Hey, it’s me again. I had a really strange encounter with a freelancer and want to share my experience. No harm is done now, as (spoiler alert!) he’s no longer on the platform. So, to give you an idea what happened. I got stuck on a course. Yes, I need to write a review of boot.dev, but one thing at a time. I was following a course and got stuck. Looking back on it, it is really strange, because once I asked for help and had someone sitting with me, I wrote all the code myself. But on my own I just got emotional and couldn’t produce any code. This time, I thought, I will not give up. But as I couldn’t progress myself, I decided to reach out to get some help. Below you can see a message I sent to let’s say two dozen freelancers on preply and fiverr. I ended up hiring a gentleman for $2/hour, that is for context what happened with the strange freelancer.
I was very upfront and clear. Alas, when business is slow, and you find a chump that is willing to be pinched, you promise him it’s all good. As I am aware of from language teaching, the student is supposed to prepay lessons upfront, and commit to a time (no late cancellation policy), so the teacher can rely on the revenue. I picked the most expensive package he offered ($50 + fiverr service charge) and told him that should be enough for 10 lessons and what would I like to do.
Immediately, he raised the price. I told him, if he’s worried about the fiverr cut, I am willing to receive 8 hours of tutoring instead of 10 (soaking up the 20% fiverr cut myself), but he said the topic is very difficult and it will cost more money. The reason I am posting this here, is because I’m a bit sore that I wrote a lot to him and he’s the only one who can read it (well, only I can read it now, as he got banned). I’m not gonna find examples, but many people published books, that were just their collected correspondence (okay, I couldn’t help myself, of course Tolkien’s letters were treated in this way: Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien), so I’d like to do the modern day equivalent.
How it all ended, you can read below. He never delivered any class and got banned. Meanwhile, I did this “a bit more advanced” stuff that “requires extra effort especially since it involves backend concepts and cloud infrastructure” on my own, as I was so looking forward to doing it with him, that even if he was no longer in the picture, I did it anyway. I’m not sure what irritates me about this situation the most, but the fact, that I even told him, that really I can do it on my own and I don’t expect him to really do anything and he still somehow wasn’t happy. Also, I was offering him an hourly rate. That means… You know what, there’s no point beating the dead horse.
Out of curiosity, I tried a bunch of these cheap tutors and generally speaking, it’s not worth even the low price. If you’re already motivated, you are much better off just getting a book or something, the tutor will only slow you down. Maybe these services are for kids (who are not motivated, so can use a push from the tutor). I don’t know. But every once a while something like this happens and I find it amusing. Cheers.
Hi, I'm Jerry. I need a coding buddy, as I got stuck on an assignment and now I get emotional working on it. I need a few sessions of tutoring to finish the assignment. It's boot.dev (free to read), course 8 - Static Site Generator, where I got stuck on step 3.1 Split Delimiter. I need support to finish the guided project. Are you interested in helping me?
I’d be happy to help you with the Static Site Generator guided project from boot.dev specifically step 3.1 and beyond.
Could you let me know if you’re looking for one-on-one tutoring sessions to guide you through the project or if you’d like me to work on completing it for you?
Thank you for clarifying! I appreciate you sharing the GitHub link as a reference. Since you're looking for tutoring, I can guide you step-by-step through the assignment and help you fully understand how to complete it.
Can you tell me how much sessions you need?
I don't know, but more than one, let's say 10
Ok 1 hour or 30 minutes? 10 lessons.
And if possible, do as much as possible in a sitting
Okay so budget will be $120
What do you mean what happened? I will keep this in mind and get back to you. Thank you for the offer.
Ok, if you don't have budget then you can tell me your budget then I will do it...
Not for the tutoring, I've got someone else
I can also do other projects
Hi if you have any task then please share, I'll give me 100% accurate work with reasonable price.
