Upwork

After several years they closed my account without any chance to appeal and explain. Now all my work and reviews are gone

If I could give upwork a zero rating I would. I have been permanently deleted from upwork because of a simple error in my original job post 3 weeks ago when I mentioned "PayPal" in the post. Typing this work apparently violates their policy, which they did not notice for three weeks. Only today (three weeks later) did "Upwork Trust and Safety" notice and delete my account. The problem is I hired a contractor, put the money in escrow according to the terms of service, and the contractor is ready to deliver the work this week. Because upwork has deleted my account, I cannot contact the contractor, pay him for his work, or receive the completed work. They speak of word violations but violate a good faith contract concerning an honest exchange of money for services.

Full of scams, my very first job was a scam confirmed by Upwork, but even so they won't refund the amount I invested buying connects to work on Upwork. And the platform still blames you and has no real intention of helping.

I lost about $7000 on Upwork. I think Upwork is extremely unsafe and they canceled our fixed contract with the freelancer before the project was finished. Since we did not receive the project, we opened a notification and requested a refund. The freelancer did not even respond. Upwork just watched this and now it does not respond.

Upwork regularly post jobs that are sketching and scams.
You will apply for a job and the next day you'll find out that's its not legit.
Their vetting process is horrible.
They post jobs that use defective marketing processes and then will blame you if you apply for the.
Stay far away.

I've used Upwork several times, and I have yet to get satisfactory work. I hired a CMO on the platform to manage a wordpress website project. 6 months and $65k later, I have 8 web pages that are not responsive, the builder doesn't work in the blog, an elementary design and I'm having to pay a new designer for a new website. I parted company with the CMO and her designer. They had rated me positively on Upwork until I cut them loose. Then, they changed their feedback. What type of nonsense is that? Upwork doesn't like accountability. I'm the client, I'm paying, yet when I give honest feedback about a provider, so others don't get poor performance like I have, I get a bad review. Lol I've worked with Marketers for 15 years, and I've yet to see a single one that understood personal accountability.

After having had success with Upwork on previous projects, we had one not work out. The contractor was unable to meet our specifications on a fixed price contract. He pleaded poor and asked for final payment before completion with a promise to complete in the next 90 days. Based on previous success, we were admittedly naive and acceded to the request. The "finished" product never materialized. What was delivered was unusable. We waited beyond the 90 days as they attempted fixes, but it was clearly beyond their ability to deliver. Attempts to get a complaint handled with Upwork wound up with "it's too late. Talk to the contractor." After the struggle to get through to Upwork assist in requesting a refund, they told us it was up to us to settle with the contractor. Given no support from Upwork, we were without leverage and without the money we paid for the botched contract.
Fair warning. In our case, Upwork worked well if there were no problems and was of no use when problems arose.
I can't drag this to your "proof of purchase" drop zone, so am leaving it here.
Payment report - Contract ID *******

Like Fiverr this site is basically worthless. People in 3rd world countries with a very low cost of living can afford to charge pennies compared to designers in the USA. So that means they get all the jobs. Don't waste your time.

Upwork technically is a safe platform to transact. However the processes to protect clients from fraudulent freelancers is flawed. I was scammed by freelancer Rehan Hamayun on an hourly contract. He billed 100% of his time in week one using the Activity tracking provided by Upwork. This activity tracking is flawed and cannot be trusted!

After week one, I did not get any deliverables, but the freelancer started asking a lot of valid clarification questions. This was a delay tactic to go beyond the 5 day dispute period. This continued into week two and that was when I started to get suspicious.

I now lost just under $2000 and received nothing. And as far as Upwork is concerned, all is legitimate.

Do not trust the Active hours! This is creating a sense of false security that work is actually done.

Do not trust the identity verification. Make sure you do your own verification.

You have 5 days to dispute anything! Make sure you get actual deliverables and do not get fooled with someone being very engaging!

Hired a freelancer who didn't speak much English but project was clearly posted as to what I wanted. Assumed if I had a problem, Upwork would help. Well freelancer completed 10% of the project, 90% NOT COMPLETED. And Upwork didn't provide a refund? Had to file a dispute with PayPal to get money back. Suggest you find help somewhere else as it seems Upwork sides with the dishonest freelancers when there is money to be made!

Have you noticed? Upwork seems to operate more like a gambling platform than a freelancing site. The increased prices for connects, the need for connects to boost bids or earn the 'Available Now' badge – it feels like freelancers are being taken advantage of at every turn.

Consider this: for every job posted, Upwork can potentially pocket $300-$500 in connects from freelancers, even for projects as low as $50. On top of that, they take a 20% commission from both clients and freelancers, meaning they could be making hundreds from a single $50 job. It's starting to feel less like a fair marketplace and more like a gamble.

I'm skeptical that Upwork will prioritize improving its system for the benefit of middle-class freelancers anytime soon. It seems like more than 20% of freelancers have already migrated to platforms like Fiverr due to these practices.

