Guru Reviews 193

The biggest scammer pdf service in the world. It's really shame to be a human being

Full of scammers and the platform foes not help in any way. They don't reply.

It's a scam website with scammers everywhere.
Essentially they use something called safe pay.
It's designed to protect all parties in the agreement. (Between hiring party and freelancer).
Guru essentially advise freelancers to make sure funds are in safe pay before commencing any work in an agreement.
Essentially as a freelancer you can manipulate the system so you get half the funds in safe pay by doing absolute trash below standard work. Literal scamming. As in AI generation as a professional logo development with nil cleaning up or anything.

To top it off, if the money in safe pay exceeds 50USD, Guru take 25USD to conduct arbitration which essentially is them just splitting the money 50/50.

As a person hiring on Guru and getting scammed by a freelancer.
Guru customer support is also atrocious and don't listen or read the email and just send automated responses linking websites for more information.

Overall, the website has a very very good premise that is executed appallingly.

Worst app ever.
They take 9% for every payment you get and when i tried to withdraw money from my account they got stock and i got no help from them. First month they just said to wait and then there was one lady who actually tried to help, so i was able to withdraw almost all of my money but the stuck part is still stuck after half a year. and after several messages to support they said just to forget about this money.
So they never forget to take their 9% which was a big amount for me. but they never care you would actually get the money from them. Never gonna use it again.

I had a bad experience with a Guru Customer Service rep yesterday, and he terminated my account to get back at me.

I tried to verify my Guru account in 2022 but was unable to proceed because of an issue with my payment method.

Yesterday, I remembered I now had a working method and decided to use it.

I noticed that the system stored the old files, and the first thing I did was change the utility bill to a recent bank statement. Then I verified my payment method.

First, I got an error message saying my selfie was too old. I took a new picture of myself giving the peace sign. I clicked continue, and after about 2 hours, I got another update that my verification failed because I uploaded an old passport. My passport has been the same since 2021 and will only expire in 2026, but I understood that the issue was in the upload itself and the validity of the document. So, I took the pictures again and reuploaded them. I received the same errors concerning the upload.

During one of the attempts, I mistakenly uploaded the back cover twice. I then sent an email to the reps stating that I didn’t want to try again until I got their attention since the double back cover wasn’t the only issue, and I was likely going to face the same problem again if I uploaded again. After the response I got, I still tried to upload my documents again(front + back taken yesterday @17:51 GMT+1:00).

After I uploaded the passport, I got an error about my selfie. This was the selfie I freshly uploaded yesterday with the thumbs up as I was asked. This time, there was a message in my email from Joe, who is apparently the Lead of CS at Guru.com. He was asking me to Google what a thumbs up is and saying, “I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of metadata.”

I found this message very insulting and not the first message I expected, given how frustrated I was. I had made about 5 attempts at this point, all of which failed for reasons that were not my fault. I was racing against time to get verified, and having a customer service agent insult my intelligence by implying I didn’t know what a thumbs up meant was not helpful at all, especially after I had detailed my issues thoroughly.

I responded to let him know that I didn’t appreciate the tone of his message, and he threatened me with termination and also threatened to report me to my account manager, Prosessor.AI who happens to be liberal about how you choose to get paid.

I readily explained what my issues were. He could not imagine the error existed—which I understood, given the peculiarity of my issue. I let him know I didn’t appreciate the insulting lecture and that I would rather wait for another agent to come on shift, as he was not the agent who originally responded to me.

Somewhere in my email, I asked him to feel free to go ahead with the termination because I was sure I had done nothing wrong. He immediately hit me with the termination because he was pissed.

I don’t expect this behavior from a whole team lead.

I have accumulated 3 years of experience working as a freelance customer service agent and product expert, and that is not a way to respond to an angry customer.

I wish I could attach every single one of our emails to this post.

I have had friends complaining about this same issue of verification uploads not updating for years. Maybe if the CS agents took the time to note the complaints, we wouldn’t be here.

I have used Guru since the second quarter of 2021 and it was just deleted all because of Joe's personal grievances.

excellent service from Gurufare.com. Appreciate Reed for his excellent help

I think this company has more scammers than real individuals. They also collect too much information. Thankfully I gave them nothing that could help them.

The worst service imaginable. Zero accountability for clients who scam their way through the system and a rating system that is flawed.. Joe Wilson is extremely unprofessional and will side with the client that scams by default. If you complain or step out of line he will threaten shutting down your account and say that if you say anything about suing them that your account will be terminated.. They bend their TOS at random.. no accountability whatsoever..

Stay away from them. Joe Wilson promotes and perpetrates such abuse against freelancers..

Class action lawsuit here we come!

I canceled my subscription within allotted time for a full refund, filled out the form, sent the email. Being told it wasn't received. Even sent proof of the sent email in the alloted time and yet same response of wasn't received. Canceled, but keeping my money. Complete waste of time and money. I won't ever use them again. Too bad I can't leave negative stars.

Worst company ever please dont opt for it.

Reading the last review shows how "employers" -- really freelance clients are what they are, most of whom are small businesses of one person who can barely meet their own bills in a month...

