Guru
Reviews and Complaints

As an expert in the freelance industry, I've seen the potential and pitfalls of platforms like Guru. It's a hub where businesses and freelancers worldwide converge, offering a diverse range of skills and projects. While some users praise Guru for its ability to connect them with quality freelancers and facilitate smooth transactions, others have faced challenges. Issues like poor customer support, payment disputes, and concerns about privacy have been raised. It's essential to approach Guru with caution, ensuring clear communication and understanding of the platform's processes to navigate the freelance landscape effectively.

Guru.com is very kind to customers and It is my pleasure to work there.

Thank you to GURU.COM SUPPORT!

Yes to much help ful and amazing app I am always suggestions to others to use this app and further suggest to others

Very good service for those who are not fraud or scammers. Their site works very well as well as the clients are very polite and humble

I worked here great here is great deal with employee and freelancer

Realy great site to work here great team of guru.com

I will work again to work here

That is after using them all for several years Guru is the best!

Yes I see people complain it is full of scammers but so it is Upwork and way much Freelancer!

Awesome Result and full of reliable and skillful developers.
Upwork and Freelancer is getting worse than Guru.com
Nowadays many skillful developers are coming in.

This is an excellent site to post a job, share messages and paying for the job done. It is also a great site for a freelancer as this site provide safe pay service.

Bit surpised from all the negative comments. My expirence with Guru is a 5 stars experience from finding jobs to clients who actually respond. Here is the best features compared to other similar websites:
- you can see who is applying for the job
- you can see who got selected for the job - very informative
- you can send questions about the job to clients without applying.
- less commission!
- blocking power for feedback

This site allows the freelancers to deceive the employers. Most of the freelancers are from India and Guru has a close relationship with many of them. Guru asked it freelancers and i mean it freelancers not all freelancers on the website, Guru asked them to pretending to be from the USA or Britain because the employers will paid more if the freelancer from USA Or Uk. So Guru let it freelancers to put the Residency in one of these two countries instead of their real residence in India and that will show on freelancers profiles. You can check Guru.com visitors from which countries simple search on www.alexa.com

My experience with Guru.com was terrible from the beginning to the end. I feel like I've been ripped off for the upfront cost of ?800. The salesperson was pushy and didn't deliver what he promised on the phone. I should have known better, but I fell for it. The token gesture CV arrived on launch day of the advertising, but nothing has happened since then. It's been 5 weeks of wasted time.

I requested the scanned out C.V.'s that Guru allegedly received twice during the advertising period, but nothing has arrived. They provided very little information to ratify their advertising boards/channels, and some are confidential. This gave me the impression that it's all about minimizing advert costs and maximizing Guru's profitability, rather than finding a suitable candidate.

The "so-called" account manager promised personal contact over the period, but there was very little contact. Instead, I had more of an emailing admin contact than someone assisting the recruitment process. The Guru dashboard had poor functionality and ZERO information other than a poor CV.

On the bright side, Guru is very good at chasing the "upfront" payment! LOL. But don't waste your money with this company. Do your own recruitment advertising or use a reputable recruitment agency (no hire no fee is always the best!).

Paul Walker
Managing Director
Bodypower Sports Plc
T/A Fitness Superstore

Let me tell you about my experience with Guru. I have to say, if you're a troll, vampire, or thief, then this is the place for you. But if you're an honest developer or employer, then stay far away from this site.

I was lucky enough to avoid depositing any money before the red flags went up. From what I can see, the site is supposed to protect developers and artists, but it seems to heavily favor them over the people spending money. This means that the deals on the site are skewed in favor of the developers and artists, not the employers. Essentially, you have to promise to pre-pay someone before they deliver, which is fine, unless the site is full of trolls, thieves, and children who think they're 5-star material but deliver 1-star products.

Within the first day of posting my project, I received 5 "quotes", and one person even emailed me directly. The person I'm still working with is great, and three of the people I was talking to on the site were also great. However, one was a fraudulent company from India that quoted a low number, only to reply with a 1,000% increase in total cost. The last person was, from what I could tell, a teenager trying to make some money.

But here's the kicker: I was about to pay a couple of these artists, but Guru deleted my posting, which made it impossible for me to contact those who had quoted me. Why did they delete it? Because I mentioned that my project was for Kickstarter and that volunteers with a passion for the idea/game would be favored for long-term paid positions after its release over non-volunteers. I had even outlined what I was willing to pay non-volunteers.

Overall, I would say that Guru is a risky place to do business. If you're willing to take the chance, then go for it. But if you're an honest developer or employer, then I would suggest looking elsewhere.

I made my account on Guru.com about 10 days ago and posted a job for an iOS developer. The site asked me to upload my IDs like government provided id proof, driving license, pan card, aadhar card, and bank statement. I uploaded all of my information, including my personal name, phone number, and address. I also uploaded my photo, bank statement as address proof, and driving license as id proof. However, they accepted only two of them and rejected the other two.

