I used elance to have someone write an ebook.
Using their escrow service I thought I would
be protected from a service provider who
would not pan out.
Well just that scenario played out. The
writer missed the deadline, gave constant
excuses, many times didn't want to cooperate,
never delivered on their new set deadlines
and never delivered the ebook. The most they
showed was a rough draft and this was nowhere
near being done.
Not having the dispute policy clearly posted
on the web site I called elance. The guy I
spoke to said not to worry my money would be
refunded and even encouraged me to repost the
project. All I needed to do was request the
service provider refund my money, if they
didn't comply to post a dispute document to
the writer. If nothing was done he said
elance would refund it.
So I did those things and the writer decides
they will not refund but instead to give more
excuses and ask for more time. At this point
I contact elance about it and they tell me
that they actually can't rule and refund.
That the case will have to go to meditation
by phone conference where a mutual agreement
has to be made between myself and the writer.
And if that does not happen they will forward
us to a dispute resolution organization.
On top of that the writer has rescheduled
each time I put in.
I find all of this ridiculous and a horrible
experience. All this for a writer who is not
delivering and is way past the May 23rd
deadline. I don't have time for all of this
garbage. So I had to contact my credit card
company. However Elance and their escrow
service is full of lawyers. They overturned
my complaint with the credit card company
citing that they can not be held responsible
for their bad service providers. They are a
scam with lawyers behind them.
This is the worst experience I have ever had
with this type of service. I will never use
elance again and would encourage you to stay
clear since they will drag you through this
absurd process if you run into a deadbeat.
I thought they were higher quality than
RentACoder - boy was I wrong!!!
When you use their escrow service you might
think you are protected against a service
provider not doing their work. How wrong
that is! They have ZERO oversight with their
coders and will do nothing if their coders
don't do the work.in my case they sided
with the service provider who did not do the
work.
I will not rest until I am refunded the $350
that I got nothing in return for. I will not rest
until Elance refunds my money. Spread the
word, Elance can not be trusted!!!
Tim
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
U.S.A.
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