Freelancer Disappeared and profile not available

[bighats]

I was communicating with a Freelancer and he had replied back to me with some details.

Now it says "

       This profile is no longer available.

What happened.

Everything was progressing and I want to hire the person.

[gilbert-phyllis]

No, you probably don't want to hire the person because they were likely banned for some ToS violation.

[bighats]

He was perfectly professional with me.

And your reply "sort of" points out the problem .... "Probably" ... which means that Upwork Customer Support should answer the Get Support button and tell me DEFINATELY what he did wrong.

To just delete this in the middle of our exchange is disrespectful to me, the client of Upwork.

I deserve an explanation from Upwork.

Thank you @Phyllis G for your reply.  At least the other users on this site are curteous.

[prestonhunter]

One approach to using Upwork involves using the tools as they exist, without ever contacting Upwork Customer Support.

As a client, I have a number of freelancers that I'm talking to for any particular project, and I move forward with the ones who are available, with no particular interest in those who aren't.

[bighats]

The flaw in your theory is that he WAS AVAILABLE.

The Problem that Upwork has is not INFORMING the Client when something is done that will effect ME and I am not the one that did it.

Upwork owes me a "Duty of care" since they are acting as Agent in this transaction. They take my money and therefore, they are bound to the actual and social contract of the relationship.

They violated that when they affected me without any details or method to resolve (no Customer Support).

I do not believe in "This is all we get and live with it" type of mentality. I want excellent and striving to make it better, not just put up with poor service, is what should be happening.

[prestonhunter]

You are advocating for what you would like to see happen on the platform. There is nothing wrong with that. Many beneficial changes on the platform originated with such advocacy and discussion here in the Forum.

The important thing is to be mindful of discussion about how to effectively use Upwork as the system currently exists, versus changes you would like to see Upwork implement.

Based on my own experience, my reading on the Forum, and your own first hand account, I believe that Upwork does not notify clients if the platform removes a freelancer or if the freelancer removes herself. Moreover, if you were to contact Upwork and ask them why a freelancer profile is no longer available, Upwork would tell you nothing, citing privacy concerns.

This doesn't mean that the current policies are as they should be. This is simply an attempt to describe things as they are.

[AndreaG]

Hi Paul,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Please know that for privacy and security reasons we aren't able to share information about an account's status with anybody but the owner of that account.

That said, we'll have one of our agents reach out to you via support ticket in order to assist you with your concerns.

[gilbert-phyllis]

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Paul C wrote:

He was perfectly professional with me.

And your reply "sort of" points out the problem .... "Probably" ... which means that Upwork Customer Support should answer the Get Support button and tell me DEFINATELY what he did wrong.

To just delete this in the middle of our exchange is disrespectful to me, the client of Upwork.

I deserve an explanation from Upwork.

Thank you @Phyllis G for your reply.  At least the other users on this site are curteous.

---

His being professional in his interaction with you has nothing whatsoever to do with many or even most of the things he might have done to get himself thrown off the platform. The best scammers and cheats are professional and engaging. As Preston said, UW is simply going to tell you whatever happened is none of your beeswax. And I think you'd be hard put to make a case that you're entitled to know. UW is not the "agent" in the sense you're talking about. They simply offer a mechanism for clients and FLs to find each other and then facilitate payment transactions. it's up to us to vet each other and frankly, when UW susses out a cheat and kicks them to the curb, I'm glad.

There are ten bazillion FLs on this platform and I'm confident there's another who can meet your needs as well or even better than you anticipated that one would.