Hello,
I have recently experienced an unpleasant situation with a difficult client, that proves exactly why your system is built on an authority(client) vs **Edited for
Community Guidelines** (freelancer) basis and here is why. One of your customer support guys helped me understand what I will expose further.
I had a small project for Instagram specialists. We agreed to deliver 8 product pictures for Instagram feed use. After starting the project I have sent 2 samples for approval, before continuing making the rest. The client gave her feedback and approved to proceed. When I have sent all the images, she said she expected something that was not mentioned in the brief (to make the product pics with more people in the picture - something that implied to hire models and a location). I have explained to her that the costs for such a photoshoot differ from what we agreed for simple product pictures (cost was 500$ versus 88$, the actual value of the project). I have offered to help with her marketing needs further. She stopped answering and 3 months later she closed the contract with 1-star feedback.
Considering the situation, I prefer the option of refunding the contract, just to erase the negativity and the experience with this weird person. Your customer support told me that even if I erase her feedback by refunding the contract, her opinion remains in the JSS.
So here is why your system is abusive treating freelancers like slaves.
If I am the one who put all the time and effort delivering gorgeous high res images AND I am also willing to give her the money back, I am have lost BIG TIME (time, energy and money) and her opinion STILL affects my JSS score.
On the other hand, you try to sell us this big lie that you equilibrate the situation by permitting freelancers to leave feedback to the clients as well BUT this is a BIG LIE because freelancers don't choose clients by score and clients don't have TOP Rated programs to be in any way affected by their score. So the feedback a freelancer gives to a client is equal to 0 in terms of consequences on the client's profile.
When I was discussing over the phone this situation with your support he gave the perfect example to illustrate how uneven the system is. He said:
If you are a student at the university and the teacher gives you a low score....
And this example sums up perfectly the situation because it is accurate but the problem is that the relationship student-professor is based on inferiority/superiority the student is the apprentice and the teacher is the authority. I am also a certified Adlerian therapist and Alfred Adler says that most of the human psychological problems are based on this type of inequality.
To illustrate my point further...
The Upwork fees are only deducted from the freelancer's gains
And further...
If I file a dispute and I win the client is still able to give feedback and he will most of the time give negative feedback. If a party wins a dispute, the other party should not be able to leave feedback (because he would only do it out of revenge)
DO NOT send me any How to raise your score template, I have received it too many times and I did apply all of that but it is in no way as easy and quick to get back to top-rated as it is for a client to leave a negative score, so do not bother.
I hope my email will help you reflect on where your system fails.
Best Regards,
Simona