In the second round, I uploaded my photo and driving license again as they were rejected in the last round. This time, they accepted the new uploaded info and rejected the other two. In the third round, I uploaded all the info again, and this time, they accepted three but rejected one again. I uploaded the rejected info again, and finally, I received an email that all my documents are accepted.

However, after this, I received another email mentioning that due to some negative activity, they are going to close my account. I was shocked to see this email as I didn't do anything wrong on this site and not sure why they did this. I am attaching a screenshot of this email for your reference.

I mean, these people took all my documents and then just closed my account without giving any reason. It's not a place to work, and I would request you not to give your any documents to these people. I hope soon these people will learn a lesson because there is something wrong happening. I don't know if they are selling your information to some illegal parties.

In my opinion, there are plenty of marketplaces much better than Guru.com, and I would like to work on any of them. So, if you are planning to work on Guru.com, I would suggest you think twice before sharing your personal information with them.

I recently had an experience with Guru.com that left me feeling frustrated and disappointed. As a teacher at a major university, I needed some class photos edited using Photoshop. Guru connected me with a young man in India who did a fine job on the project. I was pleased with the work and authorized Guru to pay him.

However, a few days later, I received an email from Guru requesting additional verification information. I was surprised that they hadn't asked for this information when I first signed up for an account. Unfortunately, I was leaving the country for 10 days and didn't have the information handy. I wrote back to Guru explaining my situation.

Two days later, I received another email from Guru stating that they had not heard from me regarding payment verification and that they had issued a credit to my credit card. They also informed me that my Guru account had been closed. I was shocked and confused. I had already authorized payment for the project and now it seemed that the young man in India would not be paid for his work.

Thankfully, my secretary was able to help me get my account reinstated and the young man in India was eventually paid. However, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt that Guru's conduct was shameful. They should have asked for the necessary verification information when I first signed up for an account. Instead, they waited until after the project was completed to request it, causing unnecessary stress and confusion.

Despite this negative experience, I am grateful to the young man in India who did such a fine job on my project. His response to the situation was gracious and professional. I hope that he continues to find success on Guru.com and that other freelancers are treated more fairly in the future.

I recently hired someone from Guru to create a website for me. The process started off smoothly enough, but then I ran into some issues with the payment process. Guru required that I put $615.00 into an escrow account, which seemed reasonable enough. However, they then requested a lot of personal information from me, including my bank statement, cashed checks, voided checks, and account numbers. My bank advised against providing all of this information, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

After receiving my information, Guru blocked my account and told the freelancer I hired that the money had been returned to me because I had not provided verification of my account. This was not true, as I had verified the small deposits they had made to my account. I was left in a difficult situation, as I had already paid the money and was unable to get it back.

Fortunately, I had the private email and phone number of the freelancer I hired. I contacted him and provided him with detailed information about the money I had transferred to Guru. When he confronted them with this information, they told me that my bank should request the money back. However, my bank told me that since the money had already been paid, there was nothing they could do.

I spent several days trying to get my money back or have it paid to the freelancer, but it was a fruitless effort. This was a frustrating and disappointing experience, and I would not recommend using Guru unless you are absolutely sure that you can trust them. If you do decide to use them, I would recommend getting a direct contact number and email for the freelancer you hire, just in case you run into any issues.

Overall, I wish I had read more reviews before using Guru. If I had, I might have been able to avoid this situation. I hope that my review will help others avoid being scammed like I was. Good luck if you decide to use Guru – you may need it.

I just wanted to share my experience with Guru.com, and it's not a good one. I spent a lot of time browsing through the job postings, hoping to find something that would be a good fit for me. Unfortunately, most of the postings seemed to be either scams or just not worth bidding on. And even when I did find a job that looked promising, it would often be deleted within a day or two of being posted.

One of the biggest issues I had with Guru was their fees. They charge 8.95% of the project cost, which is pretty steep in my opinion. And when you combine that with the fact that most of the jobs don't pay very well, it's just not worth it.

Another problem I had was with the algorithms they use to match freelancers with jobs. I'm a writer, but for some reason, the main algorithm they set for me was for writing articles. I don't even have anything on my profile that says I write articles! It was really frustrating because I kept getting invites to apply for jobs that paid next to nothing.

Overall, I would say that Guru is now mostly a site for people who live outside of the US and are willing to work for very low rates. There are still some good jobs out there, but they're few and far between. And with so many scammers and fake jobs, it's really important to be careful and ask for good faith money upfront.

To any employers who might be reading this, I would encourage you to practice due diligence when hiring freelancers. Ask to see a LinkedIn or other professional profile, and don't be afraid to call them up and talk to them. And to any freelancers out there, I would say that there are better sites out there than Guru. Don't waste your time and energy on a site that's just not worth it.

So, I recently had an experience with Guru.com that I just have to share. I was looking for a developer to create a website and an app for my business, and I found a freelancer from India who seemed perfect for the job. We signed a contract and I used the safepay feature to ensure that my money was protected. According to Guru's terms of service, once they receive the payment, it becomes their money, but they also monitor the job to make sure everything is going smoothly. They claim that if the freelancer is unable to deliver on time, they can work in the employer's favor. Sounds good, right? Well, let me tell you, it's all a load of bull.

