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lysis10
Community Member

For everyone who thinks the Upwork commission is unfair, I trump all of you.

I started working with this Product Manager for a SaaS company in 2016 through Upwork. I wrote content for them for about 2 years and got to $9980 before the product manager decided to leave the company and start his own independent contractor agency.

 

He creates a new account, contacts me on Upwork with a new account, and I write for him for about 1.5 years. I get to about $12,000 on his new account. SWEEET back to the 5% on his new account.

 

This dude sold his company to another guy who contacted me on *his* Upwork account. So now, I get to start over AGAIN at $0 and 20%. 

 

I think tonight is an edibles and wine night. I'm gonna lol at how much the universe hates me.

 

Give me your hate, unfair haters, and let me feed off of you mocking me.

17 REPLIES 17
wendy_writes
Community Member

Jenn, this is trackable and easily confirmed as inherently being the same company ... despite who happens to have the account.  The company thrived at least in part thans to your efforts over the 3 years.  Upwork needs to re-evaluate their stance.  This is not a $50 gig.

mtngigi
Community Member

Astounding how Upwork treats it's high earners and turns a blind eye to all the frauds. This policy is bs to the nth degree.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Jennifer, 

In the future, you may want to try the "Bring Your Own Client" route so that you are not charged any service fees for the new client. Do you already have your personal URL? Let me know so that I can request the team to generate a URL for you.


~ Avery
Upwork
a_lipsey
Community Member

Avery, what if the "new client" is already on Upwork but took over? What if two people at one company have separate accounts, but it's the same company? And you need to transfer your work from one person at the company to another? Isn't that essentially what has occurred here?

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Amanda, 
As noted in the Freelancer Service Fees help articleworking with someone under two different teams within the same company is considered a single relationship and therefore the earnings are combined in the freelancer's lifetime billings. If the new user is under the same company (the user was added as a Team Member, or the Company ownership was transferred to the new user), the same fees apply. 

In Jennifer's case, and correct me if I'm wrong Jennifer, every time the company was bought, the new owner registers for a new account. It sounds like they registered with a different company name, or do not use their business domain. This will not be read by the system as one company. Upwork will automatically recognize the business name based on the email address a client uses. It's detailed here in this help article for Building and Managing Teams for clients. 

Jennifer, if your new clients registered with their business address, and/or used the same company name but the 5% fees didn't apply, let me know the Contract ID# for this contract so that I can look into this further.


~ Avery
Upwork
a_lipsey
Community Member


Avery O wrote:

Hi Amanda, 
...


Thank you, Avery, for that clarification. Much appreciated. 

lysis10
Community Member


Avery O wrote:

Hi Jennifer, 

In the future, you may want to try the "Bring Your Own Client" route so that you are not charged any service fees for the new client. Do you already have your personal URL? Let me know so that I can request the team to generate a URL for you.


Hey Avery, I appreciate you commenting. He invited me out of the blue, so I had no idea the old client sold his company and just got an invite from the new owner last week (I think). There was no chance for me to invite him. The old owner closed my contract maybe about 2 months ago without saying anything to me. This was all a suprise to me when I got on the phone with the new owner.

 

eta: I see you offered to look into it for me (thank you for that). The new owner registered with the same company account name. Let me ask him if he used the same address (I'm guessing not, but I will talk with him). I will hit you up when I'm officially hired. Right now, I need to look at some things that I promised to look at and get back to him. If he officially hires me, I will talk with him and ask if he can provide Upwork info so that I can sit at the 5%.

lysis10
Community Member

And because this is my thread and I'll cry if I want to, two more things the universe has decided to ruin.

 

I did not get chosen by an Enterprise client I really wanted to work for.

 

And the owners of the place I rent refuse to negotiate and are jacking my monthly rental payment to $1700/month, which is $130/month more than what I currently pay. I pay it or get out.

 

OK, universe, you can stop pooping on me now.

 

 


Jennifer M wrote:

And because this is my thread and I'll cry if I want to, two more things the universe has decided to ruin.

 

I did not get chosen by an Enterprise client I really wanted to work for.

 

And the owners of the place I rent refuse to negotiate and are jacking my monthly rental payment to $1700/month, which is $130/month more than what I currently pay. I pay it or get out.

 

OK, universe, you can stop pooping on me now.


___________________________
Get a mortgage and buy ... 

 

ETA: And look on the bright side. You could be on one of those ghastly cruise liners with 2999 people quarantined because one person has been tested positive for corona virus. 

 


Nichola L wrote:

 

 


Jennifer M wrote:

And because this is my thread and I'll cry if I want to, two more things the universe has decided to ruin.

 

I did not get chosen by an Enterprise client I really wanted to work for.

 

And the owners of the place I rent refuse to negotiate and are jacking my monthly rental payment to $1700/month, which is $130/month more than what I currently pay. I pay it or get out.

 

OK, universe, you can stop pooping on me now.


