2 clients offered a contract but no task given

[levzzz]

Ok so I'm very frustrated with these clients who put me on hold for a long time. The 1st client offered me a contract September and it is November now and she still has not given me any task. I have contacted her couple of times but she said she is just on a vacation and will get back to me but it's been a week and she has not responded yet again. My JSS score went down from 100 to 94 because of her. I hope that the Upwork community will also notify clients that they have on-hold contracts to a specific freelancer for more than 2 weeks. The 2nd client also offered me a contract a week ago but he said that he will get back to me this week and I just cross my fingers that he will really get back to me because I don't want my Top Rated badge to disappear just because of these clients. I just really hope that the Upwork community will help by notifying these type of clients to avoid a hit on anyone's JSS.

[petra_r]

It is very simple: Do not accept a contract until you have something to work on, either enough to finish the first milestone or enough to at least start tracking time in case of an hourly contract.

That said, your JSS did not go down because of any contract that started in September and has not had any activity on it - the impact of that will, however, come soon.

Your JSS went down because of poor private feedback on a contract that ended in October.

Are those contracts hourly or fixed rate?

[levzzz]

That was an hourly contract but i don't think that my JSS  went down because of that bad feedback because that was posted May 2018 and my JSS just went down just this month. And these clients basically told me that they will give me all the necessary info asap to get me started so I took their word from it.

[petra_r]

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@Levie M wrote:

That was an hourly contract but i don't think that my JSS  went down because of that bad feedback because that was posted May 2018 and my JSS just went down just this month. And these clients basically told me that they will give me all the necessary info asap to get me started so I took their word from it.

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 Not the one in May, there was a poor private (!!) feedback in October. You had the one in May removed.

The hourly contract that started in September will hit your JSS on the update after it has been without payment for 2 months. You can avoid that by logging ten minutes of time, do so writing to your client with ideas for the project or to request that something happens.

Otherwise it WILL hit your JSS. But just 10 minutes logged will avoid that.

[levzzz]

Thanks for the tip!

[martina_plaschka]

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@Levie M wrote:

That was an hourly contract but i don't think that my JSS  went down because of that bad feedback because that was posted May 2018 and my JSS just went down just this month. And these clients basically told me that they will give me all the necessary info asap to get me started so I took their word from it.

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 There is nothing wrong with trusting people, no online business relationship could be established without it. But both sides need to stay in the safe framework for establishing trust. 

Much frustration could be avoided if freelancers followed some simple rules: 

• never work without a contract
• never accept a contract before you have all the information you need to start working
• never ship boxes

(needed to throw in the last one, because I needed 3 items to make it a list)

[martina_plaschka]

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@Levie M wrote:

Ok so I'm very frustrated with these clients who put me on hold for a long time. The 1st client offered me a contract September and it is November now and she still has not given me any task. I have contacted her couple of times but she said she is just on a vacation and will get back to me but it's been a week and she has not responded yet again. My JSS score went down from 100 to 94 because of her. I hope that the Upwork community will also notify clients that they have on-hold contracts to a specific freelancer for more than 2 weeks. The 2nd client also offered me a contract a week ago but he said that he will get back to me this week and I just cross my fingers that he will really get back to me because I don't want my Top Rated badge to disappear just because of these clients. I just really hope that the Upwork community will help by notifying these type of clients to avoid a hit on anyone's JSS.

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 Next time avoid accepting offers unless you have all the information, files, etc. you need to start working. It is just too risky to end badly.