Freelancer .com Review - Bad Customer Service Ruining the Freelancing Site

Freelancer.com used to offer a good service but now it looks more and more like a pure money making business that's doesn't care about the freelancer. There is no user-friendliness anymore and no transparency.

I contacted freelancer.com because I had an issue with the exam payment. I got free exam coupons and thus I decided to take a few exams. Logic would say that once I get those rewards, that I can use them right away, that's at least how ANY other website does it.

But logic doesn't seem to apply at freelancer.com, instead the company aims at screwing freelancers as good as they can. Because one has the first activate one free exam coupon after the other before taking the exam. This should be explained much better but again, freelancer.com is not user-friendly and not transparent. On top of that the actual section where those coupons need to be activated is well hidden.

What should be is that either the coupons are immediately activated after they have been ordered. If that's too difficult, then at least give freelancers the choice when doing the exam, if they either want to pay or use a coupon.

But currently it only looks like freelancer.com is looking for any possible way to screw its users, plain and simple.

Just a proof that freelancer has the worst customer support you can find.
"Emir" the freelancer guy (i doubt that even exists in real life) says:
Freelancer.com has a truly dedicated 24 hour online support system available either through e-mail or live chat support...
The rest you can read in his own comment.
And by this you can see that they are not honest and they LIE.
First he says that they have 24 hours online support.
We'll go and log in in their system, and submit a ticket.
Then start a timer, and wait for the reply.
Take a look at the time (maybe its better if i say DATE) when you get reply (if you get reply, and if the response is actually helping you with your problem).
The other one, he says, freelancer got live chat support.
Again, go log in on freelancer, and try to chat.
You will find your answers right away.

In this moment I'm waiting for almost 48 hours for reply, and my problem started 3 weeks ago (as you can see since I'm still writing to the "customer support" you can guess that my problem is far from solved).
So, DEDICATED ONLINE SUPPORT and problem not solved after 3 weeks.
Hmmm, i can see their dedication.

And no, this is not the first problem I had with their support.
So, here is advice to those that are new into freelancing, and want to give it a try.
Go use other freelancing platforms, you'll save yourself of a lot of trouble, and time wasting customer support.

I planned to write this letter to Freelancer.com but I could not because they have closed all doors of communication by suspending my account and demanding to pay me the amount they lost to a fraud due to their own foolishness. The letter intended to them is posted below.
“Sir,
I have communicated with you a number of times before. You were deceived by one of my former employer. As per my chat with your representative I learnt that he paid you through a stolen card. You could not catch him but, however, have recovered the money you lost on account of your own stupidity by withdrawing $10.00 (out of the $15.00 he owed you) I left in your custody.
I do not understand what sort of justice this is. I had paid $5.00 earlier while accepting this job as your commission to you. You withdrew by force $10.00 without any prior notice from my account as I mentioned above and now asking me to pay me further $5.00 to square off your remaining loss although I was in no way involved with the issue between my employer and you. In simple words, you are trying to recover your loss from a contract you made earlier with a third party in my absence by snatching my money I kept with you in good faith and further have suspended my account for creating pressure to realize more.
You never tried to understand my situation. I made a bid for 30 articles but received order to write 5 articles only. I wrote them all to the employer’s satisfaction, paid $5.00 before as commission to you while accepting the job, paid $10.00 again because of your client’s default and you are still claiming another $5, 00 to square off your own loss by suspending my account. Although I am legally innocent but so far has been penalized by $15.00 for accepting and writing 5 articles, my account has been suspended and I have been prevented to bid and earn and furthermore, you are asking to deposit a minimum of $10.00 more. The fault is absolutely yours-- you entered yourself in to an agreement with a fraud in my absence.
In spite of all these, I wrote you before, I will still make up your loss but please allow me to make bid and earn.
Your representative told me before the suspension of my account, as soon as you will be able to resolve the issue with your client you will return the money you have recovered from me in his absence. But since then two months have been passed-- will that ever happen?”

Hi deepakp118. Emir from Freelancer.com here. I came across this post of yours and as always we appreciate the feedback. I’d like to take this opportunity to address your concerns on Freelancer.com support.

Freelancer.com has a truly dedicated 24 hour online support system available either through e-mail or live chat support. Users can e-mail and chat with our very helpful and very able customer support teams and we provide proper replies for every concern there is. Whenever a user contacts us for support or enquiries, our teams strive to be as helpful as possible to get their issues resolved as soon as possible.

On top of that, we are taking an active role in reaching out to the community discussing Freelancer.com to ensure people’s issues are dealt with and to educate the public on the best ways they can use Freelancer.com to earn money and outsource work. Be assured that we will continue to improve our customer support and our services to provide the best customer experience.

Thank you very much.