___________________________
Get a mortgage and buy ... 

 

ETA: And look on the bright side. You could be on one of those ghastly cruise liners with 2999 people quarantined because one person has been tested positive for corona virus. 

 


I had a mortgage, Nichola. I'm not sure I ever want to buy again. I like renting because I can up and move any time I want, but of course this is the downside. I'm at my last attempt and threatening to move, so I'll see if they budge. 

 

The beer virus is a scary thing and I'm glad I'm not traveling or flying anywhere. 😄 Maybe this is an advantage of freelancing and being an introvert. Reduced chance of getting the global virus that will kill everyone? The world will just have us left. 😄


Jennifer M wrote:

Nichola L wrote:

 

 


Jennifer M wrote:

And because this is my thread and I'll cry if I want to, two more things the universe has decided to ruin.

 

I did not get chosen by an Enterprise client I really wanted to work for.

 

And the owners of the place I rent refuse to negotiate and are jacking my monthly rental payment to $1700/month, which is $130/month more than what I currently pay. I pay it or get out.

 

OK, universe, you can stop pooping on me now.


___________________________
Get a mortgage and buy ... 

 

ETA: And look on the bright side. You could be on one of those ghastly cruise liners with 2999 people quarantined because one person has been tested positive for corona virus. 

 


I had a mortgage, Nichola. I'm not sure I ever want to buy again. I like renting because I can up and move any time I want, but of course this is the downside. I'm at my last attempt and threatening to move, so I'll see if they budge. 

 

The beer virus is a scary thing and I'm glad I'm not traveling or flying anywhere. 😄 Maybe this is an advantage of freelancing and being an introvert. Reduced chance of getting the global virus that will kill everyone? The world will just have us left. 😄


_________________

Re mortgage - I think owning outweighs renting. I know owning has its disadvantages, but renting always means you are in thrall to some owner. I hate that. 

 

 


Jennifer M wrote:

 

The beer virus is a scary thing 

There's a beer virus? Nooooooooooooo. Is nothing safe any more?

 

And please don't "trump" me. How I've come to hate that word.


Richard W wrote:

 


Jennifer M wrote:

 

The beer virus is a scary thing 

There's a beer virus? Nooooooooooooo. Is nothing safe any more?

 


I am soooo slow.

I only just "got" the beer virus reference.

 

Cheers!

301700-Corona-710ml1

 

bizwriterjohn
Community Member

I admire your profile.  The nearly 1/2-million in earnings sets the highest mark I have yet to see on the platform.  Your reviews and ratings, across more than 1/2-a-decade indicate a winning rate that is astounding.

I think it is good to have the proverbial Jack-n-Coke in times of distress like this.  Experienced Upworkers are fortunate.   We have past clients that seek us out.  We have industry connections.   We have new entrees created from past successes.

My heart goes out to the Upworker tonight, new to the platform.  Who feels like they are figthing for their business lives.   They toss and turn, wondering what their debut JSS will be -- given these black hole private ratings most to all know exist.

I think it is important to blow off steam, but I encourage everyone who feels they have hit their limit.  Perhaps consider less, starting at $0 and 20%.  Unless it is $0 in earning and the 20% they wonder if they will ever get to pay on their first Upwork project.

That's the $0 and %20 I tip a glass to, tonight.

Hopefully new people starting here are resourceful enough to seek out the many help pages and most importantly, this community.

Most everything you need to know from writing proposals to managing jobs and clients can be found here in past threads.

If they are not looking everywhere on this site for tips and tricks already posted, learning from the smart and dumb things people have done, and looking to improve their chances daily then they might as well not even try.


You have to be able to hustle, if you don't have that then you will never make it. You are running your own business, costs are involved. Whining about the price of connects and fees makes you $0.00.

 


Julie J wrote:

Hopefully new people starting here are resourceful enough to seek out the many help pages and most importantly, this community.

Most everything you need to know from writing proposals to managing jobs and clients can be found here in past threads.

If they are not looking everywhere on this site for tips and tricks already posted, learning from the smart and dumb things people have done, and looking to improve their chances daily then they might as well not even try.


You have to be able to hustle, if you don't have that then you will never make it. You are running your own business, costs are involved. Whining about the price of connects and fees makes you $0.00.

 


I just read Petra's posts. lol Really, the only Upwork documentation I've ever read was when I first transferred to Upwork. I googled "how do I get paid" and read escrow and hourly stuff. That's it. Everything else has been from this forum and trial and error on my own. My profile has been flagged twice, but I've gotten paid for everything I've done including disputes where I asked for a certain amount and avoided arbitration.

 

I got burned more on Elance than here. I also have no hesitation when it comes to kicking offers back for full escrow or saying something has to go hourly because I can see the trainwreck of escrow happening in the future.

I have no problem with people who learn by doing instead of by reading the manual. As long as they're willing to take their lumps when they make a mistake.

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