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From the lens ODesk Review - from an Actual User.

  • Lepel Apr 21, 2012 @ 1:58 pm | delete
    I tried Odesk some months ago as a contractor. I think there are two parallel worlds on Odesk, the professional line and the poor line. I haven't been able to escape from the 'poor' side of the track. I even provided a lot of free programs with documented sources to employer when projects were very simple, to finally receive no reply. It is absolutely not convivial when it's time to bid and bargain. I decided to be the employer.
  • elmer fittery Apr 21, 2012 @ 12:01 pm | delete
    I have been working as a Unix software developer for 30+ years. The amount of money offered for these jobs are pittiful. A job at McDonalds as a french fry cooker pays about the same.
  • Vicky Apr 16, 2012 @ 5:27 pm | delete
    I should not complain about the service itself, since it was okay.. the issue here is with the Odesk process of filling for a dispute. It does not protect the interest of someone who is hiring the contractor... it seems like Odesk is interested in getting it's 10% share and hence has provided no tools to put a hold on or any mechanism to approve hours... If you don't closely monitor or your project does not fall in the paradigms of how Odesk wants you to monitor manually added hours.... You have to pay... no matter if the contractor has done the job or not... VERY Bad practice..... BY ODESK.... Will not be doing any business here
  • Marie Apr 11, 2012 @ 3:13 pm | delete
    I have had 1 good contractor with ODesk who actually finished a project for me. The others disappear in the middle of working on my projects and take off with any money I've given them. Then I'm always told by the next contractor that the work the last person did was crap and it needs to be redone and fixed, of course costing more money. ODesk has horrible customer service, they don't care about employees at all and totally disregard any agreements that have been made between the contractor and the employer. I personally, will never be using ODesk ever again.
  • Cabonia Apr 4, 2012 @ 5:08 pm | delete
    I just began to use http://www.odesk.com last week. I found an employer who wants to begin working with me. Then, suddenly, my network can no longer connect to the site.

    I checked with a friend in Canada who can connect.

    Has anyone ever experienced such technical difficulty with odesk? Has anyone lost any jobs because of technical problems with odesk?
  • Sean Dec 7, 2011 @ 7:09 pm | delete
    I have used Odesk as an Employer for the past 3 years but I am now departing the site. I have uncovered the fact that the rating system is being open to substantial abuse with Contractors putting Employers under undue pressure to leave good feedback for their work and if they don't they will leave negative feedback to the Employer instead.

    I've had a few cases like this recently but the most blatant was where a Contractor (Agency in India) openly said on Skype chat to me that they based their feedback score for me (poor) solely on the fact that I had told them I would not be leaving good feedback for them (they really messed up a project and I had to not only pay them but also pay someone else to fix it). I showed this to Odesk and they were not interested saying the Contractor had done nothing wrong.

    With the system thereby clearly allowing Employers to be pressurised to leave good feedback, I felt I couldn't trust any of the ratings I was reading so it sort of defeated the purpose of the whole system.

    I'm going to try Elance and see how that goes.
  • siryellow1 Dec 8, 2011 @ 10:57 am | delete
    I think this is the first issue I've heard raised from the employer side. Certainly a legitimate concern, but if both the employer and the employee get to rate the other, how is it possible to police that? Doesn't it work the same way on Elance, Ebay, etc. where each party gets to leave a review for the other? I'm not saying what that contractor did is right, or fair, or anything close, but I'm also not sure why that's an Odesk issue as opposed to an issue with that contractor. Let me know if I'm missing something, and hopefully another option will work out better for you.
  • LT Oct 11, 2011 @ 3:09 am | delete
    I was shocked at how many jobs there were that offered ridiculous rates of pay. I am a freelance editor and writer, so I need to live off what I earn. Asking for people to accept 50 cents per 100 words is abysmal. The worst thing is, there are people accepting these tasks, although I do wonder about the quality.

    I am signed up with Elance, and I will be signing up with Guru soon. However, with the amount of low-paying jobs on oDesk, I think I will be very cautious about using the site.
  • oDesk Newbie Sep 18, 2011 @ 1:01 pm | delete
    More feedback on oDesk: Overall good, but beware of ?manual? hours.