Bruh, I kinda sorta moved on. If you remember, I was working on boot.dev. They start you with Python, but then you progress to Go. I am currently being diagnosed with a chronic illness, and if the diagnosis is successful, I might be able to code more. But I think I can do it on my own now. At any rate, I would be only interested in tutoring and the budget is tight - $5/hour.
Me 28 May, 19:10
Bruh, I kinda sorta moved on. If you remember, I was working on boot.dev. They start you with Python, but then you progress to Go. I am currently being diagnosed with a chronic illness, and if the diagnosis is successful, I might be able to code more. But I think I can do it on my own now. At any rate, I would be only interested in tutoring and the budget is tight - $5/hour.
Okay
Bro, if you're desperate, I might spend a few bucks just because, but like I said, I'm waiting for medical treatment. Can you do Go? Or is it only Python? Web components? You know what? First things first, are you happy to be a tutor? That's what I'm after, a coding buddy. $5/hour on discord. And even then, I'll be extremely tired during our sessions, so it will seem like I don't care. That's what I want. Langs I'm interested in are Go and Odin. Let me know.
Me 14 Jun, 12:21
Bro, if you're desperate, I might spend a few bucks just because, but like I said, I'm waiting for medical treatment. Can you do Go? Or is it only Python? Web components? You know what? First things first, are you happy to be a tutor? That's what I'm after, a coding buddy. $5/hour on discord. And even then, I'll be extremely tired during our sessions, so it will seem like I don't care. That's what I want. Langs I'm interested in are Go and Odin. Let me know.
Totally understand your situation — no worries at all. Yes, I'm happy to be a coding buddy or tutor, and I'm fine with doing $5/hour on Discord if that's what works for you.
I can definitely help with Go, and while I haven’t worked with Odin deeply yet, I’d be excited to explore it with you. No pressure at all during the sessions — we’ll go at your pace.
I bought the $50 package, that should be 10 lessons. I might be difficult to find a good time, because of the timezone. Anyway, I should have some time on Monday - I do have an appointment at 2:30 (and there might be one I forgot about), but I should be able to make it. Are you available Monday morning (~8AM UK time, should be 12PM in Pakistan).
I was thinking about where to start with you, and the truth is, I still have courses on boot.dev I'd like to finish (although I did a lot of progress). I did all the Python stuff and all the Go stuff. Currently, I'm working on two courses. They added Typescript - I am nearly finished and confident I don't need any help). The other one:
https://www.boot.dev/lessons/78d69134-fd38-44fd-b764-50348e81097f "Learn File Servers and CDNs with S3 and CloudFront". I will admit, I gave up (sorta stopped for lack of interest, didn't help that I had to start working full time). The course should be free to read, so you can check out what is there. The link above should take you straight to the lesson where we would begin (it's still in chapter one, barely any progress). To be honest, if you could help me to finish this one, that would be a great start. Let me know. Cheers.
I usually conduct sessions on Google Meet or Zoom as they work better for screen sharing and managing sessions smoothly. I hope that's okay with you.... I’ll send you the meeting link before our session.
Me 14 Jun, 23:54
I was thinking about where to start with you, and the truth is, I still have courses on boot.dev I'd like to finish (although I did a lot of progress). I did all the Python stuff and all the Go stuff. Currently, I'm working on two courses. They added Typescript - I am nearly finished and confident I don't need any help). The other one:
https://www.boot.dev/lessons/78d69134-fd38-44fd-b764-50348e81097f "Learn File Servers and CDNs with S3 and CloudFront". I will admit, I gave up (sorta stopped for lack of interest, didn't help that I had to start working full time). The course should be free to read, so you can check out what is there. The link above should take you straight to the lesson where we would begin (it's still in chapter one, barely any progress). To be honest, if you could help me to finish this one, that would be a great start. Let me know. Cheers.
About the course you're working on (S3 and CloudFront): I had a look, and honestly it’s a bit more advanced and requires extra effort especially since it involves backend concepts and cloud infrastructure. The budget you've chosen is a bit low for the complexity of this topic.
