Not able to buy connects as an exclusive agency member.

[harpal5inh]

I need to buy connects so that my profile's availabilty badge can be turned on. But it says that "These Connects transactions are from your freelancer activity. Since you are now exclusively an agency contractor, you can only view them."

I'm an exclusive member and my agency account do have connects. But when I try logging in as freelancer I'm not able to buy connects.

[NikolaS]

Hi Harpalsinh,

Thank you for reaching out to us. As an exclusive agency member, you work on Upwork only as part of the agency, and as an exclusive member, you can't use your individual Connects balance.

When you submit a proposal as a non-exclusive agency member, you have the option to either submit the proposal as an individual or as a member of the agency. Exclusive members' proposals are all submitted as members of the agency.

Feel free to check this help article for more details.

[harpal5inh]

But, to turn on the availability badge, it says that don't have enough connects. So, I need to buy the connects, but I can't.

Provide me the solution to turn on the profile's availability badge.

[LuiggiR]

Harpalsinh, if you don't have Connects as an exclusive agency member, you aren't able to purchase more. Therefore, you won't be able to turn on the Availability Badge from your profile.

Since you have full admin permissions from your agency, you can switch to the agency profile and turn on your availability badge from there. You can do this by going to the agency roster, finding your profile, and turning on the badge as you would from your freelancer profile. Instead of using your Connects, you will use the agency's Connects. You can check this article for more information. 

**Edited to add**

I'm sorry if my reply above was confusing. Upon checking with the Support team, this feature is not available to Business Managers - they will not be able to turn on the Availability Badge for their agency freelancers. 

You as a freelancer will be able to turn this on yourself if you have sufficient Connects by going to your freelancer profile. Note that as I mentioned above, as an exclusive agency member, you won't be able to continue using the badge after you run out of Connects, and you won't be able to purchase more Connects. Here's more information about exclusive and non-exclusive agency members. 

[harpal5inh]

Hey, thanks for your reply but still I'm facing the error to turn on the availability badge. I switched to an agency profile and followed the mentioned steps, but hard luck.

Attached is the error.

[759e32fa]

Hi Harpalsinh,

We’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[harpal5inh]

Hey Annie,

Are there any updates?

I didn't receive any updates from your agent.

[PradeepH]

Hi Harpalsinh,

I see that one of our team members has already reached out to you regarding your concern via a support ticket. You can access your support tickets here. Please don't hesitate to follow up with them on the same support ticket if you have additional questions regarding your concern. Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.

- Pradeep

[harpal5inh]

Hey Pradeep,

Ticket Id #44709123

Currently, I don't have any button/options to reply to this ticket, so I'm writing here.

According to the previous reply from Luiggi, I can spend connects from agency profile to turn on the avaialbilty badge.

But according to Halimah, I can't do so.

Please go through both the responses and provide the correct solution.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[AveryO · Accepted solution]

Hi Harpalsinh, 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I looked into this further with the help of the Upwork Support Team and can confirm that this feature is not available to Business Managers - they will not be able to turn on the Availability Badge for their agency freelancers. 

You as a freelancer will be able to turn this on yourself if you have sufficient Connects by going to your freelancer profile. Make sure that you have switched back to your freelancer account should you wish to update your profile's availability. Just note that since you are an exclusive agency member, you will not be able to continue using this badge once you run out of Connects. As an exclusive agency member, you will not be able to purchase more Connects. Here's more information about exclusive and non-exclusive agency members. 

We are in the process of updating the information we have added here to avoid confusing freelancers and agencies. 

Thank you for your patience as we looked into this further!

[harpal5inh]

Hello Avery,

If this is the case, then exclusive members of any agency will not be able turn on their badge by using agency's connects. And exclusive members can't purchase the connects for freelancer profile. So, how will we survive as an exclusive members. I don't think so that the feature like this should be developed. Upwork is such a huge platform and didn't expect this kind of features that is a disadvantage to be an exclusive members of agency. If this is a bug then fix don't discontinue whole feature.

- Harpalsinh G.