    I read this review and the comments here before (reluctantly) outsourcing a small project through oDesk. I'm offering some feedback to others who might be researching, as I did. Overall I was happy with the experience. HOWEVER; I caution anyone working with oDesk to make sure that you do not allow ?manual? hours.

    oDesk plasters the site with copy on how an employer can check on work throughout the process (as in the ?transparency? and ?work diary? examples in this review). I must confess I find the screenshot diary a bit Big Brotherish, but it did provide me with a measure of reassurance when making my decision to use the service. It is NOT at all obvious that those features are only available if you do not allow the freelancer to enter hours manually. This came as a shock to me when we hit a minor snag (not the freelancer's fault, by the way) and I tried to check on work in the middle of the project. I was not able to do so because the freelancer I'd hired had opted to enter hours manually rather than having work tracked. I wasn't even aware that there was a ?manual? option. I'm still not entirely clear on how I could have prevented this. Fortunately, it didn't become an issue.

    Our programmer was great. He did what we hired him to do, and more. Because he completed our job well and within the allotted time frame, there was no need for me to verify how time was being spent. This could have definitely been a big problem on a larger project, if work was not progressing as expected, or if I'd hired a less than honest freelancer. So read the fine print. Thoroughly.
  • KonaGirl Jul 28, 2011 @ 8:58 pm | delete
    Well done lens. I am sure that your easy to follow review of Odesk will be very useful to many people that need to outsources business tasks. Squid Angel blessed and I've added your link to My Squid Angel Wings to be featured in your neighborhood. I would really like to see you create another lens walking people through the basic steps of hiring and monitoring an Odesk worker.
  • Milton Lowden Mar 23, 2012 @ 7:26 am | delete
    This person did not understand instructions and wanted to go on his own way with php and . when I hired him to do html. He charged me $89.91 to do my drop down work and put a picture in my header. He was great on the php but I won't hire him for any html. This place Odesk will not return any money either when your person over charges you for hours. It cost me over 65 dollars just to get a picture put in a banner and faded. I could have done the job myself in an hour but didn't have time, I do now. I would not hire this person again and I would not hire Odesk again unless it is by the job and that is a maybe after this experience. I am looking other places for a secure job and my money working for me not some person working for Odesk.
  • mphilli72 Jul 11, 2011 @ 3:59 pm | delete
    I couldn't agree more! I registered with Odesk on May 31st, and by June 4th I had work. Thanks for the post!
  • Mita Jun 27, 2011 @ 2:43 pm | delete
    Sorry, could not agree. oDesk promotes slavery. Providers are asked to work for outrageous prices, as low as 50cents/hour. Any decent freelancing site has a minimum budget for any proposal and buyers requesting work for less than that amount have their accounts suspended. But oDesk does nothing of the sort. They have laid down no policy to help providers. It is "THE WORST" freelancing site. I am signed up on Elance, Guru and oDesk and I cannot wait to cancel my account on oDesk but they won't even do that. Buyers practically wants providers to work for free and unfortunately some providers are willing to do so.
  • siryellow1 Jul 7, 2011 @ 6:11 pm | delete
    Sorry you disagree, but many freelancers and businesses find great value in oDesk. As far as 50/cents an hour, I have NEVER seen that. I see rates that run the gamut from low to high.
  • AllisonLindsay Jul 13, 2011 @ 3:43 pm | delete
    One of the greatest aspects of sites like oDesk and Elance is the ability to pass on jobs that don't suit your income requirements. I frequently contract my writing and editing services on both sites and would have to say that they are equally fair, in my experience. Sure, oDesk does seem to have a larger quantity of 'low pay' jobs...but I exercise my right to skip on past them. Slavery would imply that you're forced into work without pay...but on freelancing sites, you're not FORCED into anything. Low paying employers eventually learn that you get what you pay for. If they want to pay $1 for a 500 word article, they're going to get crap. It's as simple as that.
  • Frustrated oDesk Provider Nov 18, 2011 @ 8:33 pm | delete
    I have to agree with Mita about oDesk (but not Elance). oDesk buyers expect people to work for free, or they wind up hiring the person with the cheapest rate, only to turn around and hire the second cheapest when that person flakes out before complaining that the site has crappy workers. There are plenty of good workers, with skills they don't have to lie about, on oDesk...employers just have to be willing to pay them a normal wage.
  • beardvc Jun 17, 2011 @ 9:23 am | delete
    Odesk is nice
  • patricia_bruce Jun 4, 2011 @ 6:33 pm | delete
    In my opinion, ODesk is awesome! In less than 1 month, I have earned over $400 and would recommended this site to anyone looking to work from home and earn real money.
  • jello28 Mar 11, 2011 @ 3:59 pm | delete
    hello, im new to odesk.. but im learning fast.. its nice to know some odesk workers here..
  • MervynGoh Dec 3, 2010 @ 9:53 am | delete
    thanks for sharing, i agreed with you too, as i am also utilizing this portal.

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Both myself and my wife have had trouble finding good, trustworthy freelance workers. Along the way we tried oDesk. Hopefully this oDesk review will h... more »

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