Upwork Reviews

Upwork is presumably supposed to protect the buyer's interests. In actuality they couldn't care less what happens to the customers after the payment clears. I happened to order SEO service through the platform. The service was horrible and I left a review. The seller got upset and after the payment cleared deleted the work he had done and sent threatening emails. Upwork couldn't care less. Initially they pretended to "investigate", which turned out to be a lie. After 62 emails they said that don't really care what happens after the order clears, refused to assist and eventually ignored my further emails. Looking at the reviews the company is receiving, it seems that I'm not the only one who has been mistreated, and this type of deception and disdain is a practice they engage in quite often. Beware and stay clear!

Hired a company to complete a website. They did not complete the job. Paid $850 with $450 in escrow. Sent messages to Elance indicating the provider was not responsive and did not complete the job. Elance told me if the provider did not agree to the terms no funds will be released. Elance released funds automatically after telling me they would not unless the provider accepted the terms then told me that they would charge me $895 to arbitrate the matter. They ignored the dispute resolution phase which is supposed to be mandatory and said I did not agree to pay the $895 to arbitrate. Clearly Elance did not read the emails and allowed the provider to keep the money because they get paid a percentage of what the provider earns. I sent correspondence from support but nothing.

Two years ago I was hired through Elance. I completed my assigned task and the company transferred the earnings as requested. I am still waiting for the earnings to be made available to me. They said first I needed to add a profile picture which I couldn't do due to an error on their site. Then they said I needed to make an appointment on Skype to verify my identity. The only times which were available were very early in the morning or during the night. So far I have made two appointments, one at 5 am and one at 7 am. I was not contacted at either time. Still waiting for the money which I earned.

I hired a company listed as NYC studios to do my website design for $439.00. The preliminary design looked good and they requested funding to complete and deliver. When funding was forwarded, they disappeared, did not respond to requests for arbitration -- as Elance set up -- and Elance basically washed their hands of the situation saying they were only a "service to get business people together". They also cancelled the offending party's account, so I can't track him down to pursue legal remedy; but of course he showed up with another, undaunted. DON'T USE ELANCE OR UPWORK... THEY WILL NOT PROTECT YOU!

Woohoo. I got back my money from this ** called Elance. I was also frustrated by my Elance account suspension and even after a 1 month of email exchanges they were still holding all my payment amount. And it was more than 6000 USD which is a good amount for me. Finally, I had taken some steps and got all my money from different channel. I just don't want to post the trick here as it may be visible to Elance ** people. If anybody is interested to know, I will be happy to share the trick in personal message.

Several months ago, I signed up with elance.com. Elance is a marketplace that brings businesses that need writing services together with freelance writers seeking jobs. Elance claims an annual business volume of 200 million dollar or so. They recently 'merged' with Upwork, a competitor. The company has plenty of job offerings both locally and from all over the world. Jobs offered are not only writing jobs. I signed up for writing and translation. Freelance writers can potentially make lots of money if they can find customers willing to hire them. That is where elance.com comes in. They find businesses in need of writing and post the jobs on their website. Freelance writer then bid on the jobs.

I have been on Elance as a service provider for years. On Friday October 16 at 12:05 pm I received an email without any notice that my account was being put on hold because of what they deemed to be in "violation of their terms". I talked to a customer service rep who said I would need to speak with someone in Risk Management, but they only communicate via email. I finally got an explanation via email that they were suspicious of activity on my account in relation of a current client of mine. They seemed to think that the transactions were not real. After providing them exactly the information they asked for, they then proceeded to require me do an identity verification check, which I did. They then proceeded to ask for a verification of my credit card. A card that has already been verified and has had activity.

I had a 5-star rating on Elance, which means that my clients were perfectly happy with me. Out of the blue Elance sends me an email saying I have bad client feedback and I am on "probation" of sorts. I tried and tried again to find out who was unhappy with my work. The help person would send me back canned responses. I got mad and cancelled my account. To make matters even more frustrating, I just got an email saying that I haven't improved and so they are closing my account. So someone is unhappy with me but I am not allowed to defend myself and they can't even tell me what this was about. I don't even believe them. They lost a freelancer that was making them money--it makes no sense. If you are a freelancer STAY AWAY from Elance. They will treat you like crap.

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 pursue this matter outside of Elance.

A friend of mine recommended me Elance.com and I tried to use it. I was trying to authenticate my credit card. I was charged to authenticate my credit card and now I can't even log in at Elance.com. I always receive the same message saying: "Your Elance account is expired". I made 3 requests at Elance Customer Support and didn't receive any contact from them. I tried to call them and they said that they don't know what happened and they will return my contact in 48 hours. That's really a problem because I am about to lose a job opportunity because my boss was willing to pay me by Elance and now my account is expired!!!? That's seems to be scam. All my requests are ignored and you CHARGED my credit card. That's a shame.