Comments on: I Try Elance. I Feel Demoralised. Should I Forget it?

By: Zevs

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By: J. Cohn

J. Cohn — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 23:58:55 +0000

Great article! I came upon it because my frustration led me to search on “Elance is degrading.” Seriously though, I am practically in tears here. I worked my butt off cleaning up some really horrendous copywriting for a client who had two websites that needed proofreading. I worked HOURS correcting non-sentences and correcting HUNDREDS of typos. It was a complete JOKE. My kids could have done a better job writing this stuff. So in the end, the guy says “although she knows nothing about our field, she’s a good proofreader,” and ends up giving me a score of 2 on expertise. WHAT?? Because I am not a web developer I get slammed in the expertise category? So I’m done. With a 3.7 score on one of two jobs I can forget about being hired again. I totally agree with Carl above – this client is a complete idiot.

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 22:27:50 +0000

I know this article is pretty old, but I thought I’d chime in.

A client on Elance wanted me to write 100 articles for 400 words each for a ‘client’ of his own for 20 dollars TOTAL. Based on the job posting, I thought I was going to be paid per article. Boy oh boy was I wrong. This person wanted me to write 40k words for just 20 dollars.

A potential client wanted proofread articles for $3/500 words. After making my bid (I was desperate for a 5 star review) the client sends me a message asking me to write 30 articles at 1000 words each for just $5 each(30k words for just 150 dollars!). This new request had nothing to do with the original job posting. I withdrew my bid.

The experiences I had are not anomalies. This is what takes place on Elance on a day to day basis.

If you’re a writer and are halfway decent, avoid Elance and all freelance sites. You’re better off just writing a book and selling it on Amazon; you’ll make more money and deal with less losers.

Apart from the occasional good client, most of the job posters on Elance are either complete idiots or scam artists looking for slave labor.

By: Ryan Peter

Ryan Peter — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 08:56:22 +0000

In reply to Maya Moore.

Thanks Maya. You join a growing number of writers I know who’ve experienced the same nonsense. Their business can’t last forever – I wouldn’t be surprised if in five years time the whole thing either lands in some major legal trouble, becomes a running joke, or becomes a fraction of what it is today (or what it could have been).

Great taste in reading! 🙂

By: Maya Moore

Maya Moore — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 03:46:20 +0000

Thanks for the article, Ryan. I found it very informative. I came across your piece because after two years of successful work via Elance they, first, reviewed my account and then closed it. They wouldn’t tell me why. I spoke to a woman over the phone and she seemed very nervous. She said they would eventually tell me why–but they never did. All I received was canned email responses.

The whole “closing” process took about a month. I can only make random guesses as to why they ditched me. I did make myself “unavailable” for several months due to excessive work (via a consulting firm) and because I took a month’s vacation. Apparently I wasn’t making enough money for them anymore. The whole business has been VERY Orwellian. I told them so. I will not recommend this place to my professional community anymore. Would love to hear others’ thoughts.

PS I am also a lover and writer of fantasy and speculative fiction.
Best,
–Maya

By: Why I closed my Elance profile and you should too | Ryan Peter. Writer.

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By: bodangles

bodangles — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 01:23:00 +0000

Elance is a baby next to Odesk. However the IRS is legislating changes to the online freelance workforce and will soon enforce “forced” taxation at point of fee transference. Which means all these people undermining the workforce in the US will have to pay an additional fee called taxes. All of these freelance sites put up disclaimers so they can negate having to force collect. problem is they are a facilitator between two parties either paying for or receiving payment for work.
The disclaimers are nonsense.
Also how do we enforce the labor laws with regards to these projects which are actually jobs in the labor market?
We need to make the freelance companies more accountable and not leave them to decide the ins and outs of taxation or labor disputes.
My statement stems from recent experiences with Elance and Odesk who treated me with utter disrespect. The reason is they have no ombudsman to oversee the overseer in those companies.
There is very little fairness in dispute resolution mechanisms in place. Its based on the amount of fees not legitimacy of the issue.
BTW Does anyone know how to get ahold of corporate at elance?

By: smith

smith — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:09:00 +0000

I hope the
original poster finds a better place for his or her career since the terrible
experience with Elance. You are not alone in your nightmare experience with
Elance. Obviously from all the comments and horror stories, other workers are
getting ripped off by Elance’s predatory practices and policies. Elance, by its
design is an abusive place that consistently harms people in subtle—and often
blatant–ways. The Elance policies promote this abusive atmosphere and if you
have worked there for any length of time, you will sense that the Elance clients
generally have an abusive posture. Clients expect the contractor to work
basically for free for weeks or months on end, and then—if, and only if, the
result is satisfactory—the client decides if they will pay or not. What totally
insane environment like that would not eventually foster an abusive atmosphere?
Predators are attracted to such a place as Elance.

Elance claims to have dispute resolution, but it all favors the client and the contractor
gets screwed in the end by their Kangaroo system. Read the countless horror
stories on the net. If you work at other bid sites, or with customers directly,
you come so sense the clients at Elance—and Elance itself–is full of abuse and
corruption in the sense that contractors are constantly stolen from and their
accounts deleted. I say FRAUDULENT because if you search google you can find
this: “eLance, a Web-based marketplace for freelancers, is keeping mum
following the indictment of its founder and general manager on securities fraud
charges.” The waters run deep at Elance, and a little searching reveals that
many Elance writers have had their accounts terminated inexplicably. If you
work there, expect to have your funds confiscated without notice, only to deal
with unresponsive, abusive, condescending Elance personnel. It is a scary,
creepy place run by fraudsters. When the managers of a business are crooked, as
the news articles indicate about the top managers at Elance, the employees (Elance
contractors in this case) pay with their paychecks. I wish the original poster
well and better fortunes elsewhere. Peace.