Complaint Review: upwork.com - Mountain View California

Chose a freelancer on upwork because of good reviews (although it was only 5 for small jobs a couple of hundred dollars which in retrospect seems suspicious) called Malek Akour from Houston. Wasn't the cheapest freelancer either but because of US location I thought would be better than someone in a different country. Even though it said his English is only conversational, it was much worse than that, it was a software analysis job I needed him and not a legal document where exceptional English is manatory.  I told him I have a budget and an ETA of two weeks which he agreed to but said we should do the hourly fee instead of a fixed contract because he couldn't estimate whether it would cost 1500 or 3000 so he said ir would be fairer to pay only for hours he paid.

(By the way Upwork has no way to check whether someone actually does the work they say they do so a freelancer can put in any hours they want).  After he put the in the hours each week upwork automatically takes it from your credit card or bank account and pays the freelancer. I was traveling so I wasn't paying lose attention to it but after two weeks  he said he needed me to get him a server, which I did, then he came back and said that's not good because it doesn't have windows so he made get another one which had windows for extra of course in the meantime 3 days went by just with that.

He wasn't finished after the 3rd week and said he went on vacation which he never mentioned beforehand. Towards the 4th week he said he said he completed it but it was completely wrong and not what we discussed so afterwards he supossedly fixed it to something better but charged for the fix, which he screwed up. Upwork kept taking money from my credit card even for the fictious work so I block my credit card so upwork put the contract on hold. Seeing that the contract was on hold he took down my data from the server so I couldn't test anything or check if he eventually fixed it.

   After a conversation with support (of which I have all the transcript) the agent basically said that Upwork can only mediate and the only way to get money back from a freelancer is if they want to return money. So, upwork is basically a messaging app with no guarantee. SInce the guy obviously scammed me I didn't think he would retrun the money I filed a complaint with my credit card company which started the process of reversing the funds from upwork and eventually from him although he still had 1300 paid to him from my payapl account that he would still have. After complsining to my bank upwork said they won't do anything, not even talk to freelancer, and requested id and a bank statement from me, even though I was the one who made a complaint against freelancer.

After sending all they asked for a day or two later they suspeneded  my accoount without explanation and basically otold me to go to hell and I shouldn't contact them anymore because on their part this case is closed. In the meantime the freelancer was telling me to pay him in bitcoin, which I don't even know what it is, the full amount he overcharged so he can put back my data and access to my server. I repored this to support because it is a blatant violation of their terms and I was told that support can't do anything with me anymore because since the contact was put on hold upper management has been directly dealing with my case .

The freelancer still has 1300 from me and upwork permanently suspened my account and the freelancer is still working even though he balckmailed me and violated tupwork's terms. As a 70 year old person and my attempt to be open totechnology has really beeen a disappointment and even though there are many other such forums it really makes me doubt this internet world. I will also speak to the Minessota better business bureau to warm them about upwork and file a dispute with paypal about the $1300 but I don't expect much.

Summary:

Got overcharged by a scammer who didn't abide by our agreement and didn't finish the job

Disputed this with upwork who put contract on hold so Malek Akour removed access our data and access to our server

Customer support said they can only get money back from freelancer if they want to give it back

Filed complaint with credit card company who started to reverse payment

Upwork senior management permanently suspended my account and told me not to contact them about this anymore

Freelancer blackmailed me saying he will only put back back my data he I pay him full in BTC off site

Reported him to upwork because this also violates their terms besides being illegal but freelancer is still offering services on upwork

They still have 1300 from me which i don't know if I will ever get back

Stay away from Upwork there have to be alternatives there.