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87176899
Community Member

"Upgrade to Featured" after 2 invites - cant invite more

I'm trying to invite freelancers to apply to my job listing but it says I must "For more invites, upgrade to Featured". I have only invited 2 freelancers before receiving this message. Is 2 the daily limit? This seems unusual to me.

 

I have verified my email and phone number.

63 REPLIES 63
lenaellis
Community Member

Hi Josh. You're able to sends out 3 invites per job post. Upon checking your account, you have sent out 3, and 2 have responded.  To send more invitations per job post, you can upgrade your job post to a “Featured Job », which will give you unlimited invites. To learn more about Featured Jobs, click here.

 

 

Untitled

Ok thanks for the clarification. Is that 3 per day or 3 in total?
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Josh,

 

You can send 3 invites total.

~ Bojan
Upwork
yitwail
Community Member


@Bojan S wrote:

Hi Josh,

 

You can send 3 invites total.


 Bojan, I've checked with a few longtime users, and it's our consensus that this limitation is new. I've also looked at the article Lena referenced, and it doesn't mention unlimited invitations for featured jobs. Is this a newly implemented feature? If so, why was there no announcement? And are clients notified when they attempt to send an invitation that they only have 3 total invitations? Because the OP seemed surprised to learn that he used up his invitation quota. If clients knew how many they could invite, perhaps they would choose whom to invite more carefully.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce


@Lena E wrote:

Hi Josh. You're able to sends out 3 invites per job post. Upon checking your account, you have sent out 3, and 2 have responded.  To send more invitations per job post, you can upgrade your job post to a “Featured Job », which will give you unlimited invites. To learn more about Featured Jobs, click here.

 

 


 Is this why I am getting spammed with useless invites at the moment? Can we have a feature to block any invite that is also send to more than lets say 10 other freelancers?

Hi everyone,

A small group of NEW Upwork clients are part of this test which limits the amount of invites they can send per job post. They are able to send 3 invites per job post, unless they decide to make their job a featured job, which means they would pay a fee to be able to send more invites out.

Jennifer, I wouldn't relate this to an increase in spammy or unrelated invites. On the contrary, this test is meant to improve the freelancer experience with invites. Your concern is valid, we often hear from freelancers who are frustrated because they receive too many invitations for jobs that don’t match their skills, pay rate, etc. We've also seen many times clients who send out many invites to freelancers for non-legitiment jobs. Because of these concerns, we are testing out limiting the number of invites a client can send to three per job post. This is just one of the many tests we run as we work to improve Upwork.

Untitled

Well apparently I am part of the so called trial. No notification, nothing. I find it very rich that I cannot choose the people I want to apply/invite for my role rather than the getting bombarded with people who are not suitable. On top of the fee increase that we (both employers and freelancers) have just taken on the chin, I now have to pay for the privilage of inviting people to apply to my job. You guys are out of control. Stop biting the hand that feeds you. 

How am I going to find the right person when I only have THREE candidates to invite? Upwork is sinking their own ship lol

mtngigi
Community Member


Tyler C wrote:

How am I going to find the right person when I only have THREE candidates to invite? Upwork is sinking their own ship lol


Though many of us have tried to tell them what a bad idea this is, they don't really listen to us freelancers. Maybe they will if enough clients start complaining ... which they have.

f8bffdee
Community Member

Wow, looks like my 3 invites have all said No. Now I have no candidates and an idle job posting. Thanks Upwork! **edited for Community Guidelines**

I have been using Upwork for years now (since it was oDesk and Elance). Have hired for more than 100 contracts and am very close to 5 star client. This fee for invitation is the worst idea ever!!! My contracts are more on the low price range and having to pay that much just to send invites makes the cost become too high for the job. Not worth it anymore. And obviously just 3 invites is not enough to find a good candidate. Just opened an account on Fiverr (which I never considered before) and will give that a try. Just hired a person there. Sorry Upwork but you lost me with that one..


Juan F wrote:

(...) My contracts are more on the low price range (...)

Sorry Upwork but you lost me with that one..


Actually I think that was the idea...

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

You said "Actually I think that was the idea..."

 

Yes, it could be but:

1) I do provide profits for them

2) I do provide work for lots of freelancers. Have hired dozens of them. So that makes freelancers stick to the platform.

3) Hard to see a platform that lives only from big contracts. But if that's their goal good luck. They'll need to clean up not only clients but freelancers as well as most of them are entry level and that's a risky bet. But I don't care. I know I have alternatives to get my job done.


Lena E wrote:

Hi everyone,

A small group of NEW Upwork clients are part of this test which limits the amount of invites they can send per job post. They are able to send 3 invites per job post, unless they decide to make their job a featured job, which means they would pay a fee to be able to send more invites out.

Jennifer, I wouldn't relate this to an increase in spammy or unrelated invites. On the contrary, this test is meant to improve the freelancer experience with invites. Your concern is valid, we often hear from freelancers who are frustrated because they receive too many invitations for jobs that don’t match their skills, pay rate, etc. We've also seen many times clients who send out many invites to freelancers for non-legitiment jobs. Because of these concerns, we are testing out limiting the number of invites a client can send to three per job post. This is just one of the many tests we run as we work to improve Upwork.


Oh goody, a more ill-thought-out program to make things even worse for clients. Isn't it well-established  that there are too many freelancers and not enough clients on this site? So here's an idea, lets make those desperately-needed new (and after reading Steve B's comments, well- established) clients pay for the privilege of inviting more than 2 or 3 freelancers. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea (NOT).

 

Of course some things need improving; freelancers don't like to see clients bombarded with 100+ bids. But it's like Upwork doesn't understand a middle ground solution and always goes to extremes. Please give clients a little more leeway than this.

f8bffdee
Community Member

My "3 invites" are up and now after 3 minutes, I can no longer invite applicants to my job. SWEET UPWORK. GENIUS BUSINESS MODEL. I'm totally going to upgrade for $40 and not use a different contract network now.... BRILLIANT

HI Lena,

 

This idea is straight up terrible. Tell your boss that he should be fired.

This is absolutely a new restriction and as a long time user certainly turning us off the platform. No way will you match with the right freelancer with 3 invites. It takes 30+ discussions to find the right person here. Lots of fake skills listed, poor communication etc. Trying to get ppl hiring to pay $20+ to have more invites is a Ludacris product decision.


Paul T wrote:
This is absolutely a new restriction and as a long time user certainly turning us off the platform. No way will you match with the right freelancer with 3 invites. It takes 30+ discussions to find the right person here. Lots of fake skills listed, poor communication etc. Trying to get ppl hiring to pay $20+ to have more invites is a Ludacris product decision.

Paul - many freelancers are not happy about this either. I hope more clients will speak up.

 

Upwork ... are you listening?

anima9
Community Member

No wonder I don't get as many invites. I used to have at least one every two days, but November and December have more or less forced me to apply.

Lena as John mentioned, a notification of this - test or policy - needs to be prominently stated for all users.  Having buyers or FLers reverting to the forums asking what the heck is going on is the apex of mismanagement, lack of transparency, and flat-out lousy communications.

 

The intent might be valid. The process is certainly not.

Thanks everyone for the support!

 

I agree if I knew I would of been more careful in picking who

 

Josh,

I understand this was not clear to you, and will share your feedback with the team. However, I also want to point out that when you send an invite you are shown the number of invites you have remaining at several points. When searching for freelancers there is a counter at the top of the screen displaying how many invites you have remaining.  Before you send the invite there is a counter at the bottom displaying how many are left. Also, after sending the invite there is a pop-up letting you know how many invites you have left. I've included screenshots below.

 

Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

inviteQT1.png

InviteQT2.pngInviteQT3.png

 

Untitled

I agree with a previous poster that 3 invites is not enough, especially if clients get only 3 total instead of a few invites per day. It's the clients who spam with 10, 15, 20+ invitations at a time that are the problem. It's very possible that all three invited freelancers will decline or fail to respond soon enough for the client.

THIS POLICY SUCKS LENA. WHAT DO YOU GUYS NOT UNDERSTAND?!

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Tyler, 

I'm sorry to learn that this has been an inconvenience for you. Any changes we make are to improve the Upwork experience for all customers so that we can continue to be a leader in helping freelancer and clients connect. In this case, we know clients have different needs and we wanted to give our clients the options so they can choose the best plan for them.

Currently with your, Client Basic plan, you can invite up to three freelancers to submit a proposal for your job. To be able to send unlimited invites for a job post, you can upgrade it to a Featured Job for a one-time fee of $29.99.


~ Avery
Upwork

I did not get these alerts. I was extremely surprised about the limitation on invites to my job. This seems extremely petty. Instead of trying to fix the problem freelancers have of being able to filter the invitations they get, this solution makes everyone unhappy. I will be using a different service to hire for my job. Please inform me if this issue gets resolved. 

 

-Nupur

This has to be one of the worst ideas I have seen Upwork implement...  so many of my clients post invite-only jobs. Only being able to invite 3 means there is a good chance one, two, or all of them won't even respond. Then what? Or... what if 2 turn out to be too expensive and the third doesn't respond?  Or... 2 turn it down and the one left isn't really as qualified as they thought? Then what? If they don't want to pay for it (and I can't see why they would) the job simply DOES NOT get filled here at Upwork and they probably won't come back. I can't even imagine how anyone thought this was "good" in some way.  It's like .... literally throwing clients away. 

 

Many of my clients told me they don't want a barrage of "general responses", they want to pick the people  and they should have at LEAST 5-7 invites. Nickel and diming clients will never prove to be worth it.  They will find other ways/places to find people.

 

Meanwhile, top rated freelancers will now get so few invites that they will invest their time in the other places they work and drop Upwork altogether.  I work almost solely off of invites. If I don't get them, I won't be here. A lose-lose situation.

Jessica, 100% spot on!!

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Clients have better things to do than be nickel and dimed by Upwork. 

It IS costing the freelancer in NO INVITES. I see people questioning where the invites have gone...well here is your answer!

You people are bound and determined to burn this platform to the ground!


@Tracye G wrote:

Jessica, 100% spot on!!

Another hair brained, insane, not thought through change being crammed down everyone's throats. 

Clients have better things to do than be nickel and dimed by Upwork. 

It IS costing the freelancer in NO INVITES. I see people questioning where the invites have gone...well here is your answer!

You people are bound and determined to burn this platform to the ground!


Yes, and should this become the norm, I will feel terrible declining invites (if I get any) knowing I am only one of three the client has. I get a lot of invites and most of them are too far below my rate. Clients often do not check this. So I decline a lot of them for rate being too low.  I imagine, that if they didn't check my rate, they didn't check anyone else's so the client will have only 3 invites to use, and all 3 freelancers may decline them. 

 

But the thing is... I don't mind getting a lot of invites and declining them...  sometimes I even accept invites with low rates and just put my rate in and get hired. MOST clients aren't spamming invites. Some do, but I think Upwork put a HUGE "fix" on a problem that doesn't really exist and will hurt FAR more than it helps. 

 

 

dzadza
Community Member

Agree 100%

 

I think Upwork is trying to make the clients pay for job postings - or, they will be able to invite only 3 freelancers. If I remember correctly, clients have to pay for featured jobs, right?

Instead of concentrating on fixing numerous bugs, Upwork is constantly "improving" the platform with  features that go from bad to worse...to disastrous...

This is dissapointing. I used to use Upwork to find freelancers and paying % when hire. With the 3 invites to send out, will be moving to alternative sites. Good luck!

iaabraham
Community Member

Can you please give clients at least 5 invites each?? I understand that this move is to counteract spammy invites, but now you're going the other extreme. Is this why I've gotten no invites lately? (Except one that wanted to buy my gut health program Man Indifferent )

 

Please don't make life any more difficult for freelancer and clients. With all the horrible changes you've made recently, this has been the worst year for my work since I started on Upwork.

I do not have a problem with the current invite system that has no limits. It's trivial for me to decline a job and if necessary block the client. A limit on invites does not seem to be a useful barrier and comes with more downsides than upsides. 

martina_plaschka
Community Member


@Josh L wrote:

I'm trying to invite freelancers to apply to my job listing but it says I must "For more invites, upgrade to Featured". I have only invited 2 freelancers before receiving this message. Is 2 the daily limit? This seems unusual to me.

 

I have verified my email and phone number.


 Ah, this explains a lot!

While it is just weird to see job postings with 50 invites - nobody can handle that many, and often these are job postings with no hire ever - 3 is too few. If I were a client I would find that annoying, it is an unneccessary restriction. 10 would be fine, IMO.

This is clearly a way for upwork to create a new revenue stream - nothing wrong with that - but there is no other benefit to either the client or the freelancer. Freelancers seldom complain about being swamped with invites, and even if they were, it takes a second to decline one, if one cares about ones responsiveness metric, or do nothing at all, if one doesn't. 

So, yep, bad idea, upwork. 

ccb5ffa1
Community Member

Hi there,

 

I'm new to Upwork and am in the process of hiring 2 freelancers. In my search to hire more at $35.00 to $50.00 per job, Upwork system interrupted my search, and a pop up stated that I was at my 'daily limit', which I have no idea what this means.  What limit?

 

And the pop-up also wanted my credit card or Paypal info. I don't even see a price I'm being asked to pay/process on my credit card or Paypal.

 

I'm very confused. I don't know how to pay each of the 2 people I've hired either, once they've completed their job, in about a week's time.

 

Why can't I search for more freelancers and why do you want my credit card info, without giving me a price for what I'm paying?

 

Thank you for your assistance!

 

It's greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi James, 

 

You can invite up to 3 freelancers. Please check out this thread for more information about this feature. Regarding your concern with being prompted to add a billing method, before engaging a freelancer, you'll need to add a Billing Method to your account. Please check out this help article for the different billing method available. If you need further help, please let us know. 

~ Joanne
Upwork


Joanne Marie P wrote:

Hi James, 

 

You can invite up to 3 freelancers. Please check out this thread for more information about this feature. Regarding your concern with being prompted to add a billing method, before engaging a freelancer, you'll need to add a Billing Method to your account. Please check out this help article for the different billing method available. If you need further help, please let us know. 


But James said that his search function was restricted, not his invites. Is that new?


Martina P wrote:

Joanne Marie P wrote:

Hi James, 

 

You can invite up to 3 freelancers. Please check out this thread for more information about this feature. Regarding your concern with being prompted to add a billing method, before engaging a freelancer, you'll need to add a Billing Method to your account. Please check out this help article for the different billing method available. If you need further help, please let us know. 


But James said that his search function was restricted, not his invites. Is that new?


I guess Upwork wants to prevent the client to waste time looking at profiles if he cannot invite additional freelancers since he has reached his limit. I am wondering though if he could start a search from scratch and create a new (invite only) job if he finds profiles he likes.


Jennifer R wrote:

Martina P wrote:

Joanne Marie P wrote:

Hi James, 

 

You can invite up to 3 freelancers. Please check out this thread for more information about this feature. Regarding your concern with being prompted to add a billing method, before engaging a freelancer, you'll need to add a Billing Method to your account. Please check out this help article for the different billing method available. If you need further help, please let us know. 


But James said that his search function was restricted, not his invites. Is that new?


I guess Upwork wants to prevent the client to waste time looking at profiles if he cannot invite additional freelancers since he has reached his limit. I am wondering though if he could start a search from scratch and create a new (invite only) job if he finds profiles he likes.


Well if James was not mistaken and talking about invites instead of just searching, I have to put in my vote for worst new feature of 2019. Because it makes no sense and is abhorrent customer experience, IMO. 

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