Terrible First time Upwork experience

[bela_i]

Hello everyone, 

We are new to Upwork, this is the first project that we are working on here. Now we have this situation, we hired a freelancer to work on an iOS Swift project consisting of 5 milestones. He has completed the first 3 milestones (after the deadlines we agreed about) and was "working" until about 1 week ago on the milestones 4 and 5. 

The problem is, he is not even an iOS Developer and should not be in Upwork. While working on milestone 4 and 5, he created SO many bugs for milestone 1-3, that now we cannot even use the code from them. Plus, he clearly cannot finish milestone 4 and 5, because each time he fixes a bug, he creates at least 2 more. It's a never ending circle and we wasted money and time. He claimed multiple times he completed tasks, completely ignoring specifications and istructions, we wasted time testing and finding the tasks he claimed were done were not, plus additional bugs in parts of the project which should not have been touched even were created. 

Another thing that he did is that he shared our project with another developer. We noticed another user making commits in Github. He did this without asikng us or even informing us about it. How are our projects safe in the hands of such people? He also had the audacity to tell the Mediation Assistant that he did not share the project with a third party, he: "used a local laptop and did not notice that it was not my account.", which is nonsense, simply not possible to do by accident. 

Now we wait for the Mediation Specialist. We are seeking a full refund because the code is useless, the developer is not capable of completing the project and he has shared the code with third parties. This kind of freelancers just calling themselves developers should not be here at all. 

Has anyone had a similar situation to this? How did you handle it? What kind of advice can you offer us?

[pponso]

Hello Bellla,

Sad to here that you had such kind of experience with a freelancer on Upwork, unfortunately, I'm unable to access your profile, else, would have gone through that and then would have replied...

These are rare expeirences on Upwork, I have been a freelancer, agency and client on Upwork and this happens with me very rarely, Upwork will take care of this situation, so please don't worry...

But for future hirings, please be careful, you can take care of the following:

• Ask him/her about the projects he has done.
• You can ask for the proof, that he/she has done those projects.
• Also, you can ask him/her some questions regarding the skill, that he claims that he is sound in.
• last question that I ask, "Are you confident that you can complete this job succesfully"

I hope this helps!

All the best!

[bela_i]

Of course Upwork must take care of this matter! This kind of scammer doesn't have any place here. It's a place for business and we take it very seriously. 

We did ask for previous projects he worked on, asked questions about the skills that were important for us, many times we asked him if he has questions etc, sent project details to review before he accepted contract, asked if he is sure he can handle the project, etc. 

While this situation is being handled by the Mediation Assistant, we still need to move on because projects are waiting and each day we lose time. So now we are working on improving our hiring practices, and looking for a professional,

[AveryO]

Hi Bela, 

I'm sorry to hear a contract with a freelancer didn't go as expected.I looked into this and I can see that your colleague is currently being assisted through his dispute ticket. As this is a public community, I would recommend that you refrain from sharing more information about the case to avoid misrepresenting the situation. Please ask your colleague to continue communicating with his Mediation Specialist so that this can be resolved.

[bela_i]

Hi Avery, 

Thanks for the reply! My colleague is communicating with the Mediation Specialist to resolve the case. I am sharing our experience to get feedback from more experienced clients to improve the way that we interview candidates in the hopes that the next contract will go smoothly. This is in no way meant to misrepresent the situation, as i have shared shortly facts. 

Regards, 
Bela

[prestonhunter]

re: "Has anyone had a similar situation to this?"

Yes.

re: "How did you handle it? What kind of advice can you offer us?"

Successful clients:

- work with a capable independent project manager

[or]

- work with multiple different freelancers on the same project

[or]

[for best results]

- do both

[prestonhunter]

It is OKAY to try to pick better freelancers before hiring.

But doing so is mostly a waste of time.

The best way to have the best freelancers for your project - those that provide usable work at the best value, with the quality at a level that your project needs...

Is to hire many freelancers, have your project manager submitted review their work frequently, and quickly close the contracts on all of the freelancers you hire except for those that provide the best value to your project.

For example: You hire 6 freelancers, give them assignments on the project, review their work, find that 4 of them are sub-standard or worthless, and continue working only with the 2 top freelancers who do the best work.

[bela_i]

Thanks for the advice! I believe giving a short test task to a few people will be something that will help narrow down skilled freelancers that are actually up for the task.

[resultsassoc]

Bella,

Preston's advice is sound, and I've done this in the past. Other routes I've taken are to hire a subject matter expert to make me smart enough on the issues to ask good questions, to offer paid proposals in order to get below the surface claims, and one I always use: Two hours of researching profiles, ignoring JSS and UW recommendations, before issuing invitations. Then I have voice-to-voice discussions with everyone.

A few years ago I had two simultaneous situations go bad this way. An editor had a psychotic episode, and a website developer did the same. There are things that are unforeseeable. Most problems are avoidable with proper due diligence.

[bela_i]

Thanks Bill! We will use all the advice we get here to improve the way that we select candidates. Hoping this was a one time situation for us.

