Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Freelancer.com - Heaven for taking hidden fee, automatic fee taking, even from SUSPENDED ACCOUNT!!!

These are obviously malpractices in many sites but taking hidden fees and automatic fee taking are common at Freelancer.com. There are more and more users that are raising voice against it. Not only those who were directly registered at freelancer.com but also the migrated users from recently acquired vworker are unhappy with such system of ripping the users off. A former user of rentacoder and later vworker, published his experience with freelancer.com.


The unhappy user's account was dormant type with mere activities. But it was creating no problem as vworker used to charge only project fee. But after vworker was acquired by freelancer.com, the site took $54 from his account without informing him. The reviewer said-

Without warning freelancers.com have taken $54 as a membership fee which they say they are entitled to as I associated a PayPal account with them to make payment to a worker for a project. At not time have they advised me that a membership fee would be due with their takeover of the Rentacoder / vWorker sites. 

In another post at DigitalPoint it is stated that such automatic fee taking is prohibited by by FTC. Automatic fee taking issue is stated here too.

Again Hiiden fee taking is evident from the post of kent -

  • Freelancer.com charges you an extra $1.01 for a processing fee
  • these scam artist have a hidden fee of $3 for every job that you post
  • these scam artist want to charge me another $2.00 to withdraw MY MONEY even though no services were provided. - read2learn.net/freelancer-com-scam-2012/

Fee taking from suspended account

A ditched user reveals that along with several misdeeds, freelancer.com also charged his account for the membership fee even after suspending the account!!! The user purchased a gold membership while the account was active. But when it got suspended, freelancer.com continued taking fee for the membership plan given that as the account was suspended there was noway the user can prevail the benefit of gold membership! The user says-
But even more incredible, I have discovered that in spite our accounts are suspended and they don't let me nor my workers use the money that belong to us, they billed us for the NEW MONTH other 25 USD for GOld membership on suspended accounts! They block the money but they don't block the billing of services that cannot be used! CRiminal fraud to say the least.

In another case the user's money that he got from the employer was reverted back to the employer. But the project fee that was taken from him by freelancer.com when he was awarded the project, was not given back to him. http://www.itwebsupport.com/blog/freelancer-com-place-of-scam


One curious click on link in email can cause an automatic loss

Here is another example of automatic fee taking policy of freelancer.com. András Rápli got mail from freelancer.com. They sent newsletter via email with link to exams on their site. When he visited that link, freelancer.com automatically took $5 from his connected paypal account. He says-
It is so disgusting, that once I felt into their trap. Since I had had my PayPal account linked, I could accidentally click a link in one of their newsletters which instantly pulled money from my account (for an exam fee).

It takes weeks to get payment from them but with AUTOMATIC fee taking they gets it within seconds

They can offer to take money from my Paypal account in seconds, and without my permission. With the click of a button, all of the money from my Freelancer.com account and some extra from my Paypal account can be instantaneously taken from me, plus a hidden surcharge that I'm not supposed to notice. Meanwhile, it takes two whole weeks to get money from their site into my Paypal account,even if I have already used this withdrawal process before.

Another example  of Automatic fee taking

Showing cause of "Service-related deposit" Freelancer took some $5 from a user who states that this transaction was without his consent. The money was taken out from his paypal account. The user says-
Today, I noticed that they charged me for USD5.37. Which I totally have no idea when did I agree to subscribe to their fucking website. Never. I never agree or click on any button to made payment for them. I guess, it is technically hidden during the sign up process.

1 comment :

  1. Hi, this is Savannah from Freealancer.com. I came across your post and it is unfortunate to know that there are a lot of users who were not given a clear explanation of the charges and fees that have incurred on their account. I want to make things right and personally address of all of these issues. I can feel how disappointing this has been for you that is why I would like to start with you. It is our duty to provide accurate answers to your queries, so I hope that you will give me the privilege to look further into your account and make the necessary actions if needed. I'd appreciate if you can send me an email to savannahg@freelancer.com with your username and a detailed explanation of your concern. Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon.

    ReplyDelete