Several months ago, Rob Palmer emailed me regarding my blog posts regarding GoFreelance.com, formerly known as Freelance Work Exchange or FreelanceWorkExchange.com. I had complained about the possibility that Freelance Work Exchange is a scam, the annoying false job ads they post, and the change in the company's name.
Rob Palmer has commented on those posts, claiming that anyone with complaints can contact him directly. Back in June, when he emailed me, I asked if I could post his email address on my blog, so that dissatisifed GoFreelancers could contact him. He said I could, so you can find Rob Palmer's email address toward the bottom of this post.
Unfortunately, it seems like this attempt to repair his reputation was just as much of a scam as his company appears to be. Not to long ago, a disillusioned GoFreelancer commented that despite the fact that she had cancelled her subscription before the 7-day trial ended, she still was charged the full price the following month. She was going to try contacting Rob Palmer via the email address he allowed me to post.
Late last night, the disillusioned GoFreelancer visited again, commenting this time that she has received no response to her emails, despite using the email address Rob Palmer specifically told me to post for this purpose! She is now attempting to fight the charge via PayPal.
As far as I am concerned, Rob Palmer has burned his last bridge with me. I don't care what he emails me with from now on. He has proven to me that he is a scammer and a cheat, and has no intention of ever changing. My advice: Stay away from Freelance Work Exchange, GoFreelance.com, and any other potential scam this guy comes up with!
As a side note, my disgruntled GoFreelancer also mentioned that she is complaining to PayPal about the fact that they still do transactions for this guy. I think this is a great idea, and I'm thinking about doing it myself, using my blog posts and other links to back up my complaint. I'd like my fellow freelancers to take some action, too, so in the next week I am going to try to put together a form complaint letter to PayPal that can be copied and pasted from my blog. Look for it next Monday!
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Monday, August 27, 2007
GoFreelance.com fails AGAIN to keep Rob Palmer's promises
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14 comments:
Gee, why does this not surprise me? What's wrong with this guy? I mean why go through all the trouble of trying to defend yourself when you're not even going to follow through? It just makes him look like MORE of a scammer, which, of course, he is.
Tell me about it! I mean, did defending himself on my blog really bring him that many more souls to take advantage of?
The amusing thing is, though, that he has made himself look even worse. Now no one will EVER take him seriously when he says he wants to fix his reputation.
What a jacka$$.
You know, the Internet makes it so easy for people to scam others. What these scammers surprisingly don't realize (or don't care about) is that the Internet also makes it possible (and so easy) for us scam-targets to do just what you and your friend are doing - airing their dirty laundry!
Good luck to both of you!
Alicia --
Thanks for commenting. I agree with you -- the Internet really allows us to form freelancing communities and keep each other informed. Thank goodness for that!
Thank you for this post. I was going to check scam.com but it is not loading right now for some reason. A few results down I found your (this) page and I thank you!
I actually have gofreelance open in another window, was so tempted to try the seven days. Thank goodness I found this.
Anonymous,
I'm glad you found the post helpful, and I hope you'll visit again sometime!
Hi Katharine, you asked in a blog post about folks who had successfully contacted Rob Palmer for "support" with the "anomalies" on gofreelance. After going throught the identical fiasco described many times on your blog (free-trial, inability to log in, fairy tale support tickets, etc.) I quickly and with great inconvenience cancelled my debit card and waited two weeks to get a new one in the mail. In the meantime I found Rob's gmail address by searching online and sent him a...well less than friendly email. He responded cordially offering to help in any way. So, I said he could help by explaining how the site is legitimate and by refunding my money. I noted to him that the site claimed that there were about 1500 jobs waiting to be connected with. When I paid and got into the interface there was exactly 1 job posted and it was so strange and vague there wasn't even a real way to submit to it. He and I continued to go back and forth on email, and he continued to evade and obliquely assure me that he would sort out the refund. What a fiasco. I can't believe he is still at it. I would really love to see him prosecuted for fraud. Thank you so much for at least providing a searchable place with warnings and such that might prevent other struggling writers from losing precious money to a dishonest predator.
Grace Ubuntu Fellowship:
Sorry you decided to remove your post. I did however want to respond to your question, which was what legitimate freelance services I recommend.
My favorite is Deb Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs, which is updated daily during the week with new leads. WritersWeekly.com also has a page with markets and listings in their newsletter, which comes out every Wednesday. And of course, Craigslist is a good resource, though you do have to weed through the crap jobs there.
All of these are free resources for freelance writers. You don't need to pay anyone to help you find freelance work!
Hi Katharine, just a follow up here: I continued to email back and forth with Rob, demanding a refund of my 2.97 (on principle obviously!), after I had cancelled my card and gotten a new one to prevent his other charges. I continued to recieve polite, vague, evading and useless emails from both Rob and his associate, Matt Corke. I did a little research and it looks like Rob may be based in Australia. I found anecdotal evidence that he has been involved in a number of other online scams of different kinds over the years. I filed a report/complaint with the local Australia police department where he might live. Not sure what else to do, but we'll see. Can you steer me towards any online freelance services that are legitimate and successfully connect folks with work? Thanks for what you're doing here! - Keith Wilson
Sorry, I removed it because I accidentally posted it with an association to an inactive blog that I had started for my church. I am still new to this whole blog thing, and kind of screwed it up. I just created the profile I intended to use. Thanks for the info. Katharine.
I am based in Australia and was about to sign up also but these warnings make me hesitant. I may even send this information to two of our major TV programs which I have contact details for (i work in advertising) andwho investigate such scams to verify if it is such. They may be able to track him down and get some answers. hmmmm I really hope it is legitimate. I am generally a trusting person. Yet your expereinces all sound grounded and too similar for it to be anything else but a scam. Will see what comes of it.
Thank you for this information. GoFreelance is still at it. I just wrote a post on my blog telling readers to beware of scams because I had received a supposed "job offer" that pointed me to GoFreelance. I linked to this post in my article. You can see it here: http://adventuresinfreelancing.onsugar.com/5591513
Thanks again!
Anonymous, I'm glad my blog was able to help.
Mary, thanks for letting us know that as of October 2009, GoFreelance.com was still at it! Also, thanks for the link love -- anything we can do to spread the word about this is very welcome!
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