Elance Policies
Elance strives to provide a safe place to work online. All members of Elance are expected to conduct themselves professionally and to adhere to the policies established in the Terms of Service. Below are some high-level policies that all members should be aware of:
Policies for Submitting Proposals
Policies for Posting Your Profile
Penalties for Violating a Policy
Appealing a Policy Violation Penalty
If a job is found to be in violation of any of Elance’s polices, it will be removed from the site. The removed job is counted toward the employer’s ratio of posted to awarded jobs, but the employer is free to repost the job if the violation is corrected.
Common reasons why a job positng is removed from Elance:
- Does not meet Elance’s budget minimums.
- Violates the Terms of Service of another company or entity.
- Asks providers to submit unpaid, custom sample work to be considered for hire.
- Contains adult-related content.
- Payment is offered outside of the Elance Billing & Payment System.
- Payment is based on commission or equity compensation.
- Violates the integrity of an academic institution, including doing homework, writing school papers, taking tests or submitting applications.
- Violates any applicable law of the U.S. or any other country.
For a full list of job violations, please see our Terms of Service
Policies for Submitting Proposals
When submitting a proposal, a provider cannot:
- Offer their services below the stated Elance minimums
- Offer their services for free
- Use unprofessional language and/or harass another Elance member
- Offer to receive payment outside of the Elance Billing & Payment System
- Use a Public Message Board to list any contact information or marketing messages in lieu of submitting a proposal
- Submit a placeholder proposal
Policies for Posting Your Profile
A provider’s profile cannot contain:
- Any contact details (e.g. non-Elance website URL, email address, etc) outside of the designated areas
- Offers to receive payments outside of the Elance Billing & Payment System
- Offers for free services
- Offers for services that are against the Terms of Service of Elance or of another company or entity
- Any text that is copied from another provider’s profile
- Any work sample to which the profile owner does not have legal rights or ownership
Penalties for Violating a Policy
Elance will suspend or terminate members who violate its policies.
- For job posting violations, the post will be removed from the site. Repeated policy violations will result in the termination of the account.
- For provider violations, the minimum penalty is a 5 day suspension. For major violations such as plagiarism, circumventing fees, feedback manipulation, or repeat policy violations, the provider account is subject to immediate termination.
Appealing a Policy Violation Penalty
If an account has been suspended or terminated, the account owner may appeal the decision by sending a letter to Elance. This letter must be received within 15 days of the suspension or termination in order for the action to be reconsidered. All letters must be sent to:
Elance, Inc.
Attn: Trust and Safety Dept.
441 Logue Ave. Suite 150
Mountain View, CA 94043
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To report a possible job violation please use the link highlighted below:
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To report a possible profile violation please use the link highlighted below:
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To report any other possible violation
Email Elance at policy (at) elance (dot) com
The Elance Terms of Service can be found at: http://www.elance.com/p/help/tos/index.html
