5 star account suspended without explanation

[un04]

Hello!

Here's link to my account:

https://www.odesk.com/users/~01b2bb169d7d9f1587

As you can see, it has 5 star feedback with pretty good comments from one of oDesk silver partners, some passed tests and over 500 hours of logged work, but I was suspended more than month ago. In e-mail I was notified that this was made to improve the quality of oDesk community, but this does not make any sense because I have only the best marks.

During a month I was trying to figure out what happened, but trust & safety team answered me like I don't even have a right to bother them. Lately they just close the tickets without any answer. Please look at attached screenshots.

I would like to ask the community what should I do in this case. I am completely discouraged by this situation and will appreciate any help...

[sivavranagaro]

Um, it's weird... 

Do you have any idea what might be the cause? Have you been paid outside oDesk?

Did you use some other software for tracking hours? Anything? 

[un04]

No. My client paid quite big amount of money to his freelancers via oDesk and he had warned me from the very start that payments will be made via oDesk only and I know what's allowed by oDesk policies. No cheating with tracking software, the work was made as expected and the client was satisfied.

I don't know if the fact that I'm from Ukraine (not from Crimea) matters though.

[canteloube]

Artyom, I'm so sorry this has happened and especially sorry that oDesk doesn't provide a satisfactory reason to you.

I know that they have explained that 5-star feedback is only one of the bits of information that feeds the algorithm that ultimately makes a lot of decisions on oDesk - other factors include: (1) accepting a contract, then closing it out without any money changing hands; (2) receiving money but then closing out the contract and returning all of the money; (3) a certain number of jobs with either no feedback at all; (4) enough jobs (even with good feedback) where client leaves no comment.  These things apparently are red flags to oDesk, and tjey generally blame the freelancer, as I've had it explained to me.

[canteloube]

Oh, and I can't imagine that it has one thing to do with your being from the Ukraine - I don't think you need to worry about that sort of discrimination on oDesk.

[957c0c26]

---

@Susan Seawolf H wrote:

other factors include: (1) accepting a contract, then closing it out without any money changing hands; (2) receiving money but then closing out the contract and returning all of the money; (3) a certain number of jobs with either no feedback at all; (4) enough jobs (even with good feedback) where client leaves no comment.  These things apparently are red flags to oDesk, and tjey generally blame the freelancer, as I've had it explained to me.

---

 I'm curious about #1 here. My account is suspended, and I did have an instance where a freelancer never accepted a job offer and I was refunded the money in escrow. Perhaps that triggered my suspension? I have several freelancers who have yet to complete their first milestone (but to be fair,  I did not set any deadlines). Could that be a factor?

I initially thought my suspension may have been related to the fact that I have a lot of freelancers working on the same job. I didn't think this was a problem, though, when I posted the job, especially when I got some help from customer service and told them my intention to hire multiple freelancers. Upwork certainly makes it easy to hire multiple freelancers for the same job, so why should it raise any concerns when people do? 

I'm still confused by it all. You'd think they'd let me quickly verify my bank card and leave it at that. Never before had this hard a time giving a company my money.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Nohemi,

I understand that this account suspension has caused you frustration. I have followed up with the team, they are reviewing your account and will update you through the ticket as soon as possible.

I can also confirm that hiring multiple freelancers for the same job is alright and would not be the reason for suspension.

We appreciate your patience.

[iaabraham]

This is completely baffling - your profile looks perfect.

I'm so sorry this has happened to you! I guess now I'm just waiting to get the dreaded notification that my account has been suspended or closed.

[setumonroe]

This is strange.... to say the least. A private company always has the right to enforce their will, but usually a reason is given. I can see no reason why your account would be suspended, especially since the message alludes to poor performance, which definately is not the truth in your case. They have purposely not said why the accout was suspended.

This should be taken seriously, because until or unless further information is revealed, any account could be next in line.

[yitwail]

Setu, I'm *guessing* the first email is a form letter, which would explain why no reason was given, although one would think oDesk could customize the form letter to state the reason for a suspension. The other 2 responses, from 'Abbie' and 'Abby Tyo', which *could* be one individual or two, appear to be hand-written, so it's hard to understand why a reason was not stated, unless it's oDesk policy not to state a reason for a 'final decision'.

[setumonroe]

You are probably correct John re policy matters and hiding behind privacy.

We all need to remember that there should be an obligation to the freelancer by oDesk. Especially to freelancers who are making the community viable for business and as a workplace. Never forget that oDesk operates as a business built on the hard work of freelancers, therefore we ARE indispensable and should be treated as such.

Let good work speak for itself.

[whogg72]

I say we form a union and go on strike 

[setumonroe]

I'm first in line William!

I hope the OP will get some solutions from the Powers That Be.

[mario-chirinos]

what can we do?

[a_maslakov]

Those russian freelancers who are familiar with fl.ru know that fl.ru has learned the lesson by loosing most of their freelancers and thus clients after they, fl.ru, brought some innovative ideas to their service. 

Other freelance websites should say thank you to Odesk. 

[firfi]

I'm immensely concerned about situation described here by topic starter. Reason is our oDesk accounts, though being really `owned` by oDesk Company, still being an outcome of huge time and personal energy investment and for many of us [freelancers] represent a big part of internet `portfolio`, also, the financial well-being of many of us severily depends on these accounts and on oDesk service.

