Reviews Of Companies

Guru – www.guru.com

Well this post of mine has been a long time coming, but I’ve refrained from telling my story because I was still using Guru. I used them because I needed staff, & I wasn’t going to let Guru’s nasty treatment of me prevent me from finding potentially positive independent contractors.

Basically my experience as a company has made me feel that Guru treats companies like garbage.

Mind you, if you spend a lot of money on Guru, they may leave you alone, but if you are a small company like I am, they even tell you to go elsewhere.

Here are the problems I encountered, & I heard that other companies had problems too, but they probably haven’t posted their experiences.

Guru allows independent contractors to complain about me because I speak my mind. The odd time I have complained about independent contractors, but Guru doesn’t care, they only care that I say things they don’t like.

I don’t run around complaining about independent contractors night & day, because I know it won’t do any good.

That is why I started my Review of Freelancers site, because I wanted to have a voice that others would actually hear & decide for themselves how they wish to proceed.

Examples of what I may tell an independent contractor when I’ve really been provoked are that they are immature, insecure, fear based, unprofessional, etc. It all depends on how they acted.

Of course I’d never say that if the independent contract was mature, professional & just an overall nice person who didn’t waste my precious time.

It’s clear based on my experience, that Guru allows independent contractors to act like little babies. Why else would they side with them every time they complained about me when it should be very clear based on the conversation (Guru can read every private message) that the independent contractor 9 times out of 10, acted in the ways I stated.

So the message I am getting, is that companies aren’t allowed to say what they feel.

Bosses, watch out, we aren’t allowed to run our companies the way we see fit.

Unfortunately on the Internet, I have found that 75-80% of all independent contractors refuse to adhere to normal business practices like filling out an application, abiding by company policies that require good work ethics, they disappear often, & some are so dangerous, they can steal things from a company if they have access to confidential areas, not to mention I’ve had independent contractors leave me in a bind in the middle of a project, or get money from me upfront only to NOT finish the project they were responsible for. With Guru I had to cancel several projects (I call them jobs because mine were almost always ongoing positions) because the independent contractor would accept the job & then disappear before even starting, & as far as I know, Guru did nothing about that either.

Another big problem is that they claim they are skilled in the way the hiring ad requires, & most aren’t.

If I had to hazard a guess, maybe 20-30% are actually skilled at what they “claim” to be skilled at & NO, this has nothing to do with what they charge. They can be high priced, mid ranged priced, or low priced, my experiences have all been the same.

So, the behavior I encountered from independent contractors on Guru was really no different. In fact for the short period of time I dealt with Elance, it was clear that their independent contractors were slightly better. Not always great & I was ripped off by one independent contractor on there, but I did see a difference between independent contractor on Guru, & independent contractor on Elance.

Guru gave me attitude almost from the very beginning of my stay there which was around 3 years.

Because I used Guru so often, there were probably 5-7 complaints over a 3 year period. I’m only guessing because I don’t know. I only know how many times I was told someone complained & that was around 4 times, but to give Guru the benefit of the doubt, I used the range above.

I admit that sometimes these independent contractors would get me going trying to blame us instead of taking responsibility for their actions. Not one to let people talk to me that way, not clients, & ESPECIALLY NOT people looking for jobs, I would speak my mind.

I found that these little babies would run & cry to Guru instead of just going about their business trying to find another job.

This only proves my point that they were very insecure & immature, because they treated me terribly & I rarely ever contacted Guru. I handled the strife within my company where it should stay.

So, the next thing I know, Guru is telling me I’m in the wrong & the independent contractors are in the right.

This happened several times.

I once even had someone at Guru tell me we were too small a company, & we should go elsewhere. She told me that their independent contractors were sooo high end, I would never find anyone there.

I was shocked at how I was being treated by Guru, but I ignored this arrogant, disrespectful woman who would dare treat a client in this way, & I continued to post job openings. I will state that they were never nasty in how they wrote, but the tone as if I was a little child who needed reprimanding from a parent was clearly there.

Another time I found out that Guru didn’t like it when I didn’t rate the ICs with 5 stars. I figured this out when an independent contractor wasted my time & the rep at Guru said she agreed with the independent contractor.

I was very nice to this independent contractor, we talked back & forth (this is what irked me, I had invested a lot of time in her), & then all of a sudden she refused to fill out the application or something, & then blamed it on my ratings of others which she could have CLEARLY seen prior to even bidding on my project.

