I have been a member of getafreelancer.com for several years and since the beginning it has been a nightmare. The company hides behind several companies and has alerted its members to such ownerships; but there is no way to confirm if this. There is no way to physically contact this company other than via a ticket system they have in place going by the name of "getahelpdesk.com" which by the way takes them approximately 24-48 hours to answer; if they answer at all.
My dilema started out when i posted a new job on their site to hire someone to automate my companies forms by creating fillable pdf's. I paid the fee via paypal and begin receiving bids. Two days later when logging into my account my account was locked, and a message displayed advising me my account was temporarily suspended and that I had only use of their ticket system at getahelpdesk.com. I immediately completed a ticket. Getafreelancer responded back with a response that paypal had reversed my payment and they wanted to know why. I then logged into my paypal account and saw that my account had limitations; advising me that someone may have tried to access my account from overseas and to change my login password and security questions. I changed my information and proceeded to contact paypal. Paypal advised me that the site I was accessing received alot of fraudulent activity complaints and that they limited my access to confirm it was I who made the transaction and released the payment.
I responded via ticket with getafreelancer.com furious at paypal and furious at GAF as I had been a customer for two years and to limit my account for $10 bucks; yes $10 I thought was ridiculous.
Here's where GAF goes south. After being paid Getafreelancer responded to my tickets 24-48 hours later after every post; an inconvenience when you have deadlines and our trying to complete a job. Their response for the next 4 days was that they have not been paid and once paypal released the funds they would unlock my account. Oh and did I mention they asked me to send my drivers license overseas for a $10 transaction that they didn't process in the first beginning. I politely declined sending my drivers license to a company with no contact information, no record of a verified business, and unscrupulous practices. It has now been 3 more days they have not responded to any of my communication and refuse to answer my tickets. I have spoken to several of my customers who advised me this is common practice for this company. I have sent email communication to all of my customers who I have gained via my relationship with GAF and have received over 146 emails regarding the shock of this.
Unlike most freelance services GAF has some very shady practices, Users don't tie your money up with this company and don't do escrows with users you have not dealt with before as they will hold your money should a dispute of service be made. Conduct business with a company that you can pick up the phone and call should you have an issue and don't put all your eggs in one basket. Sign up with several freelance sites so you will not be devastaed should an issue like this occurr. Scriptlance.com, Guru.com, Elance.com, Odesk.com are all good freelance sites and there are more. They are slow, they stall and are very poor when it comes to customer service. Be careful about doing business with companies outside of your own country.
I am pursuing legal action against this company for the mere principal of the matter. They have yet to release my account and allow me to transact business and this is bad business. There are other reports on this company be wary before you do business. I have done a screen print of all my communiction with them if you are interested.
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