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Freelancer.com has ruined my life

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Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your article doesn't mention how much you paid them. If you are paying someone 5$ per hour, you can't expect much. edit: you mention the prices in the comments, so here they are for anyone curious: Node.js port 155 USD, Android port 789 USD, Website theme 300 USD. It is not slave wages considering the living costs in the respective countries. (sic!) >Node.js port 155 USD This is good for what, 1 hour of work? Pay pea…

Well, the hour rate in europe is much higher than in Asia because the living costs are much lower. So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY

iPhone or Macbook price is roughly the same everywhere. Cost of living is a tiny part of expenses for a competent worker.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your article doesn't mention how much you paid them. If you are paying someone 5$ per hour, you can't expect much. edit: you mention the prices in the comments, so here they are for anyone curious: Node.js port 155 USD, Android port 789 USD, Website theme 300 USD. It is not slave wages considering the living costs in the respective countries. (sic!) >Node.js port 155 USD This is good for what, 1 hour of work? Pay pea…

Well, the hour rate in europe is much higher than in Asia because the living costs are much lower. So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY

Competent developers get 200+CNY an hour here in Beijing (so that would be pay for half a day of work) For this price you can only expect to find students to do the work.

Note: food might be cheaper, but consider housing is very expensive here... 0.5M+ USD for about 60m^2. If I take this pay and calculate it as a contracted worker, he would receive about 8000 CNY and this is considered a low pay.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#33
This review should get pulled. If the reviewer posted this under his real name, then he should remove it. This review will kill his reputation, which will cause more problems than anything mentioned in the review. If it's not a real name, then I imagine it's a violation. This is the only review under this user.

The review has a TLDR at the top, but my own TLDR for this review would be "I was desperate".

It's easy for me to armchair quarterback these situations, but this is the sort of reason why my parents along with most of middle-class America received medical insurance from their employers and paid into Social Security. Things happen. Most people won't set themselves up for dealing with those things. The government and employers then step in and set up a system in which hopefully will save people from not thinking ahead.

Today, more people than ever are freelancing, these safety nets are going away, people run on the edge and any bad turn is going to put them on the street. In developing nations, these safety nets may have never existed.

If employers were to Google this person, then this entire review comes up as a red flag. This is a person who is susceptible to disasters, being forced into the street and can't manage the basics of living in the modern world. When things go downhill, rational thinking goes along for the ride.

There are many reasons to avoid Freelancer and similar services. That subject has been well covered here. In this case, it's better to build networks of people who will help you out, knowing that you would do the same. Services which deal with money have to follow certain processes. If this were a smart contract, then the contract would be even less forgiving. If you want to deal with people who are going to be human and open to hearing your story and weighing your reputation, then build your community that you can reach out to. Don't put 5 years into being a drone profile on a service.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#34

let me piggyback on this thread. this is my freelancer.com experience as a hirer https://medium.com/@ss88/freelancer-com-my-horrible-experien...

Your article doesn't mention how much you paid them. If you are paying someone 5$ per hour, you can't expect much. edit: you mention the prices in the comments, so here they are for anyone curious: Node.js port 155 USD, Android port 789 USD, Website theme 300 USD. It is not slave wages considering the living costs in the respective countries. (sic!) >Node.js port 155 USD This is good for what, 1 hour of work? Pay pea…

> Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

This, this and this.

There's isn't a dearth of good talent out there. Please just be willing to pay a fair price (not just for the hours worked but for the fact that he's available to you on demand, cc Adam Smith).

As an aside, I do believe freelancer.com should do a better job filtering candidates (and gigs). Can maybe turn into a premium service like toptal.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#35

let me piggyback on this thread. this is my freelancer.com experience as a hirer https://medium.com/@ss88/freelancer-com-my-horrible-experien...

Your article doesn't mention how much you paid them. If you are paying someone 5$ per hour, you can't expect much. edit: you mention the prices in the comments, so here they are for anyone curious: Node.js port 155 USD, Android port 789 USD, Website theme 300 USD. It is not slave wages considering the living costs in the respective countries. (sic!) >Node.js port 155 USD This is good for what, 1 hour of work? Pay pea…

> This is good for what, 1 hour of work?

In India? No, will get you several hours of work from a decent dev and still be a great deal for the dev

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#36
post #12

I tried Freelancer.com when I was starting out, I was really happy when I got my first gig, I did a good job, the client was pleased, I got paid an equivalent of £1 an hour but accepted that as my foot in the door... I tried to keep going down this route but quickly realised that this kind of competitive race to the bottom in terms of price is not just the the entry level experience, it's just generally expected. Thi…

Some of it may also depend on where you live. A pay rate people in Western countries would scoff at may be a perfectly comfortable living wage in less fortunate countries.

There's probably some dip in the quality of products you get, but sometimes clients view shoddy and affordable as good enough... If they are even aware of the difference.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indian developers are know for poor quality and extremely low prices. You probably shouldn't hire the cheapest developers. > Freelancer.com is a cesspool of low-level coders who says yes yes yes when you ask them of their skills and knowledge of frameworks. Yes it is. And you should avoid them, especially if you know this. Fool me once and all that. I think this experience is as much your fault as it is theirs.

I didnt only hire Indians: 1 chinese, 1 indian, and 1 bangladeshi.

He meant to say "cheap Asians".

Nothing against people from Asia, of course, it's just what happens when there's a billion people and people are cheap - the best leave, and the rest do whatever they have to.

People are exaggerating their skills because a job that you aren't qualified for is better than no job.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the hour rate in europe is much higher than in Asia because the living costs are much lower. So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY

Why should the number be based on living costs? For assembly line workers with no skill requirement, yes. For engineers? Definitely not. >So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY Let's see: Bangalore is (only) 5 times cheaper than SF.[1] So it's hardly 3 days of work. Shanghai is 2.2 times cheaper.[2] 1 - https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou... 2 - http…

To be fair, bay area wages are not high because the people there are particularly special, they're high because there's no space and everyone wants to be there. So, yes, wages do reflect costs of living, to a certain extent.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didnt only hire Indians: 1 chinese, 1 indian, and 1 bangladeshi.

Don't the Chinese have a saying which means 'Pay low price, expect to get screwed over'? Bangladesh is even worse than India.

I've read an article about Chinese culture of "good enough". That many apartments fall apart right after they're built because if you do 80% of the job then that's pretty much considered "done".

Doing it correctly or completely isn't part of the contract.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the hour rate in europe is much higher than in Asia because the living costs are much lower. So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY

Why should the number be based on living costs? For assembly line workers with no skill requirement, yes. For engineers? Definitely not. >So if you follow that principle, how is 155 USD low for 3 days work? its 1000 CNY Let's see: Bangalore is (only) 5 times cheaper than SF.[1] So it's hardly 3 days of work. Shanghai is 2.2 times cheaper.[2] 1 - https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou... 2 - http…

> Why should the number be based on living costs?

Because that's basically the whole point of globalisation.

Both parties benefit, I don't see what the problem is.

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