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d9afa901
Community Member

Scammed

Freelancers are often scamming me insisting they can do work that they really can't. I've lost thousands with one and hundreds with another. With either scammer i've not once come out with a finished product that I can use like they promised me. One was an app that doesn't even function. One was an editor who managed to make my books WORSE (after editing both 100,000 word books in less than 24 hours which I didn't want him to do but he INSISTED he could so I thought he had people helping him). This person clearly didn't have a full grip on the english language after I read through what they did, but they've already been paid for and refuse to refund. The first one kept asking for payment because their spouse was in the hospital and then they were in the hospital I wanted to be kind and understanding to the people working for me, but I see now that doesn't work. 

5 REPLIES 5
tta192
Community Member

Start with small tasks, with budgets as low as you are willing to lose, but appropriate for the effort they require. When you find a freelancer who performs well on such a task, pay up and assign him more complex jobs with progressively larger budgets. This builds trust - both ways - and eventually you'll have a team of freelancer(s) who can get the job done at the standards you expect with no surprises.

 

prestonhunter
Community Member

I don't want you to ever stop being a good-heated person, but you need to understand that there is an appropriate time and place for compassionate giving, and hiring freelancers on Upwork is not the time or place.

 

The hospital stuff is right out of the scammer manual. We read about exactly the same claims repeatedly from clients who have been scammed.

 

A real, professional freelancer will never tell you if a family member is in the hospital. And if a freelancer themself needs to go to the hospital, they would only tell you this on the context of you needing to STOP paying them money because they will not be working on the project and they are giving you the opportunity to drop them from the project and hire someone else.

 

A legitimate Upwork freelancer will never mention going to the hospital or having a family member go to the hospital on the context of asking for money or asking you to look the other way while work is not being done.

 

The BEST THING YOU CAN DO to help freelancers around the world who use Upwork is to put yourself and your project first and make the platform work well for you.

 

Client satisfaction pays dividends for ALL Upwork users.

colettelewis
Community Member


holly R wrote:

Freelancers are often scamming me insisting they can do work that they really can't. I've lost thousands with one and hundreds with another. With either scammer i've not once come out with a finished product that I can use like they promised me. One was an app that doesn't even function. One was an editor who managed to make my books WORSE (after editing both 100,000 word books in less than 24 hours which I didn't want him to do but he INSISTED he could so I thought he had people helping him). This person clearly didn't have a full grip on the english language after I read through what they did, but they've already been paid for and refuse to refund. The first one kept asking for payment because their spouse was in the hospital and then they were in the hospital I wanted to be kind and understanding to the people working for me, but I see now that doesn't work. 


______________________________

Holly,

 

Hopefully, the freelancers have since had their accounts suspended. However, you also have a lot to learn.

 

I don't know about apps as I have minimum technical expertise and I don't know what the average fee is for creating one. But as far as editing is concerned, you only needed to search Google a little to realize that it really  is impossible to edit one  book of 100k words  in 24 hours (let alone two books of this length), even - or especially - if the freelancer had a raft of  people helping him or her. I am not surprised the result was unusable. I am surprised that you went ahead and hired this freelancer when you already doubted their level of English. 

 

If you want a professional to edit a work of 100k words you are looking at a price of at least $1200 (and that is cheap). And depending on the genre and the amount of work to be done on it, you should count on a minimum of four weeks+ turnover time. A book doesn't stop with the editor either. It needs to be professionally typeset, and it needs to be professionally proofread, and that is just for starters. 

 

If any freelancer absolutely insists on anything - you simply don't hire them. A professional freelancer will tell you upfront what they are capable of delivering and are not likely to insist on their expertise, which they should be sure of in the first place. 

Holly:
One of the greatest free resources in the world is the Upwork Community Forum.

 

There are experienced Upwork freelancers, clients and employees here 24 hours a day who love to talk about how to use the platform effectively.

 

If you want to get the most out of Upwork, then come here often and ask questions.

 

There is no reason at all why a client would need to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars on a project. If a client uses the Upwork tools combined with best practices, it is simply impossible to lose that kind of money.

JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Holly,

 

Could you please send me a PM by clicking on my name, and kindly share more information about the issue so I can check this for you? Thanks.

~ Joanne
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