Elance changed my rating from a 1.0 to 5.0 what should i do?

It doesn't matter who they side with, if you leave a one-star review, that is your review and nobody should be changing it to a five-star review. It would be dishonest enough if they just hid it or didn't count it in the average, but actively changing it is simply outrageous and inexcusable.

I'd post these screenshots publicly somewhere. Do you have a blog?

When I was with Elance, they didn't "side" with anyone. It wasn't their policy. The only way to get rid of a bad review was if the person who gave it agreed to it remove or change it.

Interesting situation ... but naturally, has nothing to do with Warrior Forum and no one here can assist you with an Elance problem.

Kay King i did get my last Escrow back. I was going after the previous money i paid once she made the admission after the project was over that she couldn't do what she was hired for and it was too advanced and that she wanted to write the book her way and not the transcripts i originally hired her to convert into a book. I know it sounds Waco...and it was...and is.

When i get the video and blog done i will post it here.

In the mean time here is a quick version of it. She wrote reams to Elance and my response took days to go through the Emails and ended up being 28 pages long.

Maybe i am being stubborn but i am done with all the stealing and fraud in this country. This is my little bit of standing up where it is happening.

Bottom line: whatever you think of me or my story. What do you think of Elance changing my project from "Cancelled" to "Complete" after 2 months?
Then a week later putting a 5 star for the provider under my account?

Here is the short version:

Angelz...are you really serious???

First off this is not like Amazon...you cannot just go give reviews.
There is a long process to get to the point of leaving a review.
Including paying money for the Job provided


The provider wanted $1500 for the project. A fixed rate project.
I hired her to review the project for $120 ( separate project ) to make sure she understood what i wanted before i hired her for the $1500 project.
After i had invested in the first $500 milestone she sent an outline that a highschool student could have done in an hour. I wanted to stop the project. She begged me to go on and let her show me what great work. She said if i wanted to back up and get more of an outline i would have to pay her more because her rate was $45 and hour...mind you this is a fixed rate project. Everything was now hourly in her book and she said after the second mile stone that it would now be $3000 to complete the project based on the hours it would take her.
She knew i was invested and had a fairly recognizable name and started working me for the money.
I got 8 pages of off topic material from her for the second $500 milestone...she changed the name of my book without permission and said she was taking my book in a new direction.
When i let her go she wrote and said that my project couldn't be done as the material was too advanced so she was doing me the favor of making a book that would sell. Can you believe that?

OK so after i pay her for a review and 2 milestones later she now lets me know that she doesnt think she can write the book i hired her for because its too Advanced?
This is what i paid her the initial $120 evaluation project to determine
.
Now my book is basically 200 pages of transcripts from my 6 hour 2 dvd set. The same transcripts and DVD's that she called me crying and emotional saying how amazing and powerful they were and how it had dramatically changed her life. The same project she couldn't wait to do.

So when i fired her and told her i didnt hire her to write her own book i hired her to make my 200 pages of transcripts into a book that people could read as a book not as transcripts of a spoken seminar....she proceeds to use her masters in psychology to write me ( more than the 8 pages i paid $500 for the second milesstone) She wrote me scathing deluded psychological attacks and within it she is still trying to sell me on doing my book her way..... and then at a later date.... trying to do my advanced transcripts ( that changed her life) sometime in the future once i established myself with her book.
Is this whacked or what?
Again i have all this documented.

I wrote Elance and they wont even look at it as they say their dispute assistance is to get the buyer and provider to talk but they cannot make any judgments! What??
In 2003 when they found out the guy i hired had plagiarized material they took dramatic action so i expected the same . Apparently they have changed how they do business.

The provider offered to give me back $300 of the $500 and release my escrow. Then an hour later wrote me threatening that if i didn't take her offer she would keep it all (Money and Escrow $1000) including $1350 of material i sent her and she would dispose of the material. I didn't like the threat and though Elance should know what a 5 Star (?) was doing.

Knowing what i know now i should have taken the offer. I didn't realize that she knew the system and how to game it so well. And i was stupid enough to think Elance would help and not put up with the abuse and power tripping of this provider.
I wasn't thinking of how much money she was making for Elance.

By the time it got to arbitration i found out (Through Google searching) that the arbitration company is somehow related to Elance. Others who had gone through this before said their investigations showed the arbitration company is one guy named Bruce who was an ex-coder and always rulled for the provider. They also said that while Elance doesn't get money from the judgments they do get money from the arbitration process.
When i wrote Elance and asked them if any of this was true they only responded that Elance doens't make money from the Judgments.
They wouldn't answer any of my other questions.
And it is $200 to go through this company for arbitration. You cannot hire another arbitration company or take them to court..or do a charge back..all must be resolve through Bruce.
Their paper work looked worse than any credit card contract you have ever seen. You are basically locked in. And after going through all of this i have to say i think it is a massive fraud. I wondered why Elance has done so much advertising on how protected you are as a buyer...."They doth protest too much". I think word is getting out.

During the dispute process the provider agreed to send back my material. I sent her my Fed_Ex # and address so she would't have to pay a dime.
After many requests and two months of not getting my material back so i could continue with my project. Someone from Elance finally contacted me and sounded empathetic.
Provider wrote to me at the same time and said that if i didn't send her more money in a Postal Money order she would destroy my material in 30 days.
Nice lady huh!


Back to Elance Customer support ...The guy was trying to placate me because i told him i was ready to bring the rating change to my list and my podcast audience, my face book and blog. I had always recommended Elance in the past when telling people how to make products. Now i felt i should warn them.
He was really nice....until i pushed him on the change in my rating.
For those who have never been through this. Because the Job was never complete it was marked as "cancelled". Now once your job is marked as cancelled you CANNOT leave feedback. It is not an option. Also You cannot as a buyer ever find out why a job was cancelled ( this needs to change as well )
So two months later when i see the that job has been changed from "cancelled" to "Complete" i also see that i can leave feedback and a review of like 1900 characters.
So i leave a 1.0 and a long review of how i saw it. Elance says my feedback will be up in less than 24 hours.
A week later my review is missing but my rating is now a 5.0.
Now to make a rating of 5.0 you have to rate 6 different things. Things like Would you hire provider again?... and 5 categories like adherence to cost..responsiveness.. professionalism etc.
So it is not a one click mistake. Someone took effort to do this.

When i wrote Elance after several days of seeing the 5 star still there. I wrote them and said that the gravity of someone changing the rating could be criminal fraud because their whole system is based on it. How can i now be sure that the 5 Star (?) i originally hired is actually a 5 Star if someone at Elance can change my rating this easily?

I receive a telephone call on a "Sunday" at my house from this guy apologizing and saying it was his mistake and if i would call him he would explain how it happened.
I had too much to do that day and didnt respond to him right away or Monday. I got another phone call at my house and 2 emails. Amazing how responsive Elance is now after 2 months of nothing.
I finally write him and say i am not convinced it was an accident but i am open to what he has to say.
He writes back and says he has tried to communicate with me and that if i won't call him back he will close my case. I tell him i would like to see his explaination in writing first before i talk to him on the phone.
He says i am being unresponsive and closes the case ( again All this is documented ). I then find out i am locked out of other things at Elance like their Forum...go figure.

So here i am wondering my next move.

On my Facebook i have had private messages from elance providers and buyers who gave my contacts to California Attorney Generals office...A Interested class action Lawyer ...and lots of folks who have had similar experiences.

I figured there are probably a lot of members here who have dealt with them. Maybe there is something i can do before investing the time and energy and money to take it to court.

Ideas?

Shasta