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Freelancer.com has ruined my life

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Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#251
post #248
post #73

Stay away from Freelancer.com They reversed two milestone payments i had received, becasue they had to suspend the buyer's account due to some issues with the buyer's payment method. Note that this is after completing the project fully and leaving feedback for each other. I left the money on my Freelancer account, becasue they are/were having issues with Skrill withdrawals. It was there for about a month and they sud…

You should sue them They owe you money, they didn’t pay. A lawyer would love this case

Right? This isn't a customer service issue, this is a legal issue.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#252

I worked for Freelancer.com briefly as a software engineer at their HQ in Sydney for about 1 month (that was in the year before their IPO) - I was fresh out of university. The culture within the company was toxic. They treat developers like crap - Both those who use the platform and those who work at HQ. They fired me after 1 month during my probation because I was too slow to implement a feature because I was spendi…

> because I was too slow to implement a feature because I was spending extra time writing tests. This. Just yesterday, I was asked by an interviewer at a Startup. "How do you test your code? Do you write tests? What's your familiarity with TDD." My answer: "I prefer to do a test driven approach. However, none of the companies I worked for allocated time for writing tests in the sprint, so I have not been able to actu…

Maybe you can help me understand something because I hear this a lot. You manually debug and run your code through "the happy path and edge cases", if I'm understanding you correctly... so, does it really take that much longer to write an automated test that does the same thing?

What I'm saying is if we accept the company's viewpoint as truth -- I don't -- then you'd just be writing code and handing it over. No testing. No execution. No nothing. But if you have time to manually test the code, then it sounds like you have time to write automated tests.

Now, I'm with you, these tests aren't going to be beautiful or well-factored, but they'll be helpful to you, right? That way you don't have to manually test the code over and over again.

On the other side of the coin, I've taken on the practice of including time necessary for testing in my estimates (as an employee and contractor). If a manager doesn't want to accept that, then they can fire me, because that manager is fully incompetent -- no ifs ands or buts. As a professional, I need to operate with a test-driven approach. It's the only way to deliver complex systems with confidence.

Testing happens one way or another.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because I was too slow to implement a feature because I was spending extra time writing tests. This. Just yesterday, I was asked by an interviewer at a Startup. "How do you test your code? Do you write tests? What's your familiarity with TDD." My answer: "I prefer to do a test driven approach. However, none of the companies I worked for allocated time for writing tests in the sprint, so I have not been able to actu…

I couldn't imagine to work without writing tests and I firmly believe it actually makes me quicker than manual coding. Sure, if you aim for 100% code coverage it takes time, but instead of trying out my code a few times, I just write those try-outs as tests and am happy ever after. I don't really mention tests to my management. To me, they are just part of coding. My coworkers don't mind, they are happy when maintain…

This, exactly this. I've felt the same increase in development velocity; and an equal increase in confidence. I'm able to deliver systems and walk away with 99% confidence that no one is going to come back to me with a problem. And if they do, it's easy enough to write a regression test to prove the problem and then fix it.

I've adopted your same approach. I don't mention testing, but I'll be damned if I'll ever write a piece of code without it.

The light-bulb moment for me was when I realized that testing happens one way or another. Either you're in the console manually setting up and running everything... or you could just write a program (a test) to do the same thing for you. Once I realized that, I never looked back!

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#255
post #160
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their web application isn't the canonical source of whether they owe you money or not, a court decides that. I don't know in which jurisdiction Freelancer are based, but if there is a low cost small claims procedure, sounds like that would be worth you time. In the UK in a variety of circumstances you can petition a court to issue a wind up ("liquidation") order for a company if it refuses to service its debt to you.

Thanks for the reply. They have a registered office located in Australia. It was a relatively easy job (took me about an hour and a half) and I only charge $75. So, not sure if it'll be worth the hassle.

From my experience: First, set a date by email when you expect payment, if that doesn't happen, send registered mail to their office demanding in no unclear terms that they pay what they owe you plus the postage for the registered mail. Payment was prompt.

Oh, and don't do business with them.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is unfair. These websites are not scams. A couple of years ago I was looking for 10-15h/week gigs and using one of competitors of freelancer.com proved to work for me. Was it annoying to bid for gigs? Yes. Was the quality of their service low? Yeah, I'd say so. Were salaries low? For someone coming from Eastern Europe - not at all. On top of that, I always got money on time, which is not always the case…

> For someone coming from Eastern Europe - not at all. > Yes, you will be outbid by competitors from cheaper countries, but hey, welcome to reality where half of the stuff you buy is produced in China, because you compete with people and companies from all around the world. That's what a race to the bottom looks like, if this trend keeps on going it won't be long before everybody has the income of somebody working in…

no, because India's revenue is growing, that's how you get developing countries out of the mud. Look how China developed since they became the world's factory.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read through the comments I was composing in my head almost the identical response as yours. Thanks for saving me the time. My spidey sense started to tingle around "I'll spare you the details", then I was curious as to the other side of the story when I read "I must have stepped on a few toes". But once I got to the father dying and the bad car accident that caused all savings to be depleted by medical bills I…

Yep, he "will spare you the details" of the actual issue, and instead rants about his feelings, his irrelevant personal problems and life events. Then, when he attempts to explain what they said, he couches it with 'They didn't use these words, but it was the gest(??) of it". Lots of red flags.

He meant “gist”.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#258
post #13

It seems you have a good reasons to sue. You got perfect reviews. It shows your dedication to providing great customer service. Maybe you got carried away and said some things to the agent however the lockdown is unacceptable. She doesn't have the right to make these decisions. You should speak with senior management before to get your money out.

Suing probably won't help. The freelancer desperately needs money now. Suing requires you to spend money now in hopes of getting money down the road. Since Freelancer.com is based in Australia and the person they screwed probably isn't, suing would require sending spending a lot of money they don't have on an Australian lawyer, probably well more than the $3600 that's at stake. And if Freelancer.com is malicious or d…

See this comment by someone who remotely sued Freelancer.com in small claims court with successful results:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15626228

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#259
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of a friend got such an order for Tesco, our biggest supermarket chain, a few years ago. Needless to say, their invoice was paid very soon after that.

Can you share more? Sounds interesting, especially as I'm reading your comment inside a Tesco store.

Not much, i'm afraid - i can't even remember who it was, it was a tale told in a pub, i think. They'd done some work for Tesco, sent an invoice, Tesco messed them around trying not to pay it, so they brought a case in court, Tesco didn't bother sending anyone to contest it, and this person got the winding-up order. When that is issued, official letters go to the directors, and apparently that got their attention.

Re: Freelancer.com has ruined my life

#260
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the harder, and more long term rewarding option, is to stay away from platforms.

The things is many of the clients are not really reachable without such platform. How would one advertise to a random mom&pop non-IT company on the other side of the globe? Personal site w/ portfolio would barely cut - they wouldn't even know what to google for. Arranging payment would be a huge hassle too. Working only locally is not a solution either.

I guess if one approaches this as an employee or entrepreneur.

My reply is as an employee. I'd prefer to not chase JavaScript frameworks.

I guess on the other side of the coin, one sort of has to these days if the entrepreneurial route is taken?

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