Upwork, are you willing to address these concerns and make changes that support the freelancing community, or are you solely focused on catering to agency profiles? Clarification would be appreciated." #Upwork

The client has no option to turn off Auto Time Tracker. Once Freelancer starts tracking time, they get paid no matter what. The client can "dispute" but it is a useless feature. Upwork is forcing the client to pay their BS guarantee to freelancers and they cares 0% about the freelancer doing work right. The site is full of garbage freelancers, it is a waste of time hiring and trying to weed the total crap freelancers from decent freelancers, The 5-star rating system is as useless as Amazon or anywhere else. If you have to use Upwork, do fixed-price contracts and small milestones.

Account suspended saying not suitable to our platform even there were many jobs for me been a 3D Artist. Its just been a new freelancer it takes time.
What right they have saying that.
Very unstable and pathetic response. Zero understanding and helpful behaviour.

Beware, it's not what you think, even paying $200/hr there are no guarantees, if freelancer problems arise you better hope they were from last week. Remedy for contracts are limited to a very narrow window, even if the contract is still ongoing. You know the contractor that takes 1/2 up front and never finishes the job? Yea, upwork breeds them. And there's nothing you can do.

Hello Guys,
Upwork.com is a Worst platform ever i have seen in my life. Is this makes any sense to suspend account cause of sending just few proposals while i have 4 very good reviews on my upwork.com profile and my 12$ i am unable to withdraw. Money does not matter not at all. Before account suspension must be generate a warning email with some suggestions, tips and cautions. I was try to build by business while one day i get an email from upwork.com your account is suspended and that news was a horrible dream for me.

Please dont try this keep away.

Upwork has its share of good and bad, but overall it's a great starting point for those new to freelancing and looking to build their reputation and portfolio. The fees can be brutal at times and really impact your freelancing income, as well as the fact that you literally have to pay to apply for jobs majority of the time, but once you get into a more consistent flow, you don't mind the hassle quite as much. Clientele always varies greatly and impacts the experience, but I've been working on Upwork for a few years now and am comfortable saying that I don't mind the site at all. It's definitely a 4 out of 5.

I spent two hours setting up the perfect profile and filling in all my info, taking tests, etc. I took the English to Italian translation test and literally scored #1 out of the *******+ people who took the test. They still rejected my application! So let me get this straight, you reject the candidate that is better than everyone you already have because you "have to many people" in the area? What an absolute farce.

Upwork is a site full of professionals and employers
I have registered there and when I scroll through to see available jobs, it baffles me.
I will advice on professionals from video editing, autocad artists, writers and any artisans to check them out

Not superb though, not user friendly either. I am satisfied because I found cheap labour but not quite satisfied with their performance. At first they were excellent but then started to let me down more and more. I ended up doing the job myself which is complete opposite of why i joined in the first place. Never mind, I am sure someone better will come along.

I've been working on upwork for a long time (since it was an Odesk).
I was excited when they moved to a new domain upwork.com. I hoped that it will improve some small issues that Odesk had. But unfortunately, when I started using the new site, it became the worst experience working with a freelance platforms.
Guys trying everyday to improve the site usage but I'm not sure when they will get success.
Anyway, there are a lot of good specialist on the site.

I started with Upwork a number of years ago and found success and regular work. It was actually a large piece of where I found work as a voice artist. But then they changed their fee structure and I no longer try to find new work through the site.

We must now pay for audition credits AND they then take a percentage of the contracted fee.

I felt this was a money grabbing attempt and it made me decide to leave the platform except to keep my past clients who still work through this site.
Otherwise I have left and will spend my time elsewhere.

It is a good platform and one that I had success using. The value was once good. But not it is not a value for me any longer.

If you are just starting out it can still be a great platform for you to use. If you have been in the business a while I say skip it.

I have very mixed experiences with upwork, no good ones for SEO, some lovely ones for a marketing adviser and photoshopping of images, but terrible for website design. Am in the middle of a dispute now, the designer was supposed to do design templates for 3 specific pages, and the layouts, looked great. However his integrating was and still is a mess, affecting text and layout on all the pages, to the extent, that I am now having to spend hours undoing and re-doing all the work. And the upwork view..." it appears that no clear violation of our terms has been made"

So sure, use them, but you are entirely alone if it goes wrong.

Upwork has been my trusted platform for finding freelance opportunities and connecting with clients from around the world. The platform's vast network of clients and freelancers, comprehensive job listings, and secure payment system make it easy to find meaningful projects and build a successful freelance career. I appreciate Upwork's commitment to transparency and professionalism, as seen in its dispute resolution process and feedback system, which ensure fair and equitable transactions for both parties. Moreover, the platform's collaboration tools and communication features enhance teamwork and streamline project management. With Upwork, freelancing is not just a job—it's a rewarding and fulfilling career.