The freelancer I hired was over a month late with the project, and I hadn't received anything from them - no alpha, no beta, nothing. I was getting worried, so I contacted Guru's arbitration service. They ruled in my favor and refunded the last payment I was due to make to the freelancer. However, when I brought up the fact that I had already paid them for work they hadn't done, Guru closed my job and blocked messaging to the freelancer. I tried to get help from their customer service, but they ignored me for two weeks. It wasn't until I turned to PayPal (which is how I transferred my money) that Guru finally got in touch with me - and even then, all they wanted was for me to remove my dispute from PayPal so they could discuss the problem with me. I refused and demanded a full refund, but no one from Guru ever contacted me again. They closed my account and deleted all the files I had on their site, but luckily I had saved everything to my hard drive.

In the end, PayPal refunded two out of the five payments I had made, but the other three are still under review. I would strongly advise anyone to avoid Guru.com at all costs. They are scammers who create fake accounts to steal money from people who are just trying to start their own business or get a job done. It's clear to me that they don't actually rely on real freelancers - all they need is a bunch of people sitting behind desks, accepting jobs and taking money through safepay. It's a complete scam, and I want to warn others about it. If you've been scammed by Guru.com and paid through PayPal, I recommend contacting PayPal and providing them with all the evidence you have. It worked for me, and I hope it can help others too.

I recently had an experience with Guru (guru.com) that left me feeling shocked and disappointed. As someone who has never written a website review before, I felt compelled to share my story with others who may be considering using this platform.

I was hired for a project and completed it within two days. The employer paid me right away, but when I tried to transfer the money from the Guru platform to my credit card, the transaction failed. I received an email from someone named Sara who informed me that there was a procedure for checking some information and that she would get back to me in a couple of days. However, when I received another email from Sara a few days later, I was informed that Guru had taken the money I had earned and sent it back to my employer. I was confused and frustrated, and when I asked Sara for an explanation, she told me that there was nothing she could do to help me.

To make matters worse, Guru also blocked my employer's account despite him providing all the necessary data. He tried to recover his account in order to pay me via their platform and continue hiring freelancers on Guru, but it seemed like they couldn't fix the issue. After a long and frustrating ordeal, my employer offered to pay me via direct money transfer.

But the problems didn't end there. A day later, I received another email from Sara stating that my employer had violated their terms of use by paying me outside of the platform. While I understood that this was a violation, I also knew that it was Guru's fault that the payment had not gone through on their platform. My employer had provided all the necessary data, but Guru had blocked his account, taken money from me, and refused to assist us. When I tried to explain this to Sara, she threatened to block my account if I violated their terms again. I was shocked and frustrated by this undeserved threat, and when I tried to explain the situation further, Guru blocked my account without even notifying me.

In conclusion, I would advise anyone considering using Guru to be very careful. Based on my experience and the feedback of others, it seems that Guru has a history of scamming freelancers and blocking accounts without warning. While I cannot speak for everyone's experience, I would caution anyone against using this platform without doing their research and proceeding with caution.

I gotta say, all these reviews I'm reading about Guru.com seem to be from the perspective of the "employer." Well, let me tell you, as a freelancer, my experience with the site has been less than stellar.

I shelled out $22 a month for the "Professional" membership, which supposedly gives me access to extra features to help me land jobs through their database. But as a professional developmental editor, I couldn't find any jobs that paid more than $250 for the entire project. And to make matters worse, there were tons of other people from all over the world applying for the same jobs. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Eventually, I took a chance and bid on a gig that I thought I would enjoy. But after two weeks of jumping through email hoops, I was offered the job. And that's when I realized my mistake. I should have done my due diligence and crunched the numbers before accepting the job.

Long story short, I withdrew my acceptance after reading a completely unreasonable NDA that I was asked to sign before work could even begin. It was clear that the client was expecting me to give away my talents for less than half a cent per word. No thanks.

To be fair, the Guru.com help desk was pretty responsive to my emails, and I even got to talk to a guy named Joe on the phone. He was actually really helpful and gave me some good advice. But I was still on automatic billing for my membership, which was charging me a week before payment was due. I quickly switched to manual billing, but now I'm worried that I might get dinged again.

It's frustrating that so many "employers" on Guru.com seem to think that freelancers aren't worth the years of hard work we've put into building our skills. Not all of us are inept crooks like some of these other reviews claim. Some of us are just trying to find work and compete with our peers. But as they say, if you're the smartest person in the room, maybe you're in the wrong room.

At this point, I'm withdrawing my paid membership. I realized that I would lose about 10% in fees through Guru.com (7%) and PayPal (3%). It's just not worth it to me. I'll stick with my website traffic and work directly with prospective clients. No more middlemen for me.

