What was the worst experience you ever had as a freelancer?

ajlancer

Hi EliteWriter thanks for your question. Yes, as a perception of freelancing in term of freedom we think we have no boss and we do job by ourselves. This perception not 100% correct. Reality is as a freelancer we need to do job by contract and for clients. So, for each job we have face new boss. And my freelancing career now almost pass 7 years and I faced many buyers in my career and I got so many excellent buyer and strict buyer. Beside, fraud buyer also available on internet. I feel very worst, when I see some of buyer reject order or cancel order for lame excuse and ask for refund. But, job was 100% accurate. And buyer do not try to understand what I did for him. Just blindly wants refund either get me negative feedback.

Regards by Ajlancer

10 years ago

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Lynne

Ajlancer that is one of the things that makes me not want to sell any services here. I don't like having any boss at all, never mind freelancing and having a new boss for each order like you described.

I am much happier to blog and make use of services here.

I have considered adding services here a few times but each time I have put it off for a while for various reasons.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

What Ajlancer pointed out can happen. Unfortunately there are always going to be some of these people, and you might be a victim as a seller. However from my experience here it only happened maybe 3-4 times in 2 years where I got hundreds of orders. There were times when I reasoned things out with them and surprise surprise, they decided to approve the order as they realized that they were at fault not me. And in other cases I got full support from the admins of SeoClerks who are as helpful as can be. So Lynne do not give up - this is a great place to give it a shot as a seller.

10 years ago

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Lynne

I might give it a go, I am just so short on time that I haven't even written on any of my websites fior 2 weeks! How would I manage to do more work?

Ok granted my laptop died, my internet gave me problems and I took my kids away for a few days... so yes I had less time than usual these last few weeks.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

SEOClerks is actually a place where you'll be very protected. For instance, even if you end up with a client like in the above scenario, then you'll never encounter the same buyer again. You can choose your clients yourself, and a know scammer will be banned, so there's actually nothing to fear.

If you do things on your own, you have less protection. You can argue with your clients, file a dispute on PayPal and whatever, but that won't work in the long run. For none of you. Not you as a legitimate seller or a known scammer.

Give SEOClerks a shot. I dare you! ;)

10 years ago

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Lynne

LOL don't dare me... then I am going to have to take you up on that!

Yes I can see how SeoClerks makes it a much easier and offers great protection for sellers.

I didn't know you could choose your clients though? That is interesting because I wouldn't want to work for people that are rude and disrespectful, it would just ruin my happy mood!

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

That's the reason I dare you ;) .. Just DO it!

Yeah, well, regarding choosing your own clients. First of all, you have the WTB section, where you'll be able to bid on whatever task you want, so that's one way of choosing them. Secondly, whenever you get a new order you can simply cancel the order and tell your client that you won't be able to do whatever he's asking for, or, even be honest and tell them that you don't feel like doing business with them. Without a delivery, they won't be able to give you negative feedback. Especially if you state a good reason for not be able to fulfill the task.

10 years ago

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ajlancer

Hi Lynne thanks for your opinion. I pointed a worst reason from seller point of views. yes! sometimes it is happening with me and most of the seller facing such situation several times by scammer. But, this percentage very low. You will face this situation by 1 or 2 buyers out of 100. So, for evade such situation, I cannot give up my dream. SEOclerks such a great marketplace and has some wonderful staffs, they support very much for any worst situation, which EliteWriter already explained.
I should welcome to you, try to sale something what you can. This is the biggest way to achieved freelancing goal.

Regards by Ajlancer

10 years ago

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Lynne

There are very rarely no cons to a business opportunity so this makes sense. I do think that this SeoClerks platform offers a lot more security too. There was another discussion around freelancers having contracts and by freelancing here there is no need for that because this market place is your contract and everything is taken care of for you.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

This happened to me a couple of times but I never had to give a refund because I either reasoned with the buyer who then changed his mind and decided to complete the order, or else I contacted support and they helped me out. I know how frustrating it is and how let down these kinds of buyers make you feel, so I totally understand you. But at least we are quite well protected here, unlike what happened to me when I dealt with that particular client via emails only. I had no form of protection and in fact I did not get paid.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

My worst experience..
That's probably when I gave one of my closest childhood friends around $2500 to invest in something we would launch together. He didn't invest them at all. He didn't buy anything or hire anyone using this money. He went on a vacation amongst other things..

You know what I did..? -Nothing. Not a single thing. I still haven't and I won't. However, he's no longer a friend of mine.

