Just interested to hear peoples opinions and experiences on Upwork, Freelancer etc.
I started using these services when I needed to update a Shopify site. When you have hundreds of items to edit/re-configure it's very time consuming. I had someone on Upwork go through a large number of listings and make amendments, only charging $50 so it wasn't worth the hours/days it would have taken me, better to use the time for something else. I appreciate sometimes they can download products in mass and edit in a spreadsheet so it's not too bad but often it can still take them some time.
I had someone else go through my Etsy shop and add variants to products. Etsy removed their mass edit facility and this now take forever to do. Again he charged around $50 so a bargain in my eyes.
So far so good? I'm always a bit dubious over giving access to my data but feel I have at least some trace-ability through these sites, still unsure though.
One of the folk that I hired for a small job has badgered me for work ever since. I asked him to leave me alone at one stage and he did...but now he's back! lol.
I hired someone last week, the brief was to go through around 400 products, makes a slight alteration to descriptions and add a couple of variants. Happy to do this for $70 (I guess in his country this is a good price) Friday comes, no changes so I chase him, here come the excuses. I'll get done over the weekend. This morning, I'll get all done today. Now he sends me an aggressive message saying it's a lot of work for such little money! He knew exactly what was being asked and accepted the job for the money.
I do find in most instances that the people on these sites get very aggressive very quickly. I started to wonder if it was me asking too much from them but they often set the price themselves and accept the job. I guess once they start they realise they've made a mistake!