What to do?

[b3ae9e49]

I just had my first bad experience at Upwork - You'll see if my history I've used numerous freelancers and been very happy. In this case, I ended up feeling strung along, wasting time and effort with a  gal who's profile demonstrats her talent. However, She was unprofessional, delaying a small project on 3 different occasions; hurt shoulder, thunderstorms, and visitors. She produced work on a mac when I requested word-doc template for making changes, and did not making requested changes. The work she gave was sub-par she didn't make changes requested, and I was unable to , on my end.  I let her know my concerns. Without my consent she ended the contract, and refunded me - and I was unable to provide any feedback to other potential clients. I noticed she has no other negative feedback, which surprised me. Is there another way of letting other clients know if there are clients unhappy with the outcome of a freelancers work, if the freelancer quickly ends the contract and refunds?

[prestonhunter]

Why do you care so much about this freelancer?
She doesn't deserve your continued concern and attention.

I think you should put yourself and your project first and not spend any more time on an underperforming freelancer such as this. She already has a zero-pay contract as a result of her refund to you, when the contract was closed. This will significantly diminish her JSS.

You do not owe that freelancer or the Upwork community anything beyond that.

[b3ae9e49]

I was caught off guard by her lack of professionalism. I look at reviews
closely - had I seen a review that I would have written - I would have
had my radar up, if I chose to use her and not wasted the time/effort I
did. My question to upwork was why I can't still write up a review when
she chose to refund me? It seems that's a way a person can avoid
consequences to poor performance.

[prestonhunter]

Sharon: Upwork does not want freelancers to behave unprofessionally and then get away with doing so by refunding all the money from a contract and thus evade all consequences. That is why Upwork applies such a heavy penalty to a freelancer's JSS score when there are zero-pay contracts.

[b3ae9e49]

Thanks for the f/u. I'd like to know what a JSS score is and how a
client can avoid what I went through, again? I did see that one Upwork
community helper suggested to another client - to use hourly contracts
from multiple freelancers to avoid issues, or use a freelancer that was
previously used. The problem is sometimes I want to be more specific
with the skill sets - as in this case with infographics. I want to be
better educated, moving forward - so I don't waste time and effort which
is equal to money when time is limited. Thank you.