Writing a review for someone you have not worked with and done any work with (hired and paid), is ridiculous. That is about a hurt ego. Such reviews are not honest and often malicious. Get over it.

Now let's talk about the real problems with the site.

I have worked on Guru for over a decade. In this time, I have met some excellent employers/clients on the site and did work I was proud of. My main problem with the site now is the quality of projects went down because the employers are not that good, and they are always looking for free work. Many penalize freelancers simply for not wanting to work with them. Low fruit...

The biggest problem I have on the site is the failure to do anything when an employer does not pay his or her bill. Crooked people. One of the customer service guys Joe Wilson does nothing to help. He will just argue with the freelancer who has already delivered the work that the employer loves and is using BUT HAS NOT PAID FOR!
He needs to be trained. Any employer/client who is scamming needs to be removed and penalized with additional reporting and accountability.
Along the same vein, any freelancer who does not do his or her project should also be held to account.

Another problem is the random off line periods. You have to post work for the client and the site is suddenly down without any explanation for half a day.
Finally the last problem is getting paid on time. It used to be so smooth! Great stuff. Now, it is unreliable and it seems to be based on the mood of the processing person. Not a set time frame.

If you work on the site, you mostly do a flat rate and then your time is set to the project. Running after payment from clients who steal, and/or trying to get paid in time before Guru's accounting team disappears....

NO FUN. too much idiotic stress that can be avoided.
Also train that guy. That is it.

Guru has completely shattered my trust in the platform. When I tried to post a review for a freelancer who failed to meet the deadline by over a week and then abruptly dropped the project without any warning or communication, I discovered that I couldn't. This platform only allows positive reviews to be posted, which is both misleading and unethical. Such practices leave us, the paying clients, in the dark, unable to make informed decisions.

By only displaying positive feedback, Guru creates a false sense of reliability. This one-sided review system means my chances of hiring another unreliable freelancer are now 50/50. Reviews should offer a transparent view of both strengths and weaknesses to help clients make better choices. Without this balance, the review system loses its value, and I can't risk wasting more time on another project that might end in disappointment.

It's deeply concerning that Guru blatantly and knowingly supports this skewed feedback mechanism. A platform that hides negative experiences fails to provide the ethical and transparent workplace it promises. Consequently, I am forced to look elsewhere for my freelancing needs, as I can't trust a service that so brazenly compromises on transparency and integrity.

After contacting support all I was told was Quote "We understand your concern. As already mentioned by Anupam, feedback can be submitted against paid invoices only." end of quote. I didn't pay the invoice because there was no project delivered to pay for, the freelancer just dropped the project, therefore there is no invoice and no right to review the freelancer providing a terrible service. That freelancer has 100% positive reviews and, even after the terrible service provided today, it will still be 100% positive. Unethical and misleading at the very least. There should be -1 start available!

I have been on guru for a long time. They do not protect freelancers and have enabled very crooked people on the site to steal your work. You would be surprised to see housewives committing theft online. They do nothing. The CEO is too busy collecting checks.

Would not recommend. Had a terrible experience with ‘support’ from someone called Neelam. She and her husband Malik took my money and basically just stopped responding to me

Had one of my best experiences today in malta guid was one of the best 5star

A total scam! Lengthy verification, asking for all different documents - ID, passport, address card - if you do not provide, they block your payment option by card. They have no right for this. Than finally you are approved, than they want to verify your card and they block it also. Than they block your access to your account. Your freelancer comes after you and asking to pay via Revolut, but the freelancer has a totally different name by that time.
Do not waist your time & energy with them.
An Indian company with a US address.
When I asked them identify themself, since they want to "validate" me so much, they send me a Wikipedia link.
Scam & Fraud

I had no troubles with confirming my card anywhere but at guru.com. And that's why they charge you with 10 dol instead of a small sum like paypal does ( it takes 1 dol and gives it back instantly). It was a month since they wrote that they returned money/

Guru, a Cyprus based operation, is SHADY! The "One time $0.99" option has a "small print sign-up" hidden away in the option. When the charge showed up on my card I immediately tried to contact them to correct it, but their "great" customer service was non-communicato", so the "$0.99 Option" cost me $49.00.

I consider that to be a PURE SCAM! Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!!

It is a dirty scam and steals money and personal data

Since 2017, I've utilized this platform for hiring purposes, investing significant sums. Despite this history, my attempts to withdraw funds from my Guru Cash account have been fruitless for the past week. The balance in this account doesn't stem from platform earnings but rather from my personal deposits originating from my US bank account. However, they've inexplicably removed my linked US bank account and subsequent attempts to re-add it have been plagued by errors.

Despite reaching out through their live chat and numerous emails, my inquiries have gone unanswered. Instead, I've received automated closure notifications for my support tickets. They're unwilling to reimburse my funds to the original bank account from which they were debited. Despite my patience and persistence, they've consistently ignored my attempts at communication.

I feel compelled to expose their practices and caution others against working with this platform. It's become evident that they neglect their longstanding clients, displaying a blatant disregard for customer care. I possess evidence in the form of emails to support my claims and will make them available as needed. Giving them the lowest possible rating seems appropriate, given their lack of regard for client concerns. This conduct is shameful.