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alexandernovikov
Community Member

0% fee 'Bring your own client'

Just got that mail... that sounds like a great thing, and i will be sure to use it when i get a chance.

 

But what bugs me: how do you plan to deal with the people who would hire themselves to gain success score, opening fake accounts of clients? It will be so cheap to do so (just some foreign exchange commissions, or maybe not even that when using U.S. payment methods) that it will be tempting to do so. Won't we soon face a whole new brand of fakes?

 

What i suggest: don't include contracts with these 0% clients into JSS calculation, top rated/rising talent, and otherwise take means to make sure they don't help a profile stand out.

296 REPLIES 296

I flagged your post for a moderator to look at. They are often much more helpful that support.

I appreciate your help. Thank you so much, Tiffany!

VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Julyn,

 

I checked your conversation with our Support team after reading your comments here and see your case has already been escalated for further review. Please note that for a client to be accepted in the BYOC program, a dedicated team needs to conduct a review, after which the 0% fee will be applied on your contract within 3 working days. Note that not using the link in your case won't necessarily exclude your contract from benefiting from the special promotion, provided all the other factors are found to be in line with the program's requirements.

 

I'll reach out to our team as well so please keep checking your ticket for new updates as well as keeping an eye out for further communication from our dedicated team. 

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Hi Vladimir,

 

Thank you so much! I was very excited to bring my client to Upwork because of the 0% fee. Then get disappointed when they told me that they couldn't do anything about it. The only way they said I can do is to ask my client to deactivate her account and call Upwork to remove her email, then create another one with the correct link. That might piss her off and waste her time.

 

I greatly appreciate your help, Vladimir and Tiffany! May you both have a good one!

 

All the best,
Jules

I will now accept my client's offer and just see how after 3 days. Hopefully, the 0% fee will be applied 🙂

How did it go, Julyn? 

 

 

🙂

The 20% fee is still applied. I'm losing my trust on Upwork

Hi 

 

Upwork is still charging me 20% fee. I'm losing my trust on Upwork. What do we need to do then? Is Upwork taking advantage of me? I am very disappointed. 

Hi Julyn,

 

0% fee has been applied to your contract with this client. Please, refer to the message our agent sent you via the support ticket for more details.

 

Thank you for your patience.

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hi Valeria,

 

Everything looks good now! Thank you so much! I was a little disappointed with the previous agent (phone support) that I contacted last time, giving me an inappropriate solution. He was asking me to advise my client to deactivate her account and call support to remove her email, then signup again. It will definitely piss off the client. I hope they will give sensible advice/solution next time. 

 

Again, Thank you very much and have a good one!

 

Best,

Jules

drededre
Community Member

Does this apply only to new upwork clients? What if they already are members of upwork?

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Andrei, 

The offer is for new clients only, which is a program open to Top Rated Freelancers. While we currently do not have plans to roll the program out to additional freelancers yet, we are trying to find ways to do this in the future and will notify the community if it is available.


~ Avery
Upwork
kbadeau
Community Member

This seems like a dumb question, but if a client is new to me, and to Upwork, but was referred to me by another Upwork client, can I bring them on for free? Or is that a violation of the TOS?

Kelly,

 

Yes, you can invite the new client using the personal invitation link you received via email even if they were referred to you by another client you worked with.

~ Valeria
Upwork

How can I get access to the invitation link to send to clients?

 

I am a top rated freelancer. I received an email about the 0% fee, but it was a webinar sign up.

 

 

My link isn't working. It just takes me to the "find jobs" page on Upwork. I cleared my cache and my cookies.

Hi Kelly,

 

If you are referring to Bring Your Own Client link that was sent to you via email, then you need to send it to your client and follow the instructions in the email to notify Upwork about your contract with them.

~ Valeria
Upwork
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Syed,

Can your try clearing your cache and cookies and with another browser. If this does not work let me know what type of browser you used and i will escalate it further.

~ Goran
Upwork

Hi Goran,

 

It's not to do with the browser. 

 

I would like to invite a new client using the personal invitation link that gives 0% fees. I havn't been emailed a link yet, so can you email me my personal link?

 

 

 

 

 

Syed,

 

We'll forward your request to the team and they'll email  you the link.

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hi Valeria,

 

I've still not received an email yet.

 

Do you know when I will get one?

 

Thanks

Syed,

 

Please, check the private message I just sent you.

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork
mirkon
Community Member

Hi

I think I recieved email with personal invitation link, but I think I deleted it.

