Freelancer is a big and famous website that offers freelancer services to hire for business purposes. I had hired a freelancer to Design a logo for my company. I hired him and had to pay him ₹1500($25 approx). I selected the payment method as Paypal which was accepted on their website, a receipt was generated for ₹1500($25 approx) and I paid. After the payment was successful suddenly I realised that ₹100000($1534.80) were debited from my account instead of ₹1500($25 approx).
I immediately emailed and chatted with the customer service of Freelancer and they said they will refund, but after 2 days had passed nothing happened. I again contacted them and they said that they have refunded the amount back to my Paypal account and even gave me a receipt for the refund. After another 2 days the balance dint show on my Paypal account, I again contacted Freelancer and they said that the fault is because of the Paypal service. I contacted Paypal and they said that no refund was initiated from Freelancer and if they do have refunded they(Freelancer) have to call Paypal and sort the matter. I told the incident to Freelancer and they then agreed that they had held up my payment and wont give it back until I called Paypal and tell them that I dont want a refund as it destroys the reputation of Freelancer and also makes 'matter complicated'. I called Paypal again letting them know that Freelancer wants to me close the dispute. Paypal strictly advised not to close the dispute as then refunding my money will be next to impossible.
I have till now mailed Freelancer over 25 times and every time they blackmail me by saying closed the dispute and then we will see how much and when to refund. I gave them a warning that Ill go to court and still they dint agree, after I was adamant that I will not close the dispute and will move to court, they are now for over 4 days keep replying me the message saying that my case has been transferred to another department and I will hear from them within 48hours. Its been many days now and since the start I have been jumping from talking to their department to department (chat, refund, Verification, billing and more).
Freelancer has now even limited my account and are threatening to block it and not refund the money at all. After searching on the net I found thousands of other similar cases where Freelancer debits money or doesnt refund the left balance of a customer back to them. Freelancer even agreed to the mistake of by fault debiting $1500 instead of ₹1500, but isnt refunding.
Iam a very small man compared to this billion dollar company and I dont know what to do. These guys dont have any phone numberemail of managementAddress in my country. Please help me, I can provide with any proof you like. I even have saved all the chats and emails. Iam attaching only a few of the mails and chats which I have for a clear view.
Thank You
Varun Anand
Its really scam stay away and dont ever used their payment system, I will automatically debit from your account
This is so true...it is a fraudulent act by them, I believe that action should be taken to immediately close this website. They stole $60 from me..they do not even have a contact number and email id, they are unprofessional and its a BIG SCAM.
I really don't know how can people be fraudsters like this.
THIS JUST HAPPEN TO ME JUST NOW.
Hello Michele,
I hope you are doing good.
We were about to process your deposit refund request amounting to $60 USD however, we confirmed that you lodged a charge back case on your deposit.
With this, we regret to let you know that we cannot process your request for now.
We; however, will refer you to the proper department who will be assisting you in resolving your account issues.
Kindly wait for their response.
Thank you.
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Regards,
Steven E.
Freelancer.com Support
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Ticket Details
Ticket ID: SAW-[protected]
Status: Open
Customer Support HQ: https://www.freelancer.com/support
PLUNKETT-TV
8:54 PM (0 minutes ago)
to support
Freelancer International Pty Ltd. — Fraud of $1534.80
YOU GUYS HAVE A REPUTATION FOR BEING A SCAM. I will keep my case open until I am dead and as for you I am a celebrity I will continue to warn others to stay clear of your site.I will be reporting to better business beau and I will report to any department out side your company that matters. It is not about the $61 theft but the principle.
Hello, your story makes me so scared and concern. Sorry to hear that but if I may ask, I am confused about two company names here, are you talking about freelancer.com or freelancer.international.com? Because these are two different companies.
I am asking this because I am a freelancer, and recently I just came across freelancer.international. I am still trying to check them out if I can work with them or not. On my check, I found that they charge twice the hourly rate for your interesting job.
For example, if you request a job that pays $40 per hour, you will be charged $80 and it is a one-time payment and then you take the job for as long as it lasts.
But the thing is I am a new freelancer, people who charge others to give them jobs, do they really end up getting the job they paid for?
I also need advice here.
Thank you.