I'm in the process of a drawn out mediation process with an Elance provider where the web development project has been in deadlock for over 3 months. Not all of my experiences with providers at Elance have been poor and in fact some have been exceptionally fruitful, but I have to say be weary of providers who charge up front fees... If your relationship with the provider begins with having to pay an upfront fee - you should expect to run into more financial demands which will likely be counter-productive to the completion of your project. "if you give a mouse a cookie... They may just ask for the farm
In my case, the provider also disappeared for a few weeks and occassionally would chime in regarding their absence from email: illness, national holidays, family emergencies.
Sloth was another symptom which I experienced, inevitably leading to an incomplete broken development and the tireless road towards getting our funds released from escrow.
At this point I'm left to wonder who is being served here the buyer or the provider?
After months of deadlock I've asked Elance Mediation to step in to find a speedy resolution. I also had to file a 6 page self-mediation report and turned it into the appropriate parties. This report is merely a formality and has yet to function as anything resourceful in the actual mediation process.
Unfortunately due to the conflict of interest they can't provide any true solution other than to be cc'ed in the negotiation process and recommend we find an arbitrator in the process. Mistakenly, both myself and the provider though Elance Mediation would be able to give a final resolution, but now I wait after 3 weeks to find out what arbitration will be like.
Obviously Elance can't guarantee a successful job completion. However their duplicity in the matter of when to take action and when not to take action is also misleading during mediation: i.E. Elance mediation will make statements such as *Failure to respond may be cause for suspension of your account, and release of your registration contact information to the other member - although this benefited me to get a speedy answer from the slothy provider. It seems like mediation has a lot more control then they say they do. They'll suspend but they won't take action to release escrow even when the facts are unmistakably in our favor.
On the positive note, at least they are being responsive and are attentive to each email.
Peter
San Jose, California
U.S.A.
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