I'm Going To Absolutely Lose It!

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your distress.

When you put money into Escrow, it is still at Elance until your provider actually sends you an invoice and you approve and submit payment.

So you are not out the $200 if you have not yet taken that step.

You never know, maybe the guy ran into a personal problem - health, accident - whatever. Still, Elance should have responded. I'd keep trying them until you get satisfaction.

Hope this helps ease your concerns.

Sylvia

PS: Generally, you don't pay the person until the job is done or is partially done - then you pay partially. That's what Escrow is for. To hold the money until job completion. You set that up in your business agreement. ie: You will pay 25% after first proof is received and the balance when the job is done, or whatever terms you decide. I hope you didn't go ahead and pay him everything up front.

Hey Sylvia,

Yes, you are right I am not out the $220 by the service provider, but elance has my money and I don't know how to get it back.

I called elance, emailed elance, and also submitted a form to elance.

All I want is my $220 back so I can hire someoen else with the same money. What should I do?

$220 can make anyone panic, but stay calm. If the writer was going to take your money and run, that would have happened by now. Maybe something came up or maybe, if he is US-based, he took an extra long break for the Thanksgiving holiday. One of my clients won't be back in the office until tomorrow. Or, as previously mentioned it could be that an emergency came up.

Also, the last time that I e-mailed Elance about an escrow payment, it took them a couple of days to get back to me.

I truly hope that your writer didn't flake, but at least if he did--you won't lose your money if it is still in Elance escrow.

Sorry Because I'm a self centered writer, I usually just think of most Elance projects as being writing based.

I would try to be patient, elance will get back to you. I don't know why they didnt today, but they will. As for future projects maybe try another freelance site, such as getafreelancer, or better yet, hire right here. People here are always looking for work.

Mary

First of you have nothing to worry about!

-----
If the money is in escrow you will get it back.
When the service provider bid on your project what where
the details? Is it $220 in 1 day?

If the bid is 1 day and nothing has happened on day 6
elance will see that.

Did you take the communication outside of elance before
you accepted the bid?

If you didn't elance has all records about terms you and
the service providers setup with in the beginning, so even
if the bid is 10 day in the details elance will see that the
service provider agreed to different terms.

Did you take the communication outside of elance after you
accepted the bid?

I know 99% people do that because of easier and faster
communication... But just remember for the future, that if all
your communication goes through elance EVEN after the bid
has been accepted it's on record. That means elance has
easy access to everything including if the service provider
hasn't responded to your messages.
-----

Let's say you did everything wrong and elance almost has no
details except the project description and the service providers
bid you still don't have to worry about a thing!

As long as the service provider can't offer proof of a finished
project with all the requirements stated in the project description
the escrow will never go to him, and even if the service provider
would deliver a 100% finished project it's not like you'll be loosing
your money because you'll get the project.

In the future when you use freelance services try to follow these
guidelines and you'll never get scammed!

* Provide a detailed project description
(if you don't want everyone to see it, at least post it to the service
provider using the PM function)

* NOTHING upfront! - Always use the escrow service and put the
total sum in one payment.

* Make it clear before you start communicating with service providers
that all communication will be made through elance and nothing taken
outside.

* Make it clear in a PM that before you accept the service provider that
he has to agree to daily based communication using the elance service
ONLY. And if you don't receive response to your question in at least
48 hours you have the right to cancel the project and stop escrow.
Also make it clear that he agrees that elance can cancel the escrow if
he doesn't response.

Of course you don't have to cancel the project if he doesn't respond
after 48 hours.

All I'm saying keep yourself protected by making the service provider
agreeing to your terms using the communication panel offered by the
freelance website. If you do that, the service provider will have
everything on record.

Hope it helps!

Ebbi

Don't you think you were a little inpatient..you basically stalked him lol.

He might of been sick or had something else on.

I know he said 1 day and he should stick to his word, but if he has good feedback then it probably would of been fine.

You'll get your money back at least.

I feel relieved now, let's see what happens tomorrow.