[sean_holland]

I found your post while researching for a pro-upwork article. I am aware of the issues that can arise using this platform. I have experienced them from both sides of the table.

My feedback, which everyone else seems to have avoided, or missed, is this;

Ask yourself these questions, and answer them honestly:

How much did you budget?

Did your budget reflect both the going rate for the type of work off-platform and the amount of required?

When screening potential candidates, did you automatically go for the cheapest, and make the assumption that they would deliver the quality required regardless of the rate charged? 

Was your decision to come to Upwork purely based on getting the cheapest resource?

I am genuinely interested in what happened here, as a lot of issues are caused by Clients looking to pay freelancers low fees, and yet, still expecting the highest level of work. Good freelancers don't work for peanuts. They never have and they never will. It is a false economy to think that just because a platform allows cheap labour to register, that it is a good idea to use them. 

Please do respond, either publicly or privately, as I am very keen to include more real-life scenarios in my article. The purpose of the article is to say that Upwork does work when it is used properly. THat when we engage with a view to getting quality work, not cheap labour, the results are invariably 100 per cent positive. Of course, if you paid top dollar and still did not get the service, then I am keen to hear that too, as this means my theory is broken, and my experience is not unilateral. 

Kindest

Sean 

 
 
 

[gtitc]

Hi, hoping that now that some time has passed you've had a better experience working with other freelancers. It's not written anywhere as a guide but it's important to know that there are many freelancers that need heavy supervision(daily, weekly). Most of the time before posting a job you need to consider if you are ok with managing the developer(s) yourself or might need to budget some hours per week for a manager than can keep track of milestones. 

In my experience, unless hiring a large company, most freelancers need a lot of supervision. The way I learned early on was not to wait longer than a day to check on current provided tasks to see the progress they have made. Most times I caught the freelancer going in the wrong direction and was able to correct quickly before too much work was done that would have to be redone. 

If are doing small team jobs with only 1 or 2 developers and you being the manager to keep daily supervision so that everyone is crystal clear. There is no point in paying for hours to fix things that you could have caught early on. 

Specially working with new freelancers it is definately worth it the extra daily supervision. 

[prestonhunter]

David F. packs a LOT of wisdom packed into one post.

This is some valuable real-world experience based on:

"How things really are on Upwork"

rather than:

"What I wish could happen when hiring freelancers online."

[sean_holland]

I do not agree at all - What is the point in hiring freelancers if you are then going to micro-manage them!

The whole concept of micro-managing is both outdated, and entirely inappropriate when dealing with professional individuals. Excessive supervision and micromanaging should NOT be necessary. This is especially so with creative services. The fact that these steps are having to be implemented shows a very clear weakness in this business model for both INFORMED clients and GENUINE freelancers. 

This whole business model is slanted towards driving prices down and devaluing professionalism and quality work. The issues highlighted are either caused by hiring people who have no idea what they are doing or forcing people to work for peanuts and then expecting miracles. In the worst cases, both.

Admittedly, the end result is a sea of people who need supervising. In this sense, you are right, but the need for clients to manage people is not because freelancers need micromanaging. Any freelancer should understand how to take a detailed brief, submit a robust work plan BEFORE starting, and then be accountable for sticking to that plan via the milestones.

These problems exist because of the thousands of incompetent, cheap workers that are registered on here, purporting to be freelancers and driving prices down for everyone; a situation perpetuated by the tens of thousands of individuals who come on here expecting Rolls Royce work for Skateboard money.

Upwork, Guru, Fiverr, and Peopleperhour all suffer from this issue. The model is broken to a degree. Until someone comes up with a model that works, we are all stuck in this highly toxic arrangement where money rules and the only clear winner is the platform. 

If Is sound slightly irritated it is not aimed at you. It is merely the result of being exposed to a year of soul-sapping, arrogant, and completely unrealistic demands by people who clearly do not appreciate, nor understand what creative work entails. 

Phew. Glad that is off my chest. I think that has been festering for some time. Ah well, I better get back to being told how expensive I am...

[yitwail]

Sean, bear in mind that the "terrible experience" the title of the post refers to involved an iOS app development project, so strategies that are effective in that field may not be applicable to the creative services you evidently provide and vice versa. I happen to be a developer and while I agree with you that micromanagement is generally overkill, 'some' level of managerial oversight might be appropriate when working with a new freelancer, and when I'm working on a substantial project, I will provide the client with progress reports even when not asked to do so, though not on a rigid schedule like once a day, but rather when a significant milestone has been achieved. 

[sean_holland]

Hi John

Not only do you make a very good point, but you have (to my way of thinking), found the solution to the problem...

I have been puzzling the solution to this problem for a year now. I love the idea of Upwork, and the other platforms, but they are toxic. There is no doubt about that.

Up to now, I have developed a few solutions to some of the problems but struggled to see the missing factor which means that these platforms fall to the lowest common denominator.

You just found it.    

Maybe we should talk?