Enrique Pineda [9/8/01, 5:49 AM, 207.202.231.215] aka pinedae recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: For me, it was the frequency of abandoned RFPs as well as the proliferation of other "Select" buyers and sellers who failed to live up to the "Select Standards" of the community. I got tired of reading vague project descriptions of supposed "Select" buyers that basically read "Need web script for book site. Oh, and I don't have a lot of money." The value of the Select Program, IMO, is mainly hype. The service artificially restricts access to higher-value projects to those not willing to pay for Select membership. I hope eBay doesn't starting doing the same thing to its consumers. Anyway, I drew the line a couple of days ago when I discovered that at least one seller has found a way to thwart the system that imposes deadlines for placing bids. I haven't figured out how they do it, but I know I'm not going to stick around with a service that can't enforce it's own bidding procedure. This is my last quarter with elance.com. Over $700 bucks down the toilet -- whoosh!
The future for pinedae is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Back to the unemployment line or Starbucks, whichever comes first."
Congratulations to Enrique Pineda on making a right choice!
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Byron Grogan [7/30/01, 10:34 AM, 24.40.59.131] aka Grogan recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I decided to leave after having zero projects awarded throughout the month that I was at eLance, however I was bidding on over 60 projects (and the kicker was that only 5 of them got awarded). I got tired of the "i watn wabsite fur my bizness" RFP's that fill up eLance. eLance wasn't doing me any good, so this morning I cancelled my subscription.
The future for Grogan is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"I'm going to be concentrating mainly on the local market, sending letters to local places that may be interested. "
Congratulations to Byron Grogan on making a right choice!
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Carol Gravelle [5/21/01, 12:37 PM, 216.202.174.9] aka carolgravelle recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: So many to choose from. From the non-existant customer service (a job cancelled by the client from 2 months ago is still being charged to my account); to the endless list of non-rewarded RFP's, to the constantly-changing TOS agreement without member notification including a 2-year audit of elancer business records (did I sign up for that?!), to the advent of the flawed (putting it mildly) Select program; elance has too many negatives to balance any positive results for my business.
The future for carolgravelle is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Here for the contacts with excellent talent who have moved on as I have, locally to garner a few more clients close-to-home, and checking in to the other sites now and then but not relying on web contacts for the bulk of new business."
Congratulations to Carol Gravelle on making a right choice!
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Jennifer Walker [5/5/01, 11:55 PM, 198.81.17.184] aka CanDoConcepts recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: Select Program, then the Basic mandatory monthly fees, in addition to the impossibly low bids.
The future for CanDoConcepts is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"web wide? ...on my own again, i just can't wait to get on my own again..."
Congratulations to Jennifer Walker on making a right choice!
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Tamra Thomas [5/1/01, 7:25 AM, 205.188.200.29] aka metamit recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I've had it with them changing the terms of agreement to suit them anytime they feel, and I'm tired of the fees, and I'm tired of the unfair market advantage given to their "pets". I'm also tired of the backstabbing by my so-called "peers" and "partners"
The future for metamit is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Yepp! I'm creating a site of my own and concetrating on my current clients and projects, and marketing locally. Good luck to all still at Elance!"
Congratulations to Tamra Thomas on making a right choice!
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JJTOlsen [4/29/01, 1:09 AM, 204.186.207.231] aka JJTOlsen recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I never really frequented the water cooler but I did see what was going on. I was new to eLance and made many a bid with no positive results. When I saw that eLance was going to start charging more money and make a "Select" membership, I was taken back. Especially since many of the select people had as much feedback as myself...none. But wait, now they decide to charge the basic people to stay basic. Elance, money hungry gluttons. Now it gets even better. After charging everyone, they decide to make a little "extra money" by running ads to just do the work themselves and for an extremely "undermining" price. It was time to bail.
The future for JJTOlsen is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Well...where am I going? I have heard about a great new upcoming site called "Gigbandit" www.gigbandit.com. I hope to see some of you there when it opens."
