Upwork

I never thought I would be working full time online, I was content with my normal 9-5 job and the hustle that it entails but Covid-19 changed that. With limited access to my job, I turned to work online as an alternative, and ever since I have been on a journey of self-discovery. Finding Upwork was relatively easy, I heard about Upwork from a friend, so I did my research and decided I would join Upwork. I have not regretted being a member of Upwork, they provide you with resources to be knowledgeable and successful on the platform.

I had a profile with Elance for several years and had no complaints.

I was able to keep my location and my earnings private if I chose to. This isn't the case with Upwork.

After a phone call and several postings in the forum, I had made it clear that freelancers have the right to decide whether or not they want to display their earnings and location because this is a personal decision. There are several other freelancers in agreement - and hundreds of complaints in the forums.

No change whatsoever.

These are privacy violations, and Upwork doesn't care. People are unhappy - they've spoken about this - and Upwork doesn't care.

They outsource all of their customer service, can't get anyone on the phone in the US, and their practices make it next to impossible for new providers to get any work. They require ID verification. I don't know about you, but I'm NOT sending my ID to a foreign country. In fact I'm not sending my ID to a US company. They claim to be the #1 freelance platform in the world. What a freaking joke! If that is true, then why aren't they running their ID verification through a portal like Equifax or Been Verified? They aren't. And we just closed our account out with them. Good riddance. And 20% fees? These people SUUUUUCK. They even charge the clients now. Nothing like the rich getting more greedy and what was once an awesome US company is now a bunch of foreigners.

Beware, Upwork publishes everything you put in your profile, because they don't properly block it from search engines, even if you set your account to private. If you complain they either don't know how, or don't care enough to fix it. And if you close your account it doesn't delete your profile, it just deletes your login information, basically just blocking your own access to your own content, but still allowing it to be found in search engines.

I am glad I was introduced to Upwork and I am also glad that the whole system works. Big ups to the people behind this platform. 10 stars deserved. Used it as a side hustle and I have a plan to make it my main hustle soon. Sign up, deliver and get paid globally... Nice.

Has to be the worst, most incompetent, scamming company in the history of scamming companies.
The Freelancer I hired was obviously working on other things while supposedly working on my site and yet Upwork would still not refund any of my money. Even though there are clear screenshots of him working on things other than my site, and it took him 6 hours, over a 1 week period to do 30 minutes worth of work, in such a shoddy manner that it had to be redone, they still refused to refund me anything. On top of that they accused me of trying to pay the person offline, without any evidence whatsoever. The other freelancer I was working with at the same time was a bit better, but I have to say, if you ever hire someone to work on your site, never pay them by the hour. Always insist on a flat fee with a guarantee of what will be done and insist on a set refund if it isn't and pay as they go with strict milestones. Such a ripoff!

I see a lot of negative reviews. I've been on the platform two months and am happy, overall. I think a lot of the negative reviews are left by those who break TOS, or who are inexperienced and/ or don't take the time to understand the ins and outs of the platform. Yes, Upwork fees feel ridiculous at first, but the longer I use the system, the more I understand the need in place. Clients must verify their payment, they offer payment guaranteed jobs, and I am often approached by Upwork with jobs they matched me up with. The system also organizes my jobs, offers security by lightly screening clients enough to verify they are real people and not bots, and there are a lot of checks and balances along the way that helps me avoided being, well, screwed over. I'm doing well and am happy with UpWork and don't plan on switching platforms anytime soon.

Upwork is wonderful platform to show your skills. Skills can be utilized for earning. Upwork always tries to secure the freelancer income and provide guidance to boost income and to make good reputation on Upwork platform. So don't waste your time and skills. Join Upwork to make your future bright.

I've been in Upwork for almost two years now, you need to know what clients are the best fit for you, some clients stop responding and Upwork lowers your score (and preventing you from getting more jobs) but if you build relationships with clients and choose the ones that are a good fit then it will run smoothly. Ive been frustrated for some time because of this and no response from Upwork. There are very bad clients that just use you, say didnt like your work (beacuse they don't want to pay) and your only option is to give a refund because if not they would leave you a bad review. Upwork should really work on the review system, it SUCKS.

I have been working via upwork and one day they suspended my account without any tiny reason. And when I asked WHY? They said "Our decision is final" thats it.
What a brainless company, they even dont release that 1 suspended account equals a disappointed freelancer, and 1 disappointed freelancer equals a bad review, and a bad review equals many lost potential clients.