Off-Road Studios

They promised to animate a short film but they misled me, first by trying to lure me into a sense of comfort by setting me up, showing me work that a former employee later admitted was other people's work that Off-Road found on the internet or work they claimed was theirs although it was actually made by the third company from China called Rana's Agency that they co outsource to but don't admit that they hire (none of their employees do their own work, they're just there for show). Then they bid on the job but quickly closed their account because they were "cleaning up their profile" and "getting rid of a low rating they got". Then they had believable Pakistani employees with Americanized names and international landline numbers in Australia, the USA, and the UK to made me believe that this company was reliable and honest (I know this because some of the former employees admitted they were fake names like "Ray Buchanan" was really Abdur Rana and "Edward Smith" was really Mujahid Yazdani. Then they bid for the project that they would animate the project for $4712 (which is extremely cheap in animation costs and too cheap for them to have branches in 4 countries (now they currently claim a 5th in the UAE which is bulls***). Then they claimed that the policy in Pakistan was that they get 50% of the money ahead of time. Then I got an account on their site where I could login, see the project as they upload updates.They also told me that to assure that I get the highest quality work, I would have to give them a 5 star rating out of 5 on Elance and that after my project was done I could give a second rating and that they would give me a 5 star rating as well to give me a good reputation (which Elance later told me was false and that their 5 rating was only given once to them, that I couldn't get that rating removed even though they tricked me and that I couldn't get the 5 star rating from Off-Road). I then agreed that they would first reassemble models already created by another 3d artist I hired. So Off-Road charged me $600 for that, then they assembled those models quickly within a few months. Then everything slowed down and I got updates very slowly, once every 2-3 months and usually that was when I called 6-10 times a month. I had to call that many times because much of the time I would call in what was the middle of the night in Pakistan but was daytime in Australia, the US, and the UK. I called those numbers and got either software developers who were not directly involved in the project or third shift lower ranking customer service employees who were assigned to other projects so they didn't have updates on my project. They just told me to wait until "Edward" or "Ray" was in to tell me how my project was going. Finally one admitted that they were working on projects with higher pay first so I waited 4-6 months with almost no new updates. Finally, after they had that time, they told me after a week they would continue our project. They did after a week and every seemed smooth. They spoke and wrote in a calm patient way. Then they said they needed $600 more for "use of a model archive" which really is animation models they unlawfully kept from other previous clients despite other clients' copyrights on their work. Then everything seemed smooth again until the day they told me it was done and I was excited! But they told me to send the other 50% including the $600 for the model archive. I released it from escrow services on Elance and they sent me a 3d file. I asked around for a few weeks and finally sent it to a former employee who told me it was incomplete, which I needed complete because I had hoped to add on to the animation and then donate it a charity to be used for their campaign. After I learned about the poor animation, I let Off-Road know and they said they would resent it. They did but it was the same bad quality. I asked them to send it a third time complete and they said that for a third send it would cost another $600 for a finding fee claiming that they used 10 or more computers for this project even though it would only take 30 minutes or less to find the two files that contained my project. They said that that at $25 an hour it would take 10 hours to find and send. At the same time I finally received the animation in mov form and the animation was poor with transitions put in ever 2 seconds and compositing and rendering was poor. We mentioned that to Off-Road and they said it still wasn't the final form. They resent that and the compositing and rendering was still bad looking and the animation of the characters were still still choppy, although slightly improved from the first mov they sent. I said I want them to fix it for free since they didn't really animate it right and they refused. I asked about how much it would cost to fix it and they said more than $800 for just minor edits to two scenes not involving $600 for a fee to "restart the production of the project". I put in a complaint to have it resolved through Elance, who I told about this issue. Elance told me that a lawyer would look at it but it would require a cost of $199 to start the resolution service through their site and I say I couldn't pay it I had used up all my budget (and some) already on these scammers. Then Elance told me I couldn't reopen this issue (which I wanted to do later after I saved up the $199 charge). Then I told Elance that they were holding my files ransom by giving me incomplete work. Off-Road Studios denied it and said I was unprofessional and to "kindly find someone else to finish my project. I left a message that although no one could see would be a permanent part of their record, as Elance recommended. I never got my wasted money back. Later, former employees revealed that most website made by Off-Road were inactive becuase Off-Road either never completed them or poorly made them. Also they admitted that the advance 5 star rating and their fake accounts, work ethic and other things previously mentioned were a scam. Additionally, they confirmed that the employee names, virtual numbers, and Americanized names were indeed also fake. Elance no longer exists and is now Upwork so my complaint is likely lost forever. Also note that Upwork no longer allows Off-Road Studios to have a profile there likely because of multiple other complaints from clients that Off-Road Studios scammed.