That said, I'm happy to manage the timing Monday 12PM Pakistan / 8AM UK works for me but I would really appreciate it if we could slightly increase the budget to better match the depth and time required for this course.
Man, how did we go from: (me) "Bro, if you're desperate, I might spend a few bucks just because, but like I said, I'm waiting for medical treatment." (you) "Totally understand your situation — no worries at all. Yes, I'm happy to be a coding buddy or tutor, and I'm fine with doing $5/hour on Discord if that's what works for you." to: (you) "I would really appreciate it if we could slightly increase the budget to better match the depth and time required for this course." in like no time at all?
Sadly, because of my fatigue/brain fog, I am uncomfortable spending any money on my programming efforts, as I see it I would not get much value back. I was trying to warn you about this. The budget is $5/hour. However, you might have some worries that you don't speak about, focusing on the budget instead. Let me address few things that you might be worried about:
1) "He expects me to know all the answers - it'll take me a long time to prepare for the lessons, eating into my hourly rate" - this is not the case, let's talk about it.
First of all, I would like you to appreciate I actually know what I want. And it's a course. Frankly, I don't see much reason for a tutor, if I'm following the course, but that's what often happens the other way (at least in language tutoring - you sign on for a class, and all you do is following the course/book that you could've done on your own) - the teacher chooses and follows the course. So we know exactly what I want and it's a course, so you don't have to prepare any materials. So I don't expect you to do any work outside of the session. I hope this helps.
2) "These are advanced concepts" - this is a worry you actually voiced
First, I disagree. Unsurprisingly, I flipped through the course, and all we're doing is hosting files. So no advanced concepts here. Second, it's a course, it's designed for a person to follow it on their own, as we'd be two programmers, surely we can follow a course together.
3) "I worry not being confident in the subject and getting a bad review"
In my experience, one needs to go to the edge of their ability to learn. And since it feels like very few people can actually program, yes, this means that hosting static files in S3 buckets (something that is marketed as simple) might be daunting. But for the third time, we're following a course. On top of that, we can ask LLMs. It's not that hard (see point 2) and I only expect you to show up and see the progress. Just do that please.
4) ??? (more my worry I guess)
Man, here's the deal. When I reached out in December, I needed help. When I got in touch with a guy, all he did was just watch me code. When it comes down to it, this is your job: make me schedule lessons with you and make me start working on the course. Be there. Do this, I'll be happy and give you good review.
I think I answered all four points with a single answer. To sum up, just show up, watch me code, get $5/hour. After 10 hours I can give you a good review. If the course takes longer than 10 hours, not your problem, I'll pay for more lessons. I was very clear we're working on hourly rate here and if I start getting stuff done (2 hours a week is more than 0 hours a week), I'll be happy.
Anyway, I think this is too rambly, but it'll have to do as I have to go to work now. Come on man, you got a sale from essentially a cold call. Just show up, you'll be good.
Hey, really appreciate your honest and detailed message it actually means a lot. I understand where you're coming from, and you're right: this is about showing up following the course with you, and being consistent. No lectures no extra prep — just focus and presence.
I want to be upfront with you too I’m fully onboard with this plan, and I'm happy to go through the course step by step with you. That said, I’d like to kindly ask if we can consider increasing the hourly rate just a little, maybe to $8 or $9/hour. I know it’s not a huge jump, but it would help me give this the focus and time it deserves, especially across multiple sessions.
Of course, if it’s absolutely not possible right now, I understand I’ll still be there Monday, ready to get started. Either way, I’m committed to helping you move forward and stay consistent.
Also you know fiverr cut tax so I didn't get full money
Just wanted to quickly follow up based on our updated rate of $8/hour.
You've already placed a $50 order, which covers about 6 hours and 15 minutes at this rate. Since we were originally talking about doing around 10 hours, the remaining balance would come to $30 more.
No rush — we can complete the current hours first, and if you’re happy to continue, you can place another order later for the rest. Let me know what works best for you!
