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shibbirfaruki
Community Member

After getting a great work done client took a chance of getting refund by bad review directly

 

 

I gave the client a great list of 600 dropshipping stores and he appreciated me for the great work on Slack (task organizer app). Firstly He told me to do the task at a very cheap rate but I did not accept it on that cheap rate client offered. We agreed on a rate and worked hard on it and completed it greatly. He told me great work 3 times. But on Upwork, he gave a very poor review so that I refund the money caring about my profile reputation. and told me directly on messages that "refund money and I will give you 5 feedback (he don't know no feedback will work on refunded contract), He wanted to through me on a trap so that I refund money for the sake of my profile reputation. 
What we, freelancers can do in such a situation like this?
Adding 2 screenshots of his unfair messages.

37 REPLIES 37
robin_hyman
Community Member

1) Flag your conversation 

2) Don't refund. You did the work. Client sounds like a crook. 

Including that type of fraud clients feedback on Job Success Score & getting a bad impact on Profile. Is this fair for us after hard work and a great job completed? What can I do for not getting the bed impact of 1 score?

Be as nice as possible. Try to please the client without refunding or doing more work than what was originally discussed. You may not be able to avoid poor feedback but you will keep your dignity and show a bad client they have to pay for work completed.


MD. SHIBBIR A wrote:

Including that type of fraud clients feedback on Job Success Score & getting a bad impact on Profile. Is this fair for us after hard work and a great job completed? What can I do for not getting the bed impact of 1 score?


Report the client. It seems that's what he does....

 

Look:

 

30 spent.png

 

68 people hired and $ 30+ paid.... I bet if Upwork go through the client's messages, they will find lots of people being asked to refund and doing so.

 

As that is a violation of Upwork's terms of service (and with this client it's pretty much as obvious as I have ever seen), you probably have a case.

 

I am also pretty sure that all those Facebook jobs are in violation of Facebook policies (fake reviews or similar) and hence also not allowed on Upwork.

 

I'd further hazard a guess that the client is not as new as they seem (knows the system way too well) and that a thorough search will find more accounts.


Petra R wrote:

MD. SHIBBIR A wrote:

Including that type of fraud clients feedback on Job Success Score & getting a bad impact on Profile. Is this fair for us after hard work and a great job completed? What can I do for not getting the bed impact of 1 score?


Report the client. It seems that's what he does....

 

Look:

 

30 spent.png

 

68 people hired and $ 30+ paid.... I bet if Upwork go through the client's messages, they will find lots of people being asked to refund and doing so.

 


Wow - 68 people hired, and the client only paid one or two of them (at best)! How do things like this happen? Doesn't it throw up any red flags for Upwork when client repeatedly hires freelancers but never pays anyone?

sjbercot
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

MD. SHIBBIR A wrote:

Including that type of fraud clients feedback on Job Success Score & getting a bad impact on Profile. Is this fair for us after hard work and a great job completed? What can I do for not getting the bed impact of 1 score?


Report the client. It seems that's what he does....

 

Look:

 

30 spent.png

 

 


Wow. Just wow.

I thought this would be a great time to also mention that Upwork actively tolerates clients who post fake review jobs.

Like this  **Edited for Community Guidelines**

In other words, Upwork is, wittingly or unwittingly, complicit in undermining the whole internet and facilitating activity that is presently illegal in most jurisdictions.

Even Freelancer has a bot that instantly takes down such jobs.

 

Upwork: I'll take it all.

And thanks to Jennifer M. for posting this on Reddit (through which means I learnt of it)!

She's right when she says, "I'll all here for the dramz".

 
~ Goran
Upwork


Petra R wrote:

I am also pretty sure that all those Facebook jobs are in violation of Facebook policies (fake reviews or similar) and hence also not allowed on Upwork.



"Easy Quick Work on Facebook" with no specific deliverable mentioned leaves me with no other conclusion.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi MD.,

I'm sorry for the delay in our reply. I looked into this further and have filed a report with the team so that it can be investigated. 

Thank you for sharing this here.


~ Avery
Upwork

Can upwork team do anything that will help me hiding this fake review from a fraud client & that will not affect my profile and my job success score? Please let me know if they have any legal way to that.  

Hi MD,

 

Your report was escalated to the correct team for further investigation and we will take action as per our internal processes. Please note that Feedback can only be disputed or removed in a few cases, when a full refund is issued when a Top Rated freelancer uses the perk or when it's in violation of TOS. Please see this Community post for more information about the Upwork feedback system.

~ Bojan
Upwork

Feedback Dispute? How is it works? And isn't it a violation of Upwork TOS by the client? 

 

 

If a client has hired dozens of people, and only paid a couple of them... and Upwork can see that this client has received refunds repeatedly...

 

Upwork should be very proactive in removing said client from the platform. And Upwork should make things right for the freelancers by removing feedback from the scoundrel.

If and until action is taken by Upwork, you should use the "reply to client feedback" functionality. The comments you add there will be visible on your profile together with the feedback the client left you. (as opposed to the feedback you left yourself to the client, which is not visible on your profile, but on the client's hiring history).

