eLance???

[Starting Big]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. I have an estimate from someone who is local to me, to completely build a site for me. The estimate is for $8,500. I posted my needs on eLance last night and already have 15 bids. One or two of the bids look really good (around $2,800), but of course they are all from India, which leads me to some questions:

1) have any of you ever used eLance, or know someone who has? How did it work out for them?

2) have any of you or someone you know who used eLance use a company or person located in India? How is the language barrier? Can the ratings and reviews on eLance for overseas individuals/companys be trusted?

Any answers or additional comments are greatly appreciated.

[Chris]

I haven't used elance, I've used odesk.com though, which is the same thing, and in the end it is hit or miss.

I like such services for small piecemeal jobs, I don't know about the entire site thing. Still, for 25% of the cost, I think it is worth giving them a try.

how complex of a site is it?

[StuartDykes]

I am just about to start my first larger project. I have been learning the basics of how everything generally works and am now going to have my first proper attempt.
I am using rentacoder.com on the reccomendation of someone else. They told me they used someone in Wales.
For my project I think I going to use someone from india. I have emailed them a couple of times and they seem to know what they are talking about, they speak decent english so I think I have communicated my needs well enough to them and they have an impressive portfolio.
Il report back when the project is finished if you want.
Two things; You do not pay untill you are happy with the work so thouroughly evaluate the job before you pay. Dont pay upfront if the ask you too, that just smells of a scam and you have no real chance of a comeback. Maybe I am just being pessimistic though?
Also, do not just automatically pick the lowest bid ammount. I tend to discard high and low and pick something in the middle.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Nico]

I didn't use that site, but i used similar ones and i've worked with Indian companies before without much problem. Im a web developer from Argentina, where we usually compite with programmers from India.

My advice would be to start with a small project first. But not because they are from India...i would advise the same thing for anyone that's going to start a med/big project with a new company/programmer, regarding if they are local or offshore. Try them first with something small.
Or...if you are not under a short deadline, you could try them out for this project...if it doesn't go well, you still have more than enough $ left to try again with a different dev company.

You asked about the ratings and reviews for overseas individuals...you can trust those ratings as much as you would trust them for a local company. If they are overseas or not it doesn't make any difference in terms of ratings.

As for paying upfront...there's nothing weird about that. It's pretty common for any pro designer/developer to ask for a deposit/advance. Some may even have a 3 or 4 times payment system, were you pay every time they deliver a set of features.

[Mike]

This could be a good idea for an article Chris. Finding a reliable and decent coder (and designers to that matter) has become almost impossible for me. If you could write something that perhaps compares elance, rentacoder and gets the opinion of people who have used them, it would be excellent.