[Andyzz4]

When we first started many years ago, we got to a point when we really needed to hire a website developer. We found one on Craigslist but he refused to deal with us using a paid job portal. Was it a major red flag? In hindsight, it probably was. He reasoned that he didn’t like the “extra” fees that paid job portals charged. We were on a tight budget back then, so we took a chance with this freelancer. We really didn’t know any better back then! The developer asked for 50% of the project fee to be paid up front, and so we did through a PayPal transfer. 3.5 months later and $2,000 poorer, we have nothing to show for. We weren’t able to find the developer after he delivered a “final” product that we weren’t happy with, and there was no standardized system for us to file a complaint. We transferred the deposit using PayPal, and by the time the developer ran off with our deposit, it was past the period when we could file a dispute with PayPal. Live and learn, I guess. After this incident, we became extra cautious when it came to hiring anyone. Unless we have worked with a freelancer for a while and know we can trust him/her, we always insist on using paid job portals.