Dear Odesk - Stop Harassing Me!

I have used Odesk several times over a year ago.  I paid for every provider I worked with on time.

 My credit card info was on file for direct withdrawal from my account. I was employing contractors per project and also on an ongoing basis a few contractors.

 There was not one complain from the people that I worked with.

 The last project I awarded here was an Actionscript project, I was looking for a go-to-guy that knows AS well, someone we could go to with our Actionscript projects on an ongoing basis. When I picked a candidate, I gave him his first task and I said our budget for that would be $500, so he should work accordingly on the task.

(Here is the project http://www.odesk.com/jobs/Actionscript-XML-Programmer-needed_~~c07dda40a2e1fa00 , take a look at my feedback I received prior to this project )

The provider was not able to do the job as it was required, he was unprofessional and did not know what he was doing, communication was terrible.

After I started the project, which I was budgeting about $500, he ran up the hours to where my charges were around the $550+ area.

The project was not on pace or in the right direction for that matter even though we were already over budget, however my concerns and feedback about this was not received professionally as I said earlier many times my feedback was ignored, candidate did not understand what the requirements were for the project
at least was not demonstrating that he did based on the work he performed.

I called Odesk about this matter and I told them that this amount is about to be withdrawn from my account into this providers account and that I felt that I was being cheated out of my money, so I asked them to stop the payment.

Take a look at the providers feedback for the last 12 months
http://www.odesk.com/users/Outstanding-Graphics-Designer_~~62bba08656427908

...and this is without me being able to leave feedback for him because of the outstanding payment issue.

The response from Odesk was that I should just let the payment go and they will check into the situation. After this I have not heard back from Odesk and before the payment was about to be taken from my account, I blocked the payment.

Since then, I received a few emails from Odesk demanding payment, they have not made an effort to mediate this situation properly or to mediate it at all as for that matter. Then they sent the amount they think I owe to collection and now they are threatning me that they will take me to court for this as well.

I am very disappointed that Odesk ignored my request for help in this matter and did not take into consideration my previous feedback from other providers which clearly shows that I am very fair and honest in dealing on freelance websites and that I was right in denying payment
for this project.

If Odesk does not stop harassing me I will explore what my legal options would be in this matter and will do a press release as well about my experience with this website.

Vote Result

Score: 10.0, Votes: 2