Bidder Beware!
I just got word the other day from a fellow virtual assistant that there is a person posting virtual assistant positions on Elance, Guru, etc., then not paying the people they choose to work for them. A reminder to all of you VA’s – PLEASE make sure you check out the person you are working for before producing anything for them. This person is apparently making phony accounts on these sites, selecting people to do their work for them, then failing to pay and dropping off the face of the Earth. Then they just repeat the pattern.
My suggestion is to ask for an alternate e-mail address, a name that you can do at least a Google search on, maybe a website or company name, a phone and fax number, things like that. I hate to see people put in many hours of work and then have the money pretty much stolen from them. I know one woman is out $1,800.00! I couldn’t imagine. That would devastate me.
What galls me is that the freelance websites do nothing to protect us against this. They don’t do any verification on the identity of the job posters. We bidders pay the monthly and project fees, yet we are offered no protection if we get stiffed by the provider posting a job on their site! I think that this problem should be addressed to the bidding sites such as Guru and Elance. If they refuse to change their policy, I suggest boycotting them. I know it would be harder to find work initially, but if you’ve got a decent client list, you can probably end up getting more business just by word of mouth.
If you do need these sites for your income, I suggest an escrow method. Both Guru and Elance offer escrow services free of charge. This helps to protect you and the buyer. The charge is already taken from the buyer and held for the bidder when the project is completed. This doesn’t help in all situations, but it could save a lot of trouble for a lot of people. Just remember, you can only prove you’ve done the work if you are uploading things or sending communication via the work spaces provided on these sites. You can’t just send an e-mail and be able to rely on these services to back you up.
If escrow won’t work for you, I suggest asking for an advance or a retainer. If the buyer refuses, then I would refuse to work for them. If they just seem nervous about it because they don’t know you well enough, I would suggest building a list of references that they can contact to set their mind at ease. If you are established well enough, this should not be a problem.
Good luck to all of you people out there in the virtual work world. It’s a sad thing to see hard work go punished, so do all you can to protect yourself. Take care and thanks for reading!
