0% fee 'Bring your own client'

[#1]

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.

[#2]

Hi Valeria,

I've still not received an email yet.

Do you know when I will get one?

Thanks

[#3]

Syed,

Please, check the private message I just sent you.

Thanks!

[#4]

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

[#5]

Hi Mirko,

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

[#6]

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

[#7]

Hi D. Bharathi,

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

[#8]

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

[#9]

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.

[#10]

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?

[#11]

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.

[#12]

Will client be charged a 2.75% process payments fee?

[#13]

---

@Aleksandr L wrote:

Will client be charged a 2.75% process payments fee?

---

Yes  

[#14]

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.

[#15]

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.

[#16]

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

[#17]

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.

[#18]

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

[#19]

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.

[#20]

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.

[#21]

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?

[#22]

I have few clients who are interested to work with me on Upwork but I'm not sure if the 0% fees promotion is still on or it is over? I received the notification email about the promotion 5 months ago. Please let me know.

Thanks

[#23]

Hi S. Nishikanta,

Yes, the promotion is still available to Top Rated and Rising Talent freelancers. You should be able to use the link you received in the original email notification.

[#24]

Thank for your quick response, will start inviting my clients ValeriaV

[#25]

Hi Valeria,

I'm top rated, could you please tell me how can I invite a client here on upwork?

[#26]

Hi Vladimir,

Someone from the team will reach out to you with a personal link to use to participate in the program.