oDesk Community - Comments

Contact buyer through Odesk

pmanikandan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:47:55 -0700

Youhave to login Odesk, My Desk, candidacies,-from there you pick up the partculiar job then put message

the security period

mlevinson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:51:07 -0700

The security period is an extremely important security measure to allow oDesk to pay providers as quickly as we do.

First, to clarify the schedule...

The hourly work week ends Sunday night at midnight GMT. Providers have until Monday at noon GMT to finalize their Work Diary, at which point the buyer is invoiced for the amount due. There is then a three-day window in which buyers may review their timelogs and dispute any inappropriate time.

The buyer is charged on Thursday morning GMT (Wednesday evening in the US) for the amount due. We hold the funds until Wednesday at 12:01am GMT.

Why the hold period?

Believe me, a few days of interest is not our goal here. The hold period is important to protect against fraud, lost or stolen cards, disputes, etc. A lot of money is transferred internationally via oDesk and it is our fiduciary responsibility to make sure we have all safeguards in place to protect against thieves, and fraudsters. Most oDesk users are honest, hard-working entrepreneurs, and we don't want a few bad apples to ruin the platform for everyone, and force us to raise fees or introduce new restrictions.

In addition, please note a couple of realities about credit card billing:

(1) While we charge on Thursday morning, we don't actually get the money for a few days, sometimes almost a week

(2) In order to fund a multitude of payment methods (Payoneer, Moneybookers, PayPal, plus ACH and Wire) we transfer large sums to our payment partners a couple of days in advance of provider payday.

Between the delay in receiving funds and our need to fund our payment accounts in advance, there is essentially no delay here at all, from a cash flow point of view.

How "slow" is oDesk? Not slow.

Working through oDesk lets you get paid much faster than a typical contracting relationship. Typically, if you work as a contractor for a company, you are lucky to be paid more than once a month, and then often companies will take another month (or more!) to pay the bill. oDesk significant accelerates that process, and pays its providers weekly for hourly work.

Feedback is always welcome, but please know that we go to great lengths to make sure our providers get paid as safely, efficiently, and expeditiously as possible.

Michael

Director of Product

I Hope

pkalimuthu — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:21:47 -0700

Hi all,

I hope this is the thread where we talk about the buyers who don't like to pay more than $1 an hour...

Thanks.

Pothi.

Non-activity for 3-4 weeks

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:59:10 -0700

Non-activity for 3-4 weeks would not result in suspension. There must be another issue (perhaps there were issues verifying your payment method?).

Have you submitted a help ticket to speak with customer support? If not please do that and look for a response in the Message Center. Also, sometimes their emailed replies get lost in the recipient's spam folder, so you can check there as well.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

I am so glad this worked

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:54:23 -0700

I am so glad this worked out for you! As I believe you noticed, payment on fixed price jobs in not guaranteed. Buyers have total discretion over if, when, and how much to pay the provider for fixed price jobs. oDesk cannot force them to pay.

Most buyers aren't out to get you. They're just busy, forgetful, go on vacation, have computer problems, etc. Maintaining contact with the buyer, keeping your cool, and sending polite reminders will do the trick in most cases.

Occasionally, there is a rotten apple who won't pay no matter what you do. This happens on other job sites and in the real world, too. oDesk believes that taking the extra step to verify the buyer's payment method weeds most of these buyers out - so only working with verified buyers is very important!

In the future, milestone payments are a great way to minimize your risks on fixed price jobs. Ultimately, your best bet is to work hourly jobs with verified buyers. That way payment is guaranteed.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

The syllabus is just an

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:39:51 -0700

The syllabus is just an outline.

We are working with our testing company partner to make more detailed information available in the future.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

Can you connect to the

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:37:26 -0700

Can you connect to the internet on the problem computer? I ask because you say you've gotten on to ask for help from a different computer. If you can't connect to the internet (for example, to visit http://www.odesk.com) you won't be able to log in with Team.

If your internet connection is working, please submit a help ticket and include your log file as per the directions on the 'test your connection' help page. Customer support has more information about the error messages and can pass your log onto engineering for help, if necessary.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

I see you've figured out

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:30:37 -0700

I see you've figured out how to make the comments private.

If the buyer has in fact put an IM conversation transcript as his comment, please submit a help ticket. The customer service staff will review the comment and determine if it is a violation of oDesk's feedback policy.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

Logging hours using the

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:26:03 -0700

Logging hours using the oDesk Team client is optional on fixed price jobs. You may choose to use it to keep a record of your work. Unless the buyer specifically tells you he needs to see your work diary, there is no relation between logging hours and being paid for a fixed price job. The buyer has total discretion over if, when, and how much to pay for a fixed price job. Payment for fixed price jobs is not guaranteed.

Logging hours using the oDesk Team client is mandatory on hourly jobs so that payment can be guaranteed.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

Please complete the

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:18:48 -0700

Please complete the registration process, fill out your provider profile, then take the oDesk Readiness Test. You can't apply to jobs until you've done those things.

Read more about finding your first job and tips for new providers.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

All the answers to the oDesk

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:15:48 -0700

All the answers to the oDesk Readiness Test questions are provided in the linked help articles. Read the articles and you should be able to find the answers.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

Yes, it is OK to end an

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:10:54 -0700

Yes, it is OK to end an assignment before things really even get started. In fact, this is much better than waiting it out a week or two and having your suspicions that things won't work out confirmed. If you're gut is telling you to end the job, do it sooner rather than later.

I believe leaving feedback is mandatory for the party ending the assignment. I recommend explaining yourself in the comments section.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

For files, many teams use

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:07:13 -0700

For files, many teams use the subversion repository provided as part of the team room.

But for communication, right now everyone is using their own email and chat clients. We obviously encourage everyone to save their chat transcripts and email records.

We recently introduced the Message Center, but doesn't yet have user-to-user messaging capability. If you have suggestions for what exactly you'd like to see added, we'd love to know what you think.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

Please note that people are

jpittenger — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:58:30 -0700

Please note that people are not permitted to have multiple accounts. Doreen's was a special case that came about before a single user could be both buyer and provider. Doreen's 'other' account has now been retired, and as a result she lost her original test scores and had to retake all her tests.

PS - Doreen, thank you for apologizing, your tone (if not your intentions) was starting to cross the line.

Jacqui Pittenger :: Forum Moderator
Need help? Visit the Help Center - http://www.odesk.com/help :: Are you oDesk Ready? Take the ORT today!

terrimorgan wrote: If you

daverobinson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:55:16 -0700

terrimorgan wrote:

If you want to improve your "services" get real buyers, not the cheapskate gutter charlatans who post $1 an hour no-wage and other slave-wage jobs.

I was invited -- invited! to interview for a translation and voice over. A studio professional would charge $150 or more for this and would ask for royalties from the distribution. I thought it would be simple and quick, so I asked a mere $20. Imagine my surprise when I was told I was overpriced. Good grief!

After all the certifications and downloads and all the rest of the hoopla that oDesk demands from providers, the least oDesk should do is get qualified BUYERS willing to pay the CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS they want services from.

oDesk is well on it's way to being the bottom-feeders preferred choice.

Actually the average on oDesk for Voice-over work is $32 an hour, so $20 definitely isn't overpriced. Having said that I don't think I've ever lowered my rate on an invited job.

The way I look at it, if they invite me, they are already willing to pay my rate otherwise they wouldn't have invited me. I also think if I dropped my rate drastically after receiving an invitation I would be sending the signal I wasn't serious about my real rate. If that happened I wouldn't be surprised if they asked me to lower the rate again.