Offshore Outsourcing has been growing by leaps and bounds and portals like Odesk are growing very fast. However; you need to proceed with caution especially on Odesk as they don’t have a very good system in place for protecting clients. Their policies lean towards protecting and promoting the freelance contractor, quite often at the expense of the client/employer/outsourcer.
For example, if you need a programmer and hire one at Odesk, you should not be surprised if contractors underbid just to get your contract and as soon as they start working for you, they start demanding a raise. You have closed bidding, you have hired a contractor and you have spent a few days explaining the ins and outs of your system and just as real programming starts, the programmer starts asking for a raise. There is no rhyme or reason for him to ask for more money but he knows now he has you in a tough spot. If you don’t give him more money, he will start dragging his feet and what was supposed to be completed in three weeks end up taking three months. If you fire him, now you have to again advertize and go through scores of resumes and then pick one again. If you complain to Odesk, they say they have made a note of it but do nothing.
Now you can give him a negative rating and give an honest feedback that the guy is a blackmailer and explain the guys shenanigans but Odesk provides him a way out of that. If he returns the money you have paid him, he can have that rating wiped off his record. You get your money back but what about the three months lost? Too bad.
Odesk also provides him another alternative. Instead of returning your money, Odesk allows the contractor to make your comments on his job private. See below
Notice where the contractor has gotten a five star rating, he is showing the comments but where he got the lowest possible feedback, he has the comments hidden. If you are not very experienced in outsourcing, you wouldn’t realize the severity of his misdeeds, you wouldn’t benefit from the feedback of his previous victims and you may conveniently become his next victim.
Buyer Beware – especially on Odesk.