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Fixed Price Frustration on oDesk - There must be a way...

by Toplink
8 replies
Hi,

To date I have used eLance with great success. I have a number of contractors working long term with me and all is good.

I now want to try odesk. I have a project that does not require a high skill level and I get the sense that odesk is generally a market of cheaper contractors.

OK, now my frustration. I prefer to set a budget and pay a fixed price (known cost).

On elance this is easy. I might for example set 'under $500'. And I will receive bids from $50 to $500.

On odesk this does not work. I have to set a specific budget. What if I don't know the market rates for the work? What if I set a fixed budget of $50 and there are people willing to do it for $25? I have over paid. Get my point.

I have tried odesk without sucess. Everyone just bids my fixed price, not the fee they want to get..........

Seems pointless. Or am I missing something?

It's a bit like going to a car show room and announcing, I 'd like to buy a car for $20,000 please. Guess what, you will get one........for $20,000, that might have been sold to you for $18,000 if you had asked the salesman how much it cost!
#fixed #frustration #odesk #price
  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    Originally Posted by Toplink View Post

    I prefer to set a budget and pay a fixed price (known cost).

    On elance this is easy. I might for example set 'under $500'. And I will receive bids from $50 to $500.

    On odesk this does not work. I have to set a specific budget. What if I don't know the market rates for the work? What if I set a fixed budget of $50 and there are people willing to do it for $25? I have over paid. Get my point.
    You say you prefer to set a budget and pay a fixed price but then you want to set a budget that has a range. The statements contradict each other. I would suggest that you set the price to $25 if you want the work done for $25. I see no problem with a fixed price if you dictate exactly what it is.
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    • Profile picture of the author Toplink
      Originally Posted by jamesrich1 View Post

      You say you prefer to set a budget and pay a fixed price but then you want to set a budget that has a range. The statements contradict each other. I would suggest that you set the price to $25 if you want the work done for $25. I see no problem with a fixed price if you dictate exactly what it is.
      Sorry the terms I used do appear to be contradictory. I meant that in most systems like elance and odesk, there are 2 options. hourly rate and fixed budget.

      In elance, the fixed budget is not actually 'fixed'. It is merely a range. This allows contractors to bid high or low within the range.

      In odesk it is basically a fixed price. Hence my car analogy.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMDealBox
    Their system is screwed a little...i see ur point of overpaying when the persons WANTS to be paid less than you offer!
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  • Profile picture of the author sendbulkemail
    Depending on the project, what happens is that lets say you want a wordpress site and are willing to pay $400 for this site so you put that as your budget. Now me coming along as a web guy would most definitely want more than $400, but you know what to keep up with the competition I will do it for $400 - less than what I want, but you will get what you pay for. Meaning I will give you a lower quality site than what I'm capable of because that's what you can afford and doing some work is better than doing no work. I hope this makes sense. I do work on odesk and personally get so frustrated with the fact that people are so cheap and always want something for nothing to I feel like I have to subject myself to working for pennies just to keep working jobs on odesk specifically.... My two cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author Toplink
      Originally Posted by sendbulkemail View Post

      Depending on the project, what happens is that lets say you want a wordpress site and are willing to pay $400 for this site so you put that as your budget. Now me coming along as a web guy would most definitely want more than $400, but you know what to keep up with the competition I will do it for $400 - less than what I want, but you will get what you pay for. Meaning I will give you a lower quality site than what I'm capable of because that's what you can afford and doing some work is better than doing no work. I hope this makes sense. I do work on odesk and personally get so frustrated with the fact that people are so cheap and always want something for nothing to I feel like I have to subject myself to working for pennies just to keep working jobs on odesk specifically.... My two cents.
      I agree 100% with you. that is why the elance system is much more fair. Because it allows a range of bids to be submitted.

      Please don't mis understand me, I am not trying to under pay people. Just give them the opportunity to bid for the work at the price they think is fair. (which is your point I think) odesk does not seem to allow this.

      I do certainly not look for 'cheap' work. I need a balance of quality and value. It would be quite rare that I pick the lowest bid on elance.

      I'm merey frustrated that odesk in effect 'fixes' the price, by making customers set a specific budget, and does not allow the 'market' to set the price.
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  • Profile picture of the author danicaninalouwe
    Hi, I have been in odesk for several years, and i think you are getting this one is because. Most of the time in odesk if someone post a project and it says Budget is $100, so everybody would think that that would be the lowest price you can gave, thats why others bid more. Cause price depends on each contractors rate. For example if a Senior developer would bid in your post of course he/she would bid bigger than your budget cause he/she is not contented with it and he/she has a higher rate, he could do the project but his/her service are more expensive, and with others which has lower rate or could say they could live with your price, they will bid lower or same with the budget price you have posted.
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  • Profile picture of the author mialove
    I saw that many say on the description, that the budget can go down and up depends on the quality.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    May I ask why you want to use odesk specifically? There are other sites around that you could try if you want a different one. Freelancer.com is a strange one now it has bought out vworker where I used to get a lot of work. But it may suit you.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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