Upwork

I had a good time at UpWork. As I was new 2 months ago, they helped me a lot. The UpWork is for all who want to work for their family in their freetime.

WARNING to others - Upwork freelancers V T Nezwelt ripped me off $10K and didn't have the qualifications to complete the work despite claiming on Upwork's website that they did - this is the response from Upwork's legal counsel when I asked for help in getting my money back for an end product I can't use:

Upwork makes no representations about, and does not guarantee the quality, safety, or legality of, the Freelancer Services; the truth or accuracy of Freelancer's listings on the Site; the qualifications, background, or identities of Users; the ability of Freelancers to deliver the Freelancer Services

My system was hacked when I exposed it to one of their freelancers from a foreign country. I contacted upwork and they said they would investigate. I supplied them with proof. They said they could not prove the freelancer was involved my system hack even though I had my system running for seven years prior and had not been hacked once, until the day I gave the freelancer access to my system. The freelancer kept oddly stating during the process that my system was not secure, even after I explained to him that the only reason it wasn't "secure" was because I was giving him access!? I believe he was doing this to lay the groundwork for an explanation as to why my system was hacked, once it was hacked (my phone system and associated calling account was drained of funds). So as a way of throwing me a bone, upwork said I could give the freelancer whatever feedback I felt was needed. After serious delays in upwork posting my review of the freelancer, I checked back a month later and found that my feedback was removed. They then stated they cannot have somebody giving negative feedback to one of their good freelancers (meaning one that makes them a lot of money). I noticed numerous other negative feedback scores given to the same freelancers who had their negative feedback details removed. Upwork is protecting a hacker for their own bottom Dollar.

Elance closed my account after i posted a job and paid 5$ to promote better my job. They charged me and simply closed my account. When i tried to login i got this message: Your Elance account is expired.

I tired to contact the support team. I got this reply:

Hello XXX XXX,

I've reviewed your account with our team and it seems your account was closed due to irregularities detected by our system.

We regularly review member accounts to ensure activity follows Elance policies and guidelines. If you wish to review our Terms and Conditions, please visit:
http://www.elance.com/p/help/tos/index.html

I understand your concern, but in discussing this with our team I am not able to reverse the decision.

Regards,
Elance Policy Team

################################

Then I asked them to close my account so i can register it back,

But they didn't, and I am still getting emails from them on how to complete my JOB:

Need some inspiration
To finish that job post?

Hello XXXX,

Been too busy to finish that job post?

Perhaps a little inspiration will remind you of why you came to Elance in the first place.

1. Browse our 3 million freelancers
2. Check out our Skills Directory
3. View average hourly prices for jobs
4. See trends in online work
5. Visit our Testimonial Center
Skilled freelancers are available now for jobs large and small, helping you grow your business fast.

Work Differently,
The Elance Team

How should I finish posting my job if they closed my account?

I recommend you to stay away from Elance!.

Very helpful marketplace for freelancers and businesses. Freelancers can find some great clients and businesses can find reasonable freelancers to handle their jobs.

I recently used Upwork for my design work and hired a freelancer.
Everything went well, I hired them using my Upwork's website, conversed with the freelancer through the website and used Paypal and paid using their system. Everything went smooth. However few weeks later, I wanted to post another job ad and found that my account has been suspended. They requested for information such as, How did I find the freelancer?, How did I interact with the freelancer?, How did I pay?.
The most stupid part is that they have full access to my profile. They can go into my account and clearly see how I did all those things. However as I needed to have my account in working order, I provided all my evidence - snapshots of our conversation, and my job add status stating "PAID". They however came back and said simply - Your account has been suspended and will not be reviewed again. What kind of BS is that?
So I tried speaking to the 4 of their customer service, whom are clueless and cannot help in any way whatsoever and a manager. They all had the same reply - They dont have any information. They also wouldnt give me their complaints department's details, continuously closed my requests, and one of them even hung up on me. And all I was asking for was a VALID reason as to why they would close a paying customer's account? There are so many of these sites out there and better ones too. So with the increased competition in the market, it doesnt seem sensible to be going around closing paying customer's account. If there was an option to for a 0 star, that is what I would give them. 1 star seems TOO high.

The reviews here just DON'T MATCH UP with other sources. See attached screenshots from the BBB (Better Business Bureau), Yelp, Consumer Affairs and The RipOff Report.

BBB - 1.11 stars out of 5
Yelp - 1 out of 5 stars
Consumer Affairs - 2.4 out of 5 stars
RipOff Report - 126 complaints
Go to these sites and do a search for Upwork.

I was with Elance and smelled slime when the merger took place. I never joined.
A few years ago the ratings for Upwork on this site were in the toilet.
On these other sites I've listed, they are STILL in the toilet.

To the self-entitled reviewers who can't read or follow the necessary policies that is required of any successful business or community of legitimate members: "Read & comply the instructions. Contact UW Support (anytime) if you have a legit problem. Otherwise, don't embarrass yourself with egocentric rants."