Being amongst the top oDesk contractors I can't just walk by this posting by reasons described above.

I'm highly interested to see an explanation given by oDesk Company representative, otherwise my trust in company will fall furthermore (it already did in some degree due couple of company-initiated issues, one of which is resolved and one is still not, though it is the matter of another topic). 

oDesk service was and still is a great chance for me personally and for many freelancers to find a great job and raise professionally, and I want things to stay how it is. 

Please don't kill your service with such things, and if topic starter person account suspend was reasonable, provide us [or at least him] the reason.

[mhuluta]

I do not get the point. Why would oDesk behave like this? Close the accout without any reason... From my point of view this is not acceptable. What's the big deal in saying why the account was suspended. Did you had a conflict with one of  your clients? Maybe one of your clients filed a complaint against you or something...

[un04]

As you can see, I have had only one client so far. He was highly satisfied with my work. The latest feedback proves this. I don't think it is possible that he complained about me and gave me 5 stars, it makes no sense.

There was a situation when he gave 3 stars at first, but then we worked on existing problems of the project and fixed them. After this my client changed feedback to more appropriate from his point of view. Maybe this has some relation to my situation. Probably, some automated system notified trust and safety department about this and now it resulted in suspension.

I believe that members of trust & safety team should work to prevent situations like this. But I got no response related to my questions, only some typical copy and paste answers. Now they just close my tickets without response.

[sivavranagaro]

Can mods comment here, please?

Valeria, Garnor, Lillian?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Artem,

Sorry about your account suspension. I will check with the Team about your case and we will have your account reviewed once again.

Also, note that I removed attachements from your original post as they contained private communication.

[un04]

Hello Valeria,

Thank you. Looking forward to getting the results.

[setumonroe]

Once again we have to turn to forums to solve problems which a support ticket should have fixed. Lets hope the problem gets resolved not only by account re-activation, but an actual explanation 'apparent' of the original breach.

[abhishek_parmar]

If odesk measures you're quality of work and knowledge is not good. then what about odesk test. You passed both the java Test v3 and Android programming test with top 10 % and top 30 % results.

It proves that odesk tests is of no use. 

I saw mamy of the contractors with 5 star rating account is suspended. And reason is there is some other factor that measures client satifaction rate. Which is totally of no use.

Please see the link for check....mistake is measures of client satifaction rate.

http://community.odesk.com/t5/Freelancers/Un-acceptable-factors-for-calculation-of-client-satisfacti...

[firfi]

How is it going?

[un04]

Hello,

Looks like my problem is solved, because I don't see notification about suspension anymore. Didn't get response from oDesk support and was blocked at oDesk fb page (was trying to ask for some help there) though.

Anyways, thanks for support and help everyone and happy working!

[prestonhunter]

Kudos to Artyom for taking the time to return and share good news with us.

[setumonroe]

Yes it is good to know the problem was resolved, even though no light has been shed on the original problem.

All the best Artyom.

[firfi]

FYI topic starter found and contacted me personally, saying he was unbanned [without explanation] and then banned again [without explanation] on oDesk and on forums both.

So looks strange so far, as a sequence looks like that: banned -> unbanned after this topic -> after this topic sink down, silently banned again.

I can't answer for honesty of this person as doesn't know him personally, but I hope some explanation from oDesk could shed a light on this matter.

[ksubhani]

I along with other contractors would love to hear  an update from Odesk representative about the orignal problem, plus if this new development is based on truth, I am going to bid farewell to this platform.  

---

@Igor L wrote:

FYI topic starter found and contacted me personally, saying he was unbanned [without explanation] and then banned again [without explanation] on oDesk and on forums both.

So looks strange so far, as a sequence looks like that: banned -> unbanned after this topic -> after this topic sink down, silently banned again.

I can't answer for honesty of this person as doesn't know him personally, but I hope some explanation from oDesk could shed a light on this matter.

---

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Igor and Kamal,

I understand your concern with the status of Artyom's account. However, we are not able to share private details about any user's account here in the Community. All the details were provided to Artyom through his ticket.

[setumonroe]

That's a pity. Since we are even more in the dark about what to do to not get suspended. I expected as much though.

[firfi]

Author wrote me again recently, sending screenshots of conversations with support staff, where staff doesn't really explain anything, limiting answers to formularic statements without any useful information.

He asked me to publish it here, but I think it wouldn't the best idea as community rules prohibits private conversation posting here. However, he's indicated that not against to posting his screenshots, so if in this case conversation considered non-private let me know and I'll add it.

[setumonroe]

@ Igor,

Its good to see you are as eager about this situation as I am, but I doubt anymore clarity will be shed on oDesk's part.

You will violate guideline #5 - Posting email content, chat transcripts or other private communication.
http://community.odesk.com/t5/Announcements/oDesk-Community-Guidelines/m-p/3

Even so they would remove the post under the 'we reserve the right' disclaimer. So none of this can go public with word for word details.

[957c0c26]

Setu, I like you. You explain the T&C and even cite the ones you're talking about specifically. Upwork should hire you, because you would probably be an effective customer service rep. I'm being genuine.

[kellogs]

cmon upwork, right now the ball is in your side of the court. Why have you unbanned and rebanned ?

[lenaellis]

Catalin,

I'm confused by your comment, upon checking your account I do not see any suspensions. Are you having issues with your account?

-Lena