UpworkReviews 2,134

Elance closed my account after i posted a job and paid 5$ to promote better my job. They charged me and simply closed my account. When i tried to login i got this message: Your Elance account is expired.

I tired to contact the support team. I got this reply:

Hello XXX XXX,

I've reviewed your account with our team and it seems your account was closed due to irregularities detected by our system.

We regularly review member accounts to ensure activity follows Elance policies and guidelines. If you wish to review our Terms and Conditions, please visit:
http://www.elance.com/p/help/tos/index.html

I understand your concern, but in discussing this with our team I am not able to reverse the decision.

Regards,
Elance Policy Team

################################

Then I asked them to close my account so i can register it back,

But they didn't, and I am still getting emails from them on how to complete my JOB:

Need some inspiration
To finish that job post?

Hello XXXX,

Been too busy to finish that job post?

Perhaps a little inspiration will remind you of why you came to Elance in the first place.

1. Browse our 3 million freelancers
2. Check out our Skills Directory
3. View average hourly prices for jobs
4. See trends in online work
5. Visit our Testimonial Center
Skilled freelancers are available now for jobs large and small, helping you grow your business fast.

Work Differently,
The Elance Team

How should I finish posting my job if they closed my account?

I recommend you to stay away from Elance!.

There is not any security at Elance, no control over freelancers. I was stolen 500$ by a scam freelancer. They use automatic PayPal payments, disappear in a few days and delete the profile. You can start a dispute but there's nothing to do. PayPal wil request a refund to Elance, the will reject it and they will tell you to dispute with the "disappeared" freelancer. DON'T work with this company, they should be shut down.

It's an unprofessional site with little good work to go around. If you're a writer/graphic designer, there are far too many unserious, cheap clients who want the world but are only willing to pay $20.

The system is set up to help clients, not freelancers. If you want to bid on a project (which most of the time costs you money by way of their "Connects" system) in more than one category (such as design AND marketing) then you have to pay monthly for a membership plan. It's just a blatant money grab from hopefully young professionals. But once you join, you realize the jobs are of such poor quality, there's no point even bidding.

Elance also seems to do nothing to deter spec work since SO many of the writing jobs I've seen plainly ask for spec work right in the job posting. Best to avoid.

This site spam, so plz don't use that site friends, No 1 cheaters, i have reached $******* But payout button is not visible. Our reply this only

{WELCOME!

After You collected minimum amount '20,000.00$ USD'
You must waiting 30 business days to active payout.
You can buy Premium Membership then You can make payouts without limits:

PerfectMoney - instant activ - cost 199$ USD --
Paypal - within 48 hours activ cost - 220$ USD
AlertPay/Payza - within 48 hours activ cost - 220$ USD

You get great gift's for free with it.
With Premium Membership You can payout all Yours earnings!}

So plz don't any pay oru sites friend

My experience is that is a little reputable company that does not comply with the terms of service. I've earned $ 35,000 and paid for a gold membership. It's been at least 20 days and despite numerous complaints that I have presented to them, they only answered twice with the same text, a copy and paste and repeating what they say in terms of services that are precisely what they do not comply.
I'm trying to demand payment via AlertPay and hopefully get it back. That company also had the nerve to ask me the amount of $ 99 plus the $ 220 for upgrade. Something that does not appear on any site in its rules.
It has all the appearance of it is a scam in the making. They are informal and abuse people. Do not know how some people say yes have claimed, if so, why they do not all. I do not get it.

Terrible, I wanted someone to do some marketing for me, he sent me pictures of the Pakistan army with ak-47s and women with plates of money in their hand. I disputed and Elance claimed that I should pay him because he did the work in good faith. I even told him before we started the project that I did not want him to do anything for me and he still did it. He then called me a fraud. Wow, I guess I am naive to the real world for having faith in him. I have recently re-disputed the matter and is currently ongoing. Elance and all of those similar sites are too expensive and you have to compete with people who are willing to work for $5 per hour.

