What's Your Worst Outsourcing Experience?

by 13 replies
15
I've been pretty fortunate when hiring outsourcers. Some of my friends have not been so lucky. Would like to hear what your worst outsourcing experience has been.

Maybe your story will help others to avoid the same mistakes and save them from what you've had to go through.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #experience #outsourcing #worst
  • With eLance, it's pretty much next to impossible to have a bad experience.


    Outside of that, I'm not sure WHY people have bad experiences.


    If someone doesn't do the work or does work that is not up to par...


    They don't get paid. Simple as that.


    I don't expect everyone to be perfect but I hate how nowadays...


    Everyone can be who they want to be behind a computer. Be honest.


    And you'll get paid regardless. Lie and show it. You don't get paid.
  • Be aware from craigslist ad posting service, most of them are scammers and non of your ads will stick for 2 hours.
  • Easyoutsource.com - beware of this site.
    Here's the detail of my experience.
    Raden A. Payas Looking for Article Writers? – Avoid Easyoutsource.com | Raden A. Payas

    I use elance to hire American fiction editors for my kindle books.
    I cut ties with freelancer.com not only because of annoying low-quality bidders, but also the fees. My paypal was deducted without my permission and I didn't even knew what I was paying for....
  • Fantastic, eLance is an expensive place to go to to find workers. It is next to impossible to find bad workers there.

    But other people who hire Filipinos, Chinese, Indian etc. in other countries for dirt cheap like $500 a month for 40 hours a week do come across problems. These are the problems OP is addressing.
    • [1] reply
    • I didn't see where he addressed a specific group but...


      At the end of the day, I feel like that is the person's fault.


      If you can't afford to hire someone better, do the work yourself.


      There's really no reason not to. If you don't know it, learn it.


      I mean, I don't see where people expect to get quality work...


      Paying $2 to $3 an hour. You get what you pay for.


      It's kind of like people going on Fiver and thinking they can buy 10K hits.


      And convert them to sales.


      Now, if you're paying $10 an hour and not getting your money's worth...


      Then we have a problem worth being addressed.
  • I have such a bad headache right now. I have three projects or did on freelancer going.
    I kept getting bids after I accepted so I went in and closed same as odesk, Although closed on freelancer means closed for good not closed for bidding.

    Now I have escrows out and all that jazz, I was still able to message two for some reason and work it out the third it won't let me message So I reposted and invited him to bid.

    Now for one project its fine the guy has been working for a week on a self hosted autoresponder for me and its going great.

    On the second job I just wanted a website that is on register.com that is on there build your own site to be built under wordpress and they don't have cpanel if you have the build your own and my client wants more control.
    He has asked me about five questions a day so far. I mean if I tell you I want a site moved to a wordpress theme and no link juice missing everything the same I am sure yah would know what I want.

    Now the last one. I have four websites Im moving to a new host. The guy has great feedback ect. He keeps saying so move these 7 websites, NO NO NO there is only four one has three subfolders but only four. So now I look in the control panel and I have 6 subfolders grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Plus now he is asking why they aren't working. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR transfer the databases nitwit.

    Any more questions I will be on the couch with a coldpack to my head.
  • ordering a shit load of articles and then not having time to check them to find out they were a load of rubbish. ...

    now I do things a lot different

    danny


    • [1] reply
    • I hired a guy from some, ahem, forum, to write an ebook. He said he had TONS of experience, and against my instincts, I agreed to pay half up front, and half when he finished.

      Never heard from him again, and had to hire somebody else to write the ebook.
  • I hired a person from fiver to design a specific picture for my kindle ebook. He had beaut pics on his fiver website - obviously drawn by someone else. The one he did for me was like a plastic dummy. I could have done better myself and I'm no artist.
  • I rarely outsource 1 task or project at at time but rather, I hire people
    to put in x number of hours per week doing certain tasks for me.

    The biggest mistake I've made is allowing someone that I hired for
    one task, talk me into letting him do another task that he turned
    out not to be really qualified for.

    I hired the guy as my full-time graphics person, but he told me
    that he also knew CSS, HTML, and PHP, and wanted to make over
    one of my sites, so I let him. He basically BROKE the site

    I had to get someone to spend about 10 hours fixing what he had
    screwed up on one of my biggest and busiest sites. He did a
    beautful job with the graphics, but not with anything else

    Incidentally, that also promoted me to spend a little time actually
    learning some of the techie stuff, and now I'm fairly proficient at
    HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. I also learned to code/edit
    WordPress Themes and plug-ins, and to even code my own apps.

    I don't use the above skills to earn a living, but I now know how
    difficult a task is before I assign it to a virtual employee, and
    in a pinch, I can do it myself... or fix something that is broken.

    Willie
    • [1] reply
    • With oDesk,I have had any problem outsourcing.I have used the same contractors over and again since they provide the best of their skills.
  • I've had two poor outsourcing experiences here at WF but far more good ones here though. One time I hired a warrior for a logo design. He did a great job the first time and delivered quality work, quickly which is an oxymoron but was able to do it. The second time I hired him, he was a lot slower and produced subpar work. It was like he was using stock logo images this time around instead of the creativity he used the first time. I cut ties with him and found another Warrior that has been consistent and done great work.

    But I think Willie has it right. You only want to give an freelancer a small project first and maybe a few more small projects before you hire them for anything big. Looking for feedback helps too but that could be fake reviews too. So it's hard, you're always taking a risk.

    Once you find someone good, it's worth it to pay them a little more as a reward because good help is hard to find. And just have a back-up for any freelancer you use. Because a good freelancer today may end up being a bad one tomorrow.
    • [1] reply
    • I can't say I ever had any problems with outsourcing. Also, I strongly believe that aren't the contractors the ones who are the problem, but the clients who are hiring them. Plenty of people are trying to get quality without paying for it and unless you are really lucky person it doesn't go that way.

      Cheap outsourcing is great for simple but time consuming tasks, but I wouldn't dare use the same hiring technique when I need a writer or a designer.
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    What's Your Worst Outsourcing Experience?

    I've been pretty fortunate when hiring outsourcers. Some of my friends have not been so lucky. Would like to hear what your worst outsourcing experience has been. Maybe your story will help others to avoid the same mistakes and save them from what you've had to go through.