I have been a purchaser on freelancer for over 3 years. I have a perfect buyer rating and no issues.
This is the second time I have had an issue with freelancer, locking account due to paypal verification.
Paypal receives a high amount of fraud from this site so they routinely verify payments made to this site; which is understandable.
Here is where the fishy stuff begins.
Paypal and our credit card company called to verify charges. We quickly confirmed we indeed had made a purchase on the site and as paypal reversed the charges; freelancer froze our account.
We emailed freelancer advising paypal had released the payment and sent an email to the address paypal had on file for them [email protected] and that paypal advised us they emailed them regarding the situation.
Freelancer not having their own merchant processor "ODD" began asking for additional documentation.
Mind you this company proclaims 2 foreign countries as their business address and lists no contact number or tech support number to resolve issues.
Being that paypal a multi million dollar company with millions in security protocol expenses verified and released the payment, I didn't see the issue.
Here are the responses given by freelancer
Hello,
Thanks for your inquiry.
This is due to Paypal reversal.
You were suspended due to security reasons. Please explain the reversal of the Paypal payment from [email protected]
Please also send us a scanned copy of your valid ID (passport, drivers license or any ID issued by your government) for verification. Also, please send us a photo of you holding your valid ID and a sign (cardboard, paper, etc.) with a keyword "MOUSE" written in bold letters. We need this for security purposes only.
Cheenee
Kind regards,
Chenee
Weird ok it gets better.
They then sent this
Hi
The payment has been restored to your account. Please submit your validID and explain why the name on the account does not match with Paypal.
We appreciate your co-operation.
Regards
Shane
Ok the email address on our account is [email protected] and the email used for paypal was [email protected].
It was sent from the same domain just by an employee within our company. So where is the difference.
I quickly asked for a contact number to contact someone at the company and my question was left unresponded and this final email sent
Hello,
We will only need your ID for verification purposes. Please understand that your account will only be activated if you will submit this requirement. We have a Privacy Policy regarding the submission of documents to our website.
Your ID's will be not be sold, archived or recycled. It will be deleted immediately after the verification is complete.
Regards,
Lindsay
Not sure how an offshore company with no contact information could use an identification to complete a verification when they have no credit card information, no bank information, and on top of that no merchant account to process credit cards.
So I am unsure just what they are trying to verify or are they just collecting identification for their means.
They accepted the money but still left our account frozen.
Buyers beware. When outsourcing your projects be sure to deal with a site that has contact numbers and does not place numerous restrictions on your accounts in attempt to micromanage your projects.
There are alot of unscrupulous freelancers on these sites; they will bid low on your project ask you to escrow the money and then do not complete the work. The results are more often than not in favor of the freelancer so you lose money for an incomplete job.
Reputable freelance sites are
these sites have high level programmers and designers.
I am not an angry or disgruntle freelancer I just think it is unfair the treatment from freelancer to a loyal customer. I think the methods they use are questionable and sketchy and will embark on starting my own freelance site with better and fair policies.
Any interested parties or techs wanting to collaborate to builder a bigger and better freelance site please email me at
Sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company. Plus, if you post a competitors name more than likely they will show up on search engines as a Rip-off! - - your comments on this policy are welcome.
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