Is it possible to leave feedback for freelancer who backs out after contract starts?

[b716e636]

Is it possible to leave feedback for freelancer who backs out after contract starts? Certainly there should be some way to warn other clients of potential redflags.

June 23 - Hired freelancer with an agreement to start July 15. I starting putting things in place ahead of time for him - some of which had a cost associated such as licenses to my CRM and company email. He specifically wanted to acquaint himself with Pipedrive.

June 30- All was well at this point and the freelancer expressed interest in having a conversation ahead of time so he could prepare. We exchanged messages over the coming week.

July 7 - I reached out to the freelancer to inquire about his availability for the coming day, and also to give him the Pipedrive credentials for his account.

July 8 - The freelancer responded to confirm that we would speak at 1:00 that same day. At that time he didn't answer my call. He didn't respond or acknoweldge the follow up voicemail and Upwork messages left for him. At this point I started to have reservations, but considering the contract didn't start until July 15 I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

July 9 - I sent another message inquiring about his availability. No response.

July 11 - Another message was sent, with a reminder that we were scheduled to begin on the following Monday. The freelancer repsonded overnight stating that he would be ready for a call anytime after 3:00PM that day. I responded in the morning asking if 5:00PM would work. He didn't respond. I called at 5:00 and left a voicemail, and followed up with another message via Upwork. No response was received.

July 14 - I sent a message preparing freelancer for his July 15 start date.

July 15 - Freelancer sent a weird message that said **Edited for Community Guidelines** I sent one more message asking when he'd be ready to start; since he missed our first two calls, I offered to schedule another call. Freelancer stopped responding.

July 16 - I sent the freelancer a message telling him that we were having trouble connecting. I pointedly asked him if he was still available to work on the project. **Edited for Community Guidelines**

I ended the contract without paying the freelancer (he didn't perform any work).

This is ridiculous. I've now lost a month due to this guy, as I try to find another freelancer who can handle this job. Certainly there has to be a way to warn people of this, right?

[gilbert-phyllis]

 A closed contract with no money changing hands will be a ding on his UW job history. Most FLs try to avoid that like the plague. So, he's not getting away completely unscathed. There's nothing else you can do since, technically, he did not violate the ToS. Either FL or client can end a contract at any time, for any reason, including that one of them seems to have a screw loose (and it's not you).

Without knowing what type of work the project entails or what fee ballpark you were in with this FL, I can tell you how to avoid this particular scenario in the future: When somebody shows you who they are, believe them. No true professional would have been so unreliable about communicating. After missing one scheduled conversation (which happens occasionally because we are all human), the appropriate behavior on his part would have been a heartfelt apology, assurance that it would not happen again, and being proactive about communicating with you, to a point just short of getting on your nerves. There's absolutely no excuse for his continued lack of responsiveness. I would have cut him loose on July 10.

The UW message center can be unreliable but tens of thousands of us manage to deliver excellent, dependable service in spite of it. He wasn't responding to voice mail messages, either, so it's on him.

It seems pretty obvious he is accepting pay off the UW platform and I believe you can report him for that. I will try to figure out how to flag your post to get a moderator's attention.

Sorry you wasted so much time. Don't be quite so accommodating next time. You're the client!

[b716e636]

Thanks for your reply. You may have noticed the weird reference to PayPal made by the freelancer. Oddly enough, on the same day I ended the contract my account was briefly suspended by Upwork for trying to solicit payments outside the platform. This wasn't actually the case, but it has me wondering if this was somehow related to the freelancer's seemingly out-of-nowhere question about whether or not I tried to send him money.

[tlsanders]

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Rob B wrote:

Thanks for your reply. You may have noticed the weird reference to PayPal made by the freelancer. Oddly enough, on the same day I ended the contract my account was briefly suspended by Upwork for trying to solicit payments outside the platform. This wasn't actually the case, but it has me wondering if this was somehow related to the freelancer's seemingly out-of-nowhere question about whether or not I tried to send him money.

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Yes. I know of at least a couple of clients who have been briefly suspended when PayPal was mentioned in messaging, even though they weren't making (or offering) payment that way. 

[JoanneP]

Hi Rob,

Sorry to hear about your experience with this freelancer. I've shared your concern with the team and one of our team members will reach out to you directly and assist you further. Thank you.

[mtngigi]

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Phyllis G wrote:... I will try to figure out how to flag your post to get a moderator's attention.

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No worries, it's been flagged.

[versailles]

Rob, when you close the contract you can leave your feedback. If no money was exchanged, it won't show on their profile, but it will be taken into account and affect their job success score.

I strongly recommend that you report this person to Upwork about the PayPal thing, because this may be a scammer.

[mtngigi]

I've been curious about all the unprofessional freelancers we hear about on the client forum. More specifically, how clients are managing to find the worst of the worst when there are so many really great freelancers on this site.

Are these (lousy) freelancers (still) being suggested by Upwork's algorithm, or a talent specialist? Are perfectly good freelancers who fit a client's RFP still being relegated to the "bin" and going unnoticed? It would be interesting to hear/know how or why a client ends up with an unprofessional time-waster, as Rob did. None of us like to hear of clients having this kind of experience, because it reflects on all of us.

Upwork ... are you listening?

[kat303]

IMO you should have cut ties with this freelancer either on July 8 or 9. The only 3 reasons right now that come to my mind as to why the freelancer wasn't responding is that he realized, after actually receiving and reviewing the material, that he didn't have the skills to even work on your job never mind completing it. That he had another lucrative client that would have netted him much more then he would have gotten from you. Or as hinted he may be taking payment off site. (which would be a big risk for him as it seems to be that clients profit from doing that more then the freelancers.) The client get their work done and never pay unless they pay first before work is started.

What baffles me is why clients stick to freelancers for so long. They hope that communication can be established again, or work will finally be done or errors will be fixed and stay with this freelancer months after initially hiring them.  Clients are contracting a service. If that service is not being performed, clients can close a contract at any time. for any reason and repost their job again, or choose another freelancers from the proposals they received. 

As to trying to warn other freelancers about him - you can leave public and private feedback if you pay him something. Even paying him $1 will enable you to leave feedback. But as good as your intentions are, (warning other clients) your first and probably only priority should be to get your job done correctly, timely and professionally. Besides, a job closed with no money earned will probably impact this freelaancer's JSS more then a negative review.