I wanted to open this thread to warn some of you people. Some people who offer freelance work are scams. Big time.
I had a project going on with a freelancer from UK a while back, but he was kind of expensive imo. So when a freelancer from India offered help and for a much cheaper price (Instead of paying the other freelancer per hour, I had to pay this freelancer a total budget), as a student without an income I couldn’t resist and made a deal with him.
The deal was to make the project within my budget. I make an overview of what needed to be done so everything should be very clear. Strange things started to happen…
My project needed Leap motion. The guy said he ordered the device, but it has a delay of at least a month. So couldn’t do proper testing.
Out of the blue he was asking for more money, because work has expanded…(?). If the freelancer is bad with time management or even too busy to make the project, then it’s not my problem. I was very clear from the beginning.
I had to ask the guy every 2 days for progress, but often I don’t get replies. This guy never shows progress
The things delivered are not similar to what I have asked for.
Deadline didn’t happen… The guy delivered my project with a month of delay.
This guy will make a loooot of excuses for everything.
TLDR: NOT TO BE TRUSTED> Playstorm Company LtD India.
Do you even have a contract? And yeah, same as the other guys above, how much digging did you actually do into this contractor? I would rather pay a legitimate artist that was giving me results and has a legitimate portfolio almost any amount more than someone with few details and a sketchy payment model.
Try and find freelancers that have a good reputation, from the look of it, this company has no reputation at all, I can’t seem to find anything about them anywhere.
As an IT consultant who has worked on a fair few projects where parts of the work have been outsourced to India, there are some cultural differences you have to get used to, particularly when it comes to communication.
The main one is that our off-shore team generally don’t like to say “no” to any request. If you ask them “can this be done in 3 weeks?” They will often say yes even if it will more realistically take them 5 weeks, so I ask them to tell me how long it will take first without giving them any expectations.
The fact this guy delivered the work suggests it may not have been a scam, but the guy was either incompetent or, as mentioned, he didn’t want to say no to any of your demands and ended up giving himself a deadline he couldn’t possibly achieve.
Outsourcing to India can be great when done correctly. As you’ve picked up, the work is very cheap as the cost of living over there is very low, and they do have a lot of very skilled technical people who often work like crazy (12+ hour days), but you have to be prepared to deal with the difficulties that arise when dealing with people from a different culture and where English is not their native language. Sometimes the extra cost of using people locally is worth the ease of communication.
Admin,
why not make this one a Sticky thread at the top of this forum section.
Previously there was another thread with a list of fake freelancers. that thread also need to Stick .
"Playstorm Company "
u should have realized that by company name.Most probably u never heard of Playstorm.
Dont ever give task to indian company without looking into previous client’s feedback.
I know one Indian guy on fb’s ue4 job group who knows nothing on ue4 still taking job as contractor .
+in this forum some guys using open freelancing privilege only to collect marketplace kit from clients.
They dont ask for money.
they take assets from client and then stop all communication.
There are some things you can do in the future to prevent this from happening:
Look at their portfolio and website and establish how long they’ve been in business and what projects they’ve worked on
Check out their profiles on LinkedIn and check if you have any common connections; does his/her profile seem legitimate?
Try asking for previous client references
If it’s a larger project, request an art test
Research the company on google. If it’s an American or Canadian corporation, you should be able to find info (and can also search Better Business Bureau in these countries)
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. You get what you pay for!
While we (the forumites) do want to jump on scammers, I think we sould note that the company did get the work done. Just not on time. It was presumably to an acceptable standard, as the OP is not complaining about that.
While (s)he is right to highlight a company that did not meet a deadline, calling this a scam does not appear to be correct.
I wouldn’t say scam if the project is delivered - 1 month late is not too much. Scam is if you have paid, and get nothing as a result. And late for one month, is not unusual.
Actually, yes, OP does mention this. And if the product delivered is not what is asked for, or at least similar, to indicate possible confusion, then I would argue that this sounds more like a scam than miscommunication or cultural difference.
I just have to voice my opinion about this. Putting people on the pillory used to be done in the middle ages. We got enough problems with middle age opinion and action in the world already, must we introduce it everywhere?
If you want security, utilize workforce inside your country. If you got issues to solve, your countries courts will help you. Living in f.e. France and suing in Pakistan might be just too difficult to do, which leads to the subsumption a pillory would be an awesome way to solve it. But it is not. In developed countries it is usually a criminal offense to do that.
Living in a rich country, utilizing poor countries workforce and then be upset if this doesn’t work out is an interesting concept alltogether. You might as well think about this using a new angle: they know they are beeing used, some might think its quite alright to screw you back.
Yes, workforce in your own country (or just one in the developed world with working courts) is probably much more costly. Yet you want to make in high income yourself as well aren’t you? I know its common in the globalized world, yet it brings us war and them misery to utilize mismatched worth of work and life.
Yes, I know Im not making friends exactly saying all this, but just think about it. BTW, Im not siding with scammers. Just keep your contracts in your country if you cannot afford suing all around the world.
Plan your project very very carefully, ie you have the exact blueprint/screenshot of what you wanted and ask them to follow it. And then have weekly progress meeting on skype or something, and have payment done based on that.
I might recommend using Odesk to anyone interested in hiring/being a freelancer. It’s fairly secure and you can see reviews of the freelancer’s from past employers. I have had one issue there where I paid an installment in advance and the guy never coughed up, but have hired others since then with no trouble (obviously paying after the fact and learning my lesson).
What is the problem with a .co domain? I own .co.za, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .co for Gobbo Games. So now all of a sudden I am dodgy because I happen to push my .co domain (although all domains resolve)?
What next? Are you going to start saying that my games are racist because I happen to be a South African. Really Bearfruit, this is a nonsensical comment that is pointless. Next time choose your comments more wisely because I take exception to your generalisation.
Now back to the point. As has been stated previously, do research on the company/individual you intend you contract work to. If you have your doubts, don’t use them. If you do use them, then try use a website like “Get A Freelancer” where you put money in to “Esgrove” and you only release payments based on when work is delivered. I have used to freelancers on these forums and they have actually become good friends of mine. Do your research, make sure they are legitimate, if you are unsure, walk away.