I was thinking about giving guru.com my credit card information just to get the data I wanted. I figured if the membership fee was high later, I would simply cancel. However, after reading some reviews, I was confused about whether or not to involve myself or give them my money. That's when I stumbled upon a review that explained how guru.com works. It was very illuminating and helped me understand why there were both positive and negative reviews.

Apparently, the site offers a "trial membership" for only $1.00, but this membership puts you in for more charges through "Automatic continuation". The lines of communication are not clear, and it's easy to get caught up in a struggle over money. The review helped me realize that to use this site "safely," one must really know what they are dealing with and be prepared for an unnecessary struggle over money. That just doesn't fit with me, so I decided not to join this enterprise.

The review also explained that the company wanted to get my credit card information at the very beginning. Once they have your information, they could even keep it forever if they so choose. That results in having your information out there and possibly having it hacked. I'm glad I read the reviews and didn't give this company my digits. I did give them my email address, but no financial information.

It's important to note that guru.com is not just a site that sells information. It's also a job-finding site. Knowing that changes my feelings about the site and the people behind it. I'm not the sort of person who would want to get involved in haggling to get my money back. I would have gotten very upset if that happened to me. So, after assessing the risk, I decided not to take the risk of giving them my financial information.

The Internet is a wild, wild place, and it helps to see what others have experienced before participating in such a business relationship. Guru.com's business model is not the best, with contracted employees who may or may not complete the task honestly and fairly. Some employees may not really know what they are trying to do and may react unprofessionally. I hate trying to get results if the people involved are not proven to be honest, reliable, and informed. This would have been a terrible choice for someone like me.

Overall, the review was well-written and very helpful. It explained why this site is having problems, along with giving them a low rating. That brought me out of the "it's only $1.00" funk that had been causing me to consider putting in my credit card number. That "only $1.00" tactic is used by many companies, and it's important to be aware of the risks involved. Thanks to the review, I was able to make an informed decision and avoid potential problems down the line.

I write it here because I don't know where to write this.
I joined Guru as a costumer because I needed some promotion for a ebook I have written.
The book is on Wattpad.
Anyway I wrote a job announcement and many freelancers replied to it.
I hired this freelancer, an indian woman. Her reviews were amazing.

Anyway, her book promotion was supposed to last for twelve weeks. (30$ for week)
I paid this freelancer after the first week of work and I gave her 30$.
And now it starts becoming strange.

At first, this woman, last tuesday, had told me that her paypal was not active because of some limitations of her account. She told me that her new paypal would have been active last friday.
"Okay I will pay you this friday". This is what I replied.
Then (and it's pretty strange) last tuesday, she sent me another email where she asked me to release the payment on her other paypal.
I did it, but it looked pretty strange to me.

In the meantime, the book was gaining a lot of views (I had 900 views before and now I have 1700), but I could not detect the location of the views.
It seemed strange but maybe, who knows, they are people who are not on Wattpad.

Besides, I have to say that I had already found a scammer from Nigeria (on Fiverr) few weeks ago.
To be honest, I keep receiving views and comments from nigerian fake accounts on Wattpad, but I didn't pay this Fiverr guy, because on Fiverr they replied me soon and canceled the order.

Anyway... This woman of Guru assured me that all the views of my book on Wattpad came from Seo and social medias. She also sent me a weekly report which I couldn't understand.

However, the views on Wattpad were increasing, but I still couldn't detect the location of the views.
It was so strange that I decided to take a look at the profile of this freelancer.
I noticed that her profile picture was a little blurry and some feedback were written by the same people.
(i.e. An account yesterday wrote her "She always do great job". The same account on the 7th february wrote her "She always does a great job". Another message of the same account appears on the 6th of january and it says "She always do a great job".
The same thing happens with a lot of accounts that give her reviews.

I don't know if I could trust her, so I wrote an email to this freelancer to call it quits. I used an excuse, because I didn't want to accuse her of scamming me, without any actual proof.

Yesterday I also decided to write a message to the assistance of Guru. No reply.

In the meantime, the freelancer replied my email and she told me "No problem, but I request you to please release pending $30 payment".
Since I am not certain about this person's identity, I don't want to pay her.
I wrote to the assistance of Guru again. No reply, again.

I don't know what to do. But I wanted to write this review, hoping that it could be helpful to other people.

So, I was browsing the internet for a platform to hire beta readers for my latest project. After some research, I stumbled upon Guru (guru.com). At first glance, it seemed like a decent platform to find freelancers. However, my experience with Guru was far from satisfactory.

After finding a few potential beta readers, we agreed on pricing and moved to email for communication. But then, Guru asked me to verify my phone number, photo of myself, valid ID, and proof of address. I was taken aback by this request. I mean, why do I have to provide all this information just to do business with people online? I have been using other sites for years to hire readers and never had to do this.

But that's not all. After an entire day of back and forth with the freelancers I hired, they began the projects, and Guru terminated my account. Out of nowhere. No explanation, just a random email saying they terminated it per their user agreement, and best of luck with my future endeavors... what?