I have now spent well over a week in the process of finding a good writer for a $5000+ project, and I found one through Elance. I have absolutely no objection to compensating any intermediary that helped us find a way to work together. But with my brief experience with them there is no way I would enter a business relationship with Elance. After a series of baffling and maddening interactions with them over the past week, and twice waiting 15 to 20 minutes on hold, I now find: In addition to their bizarre "credit card authorization process" (unlike anything anywhere else in the use of a credit card), it is their actual policy to charge an amount to my credit card in excess of what I authorized! They actually think that's OK by condescendingly reassuring me after the fact that there will be a refund "in 10 days or so"! (The California BBB will be fascinated to learn about this, and there may even be a young Assistant DA in or around Mountain View looking for an interesting way to spend a month or two.) I know incompetence, arrogance, and an ethical tin ear when encounter them. When things start out rife with these "little early signs" it never gets better, only worse. I finally did last what I should have done first, which is to look up on the internet whatever reviews from Elance users I could find. Wow! I had to tell of a perfectly good writer I could not proceed, and apologize profusely for wasting his time. Back to Square One, and immensely grateful to be there.

Dale Delmege
760-4154-0128

Its safe working over here. Its much better then freelnacer.com because after project competition there is always a risk that money reversal can happen and because of that we are always at loss, we give all the work to them and in the end money belongs to you which seems unfair. Some change defiantly is required in your policy which is unfair towards freelancer who actually work on it. Because of your policy we have lost around 300$. This thing is never traced on elance. Good site to work :)

Recently my account was closed by elance saying that i am not getting any work from Elance clients recently. I argued with them on how i have qualified for many exams and their criteria of closing an account is just unfair. They need to check various parameters and not just one parameter of how much job someone has gained. Check how they are bidding, how they are interacting with the clients. Do they act professional and do the freelancer give more thoughts on their bids. When i argued with them that they need to re-think on their parameters on which they decide whose accounts should be closed, they simple said they cannot help. I found like i am dealing with some Freelancer.com representative, which i found to be so irrational that it was hard to deal with them.

Their linear way of closing down my account was just so stupid that i could not accept it and here i am to rant on that issue.

I am very disappointed as my profile has 2 client reviews with whom i worked 2 years ago. Simply closing an account without any advance notification that you account will be closed is so so bad. Did not expect this from Elance.

As a freelancer, I have had no problem with this website before. I see many people complaining about safety concerns, but I've never even thought of relying on Elance to protect me. Elance is simply to get me in touch with prospective clients. You have to make sure to take steps necessary to protect your money and work on your own. They do have some useful services (such as Escrow and WorkView), and while they have their faults, a bit of caution will keep them from being abused. I never send full copies of my work until the Escrow is funded, but I also don't ask for it to be funded until it's completed on my end and give frequent notice of my progress; if your freelancer doesn't do this, then ask for them to do so through the job. If a job is cancelled, I also keep a copy of it and make regular checks (usually once a month) to see if anything I sent has been posted elsewhere; if it is, I just issue a DMCA take-down notice and harass them (without the help of Elance) until they take it down and stop using it online.

Most of the bad experiences listed here spawn from people putting way too much faith in a single website with their money. YOU need to learn to take the initiative necessary to keep your work and money as a freelancer safe. Elance is there to help you meet people and take some simple jobs - not to be your mother.

A lot of people also seem bitter about disputes not being in their favor when they very well should not be. If the client specifies you are to do something or use something specific, if you don't do this and don't warn them beforehand, then of course they're not going to pay you. If a professor tells you to type something and you hand it in written, of course he's just going to put it in the trash can next to his desk. You need to follow the directions of the clients to ensure nothing is against you.

You should also go through the ToS with a fine-tooth comb to avoid having your account closed. "But it should be clearer!" The ToS is fairly clear, but let me guess... you haven't read it? You oughta at least do that if you're putting your time and money into a website for freelancing, whether it's Elance or anything else.