My Elance account was deleted without warning. Exposing the dark side of Elance

[daniel Keymaster Total posts: 28 Likes: 4]

We are all freelancing and running our web agencies with a goal of being independent. But running a business is a complex web of dependencies, and we need to be aware of both the danger, as well as the benefits, of those dependencies.

I’ve used Elance for years, and I established a well maintained Elance business account. I spent hours solving quizzes, which gave me badges and memberships in expert groups. I get many of my clients from referrals, but Elance and other freelance job boards are still a significant source of leads for my business.

March 21, 2015
2 weeks ago, I was finishing negotiations with two clients who were just about to award me their project (each worth approximately $6k). Then, I started getting emails and calls from those potential clients saying they cannot award me the projects. As it turned out, my Elance account was suddenly deleted – without any warning or notification.

I immediately called Elance support to get more information. No information was provided, but I was assured that Elance support would get back to me within 24 hours.

March 24, 2015
I was patient enough to wait until Tuesday, yet no email or call from Elance arrived. I called them again. They told me they escalated my Support Ticket to make sure I would get a reply within 48 hours.

March 26, 2015
I called Elance again, and got the same answer: an apology, words of understanding and notification that these issues take time to investigate, but they should get back to me within 24 hours.

This time I also called Odesk, since both of them are now under one management. Nobody answered the phone so I left a message. I also sent an email to Odesk. Nobody ever got back to me.

Please note that I always write emails and talk on the phone with a positive, upbeat attitude. I am an easygoing guy, and it is difficult to make me angry :).

March 31, 2015
Okay, so at one point I got angry :). One week passed with no reply. I believe I played by the rules while using Elance, and what they did was very disrespectful to me and my business. On top of that, I was losing clients.

I called Elance and told them I was not hanging up until I talked to somebody who could explain my situation. Well..,I was able to hold a poor customer service representative, who did not hang up on me while I was waiting, for about 10 minutes in silence. Eventually I hung up, after receiving another promise of somebody contacting me shortly.

April 2, 2015
At this point I give up. I bet they won’t get back to me, and if they do it will not be good news. I have created a new account and hope I will get at least one job awarded out of the two which I was supposed to win.

———————

Conclusions: coming soon.

I am doing my best to get to the bottom of the situation. I’ve analyzed what I did, how I maintained my account and which Elance rules I broke. As angry as I am on how they handled this case and how they treat individual users, all I can really do is learn what went wrong, and put together a guide which will help me and others secure their Elance account.

As for now, I suggest you try not to be too dependent on Elance or Odesk. My situation is not unique, and I know a few other freelancers who faced this trouble. Stay tuned, more coming soon.

———————

Let me know if you have any advice or faced a similar problem, and how it turned out for you.

[daniel Keymaster Total posts: 28 Likes: 4]

April 7, 2015

• I tweeted about the problem to @elance, which was ignored.
• I am still getting email notifications from my blocked account, such as “Please Enter Feedback for” a freelancer I hired recently. Of course, I cannot even stop it since I cannot login to my account.

[christopher-musnigmail-com Participant Total posts: 1]

I’ve gone through this scenario before with elance and this is really frustrating cause elance don’t really give any valid reasons of their act.
My 5 star elance account was never re-instated hence I accepted a local job while expanding my skill in web development.

– chris

[daniel Keymaster Total posts: 28 Likes: 4]

April 10, 2015
And here it is, Elance “explains is details” what happened. Pathetic.

Criselda, Apr 10, 4:22 AM:
Hello,

I’ve reviewed your account with our team and it seems your account was closed due to irregularities detected by our system. 

We regularly review member accounts to ensure activity follows Elance policies and guidelines. If you wish to review our Terms and Conditions, please visit: 
http://www.elance.com/p/help/tos/index.html

I understand your concern, but in discussing this with our team I am not able to reverse the decision.

Regards,
Criselda
Elance Risk Management Team

[msporch Participant Total posts: 1]

Same problem is happening to me.
They suspended my account in the same period than your account, Daniel.
Until now, I just got apologize words and promises that I will be contacted soon.

Do you have tips how to contact the risk management team directly, Daniel?

[daniel Keymaster Total posts: 28 Likes: 4]

msporch, calling customer service is the only way. But I did not get anywhere and my account has never been recovered.

[rupali Participant Total posts: 2]

Elance has probably turned up into a worst site now. They blocked my account on misunderstanding of duplicate account. I verified my identity, did everything that I was told to, in the end they just came up with a disappointing reply that my account cannot be reinstated and have held my funds. Their customer support is pathetic especially Risk team.

Stay away from elance. Also their escrow protection is cheat. One of the client funded and released $100. It was held for 2 days and I was told that it is their general practice, I need not worry funds will be released. But on 3rd day I found out that elance has reversed my funds. What the H$ll ?

Cheat site.

[rupali Participant Total posts: 2]

They probably don’t care about the small number of elancer whose account are blocked and closed for NON SENSE reasons. BUT they really need to know that some are feeding their family from elance income. I will never recommend it to anyone. Rather go with peopleperhour.com or freelancer.com

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