Besides that, if we should focus on a real client instead, then I'll say a client who I worked with for a few months. He paid regularly and along the way, he asked for more and also paid more.. Until he asked for even more.. And didn't pay at all. You know what I did about that? - Nothing.

I blame myself for being stupid and ignorant. Fool me once shame on me. Fool me twice and you're out.

Best Regards.
hitmeasap

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

Oh my! How could he do such a thing?! I would have confronted him for sure. It is your money and you had some form of mutual agreement when you gave it to him, so I would make sure to get it back especially since he did not use it for something such as a medical emergency! He had not right to go on vacation with your hard earned money!

10 years ago

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Everett

I'm not too entirely sure if this would fall under the "worst experience" category, however I have 2 bad experiences, and I'll explain them below:

Buyers reselling my PHP scripts on other marketplaces, platforms, or websites with no permission to do so, and having the audacity to mail me and tell me that I'm not allowed to sell "their" scripts. Seriously? That is what I think when they mail me that. That is like writing a book, and the buyer selling the book on their website that they purchased from you, and buyer mailing you saying you can not sell their book on your website.. it's ridiculous.
Potential buyers asking to pay after they receive the script. I can not count how many times a potential buyer would beg to get a script for free with a promise of paying sometime in the future. I can not fathom how one would beg, and offer everything but money and promise you that you'll be paid for your work. I don't think so. This is so very annoying. Here's my last reply to one these people:

"No thank you. If you want the script, you'll need to purchase it just like everyone else. If you're looking for handouts, you can go to your nearest soup kitchen. I have worked on that script extensively, and don't want to give it out for free. End of discussion."

As you can see I was very livid. The nerve of some people. Always know your products worth.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

That is indeed annoying and frustrating and I just cannot understand how people can go to such ridiculous extremes. I would be ashamed to do something like that! It is just as if you went shopping, grabbed a product and told the cashier you will come back later to pay! It is a good thing that you reply in that manner. I would do the same.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Ugh, too many to count. I do have one that is pretty memorable, and it hit my wallet pretty bad.

I have a website selling a hot electronic item and I got in right when it was good because now I'm a trusted buyer and the seller keeps the price the same for me because I send them a good amount of orders. The electronic item has since gotten much popular so they increased their price a bit, but I'm still at the original price

Now then, I had a client come to my website through one of my adwords campaigns and purchased 4 of my products which totaled a whopping $1,400. I pay around $150 per item and I sold them for $350 each. So in the end I was looking at an $800 pay day, not bad right

So after talking back and forth with the buyer I decided it was a good deal and I captured the payment. I use shopify for my ecommerce websites because they have a good fraud protection to notify you when they think something may be a bad deal. I'm not sure how they figure everything out, but they're pretty accurate. I didn't get any notifications that this could be a fraudulent purchase so I went through with it.

I didn't capture the payment for the first 5 days just to see if they tried to file a chargeback. Normally people who have their cards stolen will cancel them right away to avoid fraud purchases. Waiting the 5 days helps me weed out anyone who is purchasing with a stolen card. After the 5 days I began the processing of the order. I captured the payment, ordered the 4 electronics from my supplier and gave them my clients info, got the items shipped and got the tracking numbers. I then set up the tracking for my client and emailed them everything.

Now, the product was suppose to take 7 to 10 days to get to my client, and they knew that prior to purchasing. They could see the tracking and knew where the items were at all times. Just 2 days before the items got to the buyer, I got a $1,400 chargeback! This shows me that they purchased with a legitimate card and from the beginning they intended on filing a chargeback. So my $800 payday has now turned into me paying $1,400 for someone to have 4 items that they never really wanted to pay for. I was picnicking and contacted my supplier and asked them to stop all shipping on my order. I couldn't stop the shipping because it wasn't my name on the package, so they had to do it. The items were going to New Jersey and when we finally got the reversal on shipping through USPS, the items were about to go out to the buyer. They were literally in new jersey on the truck ready to go to this guys house and our request to withdraw the items finally went through.

