Reviews Of Freelancers

Diane Coville – diane@alternativeofficeassistance.com

Virtual Assistant from Barrie, Ontario

Diane stated she was knowledgeable in creating surveys & we trusted that she wasn’t lying, so we hired her.

Unfortunately as she did the work, we encountered mistakes. At first we let them slide while informing her of her mistakes hoping they would be rectified & things would improve.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. We had to bring on an editor to double check Diane’s work, as we except good quality work.

After I had someone review Diane’s work one last time before the survey was to go live, it was brought to my attention there were even more problems with the work Diane had done, so I had to get that person to finish off that work, & he did a terrific job even though he knew nothing about surveys.

I also learned that she had not learned the software properly like she said she had. I had to contact the survey company to find out the correct answers because she was giving me misinformation.

A couple of weeks later Diane approached me asking me if she could fill 2 other positions we had open. I wasn’t about to consider her since we expect excellent work no matter what the position is & she hadn’t proved herself at all with something she said she knew how to do. Yes, she did know the basics of doing the surveys, but we expect no mistakes, or if the person makes them, they find the mistakes themselves & they correct them.

I was open & honest with Diane about the quality of her work. She asked us to provide examples of her mistakes.

Because I believe in helping people learn from their mistakes, me & the other person who took over the surveys spent a lot of time digging up the examples to show Diane.

Instead of her learning from her mistakes & thanking us, she read the list over & besides one mistake where she apologized, she refused to take responsibility for any of the other mistakes, coming up with a whole bunch of excuses.

The next thing we knew, without her even discussing it with us first, she invoices us. We had already paid her the first invoice she had given us, & then she had asked for 1/2 the money upfront for the next invoice. It was my mistake for paying her for work not yet completed or reviewed to see if it was done well, but that’s what I had done. It seemed odd to me at the time that she was asking for money upfront.

I felt we shouldn’t have to pay the remaining small amount of $40 because we had to hire 2 other people to redo a lot of the job she was supposed to do.

Diane stated that all companies should pay for work even if the work has mistakes. We disagree, this isn’t an employee positions, this is an independent contractor’s position. One or two mistakes is natural, having to get someone else to check her work & then redo her work is unacceptable to us.

When giving a review for me, Diane proceeded to lie saying I don’t communicate, I gave an unreasonable amount of time for the task to be done, etc.

I communicated very well with her as I do with all my team members.

She was given a 1 1/4 months to do this small project properly, but Diane was always busy with other clients, especially one from Edmonton. I was very patient with her, as this task entailed her learning this new survey software she hadn’t used before.

Based on the new person who ended up correcting her mistakes, he knew absolutely nothing about surveys or any survey software, yet he learned the software & started to learn how surveys should be designed & it only took him 3-4 days. Diane was experienced in this area & it took her 1 1/4 months.

As a side note, Diane always interrupted my work by constantly IMing me. 2-3 times I had to hear all about her personal issues & just yesterday she asked me for recommendations saying she valued my opinion. Unfortunately with Diane, giving her a quick answer isn’t enough, her IMs can go on for hours.

One day she values my opinion, but the next she blames me for her mistakes.

The last thing she wrote me was this… “You have problems, lady and you give business women a bad rep.”

It’s unfortunate that some of these freelancers think they are business people when really they aren’t. I applaud them all for trying, but to be an entrepreneur means you go beyond the one woman dog and pony show & run a REAL business.

Michelle

P.S. Diane has since seen this post & started lying about what really happened & demanded to have it brought down.

russsmith72@gmail.com
www.Redirectphone.com

Russ Smith (I’ll assume his last name is Smith) from Redirect Phone hired us through Elance to post 2 business ads on Craig’s List in 50 different cities.

As I wanted to drum up business and show them my son could do a good job, I offered to do the first day of the posting for free.

I even went one step further & decided to post the ads in 2 different categories for him.

So, that would be a total of 200 ads posted.

My son was doing this for the first time, so it took him a while to create the Excel file that Russ wanted all the URLs inputted in.

Then he started on the posting.

In total it probably took him 2 days of approximately 8-10 hours per day.

In the end I told him not to bother inputting all the URLs into the Excel file, & I took 5 of the URLs, sent them to Russ never to hear from Russ again.

I PMed him on Elance, hoping I was wrong & that he was an honorable person, but after a week went by without even a peep, it was clear we had been had.

Elance said because I didn’t get him to award me the project, they couldn’t do anything & that in the near futue they will be asking that everyone fill out a profile, as Russ didn’t have one.

I chalk this up to a learning experiene for both me & my 15 year old son.

Determine what you will about Russ from www.Redirectphone.com

Michelle