My contractor has been suspended but is unable to finish my current project!

[092fbf9f]

My contractor has been banned from Upwork because of commencing communication outside the platform and this has made my life very difficult.

The first problem is that it seems communication outside of Upwork like in Slack isn't made very clear on the client's side that this is not appropriate. As a result I asked him to discuss and Slack is much easier to speak than on Upwork (the app is atrocious for someone hiring on the move) prior to starting the contract. He was completely blindsided by it as he was new to platform and I was not aware because there is no alert in the system for clients either. All payments for the contract STILL occurred on Upwork yet somehow the platform appears to think it's appropriate to permanently ban him for poor user interface design rather than a temporary suspension.

The second problem is that now he is unable to withdraw any of the money that we paid for his milestones. Upwork has effectively taken that money for themselves. We have a job that is not technically completed as there are still bug fixes despite the bulk of it being done. This work is business crucial and the developer themselves is the only one that knows the codebase well. The work is now stagnated as a result.

We have spent a considerable amount of our money on this platform and would appreciate being heard regarding this contractor's suspension and an appeal to be considered properly with sufficient context. I would happily speak to anyone on this case and provide my personal phone number for a conversation with a member of the Upwork Support Team.

[092fbf9f]

If any support staff needs further details about my hiring profile I will be happy to provide this.

[spectralua]

FL broke rules and of course was banned. It is normal. Ask for refund and you will receive that money.

Upwork team wont call you, dont wait. Them dont care about.

[yofazza]

Milestone paid so there's a contract.

In my negativity, I'll say it's just like the other "false circumvention alarm" caused by the mess they themselves created. I often said that Upwork is not the center of the freelancing universe and we can't expect everyone, including new busy clients, to look into the details before using this service, especially when Upwork did not "shove" those information efficiently to their users (remember scam education?).

From what I know, it's really not unusual here to get an email address from a prospective client in their first response, where the client have spent a lot and have many 5-star review, which doesn't necessarily escalate into circumvention. As I mentioned in another thread, there are reasons why people wanted to communicate outside.

Yes, the rule is broken, and people will say, 'clients who didn't follow the rules are not the clients I'd like to work for'. Well, I'm just pointing out that there are other reasons for this, and the increased complaints on both sides (including veteran freelancers) about the newly-tuned 'banhammer' are the proof.

To my knowledge, previously the ban team would take some time to examine if a known 'communication outside before contract' offender really did circumvent, such as by checking if the project was actually completed through Upwork or not, before taking action. I'm sure they can't do this anymore because they're overwhelmed with the 'must-circumvent' fake account proposals, and also the scarcity of the team, a.k.a the mess they created themselves.

It's fun to observe these 😁

[092fbf9f]

Can a moderator or someone from the Upwork team please respond to this post.

[ArjayM]

Hi Matthew,

We understand how important it is to resolve this issue with your talent's account. However, I see that you've been in contact with our support team by phone. Unfortunately, as our support team has advised, we cannot disclose any information or actions being taken on another user's account for privacy reasons. 

Please encourage the freelancer to continue coordinating with the team through the ticket that was raised about this account concern so that the team can assist them more efficiently.