommend that any freelance writers who are considering pursuing employment through Elance do literally anything else. Elance is a garbage company with nonexistent ethics.

I thought of trying it since I would love to work from home and manage my time, I did send some proposals, lowering my hourly fee, but it seems that people here are cheepos trying to hire at 3-5$/hr for professional jobs, seriously, (like: send me your portfolio of Villas and Luxury Condos so I can pay you 5$/hr!) definitely think the site should set the minimum at least by law of hourly employment: to TOP it all I did receive one proposal (from which I think is a real Company) and I am pretty sure it was a SCAM, it invited me to Interview on Chat on Googlehangout, I was supposed to be trained by them (Paid for it too) and then start, they wanted to send me a check so I could buy software for training (weird, not giving you my address) But could not give or send me more info by email on the job and it was very very vague. Anyways, PROS OF THE WORLD if you keep accepting 3/5 $/hour you are enabling these cheepos, I get it that in some parts of the world you can feed a family with that pay but these employers often are not from those parts of the World! If those who decide to stay there start accepting ONLY jobs for at least 30$/hr I assure that the cheapos will have no choice but to to pay that!

I found this Freelance Website, Best from other platforms I hope Upwork will bring more value to freelancers.

Based upon the most recent reviews, I see that I am not the only Freelancer to have my Elance account closed with no warning and no response to my queries of support for their decision. I believe that Elance has other motives for closing accounts that are discriminatory in nature. Out of a total of five jobs awarded to me, I had one review that wasn't five stars over 2 years ago, and yet my account was closed due to a high number of negative client experiences. I have asked for the evidence from Elance, but have been ignored. With the experience I have in my profession, it is not unusual to command as much as $250 per hour. My profile was set up with a rate of $55 per hour, but most invitations I receive rarely exceed offers for $10 per hour. I believe my refusing to bid on invitations for jobs that offer to pay $3-$10 per hour might be what Elance considers a high number of negative client experiences. Based upon my belief, this is no excuse for closing an account because I should be afforded the opportunity to decline low budget jobs. Does Elance close accounts for employers that offer rates well below minimum wage? I haven't seen any negative reviews by employers having their accounts closed because on negative Freelancer experiences, so the answer must be NO. Do they close accounts of employers that rarely or never award jobs? The answer is NO. I've seen employers that have over 30 offers posted, and have only awarded 1 job.

Elance is a California based company that should not discriminate against Americans for not bidding or accepting well below market or minimum wage rate job offers. THEIR ACCOUNT (Website) SHOULD BE CLOSED! Maybe Freelancers should use Elance to hire an attorney to initiate a Class Action Lawsuit against Elance.

Beware of Elance - Use at your own risk. I have contracted developers from Elance which have pulled out midway through leaving me with an unfinished build and partial source codes. After filing a dispute with Elance the developer agreed to return a portion of the funds paid to him. That developer never returned the funds and removed his company and himself from Elance. When i asked Elance for assistance i was told that they could only provide me with his contact info and i could persue this matter outside of Elance. So lets review - a developer promoted on their webpage - quits the job and agrees to refund me - instead he closes shop, runs and the organization promoting him, collecting their job fees along with developers payment tells me to persue him outside of them. Elance is designed to bring foreign developers (mine from India) to American entrepreneurs. They wash their hands of the matter providing zero assistance. So now I must hire a lawyer from india (on my own) to retrieve my funds. I never the job completed, lost money and must chase this developer. SAVE YOURSELF THE AGGRAVATION, HEADACHE AND LOST FUND.
STAY FAR AWAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM ELANCE.

Upwork company the best. In my opinión, this company helps People a lot, who do not get a job and whith it they get it