Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

blog.assembla.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 118 posts

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#61

Post by mudil »

mattbarrie wrote: post #44
mudil wrote: post #21

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…

Hello there. I replied to your issues with Freelancer on the previous thread.

Matt,

All I wanted is to file a feedback. And after paying >$1000, not getting anything back, my project (the one that I started and paid for) was closed by a developer, and I can't even leave a feedback! So, what kind of protections do your customers get?

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#62

Post by xerophtye »

mudil wrote: post #21

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…

Well i took a look into the matter and as you mention "we are not developers. we are med people", isn't there a possibility you misunderstood the devs? They did explain in their replies that the reason the site crashed for two weeks because of conflicts with the previous site which took a long time to resolve. And from what i understand, you "stopped trusting them" after this incident. I assume you figured it only worked on their servers by some scam and isn't gonna work on your servers. So i hope you see that this suspicion was very baseless.

As for your paying of 75% of the payment, i assume that was AFTER you approved of the site on their servers. So they must have said "see? it's complete. now all we have to do is deploy to your servers" so it made sense to pay them. And so i am not going to blame you for paying them. What i do blame you for is not trusting them.

But yes, generally it is best advised not to pay in advance (but i assume you only paid after seeing a working site).

Either way, blaming this on freelancer.com doens't make any sense what so ever.

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#63

Post by mudil »

mudil wrote: post #21

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…

If anyone interested, you can review the full documentation of back and forth between us and Freelancer.com:

http://medgadgetenglish.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/...

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#64

Post by xerophtye »

why-el wrote: post #37
auctiontheory wrote: post #10

Speaking as an employer: All of these sites have good workers, and all of them have workers who will turn in shoddy work, hoping you won't notice. I've hired for more than a dozen projects and in no case did the contractor do the job right the first time - because they didn't care enough, not because they were incompetent. I've hired workers in the US, in India, in the UK, and elsewhere. Same sorts of issues crop up.…

I am about to join oDesk as a freelancer. Coming out of college, I have basically limited experience behind me (internships, personal projects). Any advice you have for me about how to grow in the platform?

I'd say start small. IMHO the description text "New Freelancer" doesn't go well with a high price tag. So make your price reasonable, but not too low.

Secondly, on every job/bid ,personalize your communications with the employer. Don't send standard bids/messages that i am the best, i have done this this this etc. Make the employer understand how you are best for THIS job. make them you realize you know what they want and that you know what you are talking about. Tell them about RELATED previous projects. Giving them a feel that you are an expert in this sort of stuff helps a lot. A good personalized communication helps beat many mighty competitors with tons of reviews under their belt. I did that several times and it plays well with people's fears that a big shot freelancer would not dedicate his time to my project.

Thirdly, getting that first job may take a long time. Don't lose your hopes. that's just how the freelancing community works. when you don't have any reviews things get tough. But that is exactly when that personalized communication comes in very very handy.

Lastly, don't be afraid to demand some protection from the employer. it's your right. So make sure the employer puts the money in escrow before you begin any serious work.

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#65

Post by mudil »

xerophtye wrote: post #62
mudil wrote: post #21

I used both Odesk and Freelancer to hire developers, and I urge everyone to look at my previous submission ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951 ) about deplorable protections at Freelancer.com. In summary, my $2500 project was closed by the developer at his will, with no money returned and no way to even leave a feedback! Multiple attempts asking the company to allow me to even leave a feedback came to noth…

Well i took a look into the matter and as you mention "we are not developers. we are med people", isn't there a possibility you misunderstood the devs? They did explain in their replies that the reason the site crashed for two weeks because of conflicts with the previous site which took a long time to resolve. And from what i understand, you "stopped trusting them" after this incident. I assume you figured it only wo…

xerophtye:

Our blog is one of the oldest and most linked to and trafficked medical blogs. We have ~15K posts, since 2004. We have custom WP plugins and widgets, etc etc. We had many developers over time. So we are not idiots when it comes to understanding what we need from developers.

I started the project and paid for it (partially with some remaining in escrow). Wouldn't you expect that only I can close the project? Or at least be able to leave a feedback?

For full back and forth, see link that I left above.

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#66

Post by why-el »

xerophtye wrote: post #64
why-el wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am about to join oDesk as a freelancer. Coming out of college, I have basically limited experience behind me (internships, personal projects). Any advice you have for me about how to grow in the platform?

I'd say start small. IMHO the description text "New Freelancer" doesn't go well with a high price tag. So make your price reasonable, but not too low. Secondly, on every job/bid ,personalize your communications with the employer. Don't send standard bids/messages that i am the best, i have done this this this etc. Make the employer understand how you are best for THIS job. make them you realize you know what they wan…

Very sound advice. Thank you.

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#69

Post by sfjailbird »

I personally recommend everyone to not use Freelancer.com. I learned in this thread that they also bought vWorker, and I am not surprised to read that it has turned for the worse after being acquired.

In short, they steal from both the freelancers and the outsourcers - stories aplenty about this [1]. I only know about these stories because I started looking into them after being bamboozled myself, luckily for only a small amount, which would have been larger had I not managed to cancel the additional payments Freelancer.com had booked against my credit card without permission. This was my experience as an outsourcer, apparently the freelancers have it far worse.

Elance on the other hand has seen more than $20k of my business and will continue to in the foreseeable future. Have not had experience with the other services (there's a strong lock-in effect in this market because your job history itself becomes a valuable thing).

[1] http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com

Re: ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru

#70

Post by troels »

auctiontheory wrote: post #54
why-el wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am about to join oDesk as a freelancer. Coming out of college, I have basically limited experience behind me (internships, personal projects). Any advice you have for me about how to grow in the platform?

Any advice you have for me about how to grow in the platform? One piece of advice, and just not about oDesk. Do reasonable work, don't silently miss deadlines, and always set expectation and communicate (never hide). I've worked for some big-name Valley companies. If you just follow the advice above, you will be far ahead of the pack. (And that's even more true in the freelance world.) Good luck.

I'll second that.

If - nay when - you screw up, admit it right away and figure out how to fix it. It really will make a huge difference in how useful you are. Goes for other parts of life too.

Post reply on HN