Congratulations to JJTOlsen on making a right choice!
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Don McKay [4/26/01, 12:35 PM, 207.198.13.158] aka DONMAC recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: Incredibly bad business decisions, abysmal customer relations management, negligent account management practices and the inability, or unwillingness, of elance management to adequately explain just what in hell it is they are doing.
It is one thing for an enterprise to establish rules of conduct and fees right up front, but to capriciously change the rules and foist upon the membership a series of concocted fees and dues as elance has done, clearly demonstrates that bad-business minds are running the asylum.
The "Select" program, theoretically, seemed like a good idea for some. However, when elance stooped to the role of subversive and obviously made deals and arrangements with certain 'chosen' Select members to offer services and products that directly undercut the efforts and earnings of other 'non-chosen' Select providers, it was clear that elance has no respect for the majority of service providers and see the entire operation as primarily benefiting buyers. Elance is quickly deteriorating into exploitationist labor mongering. And it's more than just a shame this has happened. I view it as a crime against all the great talent who invested their time and labor into the establishment and public build-up of elance. Truly, elance, the metastasis, is wholely ungrateful, and I'm afraid, a lost cause.
The future for DONMAC is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Guru.com, bullhorn.com and me dot com. Retrenching."
Congratulations to Don McKay on making a right choice!
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Ben Woodward [4/25/01, 2:44 PM, 198.79.53.225] aka Cre8tiveJuice recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: There's just not much there for a professional graphic designer anymore. Months of bad business decisions by those in charge at eLance have dried up any hope of the marketplace ever realizing the potential it once might have possessed. It's too bad, because at one time, it DID certainly look promising, and while it was fruitful, it serves my young business quite well. But as it continues to create and feed the mess it's in now, serious buyers will see that it's just not a great place to send their important projects, and wont risk placing them in the eLance marketplace.
I'm also glad I wasn't counting on eLance as my sole source of acquiring clients, and I'm thankful for the contacts and referrals I've made there over the past year-plus. Those of us who know what we're doing will be just fine without eLance. It was nice while it lasted...
The future for Cre8tiveJuice is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"To the top, baby. To the top..."
Congratulations to Ben Woodward on making a right choice!
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Laurie March [4/19/01, 11:56 PM, 64.7.131.181] aka Jaeda recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: In the words of Harry Beckwith "The RFP process evokes images of Dante's circles of hell. Truly venal people are banished to a lower circle and damned to an eternity answering RFP's. Soon, those responding imagine banishing to the hottest abyss the worst human being of all; the sadist who drafted that RFP."
The future for Jaeda is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"Being one of the few eLancers who did not rely on the service as a main source of income makes it an easy choice to continue with my current marketing strategies. There is not much of a transition for me as I have always pursued other avenues. Mommy always taught me not to put my eggs in one basket. I am already booked several months in advance as it is and the time I spent replying to RFP's is being poured into personal adventures such as backpacking.
Here's a thought....Forget the live to work attitude....work to live. Or in the immortal words of Scott Stratten "Work your life". "
Congratulations to Laurie March on making a right choice!
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Kevin Morris [4/18/01, 10:10 PM, 165.247.83.100] aka RisingForce recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I left Elance for several reasons.
First, the idea of Elance requiring Service Providers to give them access to their financial records for a period of 2 years (in case they want to do an audit of the transaction fees owed/not owed to them) is ridiculous. The financial records of my company are not available to anyone! Also, elance wants to charge us 10% of all business generated by a client found on Elance during that 2 years. I tend to get quite a bit of work from other service providers on Elance. A service provider to buyer relationship might not be too bad for the 2 year thing, but paying elance 10% of a service provider to service provider relationship for 2 years is absurd!
Secondly, I refuse to pay for either the Select Program or the Basic Program.
Neither program offers the service provider or the buyer anything. It just pads the pockets of elance. There are no requirements other than paying a fee. There are way too many software problems on the site during a month to be paying them anything.