I was extremely disappointed and frustrated with Guru's unprofessional behavior. I had invested my time and money in finding the right freelancers, and Guru just terminated my account without any explanation. It was a waste of my time and energy.

I would not recommend Guru to anyone looking for a reliable platform to hire freelancers. There are plenty of other options out there that do not require you to provide sensitive information and do not terminate your account without any explanation. Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere.

I recently had a terrible experience with Guru.com and I would strongly advise anyone to stay away from this company. I hired a freelancer on their platform to write an article for me, but when I received the work, I was shocked to find that it was riddled with spelling mistakes and 33% of it was plagiarized. I immediately contacted Guru.com to complain and request a refund, but they were completely unresponsive to my concerns.

When I finally managed to get through to someone at Guru.com, they told me that there was nothing they could do about it as the freelancer had already taken the money out of their account. I was outraged and demanded that they recover my funds, but they simply told me to stop the project and I lost half of my money in the process.

I also wrote to them expressing my concern that anyone can just open an account on Guru.com and scam people, but they never bothered to respond. I strongly believe that Guru.com has a responsibility to keep their customers safe and ensure that the money is not released until the job is completed properly.

Overall, I had a terrible experience with Guru.com and I would never use their platform again. I would advise anyone looking for freelancers to stay far away from this company and find a more reliable platform to work with.

I recently tried to post a job on Guru.com and let me tell you, it was a frustrating experience. I attempted to post my job four times and each time I was met with rejection. I eventually gave up and decided to try my luck with Upwork and Fiverr instead. Their process was much smoother and I was able to post my job without any issues.

For those of you who are curious about the details, let me break it down for you. First of all, Guru.com's terms and policies are very strict, which I understand to a certain extent. However, they are not very clear about what is and isn't allowed. After spending a few hours trying to post my job, I received a rejection email stating that there was a problem with my post. I tried to fix it and repost, but for some reason, I kept getting an error message. I had to start from scratch each time I tried to repost. After five attempts, I finally decided to contact their customer service for help. To my surprise, they told me that I was the one in the wrong for not following their guidelines properly.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with my experience on Guru.com and I will not be using their services again. If you're looking for a platform to post your job, I would recommend using Upwork or Fiverr instead. Their process is much smoother and you won't have to deal with the frustration of constantly being rejected without clear guidance on how to fix the issue.

A couple of years back, I had a terrible experience with Guru. I was scammed out of $600 by someone on the platform. It was a huge blow to me since I was jobless at the time, and the money was a significant amount. I reached out to Guru representatives, hoping they could help me recover my money, but they said there was nothing they could do. It was a tough pill to swallow, but I had to move on with my life and deal with the loss.

Recently, I decided to give Guru another try. However, I was disappointed to learn that they now have an inappropriate fee for verifying your ID. It's mandatory to verify your identity if you want to apply for any jobs on the platform. I was shocked that I had to pay them money just to prove that I am who I say I am. What's more, they require a lot of personal information that they shouldn't need under any circumstances.

It's frustrating that Guru still allows dishonest clients to scam people out of their hard-earned money without taking any action. Yet, they expect us to verify our accounts and pay to use their website. It's not fair, and it's a clear indication that they don't prioritize their users' safety and security.

After my experience with Guru, I have decided to delete my account. I lost over $600 to them, and they refused to pay me back. I wouldn't recommend using Guru to anyone. It's not worth the risk, and their policies are unfair and unreasonable.

I wish I had taken the time to read the reviews of guru.com before I decided to use their services. Unfortunately, I ended up losing $3000 to a freelancer named anuva technologies. I paid every single milestone and was eagerly waiting for the final work to be delivered. However, the freelancer suddenly stopped replying to my emails and Skype messages. I was left in the lurch with no idea what to do next.

I decided to contact Guru and was disappointed to find out that there was only one person named Joe who answered the phone. He told me that there was nothing he could do except delete the freelancer's account. I was shocked and frustrated because I had an agreement in place, and Guru had assured me that it was my protection. Now they were telling me that there was nothing they could do to help me.

I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, but apparently, there was none. Joe was the only person I could talk to. I called daily to try and resolve the issue, but there was no help forthcoming. It was all too easy for the freelancer to take my money and disappear without a trace.

I am now considering taking legal action against Guru and the freelancer. It's not fair that people can continue to get ripped off like this. I believe that a class-action lawsuit might be the only way to get justice for all the people who have been scammed by Guru and its freelancers.

In conclusion, I would advise anyone thinking of using guru.com to be very careful. Read the reviews carefully and do your research before committing any money. Don't make the same mistake I did and end up losing thousands of dollars.

I used to be a huge fan of guru.com, but things changed in Jan 2014 when they made some changes to their website. I used to get 1200 bids per year for $180 with their top membership, but after the changes, freelancers only get 600 bids per year for $190 with an average membership. Although freelancers can now bid on any category, it doesn't make sense for me as a web designer to bid on business consulting or similar categories. They did reduce their fees, but I don't mind paying 2-3% extra if it means I can bid on the categories that are relevant to me.