Can you resend me the link, please?

Thank you in advance,
Mirko

VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Mirko,

 

I'll check with the team and follow up with an update soon.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Hi

I think I recieved email with personal invitation link, but I think I deleted it.

Can you resend me the link, please?

Thank you in advance,
D. Bharathi

Hi D. Bharathi,

 

I'll ask our team to check and send you the email with the personal link again.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

I need an email for the personal link because I have a client to bring in. 

Hi LaSquizzie, 


We've included your account in the list of user's requesting for their personal email. The team will check and reach out to you directly.


~ Avery
Upwork
iaabraham
Community Member

I have some additional questions about this program.

 

So I recently used the promo for the first time. I brought a client over and he hired me. I did not have to log work until the next day, so I sent an email to Upwork requesting to remove the service fee. Kudos to them - they replied within an hour and said that the fee had been removed. (Great!)

 

However, when I went to log time the next day, I saw that the removal of the service fee had caused 2 contracts with the same client to be created, each with its own ID. One of the contracts was showing as ended (with no money exchanged), and appears under both my Reports and the All Contracts list.

 

Obviously I was a bit concerned about the no-money contract affecting my JSS, and this is the reply I got from CS:

 

..."the reason for getting 2 contract IDs was because there was a service fee change on the contract. However, you need not to worry as these are not treated as separate contracts. It appears that the service fee has been changed and applied to the new contract as it was under Bring Your Own Client program and so the service has been changed to 0% and by design, the original contract will be closed."

 

I guess that's reassuring, but I have a few questions that I hope a moderator can clarify:

 

1. First, is it confirmed that the creation of these 2 contracts (one without money exchanged) won't affect JSS?

 

2. What would have happened if I had logged hours on the initial contract before the 0% service fee was applied / before the contract was split? Would those hours automatically be transferred to the active contract? Or would the client be charged for those pre-0% service fee hours under a separate contract?

 

(I tried to ask this question to CS, but they clearly misunderstood, so I thought it would be better to ask here.)

 

3. Does this split contract thing for BYoC happen on fixed-price jobs too? (The one this happened on is an hourly contract.)

 

4. My client hasn't hired anyone else on the site, but I notice that now on his profile it says "2 hires, 1 active." Is this a result of that split contract thing?

Hello Isabelle,

 

According to the ticket,  the 2 contracts are not treated as separate contracts which means it is considered as 1 contract (No need to worry about the no earning aspect that may affect your JSS). If you were charged service fee for the hours from the old contract, we will refund those if it does qualify for adjustment of your BYOC discount. Applying 0% fee to your contracts works the same regardless of the payment method. The 2 contracts may have caused the last question you asked.


Untitled

Will client be charged a 2.75% process payments fee?


@Aleksandr L wrote:

Will client be charged a 2.75% process payments fee?


Yes  

I brought my client to Upwork using the link from the e-mail. He created the contract and I sent ID to Upwork to remove service fee and it was removed. All was OK and after the job was completed we finished contract successfully, no fees taken.
Now, this same client created the new contract and I see 10% fee in the offer. Does this mean that I need to send email to Upwork about every new contract with this client to remove service fee? Or this will be done automatically?
Unfortunately, Upwork support desk does no work now and does not allow to create tickets.

Hi Maxim,

 

The fee should be automatically applied to all new contract with this client. I checked and see you do have access to different support options but will ask our team to follow up with you directly to review and make the service fee adjustment. We apologize for the inconvenience.

~ Vladimir
Upwork
ilja2z
Community Member

Hi, Vladimir!
I just faced the same situation as Maxim described. Can you help me too?


g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Ilja,

The fee should be automatically applied to all new contract with this client. Please send me a PM with your contracts ID and our team will investigate this further, thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Wow! Thank you for your blazingly fast reply, Goran !

afterlastangel
Community Member

I want to bring a completely new client to Upwork, how can I do that. They found me via LinkedIn and really want to hire me for their project. I received  email about top rate program, but never use it.

Hi Le,

 

At the moment "Bring your own Client" program is only available to Top Rated and Rising Talent freelancers. Unfortunately, you aren't a Top Rated freelancer now. Once you are eligible to be part of the program you'll also be able to bring your own client at a reduced rate.

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hi, Valeria!
Do you mean the Bring Your Own Client works not only with a Top Rated Freelancers, but also with a Rising Star newbies?

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