Thirdly, Elance doesn't apply the rules fairly. This has been proven by the feedback removal issue, termination of accounts for people speaking their mind and seeking improvement and/or action from Elance, the list goes on...
Elance has sucked the entrepreneurial spirit out of their freelance marketplace. They are not the only game in town. There are numerous options for freelancers.
The future for RisingForce is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"We will continue using Guru and Bullhorn to attract work. We also have several projects of my own to work on. We will continue to assist other service providers on projects involving database, ecommerce, design, and programming.
"
Congratulations to Kevin Morris on making a right choice!
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Scott Stratten [4/18/01, 7:29 PM, 142.154.96.95] aka stratola recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I have no issue with a $25 a month fee to be a provider, but have a huge issue with the "Select" prgram for too many reasons. Also have never seen the point of sellers seeing each others bids, only provokes lowballing and theft of well crafted proposal phrasing. (Just ask DTP)
The future for stratola is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"I WAS a Buyer from elance, and never got any projects as a seller, but I had about 11 projects done through there, and luckily met some great people and will continue to use their amazing talents. Cheers from FirstOfAll.net and WorkYourLife.com
Scott
"
Congratulations to Scott Stratten on making a right choice!
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Summer S. Wilson [4/18/01, 2:35 AM, 4.3.65.49] aka Elance recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: I decided to leave eLance for several reasons. One, I'm hesitant to deal with a company whose leader is on criminal charges. Two, I don't agree with the Select program and its resulting treatment of the very users who helped build eLance. Three, the one that finally made me leave, was the new "Basic" service which has eLance double charging freelancers by first making them pay a monthly fee to post bids at all, and then taking 10% of what they earn. I've been an eLancer since it was in early beta, and while I had won 14 projects, they totalled less than $1500 in revenue because I market to smaller companies, non-profits and individuals. Paying a monthly charge on top of the 10% would quickly become a financial drain instead of a beneficial arrangement.
The future for Elance is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"I was using Ants and Guru concurrently, and will continue to do so. Also looking into Monster Talent, SmarterWork and some of the new freelance oriented sites.
"
Congratulations to Summer S. Wilson on making a right choice!
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Joy [4/18/01, 1:54 AM, 172.138.190.151] aka mailforjoy recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: The premise of the eLance Select Provider's is a scam to generate revenue for eLance and provides no true advantages to buyers or sellers. I will not work for pennies per project due to the continual low balling on bids. Having voiced my choice to eLance in great detail and having it ignored confirms that I have made the right decision.
The future for mailforjoy is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"I haven't decided which direction to take next. Perhaps I will continue to soley pursue my own Virtual Assistant business as I have for quite some time before eLance. There are limited genuine opportunities for Freelance Administrative Assistants - perhaps I will give some thought to changing that! I will continue to follow things on this board!
"
Congratulations to Joy on making a right choice!
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Ron Delfmann [4/15/01, 3:03 PM, 4.54.127.44] aka rdgraphics recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: e-lance suspended my account for showing a 3rd party logo in my profile. I remaines steadfast and did not sign their disclaimer. Also, the Select marketplace and the new basic fee is neither acceptable for me nor affordable, so I am outta there
The future for rdgraphics is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"pursuing offline business, looking for alternatives, new freelance and independent contractor sites
"
Congratulations to Ron Delfmann on making a right choice!
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Bob Strick [4/15/01, 8:50 AM, 208.50.80.71] aka rstrick2 recently stopped all business transactions at elance.com.
Reason For Leaving: Elance has lost that community feeling over the last several months. It started with the ridiculas GSP/QSP program and got very bad with select. Some of us had discussed where elance was headed back in December with a possible subscription requirement for providers and were called a bunch of loonies. Now we see who the crazies are ehhh. Elance never was my main source of business, I was there for interaction with my peers. Now their leaving and so am I.
Bob
The future for rstrick2 is expected to be much brighter now, somewhere without the propaganda, manipulations and hollow benefits of elance.
"I'll be around the Choice Board and IQSP.
"
Congratulations to Bob Strick on making a right choice!
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