Whoever looks at your profile will see both the feedback the client left you and your reply, at the same time. 

I just had this exact same thing happen to me.  I have elevated my complaint to Marketplace Services and have included screenshots of our convos where the client praised my work. I hope the negative feedback will be removed or hidden by the Upwork powers that be.  

 

I also did choose to respond to the client.  I hope that future clients will not be put off. The truth is, is that it is impossible to please everyone.

petra_r
Community Member


Bojan S wrote:

Please note that Feedback can only be disputed or removed in a few cases, when a full refund is issued when a Top Rated freelancer uses the perk or when it's in violation of TOS.


Bojan, the client hired 68 freelancers and paid only two of them, after they refused to refund.

They clearly do the same thing to all their freelancers, let them do the work, then threaten bad feedback if there is no refund.

 

Simply monstrous behavior.

 

Inexcusable.

The "client" is also a freelancer who allows people he hires access to his Upwork account to apply for contracts on the "client's" behalf.

 

So there we have yet another violation of the ToS....

 

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Petra, 


Could you please share more information about this through a PM so that I can look into this again? 

I appreciate that you took the time flagging this.


~ Avery
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Avery O wrote:


Could you please share more information about this through a PM so that I can look into this again? 


you have mail 🙂

It's clearly a violation of TOS. Will upwork help us removing that kind of fake and unfair feedback from our profile and disclude the bad impact on jss for this contract? Because its totally cheating.Capture22.PNG

mansi101
Community Member

the same thing happened to me, the client made me work twice for 3 days (28 hours) for 30$ and then gave me 1 star and negative feedback that contained swear word. He did not even communicate well and just simply gave me this feedback.

Did upwork take any action against that fraud client?

Hi Md. Shibbir,

 

We won't be able to share more information about the report, but rest assured that the issue has been escalated to the correct team, and appropriate actions were taken. Thank you. 

~ Joanne
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Joanne Marie P wrote:

We won't be able to share more information about the report, but rest assured that the issue has been escalated to the correct team, and appropriate actions were taken. Thank you. 


"Appropriate actions" were taken? The client has now hired 88 freelancers, and paid only 2 of them.

 

The client STILL has 8 live open job posts. The client is still actively engaging even in the last 24 hours - so whatever "actions" have been taken, I am not sure "appropriate" is quite the word I would use.

 

Come on, Upwork....

 

MD. SHIBBIR A wrote:

What will be the steps I have to take?


Block the "client" and do not engage them any further.

 

It was a serious mistake to enable that client to change their feedback. Why in the world would you have done that?

 

Upwork is doing nothing after getting that the client is doing wrong with all the freelancers. If those unfair things run repeatedly with us it will not be a safe place for freelancers.
Yes. I responded to the feedback and for the first time, I wanted to convince him. Yes, that was the fault of trying to convince and enable him. Because he is a fraud.  


MD. SHIBBIR A wrote:

Upwork is doing nothing after getting that the client is doing wrong with all the freelancers. 


Well, their feedback has not affected your JSS, has it?

Yes. Maybe it's also because besides this contract I got good feedback on two contracts.

Sooooooooooooooo

 

Two weeks later, and the client now has $ 90 spent and hired well over 200 people.

 

He also openly threatens freelancers to refund or live with the very bad feedback, RIGHT on their feedback.

 

Didn't someone say that that "appropriate action had been taken"?

 

client from hell.png

As per the comments of one of his hires, it would appear the client was suspended very briefly.
Don't thing Upwork intends to permaban him.

What Upwork is doing regarding the issue. If things like this happen repeatedly Upwork will not be the safe place for freelancers, Its high time to take steps for removing that type of client & removing feedback from all freelancers who did not agree to refund. And think so many hard works from so many people ruined because of refunding money for the sake of account feedbacks. 

It's very very very unfair. 

I would really like to know why Upwork continues to allow scammers to use the platform like this? Honestly, if you wanted to gain some freelancer loyalty, when we point out a blatant scammer like this, you'd show us you are doing something about it. 

sjbercot
Community Member

Thanks for checking back up on this guy and letting us know. I can't believe he's allowed to operate like that!

I don't understand why this client hasn't been banned. Apart from the blatant fraud and misery that he's inflicted on countless freelancers, Upwork has received a measly $18 in fees from this client - what's the business case for keeping him around?

Today the client came to me again and asked for a refund again. and responded with false stories on feedback on my profile. What will be the steps I have to take?

 

Mate, regardless what Upwork does, do not refund the client.

When you refund you delete the feedback from both the client's profile and your profile, giving him the guts to carry on with his questionable behaviour.

When you keep your earnings the feedback continues to show on his profile. Most freelancers who have an iota of sense give serious consideration to previous feedback given by client before accepting a contract from that client.

By keeping the feedback you will help other freelancers avoid that client.

Refunding will also do additional damage, beyond the one already done.

Contracts with no earnings negatively affect the JSS, separate and distinct from the impact of the negative feedback (which you already received).

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