Freelancer/Agencies Feedback/Rating Misrepresented? Developers don't know how to setup environments?

[futuregrade]

I hired a freelancer/agency for a job and they dropped the ball on the project.  Are most developers/agenicies on here basically novice developers that misrepresent that they are experts?  These guys couldn't even set up a proper development environment locally, or on their own servers.  They kept asking for access to our production environments to develop on?   This would be a joke in real professional IT setting.  This project uses docker, to setup their environment, which they couldn't do.  So they set up their own server, which probably was different from production.  As a result, bugs showed up in production but not in their environment (I'm guessing this is because they surpressed their error reporting?) Is this the norm on upwork, to give developers access to your production environment, since they aren't able to setup a proper development environment themselves?  This is like the 2nd or 3rd team I worked with where they couldn't set up a proper development environment, and ended using the excuse that I wouldn't give them production access, as why the project failed.

Also, I left these guys a bad feedback, but their rating stayed the same -- Does upwork like to misrepresent developers feedback so that it seems like they have higher quality developers, then they actually do?  I'm a developer for almost 20 years, so maybe that's why?  I am able to do code review myselfs and see that their code is crap. I'm not sure how tech savvy other clients are on here, so maybe that's why these terrible developers keep getting good feedback or has the quality of developers on here gone down the hole lately?  Previously, I had worked with developers who were able to successfully complete a project, now it seem like some of these developers are basically boderline scammers who were suppose to finish this project in 1 month, it has now gone to 4 months.

One last thing, when I went to close the contract due to freelancer/agency performace, i had a funded milestone.  It asked me if I wanted to release the milestone or request a refund for the milestone.  I selected a to request a refund and clicked submit.  It went ahead and release the milestone to freelancer/agency?  Wassup with these "bugs"?  Maybe upwork wants to do whatever so the freelancer/agency gets paid, since this the only way upwork gets paid?

[AndreaG]

Hi Tom,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I checked and can see that there's already a dispute on the contract and our mediation team is handling it. Please continue to communicate with them directly as they are the ones who can best assist you.

[prestonhunter]

Are there developers who know how to set up a development environment?

Yes.

There are developers whose knowledge in this area dwarfs your own.

And there are developers who know nothing about setting up a development environment.

There is no "standard" for being a freelancer on Upwork.

Your biggest problem is a lack of undrestanding about the nature of the Upwork platform.

I have hired over 180 freelancers on Upwork.

One of the reasons that I am so successful as a client on Upwork is that I don't assume that any freelancer will be any good, and I don't assume that any freelancer will be bad. When I hire a freelancer, I evaluate their work, especially early on. If they are providing me with value, i continue to let them work on my project and earn money. If I don't love their work, then I end the contract.

[futuregrade]

The thing is, the first task they did good.  It's like they put on a more advanced developer to reel you in for an ongoing committment.  Then once you are committed, they put on a beginner developer on your project.  These scammers know what they are doing.  **Edited for Community Guidelines** -- Anyways I wouldn't work with these guys, especially if you're in tech and you know what you're doing and care about quality and have more complex logic/algorithms that need to be worked on.  If you need a wordpress site then go for it though.

Look at this crap code, their developer can't even be consistent between
using <?php and <?= -- Do they not know <?= does not work on some
servers?

Anyways, upwork, so why is there rating/feedback still the same?  You guys weren't able to answer that.

[prestonhunter]

It's is all about project management.

If you hired freelancers, and they the first task well, that's great!

If they then started to do poorly, then stop assigning new work to them.

I really feeel like you are putting the freelancers first.

You are elevating the importance of individual freelancers.

Don't do that.

Put YOURSELF and your PROJECT first.

That is what is most important.

re: "Anyways, upwork, so why is there rating/feedback still the same? You guys weren't able to answer that."

I don't know.

Who cares.

Put your project first.

The customers who use your website DON'T CARE about the freelancers who worked on it. They don't know the names of those developers. They don't care if you hired 1 freelancer or 10 freelancers. They don't care about the ratings or feedback of those freelancers. They care about their EXPERIENCE while using your website.

re: " It's like they put on a more advanced developer to reel you in for an ongoing committment. Then once you are committed, they put on a beginner developer on your project"

Yes, that is probably what happened.
It sounds like you have been hiring agencies.

STOP HIRING AGENCIES.

Hire individual freelancers.

If you detect any sign that an "individual freelancer" you hired is actually a GROUP of people, then END THE CONTRACT immediately.

Work with individuals.

And never hire only ONE freelancer to work on a project of significant scope and complexity.

You should always hire MULTIPLE freelancers to work on significant projects. Then you can COMPARE the work that they are doing. You can continue working only with the freelancers whose work you love, and you can fire the rest.

[futuregrade]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Hire multiple freelancers and pay them?  Sorry but people have budgets.  I'd figure upwork is here to have a better system to vet freelancers or at least a reliable rating system .  **Edited for Community Guidelines**

And it's all about project management?  Isn't that what these agencies are for?  So you're saying these agencies are basically scammers, like I said?

[prestonhunter]

re: "Hire multiple freelancers and pay them? Sorry but people have budgets."

The main reason clients hire multiple freelancers for the same project is to save money.

re: "I'd figure upwork is here to have a better system to vet freelancers or at least a reliable rating system."

I don't rely on that at all.

re: "And it's all about project management?  Isn't that what these agencies are for?"

No,

Hiring agencies is not a replacement for hiring an independent project manager. When you hire an agency, they typically identify someone as a project manager, but often that person is really a "handler" whose goal is to keep the client on the hook, paying money without getting results.

You need to stop hiring agencIes.

You need to hire a project manager or learn how to do what a project manager does.

Your current approach to commissioning development work on Upwork has not been successful.

[AndreaG]

Hi all,

A number of comments have been removed or edited because they were in violation of Community Guidelines and this thread has now been closed. Please, be mindful of the Community Guidelines and respectful toward other users when posting.