Before the changes, guru.com was flooded with jobs, and new jobs were being posted every couple of minutes. However, after the changes, there are only around 2500 jobs in all categories, and I've noticed some dummy projects this year. It seems like guru.com may be posting some dummy projects as well.

Another change that I don't like is that sending messages to employers used to be free, but now it costs some bids to send a message to an employer. This is frustrating because it means I have to use my bids just to communicate with potential clients.

Overall, I'm disappointed with the changes that guru.com has made, and I've started using peopleperhour.com as my new favorite. They have a similar platform to guru.com, but they don't have the same issues with dummy projects or charging for messaging. Plus, they have a great selection of jobs in my field, so I don't have to waste my bids on irrelevant categories.

So, I recently tried out Guru.com to get some graphic design work done. I was pretty disappointed with the results. The two designers I hired did not deliver what I was expecting, and the quality of their work was pretty low. To make matters worse, they charged me a lot of money for their subpar work. I was pretty upset about it.

But then I discovered the real problem with Guru.com. The site uses a payment system called "Safe pay," which gives the "guru" complete control over the funds. This means that even if the work is not completed or is not up to par, the guru still gets paid. The site defaults to "auto pay," which means that your funds might be released before the work is even finished. This is a major issue, as it leaves the customer with no recourse if the work is not satisfactory.

What's worse is that there is no way to reject the work if it is not up to par. Unlike other platforms like Fiverr, customers have no way of rejecting subpar work. This is a major problem for anyone looking to get quality work done.

Overall, I would not recommend using Guru.com. It is completely anti-customer and does not provide any protection for customers who are unhappy with the work they receive. I wasted a couple hundred dollars on this site, and I can't imagine using it for more expensive jobs like web development. Save yourself the trouble and look elsewhere for quality work.

Guru.com is a platform that offers job postings for freelancers. It is slightly better than other outsourcing websites in terms of frequency of job postings. It also provides some transparency as to the hiring party, which helps legitimize the project. However, the platform attracts employers who are looking for free mockups or completed work for next to nothing.

The customer service of Guru.com is the worst I have ever experienced on any freelance site. It is almost impossible to get a hold of them. Their policies regarding payment issues for freelancers are questionable, and they seem to prioritize their own interests over those of their users.

I used to be a loyal Guru freelancer several years ago, but I abandoned the site for better prospects. Recently, I rejoined out of curiosity, hoping that they had improved their platform. Unfortunately, Guru is an empty shell of its former glory. Everything I am seeing, from their non-existent support staff to their ghost town of a Facebook page with nothing but complaints from users, to the fact that their website is down 75% of the time, points to the site's imminent and inevitable demise.

It's a good thing that there are better options out there for freelancers.

Guru.com is a company that I would not recommend to anyone. They have been involved in fraudulent activities and I have reported them to the FTC government site. I am also planning to open criminal charges with the FBI. The reason for this is that Guru runs a fraud scheme that makes it difficult for you to withdraw your deposits. They will then delete your transaction history and account deposits. When you ask for a refund, they will tell you that they have sent it but cannot provide any transaction proof, transfer ID, bank name, or account number. It has been more than 30 days and I have not received my funds. If they cannot provide a bank transaction ID, it means that they never sent the money. They stole it. I am sure that Guru has stolen money from several clients. It is high time that they faced the music from the Federal Authorities. If Guru has stolen your money, do not hesitate to report them to the FBI and FTC. You can contact the links below:

Report Consumer Fraud - FTC
Https :// www.usa. Gov/stop-scams-frauds#:~: text=The%20Federal%20Trade%20Commission%20(FTC, Phone%20calls

File Criminal Charges/Report Crime and Fraud - FBI

https://www.usa.gov/report-crime

Fraud hotline at ***357

It is important to be careful when dealing with companies like Guru.com. They may seem legitimate, but they are not. Always do your research before investing your money in any company. Do not fall for their promises and always ask for proof of transactions. It is better to be safe than sorry. I hope that my experience with Guru.com will help others avoid falling into the same trap.

I've been using Guru.com for a few years now, and I finally decided to give it a try this year. I was able to land a job, and I was thrilled to receive a 'great work' review and a payment of $60. However, when I tried to withdraw the money, I encountered some issues. The payment was put on hold, and I was told that it was due to 'verification processes.'

I did everything I could to verify my Paypal account, but I was told that there was a problem with the phone number I provided. They claimed that they tried to call me, but they only got a busy signal. I waited for three days, hoping to receive a call, but I never did. Instead, I received a message saying that they were unable to complete the verification process and that they had closed my account and refunded the money to the client.

I was shocked and disappointed. I had worked hard on the job, and I deserved to be paid for my efforts. It was frustrating to see that they had closed my account and kept the money, even though I had done everything I could to verify my account. I tried to contact their Help Desk, but they were unhelpful and unresponsive.

