Odesk was great. It now has been overrun with huge numbers of people who are not qualified to do what they claim. It is extremely important to screen well and know how to filter out job posts or else you’ll be sifting through 100 applicants who aren’t qualified.
Interesting. Does this service cover all sorts of jobs? Is the pay good? I only get into the registration of that site, so I don’t know much.
Basically, the platform is similar to Odesk but they’re more focused in hiring full time staff as opposed to contract jobs. Just complete the registration so you’ll know what they can offer to you.
Not fair to generalize the website just cause of one experience. In fact odesk gives heed to client and contractor grievances. You can give negative feedback, raise a dispute. I use it to get my work done for cheap. Has been a good experience for me.
I think it’s a luck of the straw on these things.
It’s said that the sellers there care little for your personal requirements and it’s more to do with churning as much work as possible for the lowest price.
This is not to say all experiences are negative, you need to find somebody from an English speaking or developed European nation, and from there you can gradually build trust a repo with your chosen person. It might be good to have 2 to 3 people you can rely on. In terms of what website to use, this is down to you and your personal preferance. I would use one which has a professional administration.
I used PPH (People Per Hour), and I had one good experience and a very bad experience, so I won’t 100% recommend them. My last seller cancelled on me and from there on, they took almost 2 months to give me my money back, not to mention leaving me in the dark during this time, even after I tried to communite with them.
As I previously mentioned it’s a luck of the straw, and is all down to the administration of the marketplace, if you feel the admin is good and fair then you’ve got a +1 in using them, if they are slow, confusing and you’re a little unsure where you stand, it might be best to consider something else.
Even though the marketplace tries to get the best out of people, you’d naturally find conmen in any marketplace, you just need to be careful.
So far I have outsourced to America, UK, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Argentina. The worse was India by far. I outsource to 2 Indian freelancers and 1 Indian company, in all 3 occations I ended up with disappointment. From what I have seen if you demand support and premium aftercare English speaking countries seam to be your best choice.
I dont agree that it has to do with Luck. oDesk is highly recommended because of quality of contractors there. You fire guys at work too, dont you? Of course there will be odd cases and you have yourself to blame for that.
Once you interact with the contractor, negotiate the price followed by compete instructions, there is little scope of irregularity. Now that clients are billed ever week, not everyday, it’s s a win win situation for both parties.
I’ve never used oDesk. I used PeoplePerHour and I found it had to do with luck as one experience was good and another was really bad. oDesk looks to be more expensive, but has more skilled professionals from first sight, so it could well be the case that you’re less likely to have issues there.
There can be no substitute for quality contractors. Even if you pay high hourly rates, in the long run, outsources work will save you at least 30%. I recommend you plan a long term strategy, cant expect much from the cheap Pakistani and Bangladeshi contractors.
It’s unfortunate to hear that you had to pay for something that you totally are not happy about. You are right oDesk does not protect you about the quality of work as long as the hours are paid the contractor gets paid. What I suggest is for you to make your projects FIXED projects. This way you have a better control of the quality of work being delivered. You can choose to not pay if you are not happy and just cancel the contract per your agreement.