Luckily I didn't have to pay for anything except the shipping fee back to the supplier, which was about $60. I'd rather pay the $60 than $1,400

This could have ended even worse than it did and hurt my company. I probably would have flown to this guys house and kicked in his door to repo my items if they ended up being delivered lol. Ugh, too many to count. I do have one that is pretty memorable, and it hit my wallet pretty bad. I have a website selling a hot electronic item and I got in right when it was good because now I'm a trusted buyer and the seller keeps the price the same for me because I send them a good amount of orders. The electronic item has since gotten much popular so they increased their price a bit, but I'm still at the original price :D Now then, I had a client come to my website through one of my adwords campaigns and purchased 4 of my products which totaled a whopping $1,400. I pay around $150 per item and I sold them for $350 each. So in the end I was looking at an $800 pay day, not bad right :D So after talking back and forth with the buyer I decided it was a good deal and I captured the payment. I use shopify for my ecommerce websites because they have a good fraud protection to notify you when they think something may be a bad deal. I'm not sure how they figure everything out, but they're pretty accurate. I didn't get any notifications that this could be a fraudulent purchase so I went through with it. I didn't capture the payment for the first 5 days just to see if they tried to file a chargeback. Normally people who have their cards stolen will cancel them right away to avoid fraud purchases. Waiting the 5 days helps me weed out anyone who is purchasing with a stolen card. After the 5 days I began the processing of the order. I captured the payment, ordered the 4 electronics from my supplier and gave them my clients info, got the items shipped and got the tracking numbers. I then set up the tracking for my client and emailed them everything. Now, the product was suppose to take 7 to 10 days to get to my client, and they knew that prior to purchasing. They could see the tracking and knew where the items were at all times. Just 2 days before the items got to the buyer, I got a $1,400 chargeback! This shows me that they purchased with a legitimate card and from the beginning they intended on filing a chargeback. So my $800 payday has now turned into me paying $1,400 for someone to have 4 items that they never really wanted to pay for. I was picnicking and contacted my supplier and asked them to stop all shipping on my order. I couldn't stop the shipping because it wasn't my name on the package, so they had to do it. The items were going to New Jersey and when we finally got the reversal on shipping through USPS, the items were about to go out to the buyer. They were literally in new jersey on the truck ready to go to this guys house and our request to withdraw the items finally went through. Luckily I didn't have to pay for anything except the shipping fee back to the supplier, which was about $60. I'd rather pay the $60 than $1,400 :( This could have ended even worse than it did and hurt my company. I probably would have flown to this guys house and kicked in his door to repo my items if they ended up being delivered lol.

10 years ago

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vinaya

My worst experience as a freelancer was writing and rewriting articles for peanuts. I have written 700 words article just for $1 and rewritten 500 words article just for 50 cents. I have also sold 5000 words ebook just for $20.
Another bad experience was when I was banned from a certain freelancer site just because I was applying for "too many jobs"

9 years ago

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peachpurple

Honestly speaking not many sites are offering good pay for article writing. Blogjob and Literacybase, we earn just cents for 500 words per article. Maybe we should look for Upwork that pays better

9 years ago

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vinaya

When you are publishing on writing sites like the one you have mentioned, you earn very small amount. However, that is ok because the article is yours and you can take them down anytime you want. When you write for clients, you sell your copyrights for a small money. You can find writing jobs on upwork, however, you must be willing to write articles/books and forfeit your rights for a little money.

9 years ago

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augusta

My worst experience is working with a client and my jobs get rejected but the annoying thing is seeing those articles online.People can just be mean like this. I have once spent my sleepless night to write an eBook only to submit it and the client collected it and received to pay me that e will pay later but until today no payment.

9 years ago

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vinaya

That's what happens if you work with independent clients. The safest way is to work is through third party website like SEO clerk, Fiverr or upwork. If you work for clients through these freelancing websites, you will never be cheated. Before the client post job, he will have to deposit money and once you submit the job, the money will be released by the site.

9 years ago

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Corzhens

I was lucky not to experience the scam sites that didn't pay writers. It was prevalent 3 years ago. And for my share of misfortune, the saddest experience happened this year when a forum admin accused me of tagging his site as spam and that I was posting on boards that were prohibited. I was given a very low rating.

9 years ago

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vinaya

sounds like my experience. Sometime back, I joined a forum through Postloop. The site did not mention that the people using English as second language were welcomed. However, when I joined and posted, he said I cannot participate because I am not from the US, the UK and Canada. he rated me so low that my postloop rating decreased to 3 star, which limited my participation on many postloop forums.

9 years ago

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What was the worst experience you ever had as a freelancer?

Comments

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ajlancer

Lynne

EliteWriter

Lynne

hitmeasap

Lynne

hitmeasap

ajlancer

Lynne

EliteWriter

hitmeasap

EliteWriter

Everett

EliteWriter

TommyCarey

vinaya

peachpurple

vinaya

augusta

vinaya

Corzhens

vinaya