After using direct contract I got this message " Financial limited account "

[mohamedmamdouh2]

Hi there,

I hope you all are doing well.

I have been using Upwork for many years, and for a long time, it was my only source of income.

I have never had any issues before, and now when I upgraded myself and start to take big projects, I find myself in this situation?

I have a client who decided to work with me on every big and important project, and I decided to do the project through Upwork and introduced the platform to my client.

Now after receiving the first milestone, I got an email telling me that my account is restricted and asking me to provide documents + screenshots for my conversations with my client about this project.

I have uploaded and provided all the needed documents, and took many screenshots of our conversations and now waiting to see what will happen.

I have four questions:

1) Is this issue will be solved? 

2) Why did it happen?

3) Shall I stop using the direct contract with my clients? Because if each time this will happen I think It's not a good way to do business.

4) Shall I cancel the contract now to protect my client's money?

Looking forward to finding answers.

Best regards,

Mohamed

[roberty1y]

It's against the terms of service to bring your own client and then work for them the same as you would work for someone you met through Upwork, i.e. providing feedback to each other after the contract. That would count as feedback manipulation.

[mohamedmamdouh2]

It's through the direct contracts service, no feedbacks is required.

It should be only used as an escrow system.

I didn't bring my own client and asked him to choose me through posting a job, I brought my own client to use the " DIRECT CONTRACT" service that Upwork offers.

[martina_plaschka]

What was the amount? Did that put up a red flag?

[mohamedmamdouh2]

The total value of the contract is $15,520 divided by 3 milestones.

Honestly, I don't understand why this can raise a red flag, I'm working on Upwork for many many years and they saw my progress and for sure as a freelance, I'm trying to upgrade myself all the time, so it's not understandable to raise a red flag just because I got a big project! 

We are all on Upwork to work hard, develop and get big projects to earn more income.

[roberty1y]

If there's no question of feedback, then I honestly can't say what the problem could be.

[petra_r]

---

Robert Y wrote:

If there's no question of feedback, then I honestly can't say what the problem could be.

---

The high value of the contract from a freelancer with a long history of almost exclusively small projects.

[mohamedmamdouh2]

I don't really know, I have worked so hard for a long time to get a big project like that.

It's so uncomfortable when you put a big goal and finally achieve it then you find yourself red-flagged!

[martina_plaschka]

I have no idea what upwork's criteria for flagging transactions are, it could be the high amount in combination with an unreasonable short time to complete the work, based on your hourly rate, for example. They probably want to know what actual work you did. 

[PradeepH]

Hi Mohamed,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about the action taken on your account. I see that you are already communicating with the relevant team via a support ticket here. One of our team members will reach out to you on the same ticket as soon as possible to assist you further. Please don't hesitate to follow up with them on your support ticket if you have additional questions regarding your concern. 

Thank you.

Pradeep

[mohamedmamdouh2]

Hi Pradeep,

I hope you're doing well.

Do you have any estimation for how long it will take to receive a reply?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you, have a nice day.

Best regards,

Mohamed