🐈
» Forums » Freelancers » Re: Anyone else found the CS agents utterly u...
Page options
n_sappleton
Community Member

Anyone else found the CS agents utterly useless?

For six days now, I’ve been messaging the worst customer service agent. I have a very basic problem which I would expect a quick resolution to, given that I’m top rated plus, but the agent just… doesn’t read the messages…? It’s like she copies and pastes a stock answer. I get that she’s probably new and untrained, but when I ask to speak to someone who might be able to help, she copies and pastes the same answer.

Is there a specialist email to help me bypass this individual? I tried Freelancer Success but they just redirect it back to her. It’s a laugh a minute.

(Meanwhile, I haven’t been able to work on any active contract since Wednesday!!).
ACCEPTED SOLUTION

I'm going to flag your post so a moderator will hopefully be able to help you.

View solution in original post

13 REPLIES 13
petra_r
Community Member

What *IS* your "very basic" problem?

The problem is not really relevant but I logged time against the wrong contract. It’s only $20 and the client doesn’t care but the useless CS agent locked the diary (WTF???) so I can’t delete it. So now, being Monday it’s hitting the client as an invoice, instead of being deleted (and I don’t have the power to delete it until she unlocks it). Like I say, probably the action of a newbie but since this happened last Tuesday and it’s now Monday… and I’ve sent about 7 messages at this point… it’s exasperating.

Your question is not something that Upwork Customer Support is needed for.

 

You should have asked your question in the Community Forum. You would have received simple clear instructions within minutes, explaining how to handle this situation yourself.

roberty1y
Community Member

Can you not just refund the money you mistakenly charged your client? You can manually log the time for the $20 to the client you're actually working for. 


Robert Y wrote:

Can you not just refund the money you mistakenly charged your client? You can manually log the time for the $20 to the client you're actually working for. 


I believe it's too late to log it manually to the other client, but they can refund it to the client that was mistakenly charged. 

 

As far as CS agents, they actually do follow scripts and it's really to help them avoid personal disputes, because people like to lay into them. They have a finite number of things they can help with directly before they have to escalate it to a ticket. 

 

I will say that customer support has always been pretty responsive and helpful whenever I have needed their help. 

 

I have never heard of CS locking a diary or unlocking it. But it's Sunday, which means the week did end and the work diary should have closed on it's own, and now you can only review it, if I recall correctly. So asking the CS agent to "unlock" the diary so you can make more substantial changes may be out of their power to do. 

petra_r
Community Member


Amanda L wrote:

I believe it's too late to log it manually to the other client,  


It's not. For last week, she has until 12 noon UTC to make any adjustments to the work diary, provided the contract is still open.

 


Amanda L wrote:I have never heard of CS locking a diary or unlocking it.

Nor have I. I am not even sure it can be done (from their side).

If the contract is still open and active (!) the OP should be able to remove the time (up until 12 noon UTC).


If the contract has been closed, there is nothing support or anyone else can do, the work diary is locked.

 


Amanda L wrote: But it's Sunday, which means the week did end and the work diary should have closed on it's own, and now you can only review it, if I recall correctly. 

The work diary does not lock until 12 noon UTC today (Monday), which is several hours from now.


There was never any need to contact Support, 

The OP could have take screenshots of the wrongly logged time, then removed it from the wrong work diary, then adding the time manually to the right work diary, keeping the screenshot in case of queries.

Precisely my point.

And yes, I’ve never in my many years of up working had any need to message a CS agent about a diary.

This person messaged me! My client sent a quick message saying hey, there’s no work this week but 20 mins are accidentally logged onto on our contract. Can you delete it?

Duh, I think, my error. This was Tuesday. Then I receive a message from the CS agent saying she’s locked the diary (again WTF??) and I should “refund” the client. As we all know, the client isn’t charged anything until Monday. I go to the diary - sure enough locked!! The option to delete time logged has been greyed out since that day, and I haven’t been able to assign the minutes to the correct client, nor have I been able to log work for any other client since that day. Again, that was Tuesday, today is Monday.

I’ve sent multiple emails about the issue since then and she replies with the same script (she’s basically telling me to “refund” the client (it’s time for another WTF?) approximately every 48 hours. If I try to start a new thread (to get a new agent) or ask for a supervisor on chat, I get the redirected to the same agent. That’s why I asked if there was another way.

Like I say: very basic request should have taken two seconds to resolve, now in this cyclic, regurgitative nightmare. And the client now has an invoice they should never have received! (*Palm to face*). Luckily client is understanding, but I’m now one week behind work because of this agent.
tlbp
Community Member


Natalie S wrote:
Precisely my point.

And yes, I’ve never in my many years of up working had any need to message a CS agent about a diary.

This person messaged me! My client sent a quick message saying hey, there’s no work this week but 20 mins are accidentally logged onto on our contract. Can you delete it?

Duh, I think, my error. This was Tuesday. Then I receive a message from the CS agent saying she’s locked the diary (again WTF??) and I should “refund” the client. As we all know, the client isn’t charged anything until Monday. I go to the diary - sure enough locked!! The option to delete time logged has been greyed out since that day, and I haven’t been able to assign the minutes to the correct client, nor have I been able to log work for any other client since that day. Again, that was Tuesday, today is Monday.

I’ve sent multiple emails about the issue since then and she replies with the same script (she’s basically telling me to “refund” the client (it’s time for another WTF?) approximately every 48 hours. If I try to start a new thread (to get a new agent) or ask for a supervisor on chat, I get the redirected to the same agent. That’s why I asked if there was another way.

Like I say: very basic request should have taken two seconds to resolve, now in this cyclic, regurgitative nightmare. And the client now has an invoice they should never have received! (*Palm to face*). Luckily client is understanding, but I’m now one week behind work because of this agent.

Perhaps the client requested that the diary be frozen? 

Why would resolving the issue put you one week behind? Did harranguing CS consume all of your time for a full week? 

 

n_sappleton
Community Member

That’s certainly possible, Tonya. I have no idea because I can’t get past this one agent. I haven’t been able to log hours to any contract for a week. That’s why I’m behind.

Anyway, all of this is beside the point. The problem is a fairly basic one and easily rectified by someone who knows what they’re doing. Back to my original question: how can you get off the original CS thread and reach someone competent in customer service?

I'm going to flag your post so a moderator will hopefully be able to help you.

WOW Mary - that worked. I just had a manager reach out to apologise and now the matter is fixed. THANK YOU!

The takeaway, I suppose, if you can’t get past a problem CS agent is to try the Forum! 🤷🏽‍:female_sign:

Hi Natalie,

 

Our apologies for the delayed response! I'm glad to hear you saw the update in the support ticket. If you have any questions, feel free to follow up and we'll be sure to assist you accordingly.

 

Thank you! 

~ Bojan
Upwork


Natalie S wrote:
WOW Mary - that worked. I just had a manager reach out to apologise and now the matter is fixed. THANK YOU!

The takeaway, I suppose, if you can’t get past a problem CS agent is to try the Forum! 🤷🏽‍:female_sign:

Yeah, that was an odd situation. Glad it was resolved!

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths