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acc0804a
Community Member

What to do when your freelancers account gets suspended mid project?

Just about ready to bail on Upwork. In the middle of a project they suspended the account of the person I was working with. I hadn't been billed yet, but they had already begun to send me files, so now I'm not sure what to do. I'd rather wait and see if they can get the issue resolved because I don't want to start the project all over again.

 

Upwork gives no insight into why the account was suspeneded, so I have no idea if this is going to be a permenant suspension. There's also seemingly no way to contact or talk to anyone at Upwork about this issue to get clarification. This lack of transparency is not acceptable. It's like Upwork ghosted me in the middle of a project.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

9 REPLIES 9
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Benjamin,

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you've had. I checked your account and would also like to clarify that our team has reached out to you via ticket regarding your contract. Rest assured, our team will continue assisting you on your ticket with number 31403035. If there's anything else I can assist you with, let me know. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Yes that's the ticket number that they reached out on, but there is no information on why they shut down the account in the middle of a project with no warning. Additionally, they have not responded to my questions.

Unless one of your freelancers is actually scamming people out of money, you should allow them to finish up projects, and just not allow them to get new ones if their account is suspended. You punish their clients by suspending accounts in the middle of a project.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Benjamin,

 

I apologize for the delay in receiving an update. I’ll go ahead and follow up with the team handling your case and you can expect to receive an update on your ticket directly.

 

Thank you for your patience.

~ Bojan
Upwork
kinector
Community Member

Benjamin, as a guy who was first a client on this platform (technically, its predecessor) and then a freelancer, and then also a client again, I would like to draw your focus on things that I have noticed to working out and not working out.

Works out:
- Hiring good expensive freelancers for complicated jobs (when their previous jobs resemble yours).
- Hiring market rate freelancers for uncomplicated jobs.

Doesn't work out:
- Hiring those whose track record isn't perfect but they promise you the moon from the sky and agree to work for peanuts.
- Expecting a single cheap guy to deliver something (or anything) when the job is trivial but you yourself think it is not worth much money. Then, hire a couple of guys. It won't cost much anyway. Keep the best result. It's a game of probabilities. Some freelancers are absolutely great but don't yet have impressive stats on this platform.

I have no idea who you hired, how complicated the job is, what you pay your freelancer, etc. I only see your message above.

Now that Upwork reacted because of your post on this forum (that's the right thing to do!) you can expect a way forward.

Upwork doesn't give out any info on other people's accounts or their statuses. It's absolutely right to protect our privacy.

If the freelancer was doing things right and his suspension is an accident, you have nothing to worry about! Keep going, get your project done, pay your freelancer. The suspension will be lifted soon enough.

If, however, the freelancer's account was suspended for good, you can expect a refund. You might have lost time, but not money.

In the case you got some results and must pay something, I hope you can transfer the work to some other freelancer.

I hope it works out. Sometimes, patience is required over here. Please don't bail out yet. This is still there best platform out there for getting things done. (But only if you pay a fair price.)

As a client or project owner, my project and MY interests come first.

Not the interests of any individual freelancer

 

I know that I need people on my team to keep my project running and move it forward.

Not a person. People. Because what if I have a GREAT freelancer... and she dies?

What do I do then? Or what if she doesn't die, but she adopts puppies and then no longer works online. Or what if she gets suspended by Upwork? Or what if she gets sick? Or wins the lottery? Or is recruited to head up the FBI? Who knows what can happen.

 

If a freelancer is suspended from Upwork and can no longer work, or if she suddenly takes a sailing boat cruise with no internet access... either way, I don't have access to her services. So I need to make sure that I have more than one person on my team... I need to have other people who are familiar with the system, have access to it, and can continue the work.

How about small projects? Would you hire a team of people to design a logo for you? No, you would hire one. Imagine working with someone you like for several days and they provided you with a good start, then UpWork pulls them, without any notice or explanation.

Now sure, I haven't paid yet, but I've wasted several days of project time. That's just not acceptable.


Benjamin P wrote:

How about small projects? Would you hire a team of people to design a logo for you? No, you would hire one. Imagine working with someone you like for several days and they provided you with a good start, then UpWork pulls them, without any notice or explanation.

Now sure, I haven't paid yet, but I've wasted several days of project time. That's just not acceptable.


They did provide an explanation, just not one you like. And they have acknowledged it's an inconvenience. 

 

Preston is right though. Even if you only hired one freelancer, your project's success should not be dependent on that freelancer. You should move on and hire someone else so you don't have to waste any more time, if your project is time bound. 

 

If you will tell us more about the job, the price point, and a general description (no names) of the work history and qualifications of the person you hired, we may be able to provide insight on what went wrong to aide you in avoiding the same issue. 

Brilliant examples Preston. 😍

I'd only add this:

What if the freelancer eats too many coconuts at once and gets hospitalized for weeks?

It could happen! 🤪:desert_island:😆

A total showstopper. 😉

I hired someone who I was happy to be working with. I had contracted a rate that I believe was a market rate, as a matter of fact, they weren't the least expensive person on UpWork for the job. They just did not have a huge history on UpWork, but they were local. I actually had hoped to meet them in person at some point in time, which I should have done, because then I could have continued to work with them. 

Also, time is money. I spent time going back and forth with the designer I hired tweaking and discussing. I can tell you that I'm not likely to use this platform again because of the lack of transparency.

One of the reasons I tried UpWork was because I had been working with an online design company, but they were not good at keeping a consistant relationship going. i.e. different designers each time, and they couldn't keep a good history of past projects.

I understand that UpWork needs to protect their income stream, and perhaps he took payment outside the platform, but UpWork should punish the freelancer by blocking them from further jobs, not the client, who is using UpWork to provide a service.

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