It took about a month or so but I finally got my first contact and that first contact turned into my first job on Guru. I did well on my first job which lead to another month of working for the employer and the employer referred me to another one of her associates.

All for free minus the time it took me to create a template for proposals. I am very picky about the projects that I apply for and because I have basic service there are only a few jobs that I am able to apply for.

I recently submitted a couple of contracts but did quite a lot of research on the employers payment process and reviewing what other professionals had to say about working for them. My rule is not to submit an application for a contract when there is no proven track record of payments and if the employee reviews are substandard.

My way of addressing submissions limits my jobs, but it also limits my headaches.

I wish every one the best of luck.

Al

I’m glad I did because I was seriously considering forking over the $74.95 to become a quarterly member.

Now I’m not so sure. I don’t like drama in my client relationships.

…I guess I’ll just stick to the old fashioned way of marketing my services!

Hello! That proof is on your own system, Guru! What more information can I provide than 477 documents filled with graphics created specifically for that client, and thousands of lines of code with that client’s name all over them and our notice of authorship in every header?? I mean, c’mon, what kind of “service” is that? It certainly isn’t worth $1000/year for a “pro” account + 5% + ??% (”processing” fees) from every transaction.

This service is not meeting my expectations. I really expect more out of a company than declaiming any responsibility. I’m sure that the ownership of Guru regrets problems caused by the Employers (and, I’m sure, the Employees of those projects), but it doesn’t seem like they truly try to sympathize and help.

We encountered a number of issues during our one year membership with Guru.com. First, the Guru.com management sides predominantly with the Employer (who pays no fees to guru.com) rather than with the Freelancer (who pays ALL of the fees to guru.com). We had several clients who allowed us to complete their projects, made final payments, and then filed charge backs long after the work had been completely delivered. This happened four times, and not once did we ever have a single complaint from the client before they did the charge back. It was simply blatant theft!! And Guru’s response was simply that they don’t pursue these types of cases!! Nor would they give us ANY information to pursue them on our own.

In a separate incident we had a client who paid with credit card, acted like a complete arse during the entire design time being the most anally retentive nit-picker I’ve ever seen, and then eventually just disappeared after making the second payment. A month later we had over $1600 taken out of our Guru account with an e-mail that stated simply,

“Good evening. Recently, we received a notification, stating that the employer you worked with on project, “Project ID: 381960, “PHP/CSS geek needed (Facebook-type)” was not authorized to use the credit card he used to pay your invoice. This is with regard to Invoice ID: 162325, for $830.00.

The credit card company has issued a chargeback/reversal on those funds. Since the payment of an invoice or escrow is contingent upon receipt of the funds from the employer, we’ve been left with no choice but to revoke the payment and debit your SafePay Account in the amount of $764.82.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes you.”

There were TWO of these within a twenty-four hour period.

I had a LONG and heated discussion with Guru in which I explained our position that since Guru.com doesn’t allow us access to the Employer information it is up to them to assure the validity of payments. We had absolutely NO recourse – ZERO. After about four months had gone by I had some downtime one afternoon, so I looked up the domain name owner through the WHOIS database and tracked the guy down offering to buy the domain name. He gave me all of his information and was trying to sell if for $10,000 saying he had “changed his mind” about launching the site!

I tried to get Guru.com to cooperate with an investigation and to get law enforcement involved as this was clearly a theft of service on a felonious level. They refused to assist on any level.

I am still debating on who I should turn to. Local LE officials tell me that they can’t do anything because the “crime” didn’t happen in our city.

Back to Guru –

So in July our firm encountered some major adversities, and we had to completely restructure our organization. As a result there were 20 projects that became problematic. We had to give refunds to several clients and several projects were delivered several months behind schedule. We FINALLY got that number down to our final three this week, but as soon as our Guru account was back in black (after paying all of the charge backs) they closed our account. In the e-mail notifiying me of the account closure Joe K. made several misrepresentations stating that I “would never change” and that I had failed to communicate with several clients with whom I have been communicating on a daily if not every other day basis.

This is pretty much the synopsis of our Guru.com experience. I was compelled to share.

Off to Elance & ODesk, where I’ll build a new presence.

We actually didn’t raise prices on our original customers. We got some pretty low-paying gigs in the beginning, and we let those clients go as we began to grow and get better paying jobs. The more money side of things came later, as we built up a good portfolio and got a much higher ranking on Guru.com.

One thing I have found that works, though, is to put in a low bid for something like a press release and then charge more for other writing jobs. For example, a guy hired me to do a press release for $55. He loved it and immediately put me to work rewriting his webpage content ($300). Since it was a different kind of work entirely, he didn’t balk at the price difference.

For those who don’t know, it takes about 5 hours to transcribe an hour of audio, more or less. This employer is willing to pay $3.00 to $4.00 per hour, for five hours of transcription work. I have worked with this employer before, and she is a nightmare. She makes unreasonable demands, will require that you communicate with her at all times, yet ignores any emails you may send to her. She also routinely sends me emails when I bid for jobs, sarcastically noting that I have not received any responses. Guru.com’s response to my complaint about her…nothing. I would not recommend this site to anyone. It may work for some people, but overall, I have found it to be a way for employers to pay as little as they can for work that is tedious and time consuming.

Instead, freelancers in “mature market countries” should focus on developing a base of LOCAL clients through networking, posting your services to online directories like http://www.FreelanceLocalTech.com and Kudzu (if that’s where your clients will look for you), even pay-per-click ads specifically targeting cities in your area (if your work supports that kind of potential expense). With local clients you get paid local rates that are in line with the income you’ll want to earn from a project.

holli jo – You’re welcome. Our hope was that it would give you folks a heads up on what to expect and the ability to make a more informed decision about whether it was the right choice for you.

Laura – Thanks! I’ll have to go back through your posts and check out what you had to say!