The oDesk Scam: Really?!?!
I am surprised by the amount of people calling this scams without thinking. As I promote oDesk quite heavily through this blog I occasionally get an email titled: ‘oDesk Scam‘ where the writer goes on a massive rant about how they got ripped off on oDesk and how they will never use them again.
So I thought I would put my ’2 cents’ forward.
Is oDesk A Scam?
I am just going to jump straight into it and say an emphatic ‘NO’.
The people who regularly reference oDesk as a scam usually refer to being ripped off buy a buyer who didn’t pay, or a service provider who didn’t do the work they were hired for.I don’t know about you, but to me that is people who are ripping other people off – not oDesk.
Interesting Comparison
A local current affair tv show here in Australia recently ran a story on a Nigerian scam that would duplicate car listings in classified sections on regional newspapers and online classifieds, and people were purchasing these ‘cars’ sight unseen and only realized that they had been scammed after they had paid the money. The show rightly titled the ad posters as the scammers as the classifieds are just a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers – and it is the same with oDesk.
With the thousands of jobs being posted on a daily basis it would be impossible for oDesk to personally check over each one, and I don’t believe it is their job too.
It is the employer and service providers responsibility to make sure that they are working with reputable people and this isn’t really that hard:
How To Stop Yourself From Being Scammed On oDesk
To prevent yourself from becoming an oDesk scam victim you just have to use a little bit of common sense.
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Check Feedback
This one is so obvious that I struggle to see how people can complain about this one. If you are deciding to work with someone then check their hours and feedback. A service provider that has completed a large amount of hours and has great feedback will work hard to protect their rating!
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Be Wary Of New Users
Now note that I didn’t say avoid new users! It is important to be sensible. If something sounds to good to be true, it usually is. BUT if you have a small menial task to complete then why not give someone their break? A lot of new users will work really hard for a lower rate because they are trying to build feedback (See my Outsource Link Building post)!
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Have Specific Directions
The best thing about oDesk is that if you keep your communication through the oDesk system (and I recommend you do), then you have a paper trail of everything. So if you detail your requirements in a very specific way then you can go back to these when you feel your service provider has not completed the task competently.
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Set Limits
This is really smart if you have hired someone on a hourly basis! Through the oDesk platform you can set a maximum weekly hours that you will pay a service provider for. This stops workers from wasting your money!
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Don’t Pay Until You Are Satisfied
This is another obvious one, but you have the right to refuse to pay if you feel that the work has not met your requirements. Now this means that you will most likely go into some form of arbitration – so this is where your paper trail comes in handy!
Like I said, they really are just some common sense ideas, but they will be a great protection against a sour experience and will prevent you from labeling oDesk a scam – because if you ask the 100,000′s of people using the service effectively, it is a fantastic resource for your business!
If you are interested in outsourcing overseas and want to learn more, then make sure you grab a free copy of my ebook GEOarbitrage, which shares my experience with oDesk as I aspire to create an automated business.
Hi, this is Nicole from vWorker (formerly known as Rentacoder). Like oDesk, vWorker provides access to programming, writing, illustration, even data entry workers.
Perhaps some of the speculation of which you’re describing is based on the way oDesk operates. We know oDesk isn’t a scam because we’re in the online outsourcing industry. But a person new to online outsourcing may not be able to discern what is legitimate from what is not.
For instance, some people may not understand why oDesk does not give refunds for the lack of a completed job, missed deadline or poor quality work, when other services such as ours, does.
oDesk may do a sufficient job at providing a vehicle for outsourcing, but there are certainly areas in which it could improve. Until then, alternatives exist and employers should be aware of them.
For more details on the above see:
https://www.vWorker.com/RentACoder/DotNet/misc/CompetitorInformation/OneOnOneComparisons/oDeskVersusVWorker_ForBuyers.aspx
If you have any questions, please let me know. You can also call in to talk to a facilitator 7 days a week, or email us.
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Yeah, I totally agree with this post. Odesk is not a scam. It is the responsibility of the people who uses the site to maintain it health: By not spamming the site with openings full of links and by working hard to get the real results the employers needs.
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Here are a few best practices I find:
1. Try not to hire someone with less than 100+ hours of odesk experience, let someone else deal with the newbie and train the person.
2. Try to find a contractor that is in the same timezone so you can monitor the progress and not wake up realize he went down the wrong path and you are billed 8 hrs.
3. If you interviewed someone will good review, insisted on dealing with that account, don’t get talked into bait and switch to deal with an unknown account. People with good review cares about their reputation, people doesn’t have any review can create a new account.
4. Review the work every day and dispute it right away, once it falls outside the disputable window, it will be difficult to dispute.
5. Give very detail instructions. Use Skype as much as you can. English comprehension skill is important.
6. Ditch the guy if he is not good. It is meant to make your life easier, if you ended up spending more time communicating or getting frustrated, it is not worthed, put up a craiglist ad at your local college. As lot of smart local kids out there.
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Also, maybe avoid the countries that has low average feedback http://www.odesk.com/community/oconomy
You get what you pay for. It is just not worth the time disputing with someone at a foreign country.
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