It's a shame to see that Guru.com has become so unreliable. It used to be a respectable and legitimate platform, but now it seems like they're just looking for excuses not to pay their freelancers. I would caution anyone who is considering using this platform to be very careful. You might not see your money, even if you've done everything right.

Hello!

My name is khani dream I search for a work on Guru.com as a freelancer then I find a work for written image convert into word document and pdf, the employe his name is William Ken he give me 100 images and he says that I have to convert each of the image into word document and pdf on March 19 2023, he says that he will pay 20$ per image total 2000$, now I done a work for him he says that I have to deposit 110$ for link your bank account to us, then I kindly say please give me my payment it's my right. I said

that freelancer can't deposit any amount for bank account and I can't deposit it, then he abuse me, and he can't pay my payment

we paid in full for one of the developers on this site -

we got ripped off -

Guru is not helping, in fact it is hindering a solution -

we want the money back in full.

They keep saying talk to the developer, we have given up as they developer has no work to show us and essentially scammed us via this site which Guru is liable for.

I was verifying my account and added debit card details only but the information wasn't proceed and verified by us. Such as i wasn't any credit card of mine and this info was removed by me. Hence payment from my debit card has been deducted which was 1906.45 PKR and 66.34 PKR for card transection fees. Although this amount had deducted without permission and should be returned back into my account.

I occasionally contract with Guru.com and/or Upwork.com. As part of the process to become even a nonpaying member, they ask you to provide your SSN and usually ask you to provide a W9- as would an employer. However, they are not an employer. If I do work for you through Guru.com, what you do is deposit money in a Safepay account from which I get paid when I submit and you approve my hours. I did not do work for Guru.com - I did work for you. My question is: If that is the case, is it legal that Guru and Upwork demand a freelancer's social security number, a W9, 1099 and even sometimes a photo ID?

Hi,

I suspect from a job that I applied to. I had to run a program (.exe), and
enter some things inside, avoiding errors. But the program could not run for some problem in the system. I was free from that.

But I felt for another rare job.
Salary was max 38/hr.
When I applied for that "job", they deleted it from guru.com
The "company" emailed me directly with information
and salary changed to $39 to 60 max.
The job was to publish 1 property to two sites, working 1 to 10 hrs weekly.

They sent me the details. I had to create an email from gmail for a customer from them. I had to create a paypal account for that person.
And to publish the property to two sites:
1. (https://www.vacationhomerentals.com, which redirect to tripadvisor when you try to open acct.)
2. (vrbo.com)

All the time, I had to give my phone numbers for the confirmation of
the accounts.
I am afraid that I was creating false ads to steal money from others.
Afraid for that person, using his name for who knows.
I am not sure. Please be careful with this information for my security.

The details for that "job" is:
Project ID: 1304611, "I need Data Entry Specialist"

First email was:
From: Guru.com
Subject: [GURUMSG-LHF3MS25FM71YX8M] (Do Not Modify) for: Project ID: 1304611

Hi ****,
Below is a message from Sanne for Project ID: 1304611, "I need Data Entry Specialist".

Hello ******

Thank you for considering our project.
Please attach your CV and several completed projects at: [protected]@luxury-aparts.co.uk
Specify the project you've applied for. Our Hiring Resources Specialist will contact you for full details about the job, in order to proceed with the trial.

Regards,

Sanne Goslinga
Senior Human Resource Manager

Sincerely,
Your friends at Guru

-------------------------------------
The following emails were from :

[protected]@luxury-aparts.co.uk

Sarah Ackley
Human Resources Manager - Luxury Estate©
Luxury Estate© United Kingdom main office (i2 Office Manchester City Centre)
address: 50 Brown Street, Manchester M2 2JT, United Kingdom (4th floor)
email: [protected]@luxury-aparts.co.uk
phone: +[protected]
fax: +[protected]
International website: http://www.luxuryestate.com/

Please take this with precaution.
I am not sure if this is legitimate or not.
Also, when I began having problems with the payout methods,
one site suspended account later, and the other I could not complete
that part. I comunicated with them, etc.
I saw the exact address they gave me with another picture for the
property. Something rare.

I just closed all that I could, because I cannot risk my reputation
for the possible bad things from others. And asked to close
from VRBO too.

Thank you.

Hadn't used Guru in years but needed a specific IT specialist so posted a job ad. Most of the profiles seemed completely without merit but in the end I found one person out of hundreds and hundreds that submitted that actually worked out.. here is the problem... When I went to pay the freelancer invoice I had to add a credit card. In order to verify the credit card Guru wanted to charge a small amount to the card; I then have to enter the exact amount that was charged thereby I guess proving that I was the legitimate owner of the card. This is nothing new; I have done this on paypal and numerous other freelancer boards and did not think much of it. Usually the small charges are reversed within a few days.
There was no fine legal print and even on the "learn more" link there was very little additional info. I will add the exact text below.