I've been writing professionally for more than 40 years, I have a dozen external, longstanding clients.and joined Upwork about 5 years ago. I've subscribed to no less than 9 other online platforms over the past 10 years. One by one, I have canceled all but Upwork. I long ago realized that I was wasting my time with any but UW.

Some of my projects require subcontracting services such as graphic arts, technology or other computer geek-type stuff. Maintaining both a freelancer & client accounts, being somewhat techno-stoopid, I can rely the company's focus on providing a human Support staff (available 24/7/365) & constant monitoring/anticipation of trolls/hackers/scammers, I can in turn provide one-stop service & to my clients.

Upwork's business model is why it is the most successful (among so few) publicly-traded freelancer companies. Its focus on service, security & protection of both freelancers & clients from the wannabe's & whiners is why I can have a 100% rating (and make a couple of bucks).

"Read & comply the instructions. Contact UW Support (anytime) if you have a legit problem. Otherwise, don't embarrass yourself with egocentric rants."

Mike S.

They charge high rate of commission and transaction fee extra (20%+0.99%), which is comparing high to other sites. They suspend your account just because client is not choosing you (Nonsense). This was good until unless it was Odesk. Now it is an organization of robbers, cheaters, biased and racism persons. As per my worst experience with Upwork, requesting all please DO NOT OPEN YOUR ACCOUNT IN UPWORK. Better sites listed below:

Toptal
Elance
Freelancer
Craigslist
Guru
99designs
Peopleperhour
Freelance Writing Gigs
Demand Media
College Recruiter
GetACoder
IFreelance
Project4hire
SimplyHired

I have now spent well over a week in the process of finding a good writer for a $5000+ project, and I found one through Elance. I have absolutely no objection to compensating any intermediary that helped us find a way to work together. But with my brief experience with them there is no way I would enter a business relationship with Elance. After a series of baffling and maddening interactions with them over the past week, and twice waiting 15 to 20 minutes on hold, I now find: In addition to their bizarre "credit card authorization process" (unlike anything anywhere else in the use of a credit card), it is their actual policy to charge an amount to my credit card in excess of what I authorized! They actually think that's OK by condescendingly reassuring me after the fact that there will be a refund "in 10 days or so"! (The California BBB will be fascinated to learn about this, and there may even be a young Assistant DA in or around Mountain View looking for an interesting way to spend a month or two.) I know incompetence, arrogance, and an ethical tin ear when encounter them. When things start out rife with these "little early signs" it never gets better, only worse. I finally did last what I should have done first, which is to look up on the internet whatever reviews from Elance users I could find. Wow! I had to tell of a perfectly good writer I could not proceed, and apologize profusely for wasting his time. Back to Square One, and immensely grateful to be there.

Dale Delmege
760-4154-0128

I've had a freelancer Upwork for a while now, and I've only recently begun to apply again. I had just gotten my first job and finished it successfully when I got an email notifying me that my account is suspended. Apparently, Upwork thinks that the reason you don't get jobs is because your skills aren't right. This assumption is pretty infuriating by itself, given that there's so much competition and many of the clients end up not picking anyone. Plus, why would you offer so many connects + the option to buy more if you don't want us to use them?
"Our decision is based on a careful review and the fact that you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs on our site without many contracts or earnings. Unfortunately, this means the jobs posted by clients are not a good match for your skills."
This is one big sad joke. Ignoring the fact that they take more than 20% of the money, why wouldn't they give freelancers a chance to build up a client base? Why did they suspend my account only after I got my first job?
I wrote to them, sent out diplomas and certificates, they wrote back that their decision is final, ignoring my arguments alltogether.
In over 5 years of professional experience I've never had one negative feedback, everybody was always very pleased with my work (including the one Upwork client), and they dare to tell me my skills aren't fit for the clients? Outrageous.
STAY AWAY! Exploitative and unfair system!

My Account has been suspended without telling any reason, I have created dummy account which is not even activated. I got a message from the support team you have created multiple accounts its violation of policy, to another close within 14 days, but they have suspended both accounts without giving the grace to close the dummy account. It is not professional, I have dropped an email to CEO, *******@upwork.com, and VP of Operations *******@upwork.com, this stupid CEO suspended my accounts.

This is something against their policy, they should give the grace to close the other account, if I am tried to close the account, it is not successful, a message notifies like your account not able to close because it is suspended. I have a solid reason against Up work.

I have been using more than 1 years, this is the way they treat Freelance.

I will sue this company to lodged a legal complaint against this firm for cheated me my project money. The project has been completed.

Also, it will publish in all social media and News channel, Government of United State.

Request to all Freelancer, please spread this information over the world to Ban this fraud company.

Thanks.

I started with Upwork when I was nothing, And now I'm a Mid Level freelancer, So my opinion is that, it is a very good platform for the beginner. Everyone will pray for me Thanks