This spoke volumes about her confidence in herself, but once again, she ran crying to Guru because I was upset & spoke my mind.

I was once again told that this independent contractor was in the right, & I was wrong.

I never ONCE swore at an independent contractor because that isn’t my style, but I have no qualms telling an immature child looking for a job that I feel they are immature, unprofessional, etc. Perhaps other companies don’t talk this way, but I do because I don’t put on an act. I don’t play games, pretend to be nice while feeling something else, I am open & honest with everyone, it doesn’t matter if you are a friend, team member, partner, child, etc.

Am I jaded, yes, I’ll admit that I am.

I’ve been hiring online for years now & while things are definitely better for us, I still encounter a lot of problems with independent contractors.

So with Guru, I felt like Big Brother was watching me. To my knowledge, not ONCE did Guru ever admonish an independent contractor for how he or she spoke to me or treated me & THEY were the ones looking for a job.

I remember back when I was younger, if I EVER spoke to a potential boss like that, the person behind the desk would probably have gotten up & YELLED at me. We didn’t have the balls to talk to someone like that when looking for a job, even if they treated us poorly, & I don’t treat independent contractor poorly, not when I’m screening them, & not when they are working for me.

I believe every team member is part of our family, & I love my team members. I have to be able to get along with them, it’s NOT just about their skillset.

I will admit I don’t have tolerance for people who aren’t very smart, they live in fear, they don’t work, or they come up with a whole bunch of lies or excuses, or can’t communicate online well & that’s another thing I noticed about independent contractor online, very few communicate very very well. I’ve only had a handful that get what I say the first time & I know right away they are sharp/on the ball human beings.

So back to Guru, they never even admonished the independent contractors, not when they wasted my time, gave me attitude like you get when you call a company & speak to a customer service rep & you can tell they don’t give a shit? That kind of attitude, not when I was spammed by some of them with generic cover letters, or responses. Sometimes I had them responding to 3-4 of my open jobs, all with the SAME text. I consider that to be SPAMMING & if there was a word to describe it, I’d use that word instead.

I even had an independent contractor who told me he was an assassin (I don’t scare easily, but this guy scared me) & Guru still did nothing.

Finally after spending what I feel is a lot of money with Guru & employing MANY of their independent contractors, I was banned from the site for once again telling an independent contractor (he was a graphic web designer) that he was unprofessional because he refused to fill out our simple online application.

Just the feeling of thinking you have found someone who’s work you really enjoy & you are ready to get down to work & SUDDENLY, they give you attitude about a simple application saying it’s not “Worth His Time“, it’s a shock to my system.

Based on Guru’s response, in my opinion, Guru feels that a company’s application is not necessary because that is what I was told, that the independent contractor has the right to refuse & while I agree, I would never force anything upon anyone, I don’t respect people who refuse to adhere to mandatory business practices.

Once again, a lot of independent contractors online feel they are TOO good to fill out an application. I will state that this only seems to happen with the following positions:

a) graphic web designers (they are very very difficult to work with)

b) voice overs (depends on what site I find them on, but on other sites a lot totally understood filling out an application & oblige)

c) business consultants (I guess an application is beneath them)

but once again not all are like this, I have just noticed that most in these categories are.

I don’t really talk to other companies who use Guru, but I have heard one other story of how Guru had sided with the independent contractor, & not with the company.

To me it is very clear Guru is a one sided company.

I recently discovered that some independent contractors have complained that Guru is in it ONLY for the money, & when they were banned, Guru didn’t look at each incident on its own merit.

Please see my links in my link area for more info.

I feel that if you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars they won’t do anything to you, but if you are a small company & can’t spend that much, they don’t like it when you speak your mind.

I’m glad I didn’t listen to that one Guru employee who told me to get lost. She was lying when she said they didn’t have anyone in my price range claiming everyone on there was of high end quality. I remember her snooty attitude like the independent contractors were kings, & I was just this lowly small company.

After she said that, I came across many independent contractors within our budget.

In my opinion Guru is nasty, & shouldn’t even be in business. They welcome any independent contractor whether they are a flake or not & the clear reason they do that is because they want the money. You see, the independent contractors pay Guru, the companies don’t.

In the last year I’ve barely had any responses to my ads, whereas before I used to get tons, so it seems a lot of independent contractors aren’t on there anymore & now it’s kind of refreshing to be done with them & move on.

I just felt you should hear my experiences.

Thank you

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