Please reply promptly. I was very clear about what I expect and what is my budget. As far as I am aware, Fiverr takes 20% cut, so you should be able to cash in $40, that's 8 lessons. If you can't deliver 8 hours of tutoring for $54 (that's what I paid), I don't want to proceed.
Me 14 Jun, 23:54
I was thinking about where to start with you, and the truth is, I still have courses on boot.dev I'd like to finish (although I did a lot of progress). I did all the Python stuff and all the Go stuff. Currently, I'm working on two courses. They added Typescript - I am nearly finished and confident I don't need any help). The other one:
https://www.boot.dev/lessons/78d69134-fd38-44fd-b764-50348e81097f "Learn File Servers and CDNs with S3 and CloudFront". I will admit, I gave up (sorta stopped for lack of interest, didn't help that I had to start working full time). The course should be free to read, so you can check out what is there. The link above should take you straight to the lesson where we would begin (it's still in chapter one, barely any progress). To be honest, if you could help me to finish this one, that would be a great start. Let me know. Cheers.
Bro I already said this is very difficult that's why I said increase $30 so I can give you 10 lessons
If you can't increase then I will give you 6 hours and 15 minute because fiverr also cut tax and its difficult
Tell me your final decision like what you want in which budget
Whatever I decide, you will immediately override. Thank you for your offer, but I don't want to cooperate with you.
Me 15 Jun, 09:06
Please reply promptly. I was very clear about what I expect and what is my budget. As far as I am aware, Fiverr takes 20% cut, so you should be able to cash in $40, that's 8 lessons. If you can't deliver 8 hours of tutoring for $54 (that's what I paid), I don't want to proceed.
Okay done
I will teach you 8 lessons in $50
Now can we start, firstly come meeting to under better what you want to learn so I can prepare
When I will send link tell. Me
Why are you do this, I said I will do it, now what's your problem, if you cancel the order I will lose my account so pls don't do this and give me one chance
I am ready tomorrow 12pm in my time zone
Man, do you realize how stupid this situation is? If I was in your shoes, I would hate me. Why would I want to be tutored by a guy who hates me? Like, I'm sorry about getting in touch in December, but you know what you could have done? Ignore my message - just as many people did. And I told you right away, that I already have some one, so you didn't have to get excited. Guess what? I got a guy for $2/hour who I was really happy with. And when you cold call me half a year later, I tell you I'm doing other things now, you insist, I tell you I might help you out for $5/hour and then you say, well, what you said... What the hell, man? And now you're pleading for your "life". If this was a dating situation, I told you right up front I'm a lady boy and now your upset I have a penis. So I say, OK, let's break up, to which you say - no please, after you I can't have anybody else! Like, again, what the hell? Don't wanna work for cheap? Don't advertise for cheap. And if you do advertise for cheap, don't be surprised when clients run away when you tell them the real price of your services.
Let's forget my previous mistake
So now I am ready tomorrow 12pm
Let me sum up - I paid $55.75 (which should have been $50) for what I believed was 10 hours of tutoring. This was agreed beforehand. Despite this agreement, you wanted more money, after I paid. I understand you are charged a 20% cut, so I offered I can have 8 hours of tutoring instead. When you wouldn't settle for my offer, I tried to cancel the order twice. You claim this cancellation would impact your ability to offer your services on Fiverr. If you can confirm that above is true and that I treat you reasonably, I am still willing to get your 8 hours of tutoring for the price I already paid. Please confirm the above and confirm we're gonna meet tomorrow 8AM UK time. (I have next appointment at 12:30, so if you do have time, we can do longer than an hour)
Now you happy? You ruined me and my account... God is seeing
No, I'm not happy. I thought you were happy about this situation. And I hope God does see. Could you elaborate on how I ruined you or your account?
