Feedback you make appears to be weighed by the amount of payment you make so that providers who abandon jobs and receive no payment for those jobs are then not penalized. Despite abandoning job after job they retain a high rating. This encourages providers to bid far lower than they can accomplish the job for and then abandon the job when they realize they can’t do it. It’s a tremendous time waste for the buyer. But that is not the worst of the feedback system. I even had a provider who hacked into my system to extort money from me when they failed to complete the project because despite their earnest efforts they simply were not qualified. Understandably I gave them very poor ratings and complained about them hacking my site, but despite the complaint having been verified by oDesk support, when I checked again any details of the incident were gone.

Looking over the online work history of other providers who have performed poorly for me, I have seen numerous cases where negative feedback from buyers other than myself appears to have been erased. I am extremely generous with praise when a provider even comes close to fulfilling specified requirements, and I generally pay a bonus when they do so. When I make a negative comment about a developer it is only done when they REALLY mess up. It is dishonest that my negative comments and those of others are erased when my positive comments are featured so prominently.

Overall the oDesk provider rating system is not credible and introduces too much risk into the IT process. I recognize the company’s need to have a rating system that doesn’t thin the ranks of developers too much, but that must be balanced with the need for a rating system that rewards providers when they pay attention to detail in reading specifications and when they exercise diligence in completing them. I fully support that a feedback system should provide an opportunity to improve on poor feedback when received, but feedback should be improved by the developer’s gaining technical knowledge and experience at completing projects, not by the oDesk administrator hitting the delete button on negative feedback.

On oDesk the going rate for someone to write blog entries, or respond to emails is $1 to $2 per hour. Yes, that’s right: one to two dollars an HOUR.

Programmers seem to make more. I saw some positions for experienced–very experienced–web site developers that offered $15 per hour.

I remember in the 80’s reading horror stories about Chinese employers only paying women $1 per hour. Everyone was up in arms at the injustice– called it sweatshop labor and even slavery. Yet here everyone is happy that now ANY company can get those sweatshop laborers! Yay oDesk. NOT.

I hope you may consider my request favourably.

Thanks and best regards,

Suresh Nair
Ahmedabad (India)
Mob. : 919377764220
E-Mail : kpsuresh66@gmail.com
Skype : suresh.nair66

It is getting better but there are still a number of items they really haven’t changed. I’ve used them a few times but I’m not sure this will continue too long once the relationship is in place.

For a small shop, though, not only can we not afford the ongoing HR recruiting costs – but we can’t afford to have five or six developers on the team with diverse skillsets. Expecting a single developer to do the CSS and to handle security is not fair to one’s web application nor is it efficient. One or two developers can’t do everything.

And AmericanMade, as long as you are talking about funding for Katrina cleanup and improved education stateside – let’s talk about the costs of Perpetual War.

Almost eight times as much money has been spent in Iraq (over $400 Billion) as has been spent on Katrina relief ($62 Billion).

Good point about the trade deficits though. Yanks are spending more than $760 billion a year that you don’t have.

The fish rots from the head.

hrlaulau aijwtdtais bfnwzeyu zhroxolxs …

AmericanMade – sending money or not sending money offshore isn’t going to help those people in East Palo Alto, what is going to help them in finding cheap ways to offer them goods. Just imagine had Wal-Mart not been available, people would still be spending $5.00 to buy a notebook for their kids to go to school with or $200.00 for a bedspread, instead they spend $1.00 for that notebook and $25.00 for that bedspread. I am betting that not only do you not understand the lives of Corporate America but you don’t understand what it’s like to be in that situation either, whereas I can say, I have lived both.

Doing the right thing isn’t about “giving” opportunity to people just because there are in one location or another. Where America will win the Global fight in business is in it’s innovation and not in price. The problems in America and with poverty don’t exist because we ship things offshore, they exists because people like yourself think there is a simply answer, black and white, that’s all it must be but more so that you, not having lived either case have all the right answers.

AmericanMade: you bet my friend… i think & act both locally and globally. i participate in both of the following non-profit organizations that help work on poverty, education, and housing issues:

1) i contribute time & money to Unitus, an organization that helps lend money to poor people around the world to help them start businesses and educate their families.

2) i contribute time & money to Full Circle Fund, an organization that provides grants to social entrepreneurs in the SF bay area (primarily SF, Oakland, and the SF Peninsula) working on local community issues in housing, education, and technology access.

i put my money, and my time, where my mouth is… i just don’t limit it to my own backyard.

in any case, sounds like we share some common ground in a few places, even if you think i’m an idiot on a few issues… so i’ll take that as a minimal foundation for starting some communication, and i’ll re-read your posts above to see what i missed the first time around.

peace out,

- dave

you can reach me at dave [at] 500hats [dot] com… contact info for email & skype also on my blog.

hope to hear from you & thanks for reaching out,

- dave

DM: clue – its not about race or equal opportunity nor is it about labeling someone an “outsider.” It’s about supporting the US consumer economy which is holding everything up like a house of cards. If you undermine it, it will only be a matter of time before it comes crashing down…including the value of your house and the ability of your US customers to pay for your services.

LTU: clue – re-read my posts 2 times, reflect, try to really understand what I am saying before commenting. Hint – Walmart is not driving higher quality but lower quality and lower prices. He who has the lowest price wins is the Walmart mentality…it doesn’t drive innovation, it drives you out of business (if you are in that space).

AnyoneWhoReadsThis: What happens when all of the entrepreneurs and business owners give away our Intellectual Property to countries like China and India? How long will it be before they have all of the ideas, know how, and more importantly the money to pull the ideas off, before they no longer need our money to fund them. Then your job as business owner has just been offshored.

DM: Seriously, I will try your service. If I like it, I will refer my US contractors to use it. I apologize for hijacking the focus of this article which was the review of your service. However, I can’t just go with everyone on this whole send it to India gig just because it is cheaper and it’s what everyone else is doing. There are serious long term reprecussions that they aren’t telling you and which most people don’t even care to think about. If it doesn’t affect me know, then it’s not a problem. If you have children, unless you plan on leaving them the fortunes you earn, their reality in the New World Order of Globalization could be that of hut dweller in the newly created sahara of silicon valley. Not that I am against hut dwellers…so don’t go off on that tangent.

Just think next time you drive past East Palo Alto…wonder to yourself “Is there anything I can do to help one person there learn a skill to feed their family?” Poverty is alive and well in America, it’s not just in a Third World country. If you can’t help your fellow countryman (black, brown, yellow, white, green, or pink), but would rather send money offshore, well that speaks volumes.

Sam Ossman: re: your comment on what oDesk does for education / filtering for talent — we offer feedback scoring on all of our providers (launched a few months ago, feedback available for up to a year ago), and as far as we know we’re the only company currently offering free testing on over 100 different subject areas. i’m sure there’s always more we can do to improve on this in the future, however as far as providing a great place to find quality developers & other technical talent we believe we’re pretty far ahead of anyone else offering services online. if you’re up for it, i’d encourage you to give us another try and choose any of our top-rated developers for your projects.

AmericanMade: i think you’ve clearly identified your principles… obviously we have very different perspectives. oDesk *does* provide Remote Work opportunities to US-based talent (particularly in rural / non-urban locations), however the majority of our providers are outside the US… primarily because people in those locations don’t have the same opportunities & choices we have here. why you choose to call those folks “outsiders” and not give them a shot the same as anyone here is beyond me, but i guess you’re entitled to your opinion. as i mentioned before, to me those “outsiders” are my family and friends… and in another generation or two, they’ll probably be yours as well

- dave mcclure
http://500hats.typepad.com/