The Dispute System at Odesk Leaves Much to Be Desired

Odesk connects freelance professionals and prospective customers together. If you are a freelance professional and want to make some extra money then Odesk might be the perfect way to do that. Along with being a writer, I am also and Oracle Certfied Professional, a Database Administrator. It just so happens that I work from home and have a network of friends and colleagues that do as well. I have done 2 projects through Odesk and then decided to discontinue my membership.

My decision was not based on a bad experience that I had but upon one that one of my colleagues had. The reason I cancelled was that I felt that I was grossly underpaid, and I can tell that it is a trend among all of the freelance sites out there. Many of the customers want quality work but they are not willing to pay for it. That is just fine by me, I have other ways of making money that I am satisfied with. My colleague, John, had some programming work that he needed done so he hired a programmer to do the project. It seems that John put a limit on the number of hours worked within a week but that he and the programmer previously agreed that the programmer would not work that amount of hours unless he first got approval from John.

As it turned out, the programmer ran the hours up to the max, without John's prior approval, and John's credit card was automatically billed for the excessive amount. Of course this infuriated John and he filed a dispute with Odesk. This dispute went on for months without John hearing anything from Odesk. It seems that if you have a disagreement with someone that you hire, then you are at the mercy of Odesk to get a refund. Your credit card will be charged beforehand, not after the dispute.

To make a long story short, John did not get his refund back because Odesk stated that the programmer simply worked the amount of hours that was allowed and no more. Now you may feel that John should have not put the limit at an amount that he was not willing to pay or only willing to pay under certain conditions. I do not feel that way, people should have integrity, they clearly agreed through their contract that the max hours would only be worked if previously agreed upon, that contract should have been honored, regardless of what the reason was.

This experience has made me all the wiser. If you are going to use Odesk then be careful of what you agree to and don't give anyone the chance to circumvent the mutual contract that you and the provider have. Remember that your card will be charged first, then you would have to try and get a refund afterwards. From what I hear, the chances of you getting that refund are slim to none.