Elance experience

alcof89

Have any of you used Elance, if so, what has your experience been like? I've used it and had a number of experiences all as follows (one of each).

SLOW
The first was delayed by a number of weeks. what was meant to be a 3 week project ended up being an unfinished 13 week project with a partial refund made.

Scam
I awarded another job to a web designed who changed his mind about an hour in, claimed he had finished it though he didn't start it, froze my funds for a week whilst they investigated. I got reimbursed, but this caused a major inconvenience to cash flow.

Fine
My current web designer is good & fast; and works for a very reasonable rate.

Have any of you had experienced with them?

Buttercake

Ive been using elance now for about 5 years


Good Experiences

Web Development: I used a Vietnamese development company for a website that I couldnt find anyone here to do the job I wanted and they did it brilliantly and have stuck with them all the way for the last 5 years, they insist on doing everything through elance (i have offered to pay them directly) and its worked very well between us.

Legal: I had an issue with a client who wanted me to sign a IP contract, sent to me at 5pm on a Friday and told me to sign before Monday morning i.e in 30minutes. my own solicitor was off elsewhere so i went onto elance ands search contract law ireland, I found a solicitor in Cork and he called me back straight away (5.10pm), he gave me advice over the phone - obviously not to sign the contract and I have kept him as my solicitor since then.

Copywriting/Business plans: I needed help with a business plan, copywriting etc and found a guy in Wicklow who was very efficient and helped in a big way.

People will always say to use local freelancers but it doesn't matter, I just happened to use 2 or 3 that were local. The legal issue I had, a guy in london gave me similar advice to the Irish guy.

Bad Experience

SEO!!!

I've used about 4 different SEO "consultants" all different prices but found them all useless.

Its trial and error like anything else.

EIREX

Hi OP,

Have had a couple of experiences myself with both of the major freelancer intermediaries on the internet.

For me too it has been hit and miss. I had one freelancer in the US tell me they could no longer complete the job at all one days before the delivery date. It was a quick 7 day job and they had indicated progress was good so that was disappointing. The person had great reviews too.

I had a website built by a guy in the US who did a great job....eventually..... but communication was slow at times with the time difference (US West Coast) and he did try to get away with producing crap at first.

I generally steer clear of anyone who sends me a generic response to my problem, who uses sales agents to approach me, who's price is either really low or really volatile and those with tons of feedback as I suspect they just pump out loads of generic crap and are not great at custom solutions.

Along with a skype call with the person these rules have generally served me very well, but it is a minefield out there.