Hi,
So first off, I'd like to say I've been a very happy upwork customer for years.
I've hired dozens of freelancers to write articles articles, and I learned to stay away from those who aren't good at writing content and aren't experts in their field.
Until now.
Native English speaker freelancer, experienced in her field - just what I needed. It was her first job, but we all have to start somewhere, right? The way she communicated was perfect. No red flags.
She writes 11 articles, when I get the idea to use copyscape. Yes, I should ahve done it sooner. Most articles are ok, except for one that's 66% plagiarized, and another one that's 30%. Of course, in reality, the percentages are higher because she changed some of the wording. I was in shock.
We already had a milestone in progress that was funded and she delivered work, and I was just about to approve it when thsi happened.
The funny part? The 30% article she spun belonged another website of mine. And before you ask, yes, Wayback Machine took a spanshot of the article after I published it last year, before the two of us met.
The other article belongs to a high profile website in my niche. I can't imagine the damages to that website I would have had to pay if I had published the article. It's almost identical.
Her reaction to all of this? Shrugging her shoulders. She can't understand what happened. She didn't copy paste. Maybe she reproduced the thing unconsciouscly afte reading the sources for inspiration. She is quite the prodigy.
She never tried to figure out what happened. Just shrugged her shoulders saying "it wasn't me". Veery quiet about it, letting time pass by, while sometimes replying to my messages, leading me to believe ther's progress and that we can work it out. Not surpising for someone who "used to be a laywer".
I've been trying to work something out with her for 3 weeks now. She's very good at stalling, though she does reply, so she's not sick.
I asked for refunds for the articles (a partial one for the partially plagiarized article) but she did not reply to them. She said she will have something "asap" but didn't.
Last night I found a 3rd article with issues, and requested a small refund for. Thankfully only had one paragraph plagiarized. She offered it this morning "as a gesture of goodwill". A gesture of goodwill after she refuses to refund me an 8X larger amount of money for the other two articles, and after she's purposefully stalling for weeks.
And the worst part? We still have a milestone for an article that passes copyscape that I have to pay. It's roughly the same amoune as what I am owed for the plagiarized content. And it seems I have to pay it.
Upwork, what is happening? 30 days, really? Do crimes expire after 30 days?
Yes, I should have done it sooner. But only 30 days to get a refund for a piece of content that is an obvious scam? As a client spending money here, that doesn't make me feel very safe. Please change your policies. I'm not coming back after 7 years (even though in front of the law I can), I'm coming back after a few months.
Another fair optionfor UpWork would be to start suspending such accounts. The evidence is there. It doesn't matter whether you refund the money or not. These are not the kind of people you want on your platform.
Thanks,
Ovi