So after a week I noticed that the amount had not been refunded. Emailed their support and found out that they do not refund the amount; they instead add it to your "cash account". The email went on to say that I could just log in and select the amount and transfer it back to my card... which I did. Here is the instructions from the email
" You can click on your cash account link to view the transaction. You can leave the money in your cash account to use toward future payments or you can withdraw the money and return it to your credit card."

So only after I performed the return transaction did it then tell me that I would incur a 3.5% transaction fee. It reduced the amount returned to my account by 3.5 % and BTW they said it could take up to 5 plus days or something to that effect to return the money. I emailed again asking for a full return of the money and they refused only saying that I could keep the money there and use it towards my next invoice. There are so many things wrong with this practice.

1. At no point in the process so they make clear the process of what is going to happen with the money.
2. You should not end up paying Guru just to verify your credit card
3. I have no intention of leaving the money there; I have not used Guru in years and will now never use them again.
4. When I paid the one invoice that I had added the credit card for their payment system did not indicate that I had a "cash balance" that I could apply to the invoice.
5. It seems like a minuscule amount...less than 4 dollars but think if they are verifying hundreds or thousands of credit cards per day and banking that money in what is essentially their account think of the cumulative interest they are earning and possibly the portion of the fees they are charging to return it. Seems like a hugely deceptive practice.

In many years of running a business where I have gone through this credit card verification fee process many times and have never seen a company handle it this way. In fact I went and checked another freelancer site I use, Upwork, and looked at their explanation of the verification fee... much more clear, fair and transparent to their users. See below for their text

This and also the quality of what I saw on their website I will not be using Guru again.
I will also be disputing the charges and reporting them to the state attorney general and consumer affairs (FTC). I encourage anyone else with similar complaints to do the same.

Below is the exact text when you add a card:

For verification purposes we will charge your card a random amount of up to $3.95. You will need to enter the exact amount on Guru.com to verify your card. Learn more

Learn More Screen:

Credit Card
Verifying your credit card:

Log in and view your dashboard.
Click “Payment Methods”.
Click the blue “Add Payment Method” button.
Choose “Add Credit Card” from the list.
Fill in the credit card details.
Click “Add Credit Card”
Check your credit card statement for a random amount charged by us. The amount will be less than $3.95.
Log back into your account.
Click “Payment Methods”.
Enter the amount in the field next to the blue “Verify” button.
Click “Verify”.

Here is Upwork.com statement on credit card verification charges; much more appropriate:
Verification Charges

When you add a credit card, the Upwork verification process may include the following charges, which would be automatically refunded to you:

$1.00 authorization hold – Upwork puts a $1.00 hold on your card to ensure the card number is valid. That $1.00 is a temporary authorization and Upwork does not actually take that money from your credit card. In most cases, this hold disappears from the account before you check the charges.
$10 credit – Upwork submits two charges that equal a total of $10. These charges will bill to your card and appear in your Reports tab in your Transaction History. Here's what happens to that credit:
If you have a balance due and you verify within ten days, it will be applied against your balance.
If you don’t have a balance or don’t verify within ten days, it will be refunded to you.
Important—If you don’t verify a billing method within seven days, any contracts you have will be suspended until you complete verification.
Depending on the card-issuer, it can take up to five days for the two charges to show up on your credit card account. Calling the number on the back of the card allows most users to verify in less than a day (and sometimes even less than an hour).

Upwork will charge your credit card in U.S. dollars only. Contact your card issuer for details on potential currency conversion fees.

Guru is terrible! That was the worst experience ever! I joined this site and hired a person. I was charged, but the person never completed his duties. So they basically took my money and I never received what I paid for. This website is full of fake portfolios and employees! I'm so disappointed! And the worst part was that Guru customer service provided absolutely no help! They completely ignored me! Stay away from these scammers!

I asked someone from China to build my website. But the person never completed his work and the website was really horrible. But he also kept me as a financial hostage. He convinced me to pay him early each step saying most of the work was done. I actually paid the whole amount, but I still received no final copy of my website. I tried to contact the person many times, but he ignores all my messages. The person had a very good profile on Guru so I decided to build a website with him. So I actually lost thousands of dollars because of that thieve! Guru customer service refuses to help me and stop this from happening to others. Do yourself a favor and never use Guru! Lack of customer support is a big shame.

Hi Guru Support Team, I was hired by an employer on Guru dated 20th Dec, 2015. I wrote approx 10+ articles and share them via Skype. I agreed upon the agreement that was shared by the client on Guru but client asked me not to select "Auto Payment Terms". As per his comments, he said that he was already paying money to Guru. On 26th Dec, 2015 my job contract was removed from Guru and the client said that this is done by Guru and I am trying to contact Guru support team. Neither he's receiving my calls nor replying to my messages on Skype. I am attaching the screenshots here for your review. Client Details: Name on Guru: Danish 9 Job ID: 1198490 Skype id: softcontent1 Name on Skype: Nick Elton Location: California United States Please look into this issue asap. Waiting for your earliest response. Best, Lemon Jade