Because you go customer support and they said this is my 2nd warning so they restricted my account
It's totally your fault, you ruined me 😭
Hassan Malik 15 Jun, 17:44
So now I am ready tomorrow 12pm
See I said I am ready but you go customer support
Now tell me what I do, I am unemployed now how I survived?
Well, many people in your situation move to the UK? Have you considered that? Personally, I would advise against that, but what do I know? If you're unemployed, can't you just get a job? I also work a minimum wage slave job to get a pay cheque. Hmmm?
I am very disappointed and you gave me too much stressed
Me 16 Jun, 07:02
Well, many people in your situation move to the UK? Have you considered that? Personally, I would advise against that, but what do I know? If you're unemployed, can't you just get a job? I also work a minimum wage slave job to get a pay cheque. Hmmm?
I have only fiverr to earn money
You ask my advice and when I give it, you completely disregard it and continue baselessly accusing me of "ruining you". We can have conversation about this, but you have to come with a level head. You stressed yourself.
Did you get $380 last month, or is that lifetime figure?
Hassan Malik 15 Jun, 16:42
I will teach you 8 lessons in $50
See this massage, then why are you report me and the which i was offline because here is late night and I was sleeping
No last month, it's 6 months effort
Me 16 Jun, 07:13
Did you get $380 last month, or is that lifetime figure?
I have earned this in 6 months
You have to pay me to loss my account
My good friend, you didn't lose your account, you're still here. And really it was crappy of you to do all you did, wasting a lot of my time for no benefit.
Hassan Malik 16 Jun, 07:14
I have earned this in 6 months
How can you live off of $380 in 6 months? Maybe I should move to Pakistan. 🤔
I want you to know that I’m still fully willing to teach you even now. If you choose to place the order again, it would truly mean a lot to me. My Fiverr account has already been flagged, and this might be the last order I’m ever able to receive here. Unfortunately, I only had one valid ID, so I won’t be able to create another Fiverr account in the future.
That’s why I’m being honest with you this is really important for me. If you can help by placing the order one last time, I’ll be very grateful. I’ll give it my best and make sure our sessions go smoothly.
Me 16 Jun, 07:16
My good friend, you didn't lose your account, you're still here. And really it was crappy of you to do all you did, wasting a lot of my time for no benefit.
How I lose my account, now nobody see my gigs, so no new clients can come and place order
Again, after how you treated me, I have no confidence you will treat me well. I wish you best of luck in engaging new customers. Sadly, your services are not a good fit for me.
I can tell you're really stressed, because you now speak broken English. Get some rest and take care of yourself, man. You'll find a new opportunity soon. And who knows, maybe there's an opportunity for you in the UK.
OK and can you share your WhatsApp pls?
What do you want to tell me on WhatsApp, that you can't tell me here?
Because, I am leaving fiverr account and we can work in future on WhatsApp
Because fiverr will close my account in 2 months
I don't really want to talk to you outside Fiverr. Besides, I think this interaction ran its course. There's not much else that can be said. I will ask you now to stop messaging me. Sorry for your loss and best of luck in the future. Regards.
Hassan Malik is no longer available. Here are great alternatives, selected just for you. View top picks
You’re still here? Look, this was a long thing to go thought, are you sure you didn’t just scroll down, skipping all the goodness? Anyway, I made a decision not to swear on my website. But sometimes things get complicated. What if somebody else is using offensive language and we want to cover it? Now, compromise can be made. If you click on the black box, you will reveal the real reason this freelancer got banned from fiverr. They tried to hide this, but web-dev is hard man, and the preview persisted, so I fished it out with dev tools.
"Okay go to hell motherfucker, fuck your sister and mother, take it my dick in your ass and your mother ass, you bloody motherfucker"
Hey, I am really thankful, because I was, in fact, stuck again, and this pushed me to unstuck myself. Also, publishing this, I made the chat into a web component, that is injected into Markdown in Hugo. That was quite exciting and I learned a lot. I actually regret, that I couldn’t share all this with my tutor. But that’s just the way of life. Anyway, catch ya later.