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Emil's avatar
Emil T Community Member

What's happend with Upwork?

What's happend with Upwork? Was so good network year ago. Do they really want to drive people out
and then leave employers ... with every new change going in that direction.
I had separated from the network for a year and now I see it has become extremely expensive.
for example, trial projects up to $10- $50 are no longer profitable to bid there because they go out
expensive (from 2 to 4 connectors). Applying for others is also very expensive
a worker can now apply in 3-4 times smaller projects. Do not they see Upwork
that in the short term probably will not have effect so fast , because there are many projects that are
already launched , but in the long run will drive away workers because it will cost them a lot to work here.
Usually employers just post projet to check market and do not choosing workers. Or now
Employers have to select workers from about 5-10 not as before from 20+ ..
and they very often just do not choose anyone, which makes it expensive to apply for workers and they just do not do that.
It's a spiral that goes hard to stop ... we've seen it already

This is some insanity ... look at the number of projects (at least in the spheres I follow)
has fallen 2 times and continues to fall each month. this does not make you impressed
for the direction. the system will remain mainly large companies with long-term commitments.
we get very greedy - we pay 20%, then the transaction and every bid
extra ... actually here to earn a single worker or to be lucky
to get a good contract or to pay the system in the form of connectors and get it
hopes someday to pull him. Incidentally, this effect is seen by Pay Pey Hour where
real projects are rarely seen because employers are few, and workers are few as well.

btw. For the people who work here and watch Upwotk'stock market shares will notice that projects are declining and the profits of which is on the stock exchange is growing ... just getting more and more taxes from workers and projects hidden under good intentions to "clear" the network .... a little bit to miss eLance with there simple and clear policy.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but numbers rarely lie

 

 

13 REPLIES 13
John Vito's avatar
John Vito F Community Member

You are 100% right. You made a perfect analysis is perfect.

Emil's avatar
Emil T Community Member

thanks John, these are my worries because I prefer to continue working here but it is becoming more and more expensive for all of us in every "improvement" 

Pjotr's avatar
Pjotr T Community Member

I can say from client end.

 

Upwork client protection is a myth. 

Freelancer can rip you off easily, all your money are in escrow. Any freelancer can send you a rubbish and your money will go... You can get it back if freelance wanna provide refund. Ha-ha.

Also you can not disagree with qulity of work, you have to pay and thats it. 

If you disagree, Upwork  provide you an option to pay $300 for "legal" dispute.

Also if a freelance has a TOP status, he can delete your rating.

 

So now I'm like a cow, give a milk and no complain. I should pay monthly fees to keep old features, i can not argue about qulity of work, i have to pay anyway. Top freelancer can edit my rate, but in revenge put one star back and I can do nothing about it , even i spent >10k and 160 jobs. 

 

Thats enough for me. 

Jennifer's avatar
Jennifer M Community Member


Pjotr T wrote:

, even i spent >10k and 160 jobs. 

 

Thats enough for me. 


😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄 😄

Tiffany's avatar
Tiffany S Community Member


Pjotr T wrote:

 

 

 even i spent >10k and 160 jobs. 

 


So, your average job is $62.50?

 

Mightn't that not explain why your business might not be Upwork's highest priority?

Emil's avatar
Emil T Community Member

"your business might not be Upwork's highest priority"

 10k and  160 jobs are a lot connectors ... just imagine how many workers bid for these 160 jobs (average say minimum 15-20 )  and how many connectors are and deposits are spend, and of course money spend from workers and employer as taxes ... and finaly this client is not highest priority for Upwork .. sounds a little ridiculous .

some of categories are almost empty already.  I can give simple example( i have a lot in different categories , probabbly everybody have ) . Year ago for Joomla developers has 800-1000 active projects daily and serious companies with big projects   ... now they are less then 180 .  these low priority clients are gone and developers one by one stop following category - it is expensive and not worth it.  I guess that will be effect from new policy in long term for many categories.

Mark's avatar
Mark F Community Member

That only makes sense if you think that Upwork is trying to make money by selling connects.  Even if that were so it is nothing compared to the 20% they make on a job.

 

I believe that Tiffany's point is that Upwork is clearly trying to move away from clients that are willing to pay so little because it is not worth it, to your point, for Freelancers to bid on them.  This will either force the client off the market because they can't get anyone to bid or they will raise their rates.  You may see it as a loss, but I do not, and my guess is Upwork does not either.  

 

If you do the math, Upwork is averaging $12.50 on each of those 160 jobs.  That is not a lot of money to support each of those jobs.  It doesn't sound very profitable to me.

 

Emil's avatar
Emil T Community Member

interesting point ... I had not thought of it , but you might be right about selling it connectors .

Pjotr's avatar
Pjotr T Community Member

When I see point of view from company connected talking heads (like persons in this thread) like:

 

 Oh, your spend is so low, haha, Upwork is not interested in you, it's your problem...

 

 Come-on, wake up. I'm using Upwork for translations, and i'm giving a job to many people in 3rd world. And for them 40$ for day job is good money for translation from English to their local language.

Also, as you know, Upwork rate under $500 is high, so Upwork is getting good cut from each order.

I recognize these posts from Jennifer, Mark, Tiffany as unofficial Upwork statement.


Upwork is not interested in clients like me and doing nothing to protect my interests.

 You can read client section in this forum, with very sad stories there, about another client lost their money, and Upwork did nothing about it. But in every single thread you’ll see the same persons like in my post protecting Upwork and trolling the topic starter… Really, is it wise PR?

I strongly believe, when company, even unofficially, tells clients that they are not good enough this is the beginning of the end of this one company.

 

I’m really disappointed how American company is doing their PR on the forum, not protecting people who brings the money, and don’t care about keeping client. Shame on you!

Mark's avatar
Mark F Community Member


I recognize these posts from Jennifer, Mark, Tiffany as unofficial Upwork statement.

You shouldn't, none of us work for Upwork, we are just giving our opinion.  


Upwork is not interested in clients like me and doing nothing to protect my interests.

 You can read client section in this forum, with very sad stories there, about another client lost their money, and Upwork did nothing about it. But in every single thread you’ll see the same persons like in my post protecting Upwork and trolling the topic starter… Really, is it wise PR?

I strongly believe, when company, even unofficially, tells clients that they are not good enough this is the beginning of the end of this one company.


It's an open community and people can say what they want within the rules and if the mods can, and will, shut them down.  Upwork, I suspect, would never directly tell you that you are a client they don't want, but it's foolish to think there are not clients they don't want.

 

For example, you are a client I do not want so I feel comfortable telling you that the way you see your Upwork experience is, in my opinion, wrong.  Upwork is nothing more than an intermediary that helps you find freelancers.  It is ultimately your job to vet them and prove their work.  You can't expect every hire to go right in this situation just as you couldn't if you were hiring someone local.

 

You seem to, in particular, to be upset with TR Freelancers being able to expunge a bad review but they can only do it infrequently and they, presumibly, got to TR by satisfying customers.  Why should they be inordinately punished for one bad experience?  If they have a pattern of bad work then they will lose their rating and eventually find it very hard to impossible to find work.

 

As to what I actually said when I was supposidly "trolling" you, I said that the amount of money each of these jobs is worth is quite small to upwork.  Even though you have spent $10k over time, the cost of supporting each of those jobs is the same as a job that was worth $10k alone.  It seems quite reasonable to me that Upwork would prefer more of the latter than the former.

 

Jonathan's avatar
Jonathan H Community Member


 

As to what I actually said when I was supposidly "trolling" you, I said that the amount of money each of these jobs is worth is quite small to upwork.  Even though you have spent $10k over time, the cost of supporting each of those jobs is the same as a job that was worth $10k alone.  It seems quite reasonable to me that Upwork would prefer more of the latter than the former.

 


Though with the cost of connects and the amount of proposals now being made on each job Upwork may have just doubled the income for them from this one job (not that they are selling connects to make money of course)

Emil's avatar
Emil T Community Member

We can discus here but taxes become higer and higer with every ugrade and we can only agree or leave 

 

  as in the song of Metallica "Sad but true " 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_4OfD-wmGs

 

coupon continues from our account

 

 

Bharat's avatar
Bharat G Community Member

Yeah, very well said Pjotr, but why always go to Top freelancer. there's plenty of fresh and new freelancers to go with who are strugling daily to get jobs. And believe me they have more energy and positivity to finish your projects.