What's the point of a review system if you only show 5-stars reviews?

[60ae6836]

Doesn't make sense that I read the profile of an agency with a 71% rating and all of the reviews shown are 5-stars. Even if they are the latest reviews, that's a pretty low rating and I'd like to know why before I consider hiring them. Please consider changing this to give those hiring a better idea of the candidate's work history. 

[243a50fa]

It is possible for an agency to have a 71% overall rating even if all of their reviews are 5-stars. This could be due to a number of factors, such as:

1. The agency may have a relatively small number of total reviews, which means that even a few negative reviews could significantly impact its overall rating.
2. The negative reviews may be from clients who were dissatisfied with other aspects of the agency's work, such as communication, timeliness, or pricing.
3. The negative reviews may be from clients who had unrealistic expectations or who were difficult to work with.

It's important to read the reviews carefully and look for any patterns or recurring issues. You can also consider reaching out to the agency and asking them about any negative feedback they've received, and how they've addressed it. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide whether or not you feel comfortable working with an agency based on their reviews and other factors such as their portfolio, experience, and communication skills.

[prestonhunter]

You are RIGHT!

The review system is what it is.

Definitely not perfect.

You could mostly just IGNORE IT and you might have more success as a client.

As a client, I don't pay much attention to reviews. I have hired over 180 freelancers on Upwork.

I use other factors to make hiring decisions, mainly portfolios.

But I DON'T EXPECT to be able to know which freelancers will work out the best for my project before hiring them. That's a myth.

Luckily this is freelancing. So I can hire and fire at will.

I hire freelancers quickly, evaluate their work, and then quickly fire freelancers whose work I don't love. I continue working with the best.

[25005175]

The confusion stems from your idea of the JSS. JSS is mostly impacted by private feedback. It is quite common for a customer to give good or even excellent public feedback and simultaneously provide mediocre or bad private feedback. Also, typically such a low score occurs with relatively young (on Upwork, anyways) freelancers and agencies. A single negative review is more likely to have a large impact because of the small sample size. For example: 5 months ago, my JSS was 70% after a terrible experience with a bad client, whose project was as large as all of my other completed projects on Upwork at the time.

Job Success Score – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

[sajal36]

I believe following the review mechanism to make decision may not be 100% perfect approach and sound conventional. It may happen that what worked in past may not work with your project. In case your project is critical and involve medium to complex work than you can follow the process by starting a small contract such as - 

1. Evaluate the test work to see if freelancer meets your expectation

2. Or if you do not have the resources to evaluate than you can subscribe to SAAS solution who conduct proctured coding assessment and other test. Once candidate pass the test than they pass the score to the employer

I believe the above will be helpful in taking informed decision. Other aspects like feedback and other can be considered as the informational in decision making.

[2e793e5b]

You make a valid point. It can be misleading to only show 5-star reviews for an agency or freelancer, especially if they have a low overall rating. Upwork's review system is designed to provide clients with an accurate representation of a freelancer or agency's work history, skills, and reputation. However, only showing 5-star reviews can create a false impression of a freelancer or agency's performance.

Upwork's review system is based on a 5-star rating scale, which can be limiting in terms of providing a nuanced view of a freelancer or agency's performance. Additionally, Upwork does not require clients to leave a review, so it's possible that some clients choose not to leave a review if they had a negative experience. This can skew the overall rating and make it difficult to get a full picture of a freelancer or agency's work history.

To address this issue, Upwork recently introduced a feature that allows clients to filter reviews by rating, so you can see all the reviews, not just the 5-star ones. You can also sort reviews by date to get a sense of a freelancer or agency's recent performance. These features can help you make a more informed decision when hiring on Upwork.

However, I understand that this may not fully address your concern. I suggest leaving feedback for Upwork's customer support team so they can consider further improvements to the review system.

[c48a6563]

Upworks removes feedback as it just did to me.  So clients can't really see others feedback when the Freelancers wants bad feedback removed.  The poor feedback is hidden and other bad experiences often give no feedback rather than give any feed back.  The rating system favors more work on upwork and not an honest assessment or open community conversation about the work of any one or more freelancers.  Beware of the commentors as well as there seem to be those that appear as clients in the forums but are really Upworks. behind the scenes.  This will probably be edited out of the community forum by the moderators but will be public elsewhere.  I thought it was more informative than it is but it is buyer beware and don't rely on ratings or feedback cause they are all controled to keep billings up and going.

[yofazza]

You're responding to text pasted from ChatGPT.

• Upwork does not show 5-star reviews only.
• You can't filter reviews by rating.

This thread is not about "5 star only" but about "how could there be profiles that only has 5 stars but the `success score` is bad", which is explained by Jonathan L above.

I'm sorry for your problem. Most of us acknowleged it but can't do anything.

From my decades of experience on the internets, I can say Upwork is not the kind of company that will easily do manipulation in community forums, or profiles. But the users will, for their own profits, financially or not.

Upwork in my opinion is just "confused" with their priorities. Your post shouldn't be edited out from what I see. Your other post that includes a screenshot should also not, because it does not have any person-identification (although I think some mods are quick to delete Upwork interface screenshots without examining it).

[yofazza]

Beware of convincingly wrong answers by ChatGPT (and people who sounded like ChatGPT) 😁

[25005175]

I wonder if the forum now needs a popup when people login to warn them that a lot of sophisticated looking answers are actually not written by people and are likely incorrect as a result.

[the-right-writer]

There is no warning that human freelancer posts are possibly incorrect, so I am certain Upwork won't bother to mention this either.

I see inaccurate "information" nearly every time I look at the feeds. I even see people saying it's OK to go off platform, especially if you Google and find the company is real.

When I see these awful posts. I feel for the clients and anyone who receives the substandard stuff.