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Hired a Freelancer. It’s not going well.

★★ signal-medium   r/smallbusiness  ·  ↑ 260  ·  💬 85  ·  2025-09-04  ·  kw: review response template  ·  open on reddit ↗
your rating:
Tool
Fiverr, CRM (unspecified)
Issue
Freelancer deployed untested automated CRM workflows to production; 3 clients received misrouted emails (wrong stage in sales process) over 2 weeks, causing client confusion and eroding trust in automated systems.
Cost
unstated
Recommendation
Upwork (over Fiverr); hire experienced CRM consultant ($100+/hr rate implied); implement test environment before production deployment; screen/vet freelancers rigorously; none (Fiverr rejected as low-quality platform)
extracted with
anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

I hired a freelancer off of Fiverr to set up automated workflows in my CRM. I have a template provided by the CRM company to that I used when I thought I would do it myself. I had a lot done but didn’t have all the canned emails written. Freelancer shared a a draft. I made a bunch of revisions because he doesn’t look like he used the template at all. And none of the emails he drafted even have my company logo/email signature on them. We met again today to talk about it and for me to explain the revisions I needed. I left the meeting feeling pretty discouraged. Then later today another client emails me confused because they’d just gotten an (automated) email that doesn’t have anything to do with where they are in my process (this client is booked and paid already and the email they received was about proposals). This is the third client to get that email in the last two weeks! I’m frustrated and worried. I want to give the guy time to work it out but also I want to cut my loses. Do I have too much of a “if you want something done right you’ve got to do it yourself” attitude or is this really not working out? Update: Thank you for your responses I’ve let the freelancer go and am learning a lot from this experience.

Top comments (8)

[score=1] AutoModerator
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[score=195] Embarrassed_Key_4539
You get what you pay for, Fiverr is not known for their quality output
[score=46] beenyweenies
>*I hired a freelancer off of Fiverr* Well anyway...
[score=36] Femtow
Seems crazy to me that a work-in-progress flow is being put to work already without any testing done. The freelancer shouldn't have connected it to your system until you confirmed it was up to your standards. Are you confident he will eventually get it to work? If not cut your losses as you said and get someone that knows what they're doing. What's the CRM, and the platform you're using for the flow? I've got experience with Power Automate and I know that inserting pictures (company logo) in the email is a bit of a pain, hopefully other platforms don't have this limitation.
[score=36] Sduowner
Why is this a post? Hiring on Upwork or any online platform follows the same rules as hiring in person. It is upon you to screen, interview and proceed. And if the person does not work out, you let them go, and begin the process over again. Any business will go through at least 2-3 hires per position that do not work out for whatever reason, before finding someone who does. It takes time. This is the nature of business ownership. Hiring is also a skill you hone as you do more of. I’ve successfully hired off the platform you mentioned and I’ve also come across some bad apples. You suck it up, learn from it, and move on. Unless fraud or a crime has been committed towards you or your business, you spending this much time talking about it over Reddit is cutting into doing what the right next step is for your business and your customers. Wish you all the best. We’re all on a journey here, and sometimes it’s best to just keep moving.
[score=8] Relative_Fuel7879
Why is this person not testing in a TEST environment before moving to a Production environment ?
[score=4] Jehovacoin
I don't see anyone that has actually asked yet: how much are you actually paying this person? Are you paying actual CRM consultant rates ($100+/hr), or did you hire someone for $15/hr to perform mission critical changes to your live CRM?
[score=9] novovox
Do. Not. Use. Fiverr. I've used it plenty over the last 10 years. You get what you pay for. I mostly use upwork now because you can find excellent talent there. But you have to know how to weed out the crap there too.