Client's ComplaintAnother victim from the many posted here. Please be aware of the money sent to Elance and Net-Arb. These 2 companies are in essence both Indian companies pretending to do legitamate business online. The work in sync to keep money in the Indians hand. Indians don't do the work, but rip off customers. Their tactics is to pretend they can do the work for you. Ask for upfront money and then do a poor job or no job. Stay away from them at all cost. I have been Indian companies pretending to do legitamate business online. The work in sync to keep money in the Indians hand. Indians don't do the work, but rip off customers. Their tactics is to pretend they can do the work for you. Ask for upfront money and then do a poor job or no job. Stay away from them at all cost. I have been a loyal user and thought this was the only place to go to for contractors. It worked out in the beginning, but the quality of contractors and deceitful people have increased. When you pay contractor, you have no guarantee of any kind as what the company Elance makes you think. At the end, they will all take your money. I lost $8000 for a project that was delayed and not completed. Going through arbitration was just a way for them to make more money off of you and let you think you have a place for justice. They will side with the indians if you were working with one and no matter what your rights or the poor work they have done, you will be throwing up blood at the end when reading their sorry excuses. BE AWARE AND STAY AWAY!!! DO NOT USE ELANCE DO NOT USE ODESK THEY ARE ALL THE SAME COMPANY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, DO NOT TRUST THE JOKE OF ARBITRATION. THIS COMPANY IS RUN IN INDIA, WITH A ADDRESS IN THE US. THERE ARE NO PHONE NUMBERS AND NO REAL PERSON. WHAT COMPANY IS SO SECRETIVE THAT PROVIDES NO INFORMATION OF THEIR PEOPLE, YET THEY ARE THE ONES TO DECIDE AND HAVE FAIRNESS FOR A CASE.
Our Response
Quotes from the Complaint
"Please be aware of the money sent to Elance and Net-Arb. These 2 companies are in essence both Indian companies pretending to do legitamate business online."
net-ARB, Inc. is a U.S. corporation registered in Atlanta, Georgia, where it's founder (a native-born, 3rd generation American) resides. Elance was founded by an Indian graduate of MIT in Mountain View, California in 1999. net-ARB has had a vendor relationship with Elance since 2007 to provide arbitration services. Elance and net-ARB were always and still are completely independent companies. We can affirm that Elance has never attempted to influence the outcome of a case nor has Elance ever said or intimated that they would prefer cases be decided in favor or freelancers or their clients. "When you pay contractor, you have no guarantee of any kind as what the company Elance makes you think. At the end, they will all take your money."
In Elance's defense, they are unique in offering a secure escrow system and a fully thought out dispute resolution system. Most disputes are resolved with the help of Elance mediators without having to go the final step to arbitration. "THERE ARE NO PHONE NUMBERS"
The short answer is that we cannot speak with potential parties by telephone. We must have a written record of everything we do or we would be exposed to all sorts of claims from establishing biased relationships to giving improper or illegal advice. This is a legal process and we are obligated to maintain a paper trail of everything we do. We have an FAQ with more information on this topic.
Arbitrator's ExplanationUnder net-ARB policy, the arbitrator must provide a written explanation supporting the decision. Here is a copy of the explanation that accompanied the decision. The client cancelled this 7-week project with more than 2 weeks to go citing insufficient progress and poor workmanship. Moreover, the client was under a strict deadline to have the project completed.On the early cancellation, we know from simple arithmetic that the project still had 30% of the time left. But from experience and knowledge of the development process we know that visible progress goes up exponentially with time as things near completion. The last 30% of the job represents roughly 50% of the progress.So the bar is pretty high for the client. She must show that things are so fundamentally wrong that the project could not possibly be done in the last 30-50% of the time. But more than that, since the action comes at not just the cost of depriving the developer of any chance to complete the job, but demanding a full refund as well, the client must also show that the alternative - allowing the contract to run its course – would cause her irreparable harm.It's this last requirement that defeats the client's claim without having to evaluate whether the job could be completed (a close call at best for either side). The client has not taken any post-cancellation action on this allegedly critical project and certainly nothing would have been lost by allowing the project to run to its deadline before terminating for cause.We don't know whether the freelancer could have delivered this project or not but we find the client had insufficient grounds to terminate the project when she did. The freelancer keeps the money already released provided she zips the project files and uploads them to the Elance workroom. The client may make use of them if she wishes. Beyond that the freelancer has no further obligations. Judge for yourself. Do you agree with the arbitrator's decision? |
