Has anyone hired through freelancer? WTH

[Mynight]

I posted a job and so far I've had 3 bids;

1) A $1 bid then trying to flog me some kind of insurance through chat.

2) A Nigerian person who apparently specialized in English writing applied for my C++ driver creation request barely writing English. Then got angry with me when I questioned his experience on the subject of programming.

3) A third who didn't understand the project and tried selling me a small application that looked suspiciously ripped off and had nothing to do with what I asked for/stupidly accepted the download and my AV went ballistic...

I've only been on the site 20 minutes and I've written it off as a lost cause.

Am I jumping the gun? Do legitimate people actually use the site?

Got a better recommendation?

 

[iKettles]

I only have experience with elance but I think you're better off approaching freelancers as opposed to posting up a job - I'd also try to get freelancers located closer to you to avoid the headache of Indian/Malaysian/African developers if the job is anything more than incredibly simple.

 

[hargi]

I used people per hour but approached designers I liked the look of there work and checked feedback the one I use are good

 

[AHarvey]

I've had work through both freelancer and people per hour, and they both have the same problem. An massive % of members are from India, have poor English skills and massively undercut all UK based freelancers. It's 50/50 on whether you find someone who knows what they are talking about and can communicate with you.

Throw in the chancers and the dodgy folk and it's really hard to find the decent people on there.

You can do it, but be specific in your advert, and I think you can report them if they message you and don't meet the requirements.

Other than looking for c++ developers on the sites, checking their feedback and contacting them you're stuck to looking on C++ forums or facebook groups

 

[SecureSystems]

I used people per hour but approached designers I liked the look of there work and checked feedback the one I use are good

This

 

[Mynight]

Unfortunately people per hour appears to be geared towards the web end of development and design.

Thank you for the advice I'll have a search for other websites and approach developers rather than posting a job.

Bidders 4 and 5 have bid ridiculously low amounts, I cant imagine anyone would produce what I need for that price.

 

[Mynight]

Thank you ikettles checked elamce and less than 6 hours later I have exactly